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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/16288-8.txt b/16288-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..30bc7ad --- /dev/null +++ b/16288-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,17980 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Oddsfish!, by Robert Hugh Benson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Oddsfish! + +Author: Robert Hugh Benson + +Release Date: July 13, 2005 [EBook #16288] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ODDSFISH! *** + + + + +Produced by Geoff Horton and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +ODDSFISH! + +BY + +ROBERT HUGH BENSON + +Author of "Come Rack! Come Rope!", "Lord of the World," "Initiation," +etc. + +NEW YORK +DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY + +1914 +AUTHOR'S NOTE. + + +I wish to express my gratitude for great help received in the writing of +this book to Miss MacDermot, Miss Stearne and others, as well as to +three friends who submitted to hearing it read aloud in manuscript, and +who assisted me by their criticisms and suggestions. + +Further, I think it worth saying that in all historical episodes in this +book I have taken pains to be as accurate as possible. The various +plots, the political movements, and the closing scenes of Charles II's +life are here described with as much fidelity to truth as is compatible +with historical romance. In particular, I do not think that the King +himself is represented as doing or saying anything--except of course to +my fictitious personages--to which sound history does not testify. I +have also taken considerable pains in the topographical descriptions of +Whitehall. + + + + +PROLOGUE + + +The day from which I reckon the beginning of all those adventures which +occupied me in the Courts of England and France and elsewhere, was the +first day of May in the year sixteen hundred and seventy-eight--the day, +that is, on which my Lord Abbot carried me from St. Paul's-without-the- +Walls to the Vatican Palace, to see our Most Holy Lord Innocent the +Eleventh. + +It had been a very hot day in Rome, as was to be expected at that +season; and I had stayed in the cloister in the cool, as my Lord Abbot +had bidden me, not knowing whether it would be on that day or another, +or, indeed, on any at all, that His Holiness would send for me. I knew +that my Lord Abbot had been to the Vatican again and again on the +business; and had spoken of me, as he said he would, not to the Holy +Father only, but to the Cardinal Secretary of State and to others; but I +did not know, and he did not tell me, as to whether that business had +been prosperous; though I think he must have known long before how it +would end. An hour before _Ave Maria_, then, he sent to me, as I walked +in the cloisters, and when I came to him, told me, all short, to dress +myself in my old secular clothes, as fine as I could, and to be ready to +ride with him in half an hour, because our Most Holy Lord had consented +to receive me one hour after _Ave Maria_. He said nothing more to me +than that; he did not tell me how I was to bear myself, nor what I was +to say, neither as I stood in his cell, nor as we rode as fast as we +could, with the servants before and behind, into Rome and through the +streets of it. I knew nothing more than this--that since neither I nor +my novice-master were in the least satisfied as to my vocation, and +since I had considerable estates of my own in France (though I was an +Englishman altogether on my father's side), and could speak both French +and English with equal ease, and Italian and Spanish tolerably--that +since, in short, I was a very well-educated young gentleman, and looked +more than my years, and bore myself--(so I was told)--with ease and +discretion in any company, and could act a part if it were required of +me--I might perhaps be of better service to the Church in some secular +employment than in sacred. This was all that I knew. The rest my Lord +Abbot left to my own wits to understand, and to our Holy Father, if he +would, to discover to me: and that, indeed, was presently what he did. + + * * * * * + +I had been within the Vatican before three or four times, both when I +had first come to Rome four years ago, and once as attendant upon my +Lord Abbot; but never before had I felt of such importance within those +walls; for this time it was myself to whom the Holy Father was to give +audience, and not merely to one in whose company I was. I was in secular +clothes too--the peruke, buckles, sword, and all the rest, which I had +laid aside two years ago, though these were a little old and +tarnished--and I bore myself as young men will (for I was only +twenty-one years old at that time), with an air and a swing; though my +heart beat a little faster as we passed through the great rooms, after +leaving our cloaks in an antechamber and arranging our dress after the +ride; and at last were bidden to sit down while the young Monsignore who +had received us in the last saloon went in to know if the Holy Father +were ready to see us. + +It was a smaller room--this in which we sat--than the others through +which we had passed, and in which the crimson liveried servants were; +and its walls were all covered with hangings from cornice to floor. That +which was opposite to me presented, I remember, Jacob receiving the +blessing which his brother Esau should have had; and I wondered, as I +sat there, whether I myself were come, as Jacob, to get a blessing to +which I had no right. Idly Lord Abbot said nothing at all; for he was a +stout man and a little out of breath; and almost before he had got it +again, and before I was sure as to whether I were more like to the liar +Jacob, who won a blessing when he should not, or to unspiritual Esau, +who lost a blessing which he should have had, the young Monsignore in +his purple came back again, and, bowing so low that we saw the little +tonsure on the top of his head, beckoned to us to enter. + + * * * * * + +By the time that, behind my Lord Abbot, I had performed the three +genuflections and, at the third, was kissing the ring of our Most Holy +Lord, I had already taken into my mind something of the room I was in +and of him who sat there, wheeled round in his chair to greet us. The +room was far more plain than I had thought to find it, though pretty +rich too. The walls had sacred hangings upon them; but it was so dark +with the shuttered windows that I could not make out very well what +their subjects were. A dozen damask and gilt chairs stood round the +walls, and three or four tables; and, in the centre of all, where I was +now arrived, stood the greatest table of all, carved of some black wood, +and at the middle of one side the chair in which sat the Holy Father +himself. + +He had very kind but very piercing eyes: this was the first thing that I +thought; his hair beneath his cap, as well as his beard, was all +iron-grey; his complexion was a little sallow, and seemed all the more +sallow because of his red velvet cap and white soutane; (for he wore no +cloak because of the heat). As soon as I had kissed his ring he bade me +stand up--(speaking in Italian, as he did all through the audience)--and +then beckoned me to a chair opposite to his, and my Lord Abbot to +another on one side. And then at once he went on to speak of the +business on which we were come--as if he knew all about it, and had no +time to spend on compliments. + +Now our Holy Father Innocent the Eleventh was, I suppose, one of the +greatest men that ever sat in Peter's Seat. I would not speak evil, if I +could help it, of any of Christ's Vicars; but this at least I may +say--that Pope Innocent reformed a number of things that sorely needed +it. He would have no nepotism at the Papal Court; men stood or fell by +their own merits: so I knew very well that my estates in France, even +if they had been ten times as great, would serve me nothing at all. He +was very humble too--(he asked pardon, it was said, even of his own +servants if he troubled them)--so I knew that no swashbuckling air on my +part would do me anything but harm--(and, indeed, that was all laid +aside, willy nilly, so soon as I came in)--since, like all humble men he +esteemed the pride, even of kings, at exactly its proper worth, which is +nothing at all. He was, too, a man of great spirituality, so I knew that +my having come to St. Paul's as a novice and now wishing to leave it +again, would scarcely exalt me in his eyes. I felt then a very poor +creature indeed as I sat there and listened to him. + +"This, then, is Master Roger Mallock," he said to my Lord Abbot, "of +whom your Lordship spoke to me." + +"This is he, Holy Father," said my Lord. + +"He has been a novice for two years then; and his superiors are not sure +of his vocation?" + +"Yes, Holy Father." + +The Pope looked again at me then, and I dropped my eyes. + +"And you yourself, my son?" he asked. + +"Holy Father," I said, "I am sure that at present I have no vocation. +What God may give me in the future I do not know. I only know what He +has not given me in the present." + +Innocent tightened his lips at that; but I think it was to prevent +himself smiling. + +"And he is an English gentleman," he went on presently, "and he has +estates in France that bring him in above twenty thousand francs yearly; +and he is twenty-one years of age; and he is accustomed to all kinds of +society, and he is a devoted son of Holy Church, and he speaks French +and English and Italian and Spanish and German--" + +"No, Holy Father, not German--except a few words," I said. + +"And he is discreet and courageous and virtuous--" + +"Holy Father--" I began in distress, for I thought he was mocking me. + +"And he desires nothing; better than to serve his spiritual superiors +in any employment to which they may put him--Eh, my son?" + +I looked into the Pope's face and down again; but I said nothing. + +"Eh, my son?" he said again with a certain sharpness. + +"Holy Father, I have been taught never to contradict my superiors; but +indeed in this--" + +"Bravo!" said Innocent. + +Then he turned to my Lord Abbot, as if I were no longer in the room. + +"The question," he said, "is not only whether this young gentleman is +capable of hearing everything and saying nothing, of preserving his +virtue, of handling locked caskets without even desiring to look inside +unless it is his business, of living in the world yet not being of +it--but whether he is willing to do all this without being paid for +it--except perhaps his bare expenses." + +My Lord Abbot said nothing. + +"I can have a thousand paid servants," said Innocent, "who are worth +exactly their wages; but, since money cannot buy virtue or discretion or +courage, in such servants I cannot demand those things. And I can have a +thousand foolish servants who could earn no wages anywhere because of +their foolishness, and these never have discretion and not often either +virtue or courage. But what I wish is to have servants who are as wise +sons to me--who have all these things, and will use them for love's +sake--for the love of Holy Church and of Christ and His Mother, and who +will be content with the wages that These give." + +He stopped suddenly and looked at me quickly again; and my heart burned +in my breast; for this that he was saying was all that I most desired; +and I saw by that that my talk must have been reported to him. I loved +Holy Church then, and the cause of Jesus and Mary, as young men do love, +and as I hope to love till I die. I asked nothing better than to serve +such causes as these even to death. It was not for lack of ardour that I +wished to leave the monastery; it was because, truthfully, I had a +fever on me of greater activity; because, truthfully, I was not sure of +my vocation; because, truthfully, I doubted whether such gifts and such +wealth and such education as were mine could not be used better in the +world than in the cloister. I knew that I could take a place to-morrow +in either the French or the English Court, without disgracing myself or +others; and it was precisely of this that I had spoken to my Lord Abbot; +and here was our Holy Father himself putting into words those very +ambitions that I had. I met his eyes, and knew that I was beginning to +flush. + +"Well, my son?" he said. + +"Holy Father," I said, "my virtues and capacities, such as they are, I +must leave to my superiors. But my desires are those of which your +Holiness has spoken. I ask no wages: I ask only to be allowed to serve +whatever cause my superiors may assign to me." + +He continued to look at me, and for very shame I presently dropped my +eyes again. + +"Well, my Lord Abbot?" he said again. "Let us hear what you have to +say." + +Then my lord began to speak; and before he was half-done I wished myself +anywhere else in the world. For, as great men alone are capable, he +could be as lavish of praise as of blame. He said that I was all that of +which His Holiness had spoken; that I had been obedient and exact as a +novice; and he said other things too of which even under obedience I +could not speak. Then too he added what he had never said to me before, +that he was not sure that I had no vocation; but that since God spoke +through exterior circumstances as well as through interior drawings, His +Holy Will seemed to point, at least at present, to a life in the world +for me; that he was sure I would be as obedient there as here; that I +had learned not only to use my tongue but, what is much harder, to hold +it. And he ended by begging the Holy Father to take me into his service +and to use me in the ways in which perhaps I might be useful. All this, +of course, I now understand to have been rehearsed before; but just at +that time I had no more than a suspicion that this was so. + +When he had finished, His Holiness once more turned and looked at me; +and I upon the ground: and then at last he spoke. + +"My son," he said, "you have heard what his Reverence has said of you; +and I too have heard it, and not to-day for the first time. It seems +that you are right in thinking that for the present at any rate you have +no vocation to Holy Religion. Well, then, the question is as to what is +your Vocation, for Our Lord never leaves any man without a Vocation of +some kind. You are very young for such service as that on which we think +to send you; for we shall send you to the Court of England first, and +then perhaps now and again to France; but you look five years at least +older than your age, and, I am told, have ten times its discretion. I +need not tell you that you will have no very heavy mission given to you +at first; you must mix freely with the world and use your wits and see +what is best to be done, sending back reports to the Cardinal Secretary. +You will live at your own charges, as you yourself have said that you +wished to do; but you may draw upon us here for any journeys that you +may undertake upon our business up to a certain amount. In a word you +will be in the diplomatic service of the Holy See, though without direct +office or commission beyond that which I now give you myself. You will +have full liberty to make a career for yourself in the English or French +Courts, so long as this comes always second to your service to +ourselves. If you acquit yourself well--in the way which will be +explained to you later--you may make a career with us too, and will have +rewards if you want them: but for the present there must be no talk of +that. As you must be in the world yet not of it; so you must be of the +Court of Rome yet not in it. It is a delicate position that you will +hold; and, to compensate for the informality of it, you will have the +more liberty on your side, to make a career, as I have said, or to +marry, if God calls you to that, or in any other way.... Does that +content you, my son?" + +I do not know what I said; for all that the Holy Father had told me was +what I myself had said to my Lord Abbot. I knew that affairs in England +were in a very strange condition, that the Duke of York who was next +heir to the throne was a Catholic, and that Charles himself was +favourably disposed to us; and I knew a number of other things too which +will appear in the course of this tale; and I had said to my Lord that +sometimes even a hair's weight will make a balance tip; and had asked +again and again if I might not, with my advantages, such as they were, +be of more service to Holy Church in a more worldly place than the +cloister; and now here was our Most Holy Lord himself granting and +confirming all that I had wished. + +"There! there!" he said to me presently, when I had tried to say what +was in my heart. "Go and serve God in this way as well as you can; and +remember that you can be as well sanctified in the Court of a King as in +a cloister--and better, if it is the Court that is your Vocation. Go and +do your best, my son; and we shall see what you can make of it." + + * * * * * + +When we were outside again I saw that my Lord Abbot's face was all +suffused, as was my own, for there was something strangely fiery and +keen and holy about Innocent; but he said nothing, except that we must +now go and see His Eminence the Cardinal Secretary of State, for I was +to receive my more particular instructions from him. + + + + +PART ONE + + + + +CHAPTER I + + +I came to London on the fifteenth of June, having left it seven years +before in company with my father, to go to Paris, two years before he +died. + +It was drawing on to sunset as we rode up through the Southwark fields +and, at the top of a little eminence in the ground saw for the first +time plainly all the City displayed before us. + +We came along the Kent road, having caught sight again and again of such +spires as had risen after the Great Fire, and of the smoke that rose +from the chimneys; but I may say that I was astonished at the progress +the builders had made from what I could remember of seven years before. +Then there had still been left great open spaces where there should have +been none; now it was a city once more; and even the Cathedral shewed +its walls and a few roofs above the houses. The steeples too of Sir +Christopher Wren's new churches pricked everywhere; though I saw later +that there was yet much building to be done, both in these and in many +of the greater houses. My man James rode with me; (for I had been +careful not to form too great intimacies with the party with whom I had +ridden from Dover); and I remarked to him upon the matter. + +"And there, sir," he said to me, pointing to it, "is the monument no +doubt that they have raised to it." + +And so we found it to be a day or two later--a tall pillar, with an +inscription upon it saying that the Fire had been caused by the +Papists--a black lie, as every honest man knows. + +By the time that we came to London Bridge the sun was yet lower, setting +in a glory of crimson, so that it was hard to see against it much of +Westminster, across the Southwark marshes and the river; but yet I could +make out the roofs of the Abbey and of some of the great buildings of +Whitehall, where my adventures, I thought, were to lie. But between +that and the other end of London Bridge, just before we set foot on it, +the rest of the City was plain enough; and, indeed, it was a splendid +sight to see the river, all, as it seemed, of molten gold with the +barges and the wherries plying upon it, and the great houses on the +banks and their gardens coming down to the water-gates, and the forest +of chimneys and roofs and steeples behind, and all of a translucent blue +colour. The sounds of the City, too, came to us plainly across the +water--the chiming of bells and the firing of some sunset gun, and even +the noise of wheels and the barking of dogs and the crowing of +cocks--all in a soft medley of human music that made my heart rejoice; +for in spite of my long exile abroad and my French and Italianate +manners, I counted myself always an Englishman. + +Now the first design that I had in mind, and for which I had made my +dispositions, was to go straight to my lodging that had been secured for +me by my cousin Tom Jermyn, where he was to meet me, and where he too +would lie that night. It was with him that I was to present my letters +at Whitehall in a day or two, after I had bought my clothes and other +necessaries; in short he was to be my _cicerone_ for a while--for he was +a Catholic too, like myself--but he was not to be told that I had come +on any mission at all, until at anyrate I had well tested his +discretion. + + * * * * * + +Now the mission on which I had been instructed by the Cardinal Secretary +was in one sense a very light one, and in another a very difficult one; +for its express duties were of the smallest. + +Affairs in England at this time were in a very strange condition. First, +the Duke of York, who was heir to the throne, was a declared Catholic; +and then the King himself was next door to one, in heart at anyrate. +Certainly he had never been reconciled to the Church, though the report +among some was that he had been, during his life in Paris: but in heart, +as I have said, he was one, and waited only for a favourable occasion to +declare himself. For he had been so bold seventeen years before, as to +send to Rome a scheme by which the Church of England was to be reunited +to Rome under certain conditions, as that the mass, or parts of it, +should be read in English, that the Protestant clergy who would submit +to ordination should be allowed to keep their wives, and other matters +of that kind. His answer from Rome, sent by word of mouth only, was that +no scheme could be nearer to the heart of His Holiness; but that he must +not be too precipitate. Let him first show that his subjects were with +him in his laudable desires; and then perhaps the terms of the matter +might be spoken of again. For the King himself, and indeed even the Duke +too at this time (though later he amended his life), Catholic in spirit, +were scarce Christian in life. The ladies of the Court then must not be +overlooked, for they as much as any statesman, and some think, more, +controlled the king and his brother very greatly at this time. + +But this was not all. Next, the King was embroiled in a great number of +ways. The more extreme of his Protestant subjects feared and hated the +Catholic Church as much as good Catholics hate and fear the Devil; and +although for the present our people had great liberty both at Court and +elsewhere, no man could tell when that liberty might be curtailed. And, +indeed, it had been to a great part already curtailed five years before +by the Test Act, forbidding the Catholics to hold any high place at the +Court or elsewhere, though this was largely evaded. There was even a +movement among some of them, and among the most important of them too, +in the House of Lords and elsewhere, to exclude the Duke of York from +the succession; and they advanced amongst themselves in support of this +the fear that a French army might be brought in to subdue England to the +Church. And, worst of all, as I had learned privately in Rome, there was +some substance in their fear, though few else knew it; since the King +was in private treaty with Louis for this very purpose. Again, a further +embroilment lay in the propositions that had been made privately to the +King that he should rid himself of his Queen--Catherine--on the pretext +that she had borne no child to him, and could not, and marry instead +some Protestant princess. Lastly, and most important of all, so greatly +was Charles turned towards the Church, that he had begged more than +once, and again lately, that a priest might be sent to him to be always +at hand, in the event of his sudden sickness, whom none else knew to be +a priest; and it was this last matter, I think, that had determined the +Holy Father to let me go, as I had wished, though I was no priest, to +see how the King would bear himself to me; and then, perhaps afterwards, +a priest might be sent as he desired. + +This then was the mission on which I was come to London. + +I was to present myself at Court and place myself at His Majesty's +disposal. The letters that I carried were no more than such as any +gentleman might bring with him; but the King had been told beforehand +who I was, and that I was come to be a messenger or a go-between if he +so wished, with him and Rome. So much the King was told, and the Duke. +But on my side I was told a little more--that I was to do my utmost, if +the King were pleased with me, to further his conversion and his +declaration of himself as a Catholic; that I was to mix with all kinds +of folks, and observe what men really thought of all such matters as +these, and send my reports regularly to Rome; that I was to place myself +at the King's service in any way that I could--in short that I was to +follow my discretion and do, as a layman may sometimes even more than a +priest, all that was in my power for the furtherance of the Catholic +cause. + +Now it may be wondered perhaps how it was that I, who was so young, +should be entrusted with such matters as these. Here then, I am bound to +say, however immodest it may appear, that I have had always the art of +making friends easily and of commending myself quickly. I had lived too +in the societies of both Paris and Rome; and I had the accomplishments +of a gentleman as well as his blood. I was thought a pleasant fellow, +that is to say, who could make himself agreeable; and I certainly had +too--and I am not ashamed to say this--but one single ambition in the +world, and that was to serve God's cause: and these things do not always +go together in this world. Last of all, it must be observed, that no +very weighty secrets were entrusted to me: I bore no letters; and I had +been told no more of affairs in general than such as any quick and +intelligent man might pick up for himself. Even should I prove +untrustworthy or indiscreet, or even turn traitor, no very great harm +would be done. If, upon the other hand, I proved ready and capable, all +that I could learn in England and, later perhaps, in France, would serve +me well in the carrying out of weightier designs that might then be +given into my charge. + +Such then I was; and such was my mission, on this fifteenth day of June, +as I rode up with James my man--a servant found for me in Rome, who had +once been in the service of my Lord Stafford--to the door of the +lodgings engaged for me in Covent Garden Piazza above a jeweller's shop. + + * * * * * + +It was after sunset that we came there; and all the way along the +Strand, until we nearly reached the York Stairs, I had said nothing to +my man, but had used my eyes instead, striving to remember what I could +of seven years before. The houses of great folk were for the most part +on my left--Italianate in design, with the river seen between them, and +lesser houses, of the architecture that is called "magpie," on the +right. The way was very foul, for there had been rain that morning, and +there seemed nothing to carry the filth away: in places faggots had been +thrown down to enable carts to pass over. The Strand was very full of +folk of all kinds going back to their houses for supper. + +Covent Garden Piazza was a fairer place altogether. It was enclosed in +railings, and a sun-dial stood in the centre; and on the south was the +space for the market, with a cobbled pavement. To the east of St. Paul's +Church stood the greater houses, built on arcades, where many +fashionable people of the Court lived or had their lodgings, and it was +in one of these that I too was to lodge: for I had bidden my Cousin +Jermyn to do the best he could for me, and his letter had reached me at +Dover, telling me to what place I was to come. + +As I sat on my horse, waiting while my man went in to one of the +doorways to inquire, a gentleman ran suddenly out of another, with no +hat on his head. + +"Why, you are my Cousin Roger, are you not?" he cried from the steps. + +"Then you are my Cousin Tom Jermyn," I said. + +"The very man!" he cried back; and ran down to hold my stirrup. + +All the way up the stairs he was talking and I was observing him. He +seemed a hearty kind of fellow enough, with a sunburnt face from living +in the country; and he wore his own hair. He was still in riding-dress; +and he told me, before we had reached the first landing, that he was +come but an hour ago from his house at Hare Street, in Hertfordshire. + +"And I have brought little Dorothy with me," he cried. "You remember +little Dorothy? She is a lady of quality now, aged no less than sixteen; +and is come up to renew her fal-lals for her cousin's arrival; for you +must come down with us to Hare Street when your business is done." + +I cannot say that even after all this heartiness, I thought very much of +my Cousin Tom. He spoke too loud, I thought, on the common stair: but I +forgot all that when I came into the room that was already lighted with +a pair of wax candles and set eyes on my Cousin Dorothy, who stood up as +we came in, still in her riding-dress, with her whip and gloves on the +table. Now let me once and for all describe my Cousin Dorothy; and then +I need say no more. She was sixteen years old at this time--as her +father had just told me. She was of a pale skin, with blue eyes and +black lashes and black hair; but she too was greatly sunburnt, with the +haymaking (as her father presently told me again; for she spoke very +little after we had saluted one another). She was in a green skirt and a +skirted doublet of the same colour, and wore a green hat with a white +feather; but those things I did not remember till I was gone to bed and +was thinking of her. It is a hard business for a lover to speak as he +should of the maid who first taught him his lessons in that art; but I +think it was her silence, and the look in her eyes, that embodied for me +at first what I found so dear afterwards. She was neither tall nor +short; she was very slender; and she moved without noise. All these +things I write down now from my remembrance of the observations that I +made afterwards. It would be foolish to say that I loved her so soon as +I saw her; for no man does that in reality, whatever he may say of it +later; I was aware only that here was a maid whose presence made the +little room very pleasant to me, and with whom taking supper would be +something more than the swallowing of food and drink. + +The rooms of my lodging were good enough, as I saw when my Cousin Tom +flung open the doors to show me them all. They were three in number: +this room into which we had first come from the stairs was hung in green +damask, with candles in sconces between the panels of the stuff; the +door on the left opened into the room where my Cousin Dorothy would lie, +with her maid; and that on the right my Cousin Tom and I would share +between us. The windows of all three looked out upon the piazza. + +He said a great number of times that he was sorry that he had brought up +his daughter without giving me warning; but that the maid had set her +heart on it and would take no denial. (This I presently discovered to be +wholly false.) For a week, he said, and no more, I should be +discommoded; and after that, when I had come back from Hare Street, I +should be able to entertain my friends in peace. + +I answered him, of course, with the proper compliments; but I liked his +manner less than ever. He was too boisterous, I thought, on a first +meeting; and too hearty in his expressions of goodwill. When we were set +down to supper, he began again, with what I thought a good deal of +indiscretion. + +"So you are come from Rome!" he said loudly, "and from a monastery too, +as I hear. Well, no man loves a monk more than I do--in their +monasteries; but I am glad you are not to be one. We will teach him +better here--eh, Dolly, my dear?" + +It was only my man James who was in the room when he spoke; yet as soon +as he was gone out to fetch another dish I thought I had best say a +word. + +"Cousin," I said, "with your leave; I think it best not to speak of +monasteries--" + +He interrupted me. + +"Why, you need fear nothing," he cried. "We Catholics are all in the +fashion these days. Why, there is Mr. Huddleston that goes about in his +priest's habit: and the Capuchins at St. James', and the very Jesuits +too--" + +"I think it would be better not--" I began. + +"Oho!" cried Cousin Tom. "That is in the wind, is it? Why, I'll be as +mum as a mouse!" + +I did not know what he meant; and I supposed that he did not know +himself, unless indeed by sheer blundering he had pitched upon the truth +that I was come on a mission. But so soon as James was in the room +again, he began upon the other tack, and talked of Prince this and the +Duke of that, with whom I might be supposed to be on terms of intimacy, +winking on me all the while, so that my man saw it. However, I answered +him civilly. I could do no less; for he was my cousin, and in a manner +my host; and, most of all, I must depend upon him for a few days at +least, to tell me how I must set about my audiences and my personal +affairs. + +My Cousin Dorothy said little or nothing all this time; but sat with +downcast eyes, giving a look now and again at the table to see if we had +all that we needed; for she was housekeeper at Hare Street, her mother +having died ten years before, and she herself being the only child. She +did not look at me at all, or shew any displeasure; and yet it seemed to +me that she was not best pleased with her father's manners. Once, +towards the end of supper, when James came behind him with the wine-jug, +I saw her shake her head at him; and, indeed, Cousin Tom was already +pretty red in the face with all that he had drunk. + +When the meal was finished at last, and the table cleared, and the +servants gone downstairs to their own supper, he began again with his +talk, stretching his legs in the window-seat where he sat; while I sat +still in my chair wheeled away from the table, and my Cousin Dorothy +went in and out of the rooms, bestowing the luggage that she and her +maid had unpacked. I watched her as she went to and fro, telling myself +(as some lads will, who pride themselves on being come to manhood) that +she was only a little maid. + +"As to your affairs, Cousin Roger," he said, "they will soon be +determined. I take it that when you have kissed His Majesty's hand and +paid your duty to the Duke, you will have done all that you should for +the present." + +I did not contradict him; but he was not to be restrained. + +"You are come to seek your fortune, no doubt:" (he winked on me again as +he said this, to draw attention to his discretion); "and there is +nothing else in the world but that, no doubt, that brings you to +England." (He said this with an evident irony that even a child would +have understood.) "Not that you have not a very pretty fortune already: +I understand that it is near upon a thousand pounds a year; and great +estates in Normandy too, when you shall be twenty-eight years old. I am +right, am I not?" + +Now he was right; but I wondered that he should take such pains to know +it all. + +"There or thereabouts," I said. + +"That condition of twenty-eight years is a strange one," he went on. +"Now what made your poor father fix upon that, I wonder?" + +I told him that my father held that a man's life went by sevens, and +that every man was a boy till he was twenty-one, a fool till he was +twenty-eight, and a man, by God's grace, after that. + +"Ah, that was it, was it?" he said, stretching his legs yet further. "I +have often wondered as to how that was." + +And that shewed me that his mind must have run a good deal upon my +fortunes; but as yet I did not understand the reason. + +When, presently, my Cousin Dorothy had shut the door of her room, and +my man was gone down again to the horses, he began again on his old +tack. + +"You and I, Cousin Roger," he said, "will soon understand one another. I +knew that as soon as I clapped eyes on you. Come, tell me what your +business is here. I'm as close as the grave over a friend's secrets." + +"My dear cousin," I said, "I do not know what business you mean. Was not +my letter explicit enough? I am come to live here as an English +gentleman. What other business should I have?" + +He winked again at me. + +"Yes, yes," he said. "And now having done your duty to your discretion, +do it to your friendship for me too. I know very well that a man who +comes from a Roman monastery, with letters from the French ambassador, +does not come for nothing. Is there some new scheme on hand?--for the +honour of Holy Church, no doubt?" + +I thanked God then that I had said not one word in my letter that +Shaftesbury himself might not have read. I had been in two minds about +it; but had determined to wait until I saw my cousin and learned for +myself what kind of man he was. + +"My dear cousin," I said again, "even if I had come on some such +mission, I should assure you, as I do now, that it was nothing of the +kind. How else could such missions be kept secret at all? It would be a +_secretum commissum_ in any case; as the theologians would say. I can +but repeat what I said in my letter to you; and, if you will think of +it, you will see that it is not likely that any matter of importance +would be entrusted to a young man of my age." + +That seemed to quiet him. I have often noticed that to appeal to the +experience and wisdom of a fool is the surest way to content him. + +He began then to talk of the Court; and it would not be decent of me to +record even a tenth part of the gossip he told me regarding the +corruption that prevailed in Whitehall. Much of it was no doubt true; +and a great deal more than he told me in some matters; but it came +pouring out from him, and with such evident pleasure to himself, that it +was all I could do to preserve a pleasant face towards him. He told me +of the little orange-girl, Nell Gwyn, who was now just twenty-eight +years old; and how she lived here and there as the King gave her +houses--in Pall Mall, and in Sandford House in Chelsea, and at first at +the "Cock and Pie" in Drury Lane; and how her hair was of a reddish +brown, and how, when she laughed her eyes disappeared in her head; and +of the Duchess of Cleveland, that was once Mrs. Palmer and then my Lady +Castlemaine, now in France; and of the Duchess of Portsmouth, and her +son created Duke of Richmond three years ago; and of the mock marriage +that was celebrated, in my Lord Arlington's house at Euston, seven years +ago between her and the King. And these things were only the more decent +matters of which he spoke; and of all he spoke with that kind of +chuckling pleasure that a heavy country squire usually shews in such +things, so that I nearly hated him as he sat there. For to myself such +things seem infinitely sorrowful; and all the more so in such a man as +the King was; and they seemed the more sorrowful the more that I knew of +him later; for he had so much of the supernatural in him after all, and +knew what he did. + +Then presently my Cousin Jermyn began upon the Duke; and at that I +nearly loosed my tongue at him altogether. For I knew very well that the +guilt of the Duke was heavier even than the guilt of the King, since +James had the grace of the Sacraments to help him and the light of the +Faith to guide him. But I judged it better not to shew my anger, since I +was, as the Holy Father had told me, to be "in the world," though +interiorly not of it: and so I feigned sleep instead, and presently had +to snore aloud before my cousin could see it: and, as he stopped +speaking, my Cousin Dorothy came in to bid us good-night. + +"Why, I have been half asleep," I said. "I am tired with my journey. +What were you saying, cousin?" + +He leered again at that, as if to draw attention to his daughter's +presence. + +"Why, we were talking of high matters of state," he said, "when you fell +asleep--matters too high for little maids to hear of. Give me a kiss, my +dear." + +When she came to me, I kissed her on the forehead, and not upon the +cheek which she offered me. + +"Is that the Italian custom?" cried my Cousin Tom. "Why, we can teach +you better than that--eh, Dolly?" + +She said nothing to that; but looked at me a little anxiously and then +at the table where the wine stood; and I thought that I understood her. + +"Well, cousin," I said, "I, too, had best be off to bed. We had best +both go. I do not want to lie awake half the night; and if you wake me +when you come to bed, I shall not sleep again." + +He tried to persuade me to stay and drink a little more; but I would +not: and for very courtesy he had to come with me. + +In spite of my drowsiness, however, when I was once in bed and the light +was out I could not at once sleep. I heard the watchman go by and cry +that it was a fine night; and I heard the carriages go by, and the +chairs; and saw the light of the links on the ceiling at the end of my +bed; and I heard a brawl once and the clash of swords and the scream of +a woman; as well as the snoring of my Cousin Tom, who fell asleep at +once, so full he was of French wine. But it was not these things that +kept me awake, except so far as they were signs to me of where I was. + +For here I was in London at last, which, whatever men may say, is the +heart of the world, as Rome is the heart of the Church; and there, +within a gunshot, was the gate of Whitehall where the King lived, and +where my fortunes lay. Neither was I here as a mere Englishman come home +again after seven years, but as a messenger from the Holy See, with work +both to find and to do. To-morrow I must set out, to buy, as I may say, +the munitions of war--my clothes and my new periwigs and my swords and +my horses; and then after that my holy war was to begin. I had my +letters not only to the Court, but to the Jesuits as well--though of +these I had been careful to say nothing to my cousin; for I could +present these very well without his assistance. And this holy war I was +to carry on by my own wits, though a soldier in that great army of +Christ that fights continually with spiritual weapons against the +deceits of Satan. + +I wondered, then, as I lay there in the dark, as to whether this war +would be as bloodless as seemed likely; whether indeed it were true (and +if true, whether it were good or bad) that Catholics should again almost +be in the fashion, as my cousin had said. There were still those old +bloody laws against us; was it so sure that they would never be revived +again? And if they were revived, how should I bear myself; and how would +my Cousin Jermyn, and all those other Catholics of whom London was so +full? + +Of all these things, then, I thought; but my last thoughts, before I +commended myself finally to God and Our Lady, were of my Cousin +Dorothy--that little maid, as I feigned to myself to think of her. Yes; +I would go down to Hare Street in Hertfordshire so soon as I +conveniently could, without neglecting my business. It would be pleasant +to see what place it was that my Cousin Dorothy called her home. + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +It was again a fair evening, five days later, when, in one of my new +suits, with my new silver-handled sword, I set out on foot to Whitehall +to see the King first and the Duke afterwards, as word had been brought +me from the Chamberlain's office; for I had presented my letters on the +morning after I had come to London. + +Those four days had passed busily and merrily enough in company with my +cousins. The first two days I had spent in the shops, and had expended +above forty pounds, with both my cousins to advise me. It would not be +to the purpose to describe all that I bought; but there was a blue suit +I had, that was made very quickly, and that was the one I wore when I +went to see the King, that was very fine. All was of blue; the coat was +square-cut, with deep skirts, and had great laced cuffs that turned up +as high as the elbow, showing the ruffled wristbands of the shirt +beneath; the waistcoat below--in the new fashion--was so hung as to come +down to my knees; and both coat and waistcoat had buttons all the way +down the front, with silver trimming. My stockings--for the brodequins +were out of fashion again now--were of a darker blue, and my shoes of +strong leather, with a great rosette upon each, for buckles were not +usual at this time. Then my cravat was of Flanders lace; and my Cousin +Dorothy showed me how to fasten it so that the ends lay down square in +front; and my hat was round with a blue favour in it upon the left side; +and I wore it with what was called the "Monmouth cock." I carried a long +cane in my hand, with a silver head, and a pair of soft leather gloves, +without cuffs to them. Then, as my own hair was still short, I bought a +couple of dark periwigs of my own colour, and put on, the better to go +to Whitehall in. Besides these things I had three other suits, one very +plain, of grey, and two less plain; a case of pistols, and a second +sword, very plain and strong, in a leather scabbard, with its belt; two +pair of riding-boots, besides other shoes; and two dozen of shirts and +cravats, of which half were plain, without lace. + +While we went to and fro on all those businesses, we saw something both +of the town and of the folks. On our way back from Cheapside one day, we +turned aside to see the Monument, with the lying inscription upon it; +and then to see the Cathedral, which was already of a considerable +height. Of the persons of importance we saw one day the Duke of +Buckingham in his coach, drawn by two white horses, with riders before +and behind, pass along towards Whitehall; and a chair went by us one +evening in which, it was said, was the Duchess of Portsmouth (once +Madame de la Querouaille, or Mrs. Carwell); but it was so closely +guarded that I could not see within. Also, we saw my Lord Shaftesbury, a +sly yet proud looking fellow, I thought him, walking with Mr. Pepys, who +fell later under suspicion of being a Catholic, because his servant was +one. + +On the Saturday evening we went to take the air in St. James' Park, and +walked by Rosamund's pond; and here we but just missed seeing the King +and Queen; for as we came into it from Charing Cross (where I had seen +for the first time in the public street the Punch-show, which I think +must take its origin from Pontius Pilate) their Majesties rode out--hand +in hand, I heard later--through the Park Gate into the Horse-Guards, and +so to Whitehall, with guards in buff and steel following. There was a +great company of gentlemen and ladies who rode behind, of whom we caught +a sight; but they were too far away for us to recognize any of them. (I +saw, too, the cress-carts come in from Tothill fields.) + +On the Sunday morning we went all three together to hear mass sung in +St. James'; and here for the first time I saw Mr. Huddleston, who was of +the congregation, who was in his priest's habit--as my cousin had told +me--for this was allowed to him by Act of Parliament, because he had +saved the King's life after the battle of Worcester. He was a man that +looked like a scholar, but was very brown with the sun, too. We could +not see the Duke, for he was in his closet, with the curtains half +drawn--a tribune, as we should call it in Rome. It was very sweet to me +to hear mass again after my journey; and it was not less sweet to me +that my Cousin Dorothy was beside me; but the crush was so great, of +Protestants who had come to see the ceremonies, as well as of Catholics, +that there was scarcely room even to kneel down at the elevation. On our +way back we saw Prince Rupert, a fat pasty-faced man, driving out in his +coach. He spent all his time in chymical experiments, I was told. As +Sedley said, he had exchanged Naseby for Noseby. + +I had been bidden, on the Monday, to present myself first at Mr. +Chiffinch's lodgings that were near the chapel, between the Privy Stairs +and the Palace Stairs; and, as I was before my time, when I came into +the Court, behind the Banqueting Hall, I turned aside to see the Privy +Garden. A fellow in livery, of whom there were half a dozen in sight, +asked me my business very civilly; and when I told him, let me go +through by the Treasury and the King's laboratory, so that I might see +the garden: and indeed it was very well worth seeing. There were sixteen +great beds, set in the rectangle, with paved walks between; there was a +stone vase on a pedestal, or a statue, in the centre of each bed, and a +great sundial in the midst of them all. There were some ladies walking +at the further end, beneath the two rows of trees; and the sight was a +very pretty one, for the sunlight was still on part of the garden and on +the Bowling-Green beyond the trees; and the flowers and the ladies' +dresses, and the high windows that flashed back the light, all conspired +to make what I looked upon very beautiful. The lodgings that looked on +to the Privy Garden and the Bowling-Green were much coveted, I heard +later; and only such personages as Prince Rupert, my Lord Peterborough, +Sir Philip Killigrew, and such like, could get them there. + +Mr. Chiffinch's lodgings, when I came to them, were not so fine; for +they looked out upon little courts on both sides, and my Lady +Arlington's lodgings blocked his view to the river. I went up the +stairs, and beat upon the door with my cane: and a voice cried to me to +enter. + +Now I had heard enough of Mr. Chiffinch to make me prejudge him; for his +main business, it seemed, was to pander to the King's pleasures; and he +had his rooms so near the river, it was said, that he might more easily +meet those who came by water and take them up to His Majesty's rooms +unobserved: yet when I saw him, I understood that any prejudgement was +unnecessary. For if ever man bore his character in his face it was Mr. +Chiffinch. + +He had risen at my knock, and was standing in the light of the window. +He was dressed in a dark suit, very plain, yet of very rich stuff, and +had laid his periwig aside, so that I could see his features. He was a +dark secret-looking man with his eyes set near together, and with a lip +so short that it seemed as if he sneered; he stooped a little too. Yet I +am bound to say that his manner was perfection itself. + +"Mr. Chiffinch," I said. And at that he bowed. + +"I am Mr. Roger Mallock," I said; "and I was bidden to come here at this +hour." + +"I am honoured to meet you, Mr. Mallock," he said. "I have had His +Majesty's instructions very particular in your regard. I am ashamed that +you should find me so unready; but I will not keep you above five +minutes, if you will sit down for a little." + +He made haste to set me a chair near the window; and with another +apology or two he went out of a second door. The room in which he left +me was like the suit that he wore--in that it was both plain and rich. +There were three or four chairs with arms; a table, with twisted legs, +on which lay a great heap of papers and a pair of candlesticks: and +there was a tall lightly-carved press, with locks, between the windows. +The walls were plain, with a few good engravings hung upon them. I went +up to examine one, and found it to be a new one, by Faithorne. + +Now that I was drawing so near to the King, I found my apprehensions +returning upon me, for half my success, I knew, if not all, turned upon +the manner I first shewed to him. I knew very well that I could bear +myself with sufficient address; but sufficient address was not all that +was needed: I must so act that His Majesty would remember me afterwards, +and with pleasure. Yet how was I to ensure this? + +As I was so thinking to myself, Mr. Chiffinch came in again, having, +with marvellous speed, changed his suit into one of brown velvet, with a +great black periwig, from which his sharp face looked out like a ferret +from a hole. + +"I must ask your pardon, Mr. Mallock," he said, as I stood up to meet +him, "again and again; but I have scarcely an hour to myself day or +night. Duty treads on the heels of duty all day long. But we have still +time: His Majesty does not expect us till half-past five." + +I made the usual compliments and answers, to which he bowed again; and +then, as I thought he would, he began upon what was not his business--at +least I thought not then. + +"You are come from Rome, I hear. I trust that His Holiness was in good +health?" + +"The reports were excellent," I said, determined not to be taken in this +way. + +"You have seen His Holiness lately, no doubt?" + +"It was the French and Spanish ambassadors," I said, "who gave me my +letters. A poor gentleman like myself does not see the Holy Father once +in a twelvemonth." + +He seemed contented with that; and I think he put me down as something +of a well-bred simpleton, which was precisely what I wished him to +think; for his manner changed a little. + +"You have seen His Majesty before, no doubt?" + +"I have not been in England for seven years," I said, smiling. "I saw +His Majesty once when I was a lad, as he went to dinner; and I have seen +him once, on Saturday last; at least, I saw the top of his hat from a +hundred yards off." + +"And the Duke of York?" he asked. + +"I have never seen the Duke of York in my life, to my knowledge," I +said. + +Now I saw well enough what he was after. Without a doubt he had a +suspicion that I was an emissary in some way from the Holy Father, or at +least that I was more than I appeared to be; and being one of those men +who desire to know everything, that they may understand, as the saying +is, which way the cat will jump, and how to jump with her, he was +determined to find out all that he could. On my side, therefore, I +assumed the air of a rather stupid gentleman, to bear out better the +character that I had--that I was a mere gentleman from Rome, recommended +by the Catholic ambassadors; and I think that, for the time at anyrate, +he took me so to be; for his manner became less inquisitive. + +"We must be going to His Majesty, sir," he said presently, rising; and +then he added as if by chance: "You are a Catholic, Mr. Mallock?" + +"Why, yes," I said: for there was no need of any concealment on the +point of my religion. + + * * * * * + +As we went downstairs and along the passage that led by Sir Francis +Clinton's lodgings, he began to speak of how I was to behave myself to +the King, and how kiss his hand and the rest. I knew very well all these +things, but I listened to him as if I did not, and even put a question +or two; and he answered me very graciously. + +"You should be very modest with His Majesty," he said, "if you would +please him. He likes not originals over-much; or, rather, I would +say--(but it must not be repeated)--that he likes to be the only +original of the company." + +And when Mr. Chiffinch said that I knew that he was lying to me; for the +very opposite was the truth; and I understood that he still had his +suspicions of me and wished me to fail with the King. But I nodded +wisely, and thanked him. + +A couple of Yeomen of the Guard--of which body no man was less than six +feet tall--stood at the foot of the little stairs that led up to the +King's lodgings: and these made no motion to hinder the King's page and +his companion. So English were they that they did not even turn their +eyes as we went through, Mr. Chiffinch preceding me with an apology. + +At the door on the landing of the first floor he turned to me again +before he knocked. + +"His Majesty will be within the second room," he said. "Will you wait, +Mr. Mallock, please, in this first anteroom, and I will go through. This +is a private reception by His Majesty. There will be no formalities." + +He tapped upon both the doors that were one inside the other; and then +led me through. The first chamber was very richly furnished, though +barely. There was a long table with chairs about it; and he led me to +one of these. Then with a nod or two he passed on to a second door, +tapped upon it softly and went through, closing it behind him. I heard a +woman's laugh as he went through, suddenly broken off. + +There was, I supposed (and as I learned afterwards to be the case) one +other way at least out of the King's lodgings, through his private +library, where he kept all his clocks and wheels and such-like; for +when, after a minute or two, the door opened again and Mr. Chiffinch +beckoned me in, there was no woman with the King. + +It was a great room--His Majesty's closet as it was called--which he +used for such solitary life as he led; and while I was with him, and +afterwards upon other occasions, I saw little by little how it was +furnished. The table in the midst, at which His Majesty wrote, was all +in disorder; it was piled high with papers and books, for he would do +what writing or reading he cared to do by fits and starts. The walls +were hung with panels of tapestry, and tall curtains of brocade hung at +the windows. Between the panels were pictures hung upon the walls--three +or four flower-pictures by Varelst; three pictures of horses and dogs by +Hondius, and a couple of Dutch pictures by Hoogstraaten. Over the +fireplace was a chimney-breast by Gibbons; and the ceiling was all +a-sprawl with gods and goddesses, I suppose by Verrio. In the windows, +which looked out on two sides, over the river and into a little court, +were little tables covered with curious things, for His Majesty +delighted in such ingenuities--Dutch figures in silver, clockwork, and +the like, and a basket of spaniels lay beneath one of the tables. A +second great table stood against the wall on the further side from that +on which I entered, covered with retorts and instruments, and behind it +a press, and near it sat the King. The floor was carpeted with rush +matting, loosely woven, with rugs upon it. But of all these things I saw +little or nothing at the first, for Mr. Chiffinch was gone out behind +me, and I was alone with His Majesty. One of the spaniels had given a +little yelp as I came in; but disposed himself to sleep again. + +Now I am not one of those who think that those who are noble by birth +must always be noble by character, though I know that it should be so. I +knew, too, very well that Charles was less than noble in a great number +of ways. His women did what they liked with him; he would spend fortunes +on those who pleased him and did him nothing but injury, and would let +his faithful lovers and servants go starve. He lived always, you would +say, only for the flesh and the pride of the eyes; he was careless and +selfish and ungrateful; in short, he was as dissolute as a man could be, +or, rather, as dissolute as a king could be, and that is much more. Yet +for all this, he was a man of an extraordinary power, if he had cared to +use it. It was said of him that "he could, if he would, but that he +would not"; and of his brother that "he would if he could, but that he +could not"; and I know no better epigram on the two than that. James was +all intention without success; and Charles all success without +intention. And so James at the end lived and died as a saint, though he +was far from being one at this time; and Charles lived and died a +sinner, though, thank God, a penitent one. + +Now although I knew all this well enough, and how Charles' private life +stank in the nostrils of God and man, I cannot describe how he affected +me with loyalty and compassion and even a kind of love, in this little +while that I had with him in private, nor how these emotions grew upon +me the more that I knew him. + +He was sitting in his great chair, not yet dressed for supper, for his +wristbands were tumbled and turned back, and his huge dark brown periwig +was ever so little awry. He was in a dark suit, with a lace cravat; and +his rosetted shoes were crossed one over the other as he sat. The light +of the window fell full upon him from one side, shewing his swarthy +face, his thin close moustaches, and his heavy eyes under his arched +brows--shewing above all that air of strange and lovable melancholy that +was so marked a trait in those of the Stuart blood. He smiled a little +at me, but did not move, except to put out his hand. I came across the +floor, kneeled and kissed his hand, then, at a motion from him, stood up +again. + +"So you are Mr. Roger Mallock," he said. "Welcome to England, Mr. Roger +Mallock. You bring good news of His Holiness, I hope." + +"His Holiness does very well, Sir," I said. + +"We should all do as well if we were as holy," said the King. "And you +come to look after my soul, I am informed." + +(He said this with a kind of gravity that can scarcely be believed.) + +"I am no priest, Sir," I said, "if you mean that. I am only a +forerunner, at the best." + +"_Vox clamantis in deserto_," said the King. "I hope I shall be no Herod +to cut off your head. But it is very kind of you to come to this +wilderness. And have you seen my brother yet?" + +"I am to see his Royal Highness immediately," I said. "I waited upon +Your Majesty first." + +"Poor James!" said the King. "He wants looking after, I think. And what +have you come to do in England, Mr. Mallock?" + +Now I felt that I was cutting a poor figure at present; and that I must +say something presently, if I could, to make the King remember me +afterwards. It appeared to me that he was trying me, as he tried all +newcomers, to see whether they would be witty or amusing; but, for the +life of me, I could think of nothing to say. + +"I am come to put myself wholly at Your Majesty's disposal," I said. + +"Come! come! That's better," said Charles. "It is usually the other way +about. _Servus servorum Dei_, you know. And in what manner do you +propose that I should use you?" + +"I will clean Your Majesty's shoes, if you will. Or I will run errands +in my own. Or I will sing psalms, or ditties; or I will row in a boat; +or I will play tennis, or fence. I am what is called an accomplished +young gentleman, Sir." + +Now I think I put in a shade too many clauses, for I was a little +agitated. But the King's face lightened up very pleasantly. + +"But I have plenty of folks who can do all that," he said. "In what are +you distinguished from the rest?" + +Then I determined on a bold stroke; for I knew that the King liked such +things, if they were not too bold. + +"I am a Jesuit at heart, Sir;" I said. "I desire to do these things, if +Your Majesty wills it so, simply that I may serve His Holiness in +serving Your Majesty." + +"Oho!" said Charles; and he gathered his feet under him and looked at me +more closely. I met his eyes fairly and then dropped my own. + +"Oho! That is frank enough, Mr. Mallock. You know all about me, I +suppose. You seem very young for such work. How old are you? +Twenty-five?" + +"I pass as twenty-five, Sir. But I am only twenty-one!" + +"I would that I were!" said Charles earnestly. "And so you are a Jesuit +in disguise--a wolf in sheep's clothing." + +"No, Sir. I am a Jesuit at heart only, in that I would do anything in +God's cause. But I am rather a sheep in wolf's clothing. I was a +Benedictine novice till lately." + +He seemed not to hear me. He had dropped his chin on his hand, and was +looking at me as if he were thinking of something else. + +"So you are come to serve me," he said presently, "in any way that I +will; and you will serve me only that you may serve your master better. +And what wages do you want?" + +"None that Your Majesty can give," I said. + +"Better and better," said Charles. "Nor place, nor position?" + +"Only at Your Majesty's feet." + +"And what if I kick you?" + +"I will look for the halfpence elsewhere, Sir." + +Then the King laughed outright, in the short harsh way he had; and I +knew that I had pleased him. Then he stood up, and I saw that he was +taller than I had thought. He was close upon six feet high. + +"Well, Mr. Mallock," he said, "this seems all very pleasant and +satisfactory. You said you would run errands. I suppose you mean to +Rome?" + +"To Rome and back, Sir," I said. "Or to anywhere else, except Hell." + +"Oh! you draw the line there, do you?" + +"No, Sir. It is God Almighty who has drawn it. I am not responsible." + +"But you observe God His line?" + +"Yes, Sir. At least, I try to." + +"We all do that, I suppose. The pity is that we do not succeed more +consistently ... Well, Mr. Mallock, I have nothing for you at present. I +am a great deal too busy. These ladies, you know, demand so much. I +suppose you heard one of them laugh just now?" + +"I hear nothing but Your Majesty's commands," I said very meekly. + +Charles laughed again and began to walk up and down. + +"Well--and there are all these clockwork businesses, and chymical and +the like. And there is so much to eat and drink and see: and there are +the affairs of the kingdom--I had forgot that. Well; I have no time at +present, Mr. Mallock, as you can see for yourself. But I will not forget +you, if I want you. Where do you lodge?" + +I named my lodgings in Covent Garden. + +"And I have a cousin, Sir," I said, "who has bidden me to his house in +Hare Street. I shall be here or there." + +"His name?" + +"Thomas Jermyn, Sir." + +The King nodded. + +"I will remember that," he said. "Well, it may be a long time before I +have anything more to say to His Holiness. 'He that will not when he +may--' You know all about that, I suppose, Mr. Mallock?" + +"I know that Your Majesty has the reunion of Christendom at heart," I +said discreetly. + +"Yes, yes; I understand," said Charles. "I have received very favourable +accounts of you, sir. And your letters, which are for the public eye, +are perfectly in order. Well; I will remember, Mr. Mallock. Meanwhile +you had best not shew yourself at Court in public too much." (And this +he said very earnestly.) + +He put out his hand to be kissed. + +"And you will give my compliments to my brother James," he said. + + * * * * * + +One of the spaniels snored in his sleep as I went out again. + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +My interview with the Duke was a very different matter. I was informed +at his lodgings that he was not yet come from tennis; and upon asking +how long he would be, or if I might go to the tennis-court, was told +that he might be half an hour yet, and that I might go there if I +wished; so I went up from the river again, with a fellow they sent to +guide me, down through the Stone Gallery, across the Privy Garden, and +so across the street, midway between the gates, and so by the Duke of +Monmouth's lodgings to the tennis-court. Here, as I went across the +street, I caught sight of the sentries changing guard. These were the +Coldstream Guards, in their red coats; for it was these foot-guards who +did duty for the most part in the Palace and round about at the gates. +The other troops about His Majesty were, first the King's Guards proper, +who attended him when he rode out: these were in buff coats and +cuirasses, very well mounted, and very gay with ribbons and velvet and +gold lace and what not: and to each troop of these were attached a +company of grenadiers with their grenades. Besides these were the Blues, +also cavalry; and the dragoons, who were infantry on horseback, and +carried bayonets. Of the foot-soldiers, such as the Buffs, most were +mousquetaires; but some trailed pikes, and every one of them had a +sword. These troops I saw constantly in town; besides the Yeomen who +were closely attached to the person of his Sacred Majesty. + +It was by the Duke of Monmouth's lodgings that I had my first sight of +the Duke of Monmouth himself; for as I came towards the archway, by +which were the lodgings of my Lady Suffolk, he himself came out from his +own. I did not know who he was, until the fellow by me saluted him and +doffed his cap, whereupon I did the same. I think I have never seen a +more handsome lad in all my life (for he looked no more, though he was +near thirty years old). His face was as smooth as a girl's, though not +at all effeminate; he had a high and merry look with him, and bore +himself, with his two friends, like a prince; he had violet eyes and +arched brows over them. It is piteous to me now to think of his end, and +that it was against his uncle by blood (whom I was to see presently) +that he rebelled later, and by his uncle that he was condemned; and it +is yet more piteous to think how he met that end, crying and cringing +for fear of his life, both in the ditch in which he was discovered, and +afterward in prison. He looked very kindly on me as he passed, lifting +his hand to his hat; but I think he would not have so looked if he had +known all about me; for he was as venomous against the Catholics as a +man could be, or at least feigned himself so, for I think he had not a +great deal of religion at any time. But he was to know me better +afterwards. + +When I came up into the gallery of the tennis-court I found it pretty +full; yet not so full but that I could get a sight of the players. The +Duke was in the court of the _dédans_ when I first came in, so I could +see no more of him than his back and his cropped head; but when, after +two _chaces_ he crossed over, I had a good view of him. + +He was more heavily built than Charles; but his features were not unlike +the King's, though he was fairer in complexion, I suppose; and his lip +was shorter, and he wore no hair on his face. He had somewhat of a +heavier look too in his face, without the fire that burned like embers +in his brother's eyes. All this I noticed somewhat of, even from the +gallery, though he was all a-sweat with his exercise. + +I had left word with one of the men below as to my name and my business; +and when the game was ended and the Duke went out, I remained still +upstairs for a little, thinking that perhaps another would be played, +and then perhaps he would send for me. But a servant came up presently +and told me I was to follow to the Stone Gallery, where the Duke would +walk for a while before changing his clothes, as his custom was. This +Stone Gallery, as I had seen, was roofed, with skylights in it, and had +presses of books all along the walls, together with collections of all +kinds. + +When I came to the Gallery he was at the further end, walking with Sir +Robert Murray, as I learned afterwards, who was a very earnest +Protestant, but always at Court; but when he saw me he sent Sir Robert +away and beckoned to me to come. So I went up to him and kissed his +hand, and he bade me walk with him for a little. (He had put on a cloak +and hat to prevent his taking cold.) + +Now his manner was wholly different from His Majesty's. There was a +courtesy always in Charles that was not in James; for the Duke said +nothing as to his receiving me here in his _déshabille_, but began +immediately to talk in a low voice. + +"I am pleased that you are come to England, Mr. Mallock. I have had news +of you from Rome." + +Then he asked very properly of the Holy Father, and of a Cardinal or two +that he knew; and I answered him as well as I could. But I very soon saw +that His Royal Highness wanted nothing like wit from me: he was somewhat +of a solemn man, and had great ideas of his rights, and that all men who +were below his own station should keep their own. He desired deference +and attention above all things. + +He spoke presently of Catholics in England. + +"God hath blest us very highly," he said, "both in numbers and +influence. But we can well do with more of both; for I never heard of +any cause that could not. There is a feeling against us in many +quarters, but it is less considerable every year. You are to attach +yourself to His Majesty, I understand?" + +"But I am to have no place or office, sir," I said. "I am rather to be +at His Majesty's disposal--to fetch and carry, I may say, if he should +need my services." + +His Highness looked at me sidelong and swiftly; and I understood that he +did not wish any originality even in speech. + +"We must all be discreet, however," he said--(though I suppose there was +never any man less discreet than himself, especially when he most needed +to be so). "It is useless to say that we are altogether loved; for we +are not. But you will soon acquaint yourself with all our politics." + +I did not say that I had already done so; but assured him that I would +do my best. + +"As a general guide, I may say," he went on; "where there is Whiggery, +there is disloyalty, however much the Whigs may protest. They say they +desire a king as much as any; but it is not a king that they want, but +his shadow only." + +He talked on in this manner for a little, for we had the Gallery to +ourselves, telling me, what I knew very well already, that the Catholics +and the High Churchmen were, as a whole, staunch Royalists; but that the +rest, especially those of the old Covenanting blood, still were capable +of mischief. He did not tell me outright that it was largely against his +own succession that the disaffection was directed; nor that the Duke of +Monmouth was his rival; but he told me enough to show that my own +information was correct enough, and that in the political matters my +weight, such as it was, must be thrown on to the side of the Tories--as +the other party was nicknamed. I understood, even in that first +conversation with him, why he was so little loved; and I remembered, +with inward mirth, how His Majesty once, upon being remonstrated with by +his brother for walking out so freely without a guard, answered that he +need have no fears; for "they will never kill me," said he, "to set you +upon the throne." + +"You have seen Father Whitbread, no doubt," said the Duke suddenly. + +"No, sir. I waited to pay my homage first to His Majesty and to +yourself." + +He nodded once or twice at that. + +"Yes, yes; but you will see him presently, I take it. You could not have +a better guide. Why--" + +He broke off on a sudden. + +"Why here is the man himself," he said. + +A man in a sober suit was indeed approaching, as His Highness spoke. He +was of about the middle-size, clean-shaven, of grave and kindly face, +and resembled such a man as a lawyer or physician might be. He was +dressed in all points like a layman, though I suppose it was tolerably +well known what he was, if not his name. + +He saluted as he came near, and made as if he would have passed us. + +"Mr. Whitbread! Mr. Whitbread!" cried the Duke. + +The priest turned and bowed again, uncovering as he did so. Then he came +up to the Duke and kissed his hand. + +"I was on my way to see your Royal Highness," he said, "but when I saw +you were in company--" + +"Why, this is Mr. Mallock, come from Rome, who has letters to you. This +will save you a journey, Mallock." + +The priest and I saluted one another; and I found his face and manner +very pleasant. + +"I have heard of you, Mr. Mallock," he said, "but I hope His Highness is +misinformed, and that this will not save you a journey, after all." + +"I was just telling this gentleman," broke in the Duke, as we continued +our walking, "that he must take you for his mentor, Dr. Whitbread, in +these difficult times. Mr. Mallock seems very young for his business, +but I suppose that the Holy Father knows what he is about." + +"The Holy Father, sir," I said, "has committed himself in no sort of way +to me. I am scarcely more than a free-lance who has had his blessing." + +"Well, well; it is all the same thing," said James a little impatiently. +"Free-lance or drilled soldier--they fight for the same cause." + +He continued to talk in the same manner for a little, as if for my +instruction; and I listened with all the meekness I had. He did not tell +me one word which I did not already know; but I had perceived by now +what kind of man he was--well intentioned, no doubt, as courageous as a +lion, and as impatient of opposition, and not a little stupid: at least +he had not a tenth of his brother's wits, as all the world knew. He +solemnly informed me therefore of what all the world knew, and I +listened to him. + +When he dismissed me at last, however, he remembered to ask where I +lodged, and I told him. + +"A very good place too," he said. "I am glad your cousin had the sense +to put you there. Then I will remember you, if I need you for anything." + +"I will go with Mr. Mallock," said the priest, "if Your Royal Highness +will permit. I came but to pay my respects; and it is a little late." + +The Duke nodded; and gave us his hand to kiss. + +As we went out through the Courtyard, Father Whitbread pointed out a few +things to me which be thought might be of interest; and I liked the man +more at every step. He was a complete man of the world, with a certain +gentle irony, yet none the less kindly for it. He did not say one +disparaging word of anyone, nor any hint of criticism at His Royal +Highness; yet he knew, and I knew that he knew, and he knew that again, +that our Catholic champion was a shade disappointing; and that, not in +his vices only--of which my Lady Southesk could have given an +account--but in that which I am forced to call his stupidity. But, after +all, our Saviour uttered a judgment generally as to the children of +light and the children of this world, that must always be our +consolation when our friends are dull or perverse. Father Whitbread only +observed emphatically that the Duke was a man of excellent heart. + +He showed me the windows of a number of lodgings on the way, and the +direction of a great many more: for indeed this Palace of Whitehall was +liker a little town than a house. Father Patricks, he said, had a +lodging near the Pantry, which he shewed me. + +"There be some of us priests who have an affinity, do you not think, Mr. +Mallock? with pantries and butteries and such like--good sound men too, +many of them. I have not a word to say against Mr. Patricks." + +He shewed me too how the Palace was in four quarters, of which two were +divided from two by Whitehall itself and the street between the +gatehouses. That half of it that was nearer to the Park held the +tennis-court and the cock-pit and the lodgings of the Duke of Monmouth +and others nearer Westminster, and the other half the Horse Guards and +the barracks: and that nearer the river held, to the south the Stone +Gallery, the Privy Garden, the Bowling Green and a great number of +lodgings amongst which were those of the King and of his brother and +Prince Rupert, and of the Queen too, as well as of their more immediate +attendants--and this part contained what was left of the old York House; +to the north was another court surrounded by lodgings, the Wood-Yard, +the two courts called Scotland Yard, and the clock-house at the +extremity, nearest Charing Cross. In the very midst of the whole Palace, +looking upon Whitehall itself, was the Banqueting House where His +Majesty dined in state, and from a window of which King Charles the +First, of blessed memory, went out to lose his head. Indeed as we went +by the end of the Banqueting House the trumpets blew for supper; and we +saw a great number of cooks and scullions run past with dishes on their +heads. + + * * * * * + +As we went up Whitehall, Mr. Whitbread began to speak of more intimate +things. + +"You are a stranger in England, Mr. Mallock, I think." + +I told him I had not been in the country for seven years. + +"You will find a great many changes," he said; "and I think we are on +the eve of some more. Certainly His Majesty has wonderfully established +his position; and yet, if you understand me, there is a great and +growing disaffection. It is the Catholic Faith that they fear; and I +cannot help thinking that some victims may be required again presently, +though I do not know what they can allege against us. There is a deal of +feeling, too, against the Queen; she has borne no children--that is +true; but the main part of it arises from her religion: and so with the +Duke of York also. Certainly we are in the fashion in one way: but those +who are on the top of the wave must always look to come down suddenly." + +Here again, Father Whitbread did not tell me anything that I did not +know; yet he put matters together as I had not heard them put before; +and he seemed to me altogether a shrewd kind of man whose judgment I +might very well rely upon; and as we went up the Strand he spoke again +of the Queen. + +"His Majesty hath been urged again and again to divorce her; but he will +not. He said to the Duke himself in my hearing one day that an innocent +woman should never suffer through him--which is good hearing. But Her +Majesty is not very happy, I am afraid." + +When we came to the Maypole, which I had already seen, in the midst of +the Strand, he spoke to me of how it had been carried there and set up +with great rejoicing, after the Restoration. It was a great structure, +hung about by a crown and a vane; and he said that it stood as a kind of +symbol against Puritanism. + +"There are many," he told me, "who would pull it down to-morrow if they +could, as if it were some kind of idol." + +He saw me as far as the door of my lodgings; but he would not come in. +He said that he had no great desire to be known more widely than be was +at present known. + +"But if you have time to come in to-morrow morning about ten o'clock to +Mr. Fenwick's lodgings in Drury Lane--over the baker's shop--I shall be +there, and Mr. Ireland also--all Fathers of our Society; and I will very +gladly make you known to them. My own lodgings are in Weld Street--at +the Ambassador's." + +I thanked him for his kindness, and said I would be there; and so I bade +him good-night. + + * * * * * + +Although I had learned very few things that day which I had not known +already, I felt that evening as I sat at supper, and afterwards, in the +coffee house at 17, Fleet Street (which he recommended to me) that I +knew them in a different manner. For I had spoken with some of the +principal actors, and, above all, with the King himself. My cousin +questioned me delightedly upon my experiences when we were alone with +our pipes at one end of the great room that had been a council-chamber; +and related to me all his own experiences with the King at great +length; and how Charles had made to him some witty remarks which I think +must have lost in the telling, for they were not witty at all when I +heard them. It appeared that my cousin had spoken with the King three or +four times, at City-banquets and such like; and he would know all that +His Majesty had said to me. But much I would not tell him, and some I +could not: I could not that is, even if I would, have conveyed to him +the strange compassion that I felt, and the yet more strange affection, +for this King who might have done so much, and who did so little--except +what he should not; and I would not on any account tell him of what the +King had said as to Rome and his desires and procrastinations. But I +told him how I had met Father Whitbread, and how I was to go and see him +on the morrow. + +"Why, I will come with you myself," he said. "I know Mr. Fenwick's +lodgings very well: and we will ride afterwards as far as Waltham Cross, +and lie there; and so to Hare Street for dinner next day." + +All the way home again, and when my Cousin Dorothy was gone to bed, and +we sat over a couple of tankards of College Ale, he would talk of +nothing but the Jesuits. + +"They are too zealous," he said. "I am as good a Catholic as any man in +England or Rome; but I like not this over-zeal. They are everywhere, +these good fathers; and it will bring trouble on them. They hold their +consults even in London, which I think over-rash; and no man knows what +passes at them. Now I myself--" and so his tongue wagged on, telling of +his own excellence and prudence, and even his own spirituality, while +his eyes watered with the ale that he drank, and his face grew ever more +red. And yet there was no true simplicity in the man; he had that kind +of cunning that is eked out with winks and becks and nods that all the +world could see. He talked of my Cousin Dorothy, too, and her virtues, +and what a great lady she would be some day when these virtues were +known; and he, declared that in spite of this he would never let her go +to Court; and then once more he went back again to his earlier talk of +the corruptions there, and of what my Lady this and Her Grace of that +had said and done and thought. + + * * * * * + +Mr. Fenwick's lodgings in Drury Lane were such as any man might have. +The Jesuit Fathers lived apart in London--Father Whitbread in the City, +Father Ireland in Russell Street, and Father Harcourt, who was called +the "Rector of London," I heard, in Duke Street, near the arch--lest too +much attention should be drawn to them if they were all together. They +were pleasant quiet men, and received me very kindly--for my cousin who +had forgot some matter he had to do before he went into the country, was +gone down into the City to see to it. Mr. Grove, whom I learned later to +be a lay brother of the Society, opened the door to me; and shewed me to +the room where they were all three together. + +They were all three of them just such men as you might meet anywhere, in +coffee-houses or taverns, none of them under forty or over sixty years +old. Father Harcourt was seventy--but he was not there. They were in +sober suits, such as a lawyer might wear, and carried swords. These were +not all the Jesuits thereabouts; for I heard them speak of Father John +Gavan and Father Anthony Turner (who were in the country on that day), +and others. + +As I talked with them, and gave my news and listened to theirs, again +and again I thought of the marvellous misjudgments that were always +passed upon the Society; of how men such as these were always thought to +be plotting and conspiring, and how any charge against a Jesuit was +always taken as proven scarcely before it was stated; and that not by +common men only, but by educated gentlemen too, who should know better. +For their talk was of nothing but of the most harmless and Christian +matters, and of such simplicity that no man who heard them could doubt +their sincerity. It is true that they spoke of such things as the +conversion of England, and of the progress that the Faith was making; +and they told many wonderful stories of the religion of the common +people in country places, and how a priest was received by them as an +angel of God, and of their marvellous goodness and constancy under the +bitterest trials; but so, I take it, would the Apostles themselves have +spoken in Rome and Asia and Jerusalem. But as to the disloyalty that was +afterwards charged against them, still less of any hatred or murderous +designs, there was not one such thought that passed through any of their +minds. + +It was a plain but well-furnished chamber in which we sat. Beneath the +windows folks came and went continually. There were hangings on the +wall; and a press full of books and papers, and two or three tables; but +there was no concealment of anything, nor thought of it. Through the +door I saw Mr. Grove laying for dinner. + +"But you will surely stay for dinner," said Father Fenwick, when I said +that I must be gone presently. + +I told him that I was to ride to Waltham Cross with my cousins, and that +I was to meet them for dinner first at the coffee-house beside the +Maypole in the Strand. + +"And to Hare Street to-morrow, then," said Father Whitbread--or Mr. +White as he was called sometimes. + +I told him, Yes; and that I did not know how long I should be there. + +"The King will be at Windsor next month, I think," he said; "but he will +be back again for August. You had best be within call then, if he should +send for you." (For I had told them all freely what had passed between +myself and His Majesty, and what His Holiness had said to me too.) + +"You can command any of us at any time," he added, "if we can be of +service to you. There are so many folks of all kinds, here, there and +everywhere, that it is near impossible for a stranger to take stock of +them all; and it may be that our experience may be of use to you, to +know whom to trust and of whom to beware. But the most safe rule in +these days is, Trust no man till you know him, and not entirely even +then. There are men in this City who would sell their souls gladly if +any could be found to give them anything for it; how much more then, if +they could turn a penny or two by selling you or me or another in their +stead!" + +I thanked him for his warning; and told him that I would indeed be on +my guard. + +"Least of all," he said, "would I trust those of my own household. I +know your cousin for a Catholic, Mr. Mallock, but you will forgive me +for saying that it is from Catholics that we have to fear the most. I do +not mean by that that Mr. Jermyn is not excellent and sincere; for I +know nothing of him except what you have told me yourself. But zeal +without discretion is a very firebrand; and prudence without zeal may +become something very like cowardice; and either of these two things may +injure the Catholic cause irreparably in the days that are coming. St. +Peter's was the one, and Judas', I take it, was the other; for I hold +Judas to have been by far the greater coward of the two." + + * * * * * + +When I came out into the passage with him, I kneeled down and asked his +blessing; for I knew that this was of a truth a man of God. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +It was a little after noon next day that first we saw the Norman church +upon the hill, and then the roofs of Hare Street. + +I had been astonished at the badness of the roads from London, coming as +I had from Rome, where paved ways go out in every direction. We came out +by Bishopsgate, by the Ware road, and arrived at Waltham Cross a little +before sunset, riding through heavy dust that had hardly been laid at +all by the recent rains. We rode armed, with four servants, besides my +Cousin Dorothy's maid, for fear of the highwaymen who had robbed a coach +only last week between Ware and London. My Cousin Dorothy rode a white +mare named Jenny which mightily became her. We lay at the _Four Swans_ +at Waltham Cross, and went out before supper to see the Cross which was +erected where Queen Eleanor's body had lain--of which the last was at +Charing Cross--and I was astonished that the Puritans had not more +mutilated it. The beds were pretty comfortable, and the ale excellent, +so that once more my Cousin Tom drank too much of it. And so, early in +the morning we took horse again, and rode through Puckeridge, where we +left for the first time the road by which the King went to Newmarket, +when he went through Royston; and we found the track very bad +thenceforward. My Cousin Tom carried with him, though for no purpose +except for show, a map by John Ogilby which shows all the way from +London to King's Lynn, very ingeniously, and which was made after the +Restoration to encourage road traffic again; but it was pleasant for me +to look at it from time to time and see what progress we made towards +Hormead Magna which is the parish in which Hare Street lies. + +Now it was very pleasant for me to ride, as I did a good deal, with my +Cousin Dorothy; for her father, for a great part, rode with the men and +cracked stories with them. For journeying with a person sets up a great +deal of intimacy; and acquaintance progresses at least as swiftly as +the journey itself. She spoke to me very freely of her father, though +never as a daughter should not; and told me how distressed she was +sometimes at the quantity of ale and strong waters that he drank. She +told me also how seldom it was that a Catholic could hear mass at Hare +Street: sometimes, she said, a priest would lie there, and say mass in +the attic; but not very often; and sometimes if a priest were in the +neighbourhood they would ride over and hear mass wherever he happened to +be. The house, she said, lay near upon the road, so that they would hear +a good deal of news in this way. But she told me nothing of another +matter--for indeed she could not--which distressed her; though I +presently guessed it for myself, as will appear in the course of this +tale. + +My horse, Peter (as I had named him after the Apostle when I bought him +at Dover), was pretty weary as we came in sight of the church of Hormead +Parva; for I had given him plenty to do while I was in London; and he +stumbled three or four times. + +"We are nearly home," said my Cousin Dorothy; and pointed with her whip. + +"It is pleasant to hear such a word," I said: "for, as for me, I have +none." + +She said nothing to that; and I was a little ashamed to have said it; +for nothing is easier than to touch a maid's heart by playing Othello to +her Desdemona. + +"I have no business to have said that, cousin," I went on presently: +"for England is all home to me just now." + +"I hope you will find it so, cousin," she said. + +The country was pretty enough through which we rode; though in no ways +wonderful. It was pasture-land for the most part, with woods here and +there; and plenty of hollow ways (all of which were marked upon the map +with great accuracy), by which drovers brought their sheep to the +highway. I saw also a good many fields of corn. The hills were lowish, +and ran in lines, with long valleys between; and there was one such on +the right as we came to Hare Street, through which flowed a little +stream, nearly dry in the summer. + +The house itself was the greatest house in the village, and lay at the +further end of it upon the right; sheltered from the road by limes, in +the midst of which was the gateway, and the house twenty yards within. +My Cousin Tom came up with us as we entered the village, and shewed me +with a great deal of pride his new iron gate just set up, with a twisted +top. + +"It is the finest little gate for ten miles round," he said, "and cost +me near twenty pound." + +We rode past the gate, however, into the yard just beyond; and here +there was a great barking of dogs set up; and two or three men ran out. +I helped my Cousin Dorothy from her horse; and then all three of us went +through a side-door to the front of the house. + +The house without was of timber and plaster, very solidly built, but in +no way pretentious; and the plaster was stamped, in panels, with a kind +of comb-pattern in half circles, peculiar, my cousin told me, to that +part of the country. Within, it was very pleasant. There was a little +passage as we came in, and to right and left lay the Great Chamber (as +it was called), and the dining-room. Beyond the little passage was the +staircase, panelled all the way up, with the instruments of the Passion +and other emblems carved on a row of the panels; and at the foot of the +staircase on the right lay a little parlour, very pretty, with hangings +presenting the knights of the Holy Grail riding upon their Quest. Upon +the left of the staircase, lay a paved hall, with a little pantry under +the stairs, to the left, and the kitchens running out to the back; and +opposite to them, enclosing a little grassed court, the brewhouse and +the bakehouse. Behind all lay the kitchen gardens; and behind the +brewhouse a row of old yews and a part of the lawn, that also ran before +the house. The house was of three stories high, and contained about +twenty rooms with the attics. + +It is strange how some houses, upon a first acquaintance with them, seem +like old friends; and how others, though one may have lived in them +fifty years are never familiar to those who live in them. Now Hare +Street House was one of the first kind. This very day that I first set +eyes on it, it was as if I had lived there as a child. The sunlight +streamed into the Great Chamber, and past the yews into the parlour; and +upon the lawns outside; and the noise of the bees in the limes was as if +an organ played softly; and it was all to me as if I had known it a +hundred years. + +My Cousin Tom carried me upstairs presently to the Guest-chamber--a +great panelled room, with a wide fire-place, above the dining-room--that +I might wash my hands and face before dinner; and my heart smote me a +little for all my thoughts of him, for, when all was said, he had +received me very hospitably, and was now bidding me welcome again, and +that I must live there as long as I would, and think of it as my home. + +"And here," he said, opening a door at the foot of the bed, "is a little +closet where your man can hang your clothes; it looks out upon the yard; +and my room is beyond it, over the kitchen." + +I thanked him again and again for his kindness; and so he left me. + + * * * * * + +We dined below presently, very excellently. The room was hung with +green, with panels of another pattern upon it; and the dishes were put +in through a little hatch from the kitchen passage. My man James waited +with the rest, and acquitted himself very well. Then after dinner, when +the servants were gone away, my Cousin Tom carried me out, with a +mysterious air, to the foot of the stairs. + +"Now look well round you, Cousin Roger," he said, when he had me +standing there; "and see if there be anything that would draw your +attention." + +I looked this way and that but saw nothing; and said so. + +"Have you ever heard of Master Owen," he said, "of glorious memory?" + +"Why, yes," I said, "he was a Jesuit lay-brother, martyred under +Elizabeth: and he made hiding-holes, did he not?" + +"Well; he hath been at work here. Look again, Cousin Roger." + +I turned and saw my Cousin Dorothy smiling--(and it was a very pretty +sight too!)--but there was nothing else to be seen. I beat with my foot; +and it rang a little hollow. + +"No, no; those are the cellars," said my Cousin Tom. + +I beat then upon the walls, here and there; but to no purpose; and then +upon the stairs. + +"That is the sloping roof of the pantry, only," said my Cousin Tom. + +I confessed myself outwitted; and then with great mirth he shewed me +how, over the door into the paved hall, there was a space large enough +to hold three or four men; and how the panels opened on this side, as +well as into the kitchen passage on the other. + +"A priest or suchlike might very well lie here a week or two, might he +not?" asked my Cousin Tom delightedly; "and if the sentry was at the one +side, he might be fed from the other. It is cunningly contrived, is it +not? A man has but to leap up here from a chair; and he is safe." + +I praised it very highly, to please him; and indeed it was very curious +and ingenious. + +"But those days are done," I said. + +"Who can tell that?" he cried--(though a week ago he had told me the +same himself). "Some priest might very well be flying for his life along +this road, and turn in here. Who knows whether it may not be so again?" + +I said no more then on that point; though I did not believe him. + +"And there is one more matter I must shew you in your own chamber; if +you have any private papers and suchlike." + +Then he shewed me in my own room, by the head of the bed that stood +along the wall, how one of the panels slid back from its place, +discovering a little space behind where a man might very well keep his +papers or his money. + +"Not a living soul," he said, "knows of that, besides Dolly and myself. +You are at liberty to use that, Cousin Roger, if you like." + +I thanked him; and said I would do so. + +The rest of that day I spent in going about the house, and acquainting +myself with it all. My Cousin Dorothy shewed me the rooms. Her own was a +little one at the head of the stairs; and she told me, smiling, that a +ghost was said to walk there. + +"But I have never been troubled with it," she said. "It is a tall old, +woman, they say, who comes up the stairs and into the room; but she does +no harm to anyone." + +Next her room, along the front of the house, lay two other greater +rooms, one with a fire-place and one without: then was my chamber, and +then her father's: and upstairs were the attics where the men lay. The +maids lay in two little rooms above the kitchen. + +It was mighty pleasant to me to be with my Cousin Dorothy. She had +changed her riding clothes into others more suitable for a country +maid--with a white starched neckerchief that came down upon her +shoulders, and a grey dress and petticoat below that. Her sleeves were +short, as the custom is in the country, with great linen cuffs folded +back upon them, so as to leave her hands and arms to the elbow free for +her occupations. But most of all I loved her simplicity and her +quietness and her discretion. Her father bade her expressly to shew me +all the house; or she would not have done it, for she was very maidenly +and modest; but as soon as he said that, she did it without affectation. +She shewed me the parlour too, with the hangings upon the walls, and the +chapel of the Grail, with the Grail itself upon an altar within, flanked +by two candlesticks, that was represented over the fire-place. She came +out with me too to shew me the bakehouse where the baking was already +begun, and the brewhouse--both of which too were all built of timber and +plaster; and there my Cousin Tom came upon us, and carried me off to see +his garden and his pasture; for he farmed a few acres about here, and +made a good profit out of it: and it was while I walked with him that +for the first time I understood what his intention was towards me. + +He was speaking, as he very often did, of his daughter Dorothy--which I +had taken to be a father's affection only. (We were walking at the time +up and down in the pasture below the garden; and the house lay visible +among the gardens, very fair and peaceful with the sunlight upon it.) + +"She will be something of an heiress," he said; "and when I say that, I +do not mean that she will have as many acres as yourself. But she will +have near a thousand pound a year so soon as poor Tom Jermyn dies: and I +may die any day, for I am short in the neck, and might very well be +taken with an apoplexy. I wish above all things then, to see her safely +married before I go--to some solid man who will care for her. There is a +plenty of Protestants about here that would have her; for she is a +wonderful housewife, and as pure as Diana too." + +He paused at that; and looked at me in that cunning way of his that I +misliked so much. Yet even now I did not see what he would be at; for +gentlemen do not usually fling their daughters at the head of any man; +and he knew nothing of me but that I was pretty rich and would be more +so one day. But I suppose that that was enough for him. + +"I had thought at one time," he went on, "of sending her to Court. I +could get her in, under the protection of my Lady Arlington. But the +Court is no place for a maiden who knows nothing of the world. What +would you advise, Cousin Roger? I would not have her marry a Protestant, +if I could help it." + +And with that he looked at me again. + +Then, all of a sudden I saw his meaning; and my heart stood still; for +not only did his words reveal him to me, but myself also; and I +understood why he had questioned me so closely in town, as to my +fortune. I cannot say at this time that I loved my Cousin Dolly--for I +had not known that I loved her--but his words were very effective. +Indeed I had not thought to marry, though I was free to do so; for a +novice does not quickly shake off his monkishness. I had thought far +more of the mission I was come to England upon, and what I could +accomplish, with God's blessing, for Christ and His Church. But, as I +say, my heart stood still when my cousin said that to me; for, as in a +vision, I saw myself here as her husband, and her as my wife, in this +house among its gardens. Here we might live a life which even the angels +might envy--harmless, innocent, separate from sinners, as the Apostle +says--not accomplishing, maybe, any great things, but at least +refraining from the hindering of God's Kingdom. The summers would come +and go, and we still be here, with our children growing about us, to +inherit the place and the name, such as it was. And no harm done, no +vows broken, no offence to any. Such thoughts as these did not as yet +shew any very great ardour of love in me; and indeed I had not got this +yet; but she was the first maid I had ever had any acquaintance with, at +least for some while; and this no doubt, had its effect upon me. All +this came upon me of a sudden; and as I lifted my eyes I saw my Cousin +Dolly's sunbonnet going among the herbs of the garden; and saw her in my +mind's eye too as I had seen her just now, cool and innocent and good, +with that touch of hidden fire in her eyes that draws a man's heart. +Neither had she looked unkindly on me: our intimacy had made wonderful +progress, though I had known her scarcely more than a week: she had +spoken to me of her father, too, as one would speak only to a friend. +Yet I could not say one word of this to him; for he had not said +anything explicit to me: and I knew, too, that I must give myself time; +for a man does not, if he is wise, change the course of his life on an +instant's thought. Yet I must not say No outright, and thereby, maybe, +bang the door on my new hopes. + +"I could not advise you at present," I said. "I do not know my cousin +well enough to advise anything. I am one with you so far as concerns the +Court: I cannot think that any Catholic father should send his daughter +into such a den of lions--and worse. And I am one with you as concerns +marrying her to a Protestant. Yet I can say no more at present." + +And at that my Cousin Tom looked at me in such a manner as near to ruin +his own scheme; for his eyes said, if his mouth did not, that now we +understood one another; and were upon the same side, or at least not +opposed; and to think that I was leagued with him against her made my +heart hot with anger. + +"Very well," he said; "we will say no more at present." And he bade me +observe an old ram that was regarding us, with a face not unlike Cousin +Tom's own: but I suppose that he did not know this. + + * * * * * + +In this manner, then, began our life at Hare Street; for I was there six +weeks before I went back again to London in the way I shall relate +presently. The days were passed for the most time, from rising until +dinner, upon the farm, or in hunting; for we rode out now and again with +the neighbours after a stag who had come from the woods. But we did not, +because of the Papistry of the house, see a great deal of the +neighbours, or they of us. The parson of Hormead came to see us now and +again, and behaved very civilly: but during those six weeks we had no +sight of a priest, except once when we rode to Standon to hear mass. +After dinner, I gave myself up to writing; for I thought that I could +best serve His Holiness in this way, making my diary each day in +shorthand (as I had learned from an Italian); and it is from that very +diary that this narrative is composed; and I wrote too a report or two, +apologizing for the poverty of it, which I determined to send to the +Cardinal Secretary as soon as I had an opportunity. I read too a little +Italian or Spanish or French every day; and thus, for the most part kept +to my chamber. But all my papers I put away each afternoon in the little +hiding-place in my chamber; and made excuse for keeping my room on the +score of my practice in languages. + +We supped at five o'clock--which was the country hour; and after that, +to me, came the best part of the day. + +For my Cousin Dorothy, I had learned, was an extraordinary fine +musician. We had, of course, no music such as was possible in town; but +she had taught a maid to play upon a fiddle, and herself played upon the +bass-viol; and the two together would play in the Great Chamber after +supper for an hour or two, when the dishes were washed. In this manner +we had many a corrant and saraband; and I was able to prick down for +them too some Italian music I remembered, which she set for the two +instruments. Sometimes, too, when Cousin Tom was not too drowsy after +his day and his ale, the three would sing and I would listen; for my +Cousin Tom sang a plump bass very well when he was in the mood for it. +As for me, I had but a monk's voice, that is very well when all the +choir is a-cry together, but not of much use under other circumstances. +In this way then I made acquaintance with a number of songs--such as Mr. +Wise's "It is not that I love you less" and his duet "Go, perjured man!" +of which the words are taken from Herrick's "Hesperides," and of which +the music was made by Mr. Wise (who was a gentleman of the Chapel Royal) +at His Majesty's express wish. + + * * * * * + +I have many very pleasant memories of Hare Street, but I think none more +pleasant than of the music in the Great Chamber. I would sit near the +window, and see them in the evening light, with their faces turned to +me; or, when it grew late with the candlelight upon them and their +dresses or sometimes when the evening was fair and warm I would sit out +upon the lawn, and they at the window, and listen to the singing coming +out of the candlelight, and see them move against it. My Cousin Dorothy +would make herself fine in the evening--not, I mean, like a Court lady, +for these dresses of hers were put away in lavender--but with a lace +neckerchief on her throat and shoulders, and lace ruffles at her wrists. + +Yet all this while I made no progress with her or even with myself; for +every time that I was alone with her, or when her father was asleep in +his chair, a remembrance of what he had said came over me with a kind of +sickness, and I could not say one word that might seem to set me on his +side against her; and so I was torn two ways, and the very thing by +which he had hoped to encourage me, (or rather to help himself) had the +contrary effect, and silenced me when I might have spoken. + +For I understood very well by now what was in his mind. He saw no +prospect of marrying Dolly to a Protestant--or I take it, if I know the +man, he would have leapt at it; neither was there any hope of marrying +her to a Catholic; and as for his talk about my Lady Arlington I did not +believe one word of it. Therefore, since I was at hand, and would be a +wealthy man some day, and indeed even now did very well on my French +_rentes_, he had set his heart on this. It was not wholly evil; yet the +cold-bloodedness of it affected me like a stink.... + + * * * * * + +The matter ended, for the time, on the evening of the thirteenth of +August, in the following manner, when my adventures, of which my life, +ever since my audience with our Most Holy Lord the Pope, had been but a +prelude, properly began--those adventures for whose sake I have begun +this transcript from my diary, and this adventure was pre-shadowed, as I +think now, by one or two curious happenings. + +On the morning of the thirteenth of August, two days before the Feast of +the Assumption (on which we had intended to hear mass again at Standon) +my Cousin Dorothy came down a little late, and found us already over our +oatbread and small beer which we were accustomed to take upon +rising--and which was called our "morning." + +"I slept very ill," she said; and no more then. + +Afterwards, however, as I was lighting my pipe in the little court at +the back of the house, she came out and beckoned me in; and I saw that +something was amiss. I went after her into the little hung parlour and +we sat down. + +"I slept very ill, cousin," she said again; and I observed again that +her eyes looked hollow. "And I dare not tell my father my fancies," she +said, "for he is terrified at such things; and has forbade the servants +to speak of such things." + +"The tall old woman, then?" I said; for I had not forgotten what she had +told me before. + +"Yes," she said, smiling a little painfully--"and yet I was not at all +afraid when she came; or when I thought that she did." + +"Tell me the whole tale," I said. + +"I awakened about one o'clock this morning," she said, "and knew that my +sleep was gone from me altogether. Yet I did not feel afraid or +restless; but lay there content enough, expecting something, but what it +would be I did not know. The cocks were crowing as I awakened; and then +were silent; and it appeared to me as if all the world were listening. +After a while--I should say it was ten minutes or thereabouts--I turned +over with my face to the wall; and as I did so, I heard a soft step +coming up the stairs. One of the maids, thought I, late abed or early +rising, for sickness. When the steps came to my door they ceased; and a +hand was laid upon the latch; and at that I made to move; but could not. +Yet it was not fear that held me there, though it was like a gentle +pricking all over me. Then the latch was lifted, and still I could not +move, not even my eyes; and a person came in, and across the floor to my +bed. And even then I could not move nor cry out. Presently the person +spoke; but I do not know what she said, though it was only a word or +two: but the voice came from high up, as almost from the canopy of the +bed, and it was the voice of an old woman, speaking in a kind of +whisper. I said nothing; for I could not: and then again the steps moved +across the floor, and out of the door; and I heard the latch shut again; +and then they passed away down the stairs." + +My Cousin Dorothy was pale as death by this time; and her blue eyes were +set wide open. I made to take her by the hand; but I did not. + +"You were dreaming," I said; "it was the memory of the tale you have +heard." + +She shook her head; but she said nothing. + +"You have never had it before?" I asked. + +"Never," she said. + +"You must lie in another chamber for a week or two, and forget it." + +"I cannot do that," she said. "My father would know of it." And she +spoke so courageously that I was reassured. + +"Well; you must cry out if it comes again. You can have your maid to +sleep with you." + +"I might do that," she said; and then-- + +"Cousin Roger; doth God permit these things to provide us against some +danger?" + +"It may be so," I said, to quiet her; "but be sure that no harm can come +of it." + +At that we heard her father calling her; and she stood up. + +"I have told you as a secret, Cousin Roger; there must be no word to my +father." + +I pledged myself to that; for I could see what a spirit she had; and we +said no more about it then. + +As the day passed on, the sky grew heavy--or rather the air; for the sky +was still blue overhead; only on the horizon to the south the clouds +that are called _cumuli_ began to gather. The air was so hot too that I +could scarcely bear to work, for I had set myself to take some +plant-cuttings in a little glass-house that was in the garden against +the south wall; and by noon the sky was overcast. + +After dinner I went up to my chamber; and a great heaviness fell upon +me, till I looked out of the window and saw that beyond the limes the +clouds spewed a reddish tint that marked the approach of thunder; and at +that grew reassured again; and not only for myself but for my Cousin +Dorothy, whose tale had lain close on my heart through the morning: for +this thought I, is the explanation of it all: the maid was oppressed by +the heat and the approaching storm, and fancied all the rest. + +I fell asleep in my chair, over my Italian; and when I awakened it was +near supper-time, and the heaviness was upon me again, like lead; and my +diary not written. + +After supper and some talk, I made excuse to do my writing; and as it +was growing dark, and I was finishing, I heard music from the Great +Chamber beneath. They were singing together a song I had not heard +before; and I listened, well pleased, promising myself the pleasure too +of going downstairs presently and hearing it. + +Between two of the verses, I heard on a sudden, over the hill-top beyond +the village, the beat of a horse's hoofs, galloping; but I thought no +more of it. At the end of the next verse, even before it was finished, I +heard the hoofs again, through the music; I ran to the window to see who +rode so fast; and was barely in time to see a courier, in a blue coat, +dash past the new iron gate, pulling at his horse as he did so; an +instant later, I heard the horse turn in at the yard gate, and +immediately the singing ceased. + +As I came down the stairs, I saw my Cousin Dolly run out into the inner +lobby, and her face, in the dusk, was as white as paper; and the same +instant there came a hammering at the hall door. + +"What is it? What is it?" cried she; and clung to me as I came down. + +I saw, through the inner door, my Cousin Tom unbolting the outer one; he +had taken down a pistol that hung upon the wall, for the highwaymen +waxed very bold sometimes; then when he opened the door, I heard my +name. + +I went forward, and received from the courier, a sealed letter; and +there, in the twilight I opened and read it. It was from Mr. Chiffinch, +bidding me come to town at once on King's business. + +"I must ride to town," I said. "Cousin Tom, will you order my horse for +me; and another for this man? I do not know when I shall be back again." + +And, as I said these words, I saw my Cousin Dorothy's face looking at me +from the dusk of the inner hall, and knew what was in her mind; and that +it was the matter of the tall old woman in her room. + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +The storm was broken before we could set out, and the ride so far as +Hoddesdon was such as I shall never forget; for the wind was violent +against us; and it was pitchy dark before we came even to Puckeridge; +the thunder was as if great guns were shot off, or bags of marbles +dashed on an oak floor overhead; and the countryside was as light as day +under the flashes, so that we could see the trees and their shadows, +and, I think, sometimes the green colour of them too. We wore, all three +of us--the courier, I and my man James--horse-men's cloaks, but these +were saturated within half an hour. We had no fear of highwaymen, even +had we not been armed, for the artillery of heaven had long ago driven +all other within doors. + +The hardest part of the journey was that I knew, no more than the +dead--indeed not so much--why it was that Mr. Chiffinch had sent for me. +He had said nothing in his letter, save that His Majesty wished my +presence at once; and on the outside of the letter was written the word +"Haste," three times over. I thought of a hundred matters that it might +be, but none of them satisfied me. + +It is near forty miles from Hare Street to Whitehall; but so bad was the +way that, though we changed horses at Waltham Cross--at the _Four +Swans_--we did not come to London until eight o'clock in the morning; +and it was half-past eight before we rode up to Whitehall. The last part +of the journey was pretty pleasant, for the rain held off; and it was +strange to see the white hard light of the clouded dawn upon the fields +and the trees. But by the time we came to London it was long ago broad +day--by three or four hours at the least; and all the folks were abroad +in the streets. + +I went straight to Mr. Chiffinch's lodgings, sending my man to the +lodging in Covent Garden, to bestow the horses and to come again to the +guard-house to await my orders. Mr. Chiffinch was not within, for he +had not expected me so early, a servant told me; but he had looked for +my coming about eleven or twelve o'clock, and had given orders that I +was to be taken to a closet to change my clothes if I needed it. This I +did; and then was set down to break my fast; and while I was at it, Mr. +Chiffinch himself came in. + +He told me that I had done very well to come so swiftly; but he smiled a +little as he said it. + +"His Majesty is closeted with one or two more until ten o'clock. I will +send to let him know you are come." + +I did not ask him for what business I had been sent for; since he did +not choose to tell me himself; and he went out again. But he was +presently back once more; and told me that His Majesty would see me at +once. + +My mind was all perturbed as I went with him in the rain across the +passages: I felt as if some great evil threatened, but I could make no +conjecture as to what it was about; or how it could be anything that was +at once so sudden and that demanded my presence. We went straight up the +stairs, and across the same ante-room; and Mr. Chiffinch flung open the +door of the same little closet where I had spoken with the King, +speaking my name as he did so. + +His Majesty was sitting in the very same place where he sat before, with +his chair wheeled about, so that he faced three men. One of them I knew +at once, for my cousin had pointed him out to me in the park--my Lord +Danby, who was Lord Treasurer at this time--and he was sitting at the +end of the great table, nearest to the King: on the other side of the +table, nearer to me as I entered, were two men, upon whom I had never +set eyes before--one of them, a little man in the dress of an apothecary +or attorney; and the other a foolish-looking minister in his cassock and +bands. All four turned their eyes upon me as I came in, and then the two +who were standing, turned them back again towards His Majesty. There was +a heap of papers on the table below my Lord Danby's hand. + +His Majesty made a little inclination of his head to me, but said +nothing, putting out his hand; and when I had kissed it, and stood back +with the other two, he continued speaking as if I were not there. His +face had a look, as if he were a little _ennuyé_, and yet a little merry +too. + +"Continue, my Lord," he said. + +"Now, doctor," said my Lord, in a patient kind of voice as if he +encouraged the other, "you tell us that all these papers were thrust +under your door. By whom were they thrust, do you think?" + +"My Lord, I have my suspicions," said the minister; "but I do not know." + +"Can you verify these suspicions of yours, do you think?" + +"My Lord, I can try." + +"And under how many heads are they ranged?" asked the King, drawling a +little in his speech. + +"Sir; they are under forty-three heads." + +The King rolled his eyes, as if in a droll kind of despair; but he said +nothing. + +"And you tell me--" began my Lord; but His Majesty broke in: + +"_Mon Dieu_!" he said; "and here is good Mr. Mallock, come here +hot-foot, and knows not a word of the proceedings. Mr. Mallock, these +good gentlemen--Doctor Tonge, a very worthy divine and a physician of +the soul, and Mr. Kirby, a very worthy chymist, and a physician of the +body--are come to tell me of a plot against my life on the part of some +of my faithful lieges, whereby they would thrust me swiftly down to +hell--body and soul together. So that, I take it is why God Almighty +hath raised up these physicians to save me. I wish you to hear their +evidence. That is why I sent for you. Continue, my Lord." + +My Lord looked a little displeased, pursing up his mouth, at the manner +in which the King told the tale; but he said nothing on that point. + +"Grove and Pickering, then, it appears, were to shoot His Majesty; and +Wakeman to poison him--" + +("They will take no risks you see, Mr. Mallock," put in the King.) + +"Yes, my Lord," said Tonge. "They were to have screwed pistols, with +silver bullets, champed, that the wounds may not heal." + +("Prudent! prudent!" cried the King.) + +Then my Lord Danby lost his patience; and pushed the papers together +with a sweep of his arm. + +"Sir," he said, "I think we may let these worthy gentlemen go for the +present, until the papers are examined." + +"With all my heart," said the King. "But not Mr. Mallock. I wish to +speak privately with Mr. Mallock." + +So the two were dismissed; but I noticed that the King did not give them +his hand to kiss. They appeared to me a pair of silly folks, rather than +wicked as others thought them afterwards, who themselves partly +believed, at any rate, the foolish tale that they told. Mr. Kirby was a +little man, as I have said, with a sparrow-like kind of air; and Doctor +Tonge had no great distinction of any kind, except his look of +foolishness. + +When they were gone, my Lord Danby turned to the King, with a kind of +indignation. + +"Your Majesty may be pleased to make a mock of it all; but your loving +subjects cannot. I have permission then to examine these papers, and +report to Your Majesty?" + +"Why, yes," said the King, "so you do not inflict the forty-three heads +upon me. I have one of my own which I must care for." + +My Lord said no more; he gathered his papers without a word, saluted the +King at a distance, still without speaking, and went out, giving me a +sharp glance as he went. + +"Now, Mr. Mallock," said His Majesty, "sit you down and listen to me." + +I sat down; but I was all bewildered as to why I had been sent for. What +had I to do with such affairs as these? + +"Do you know of a man called Grove?" the King asked me suddenly. + +Now the name had meant nothing to me when I had heard it just now; but +when it was put to me in this way I remembered. I was about to speak, +when he spoke again. + +"Or Pickering?" he said. + +"Sir; a man called Grove is known to me; but no Pickering." + +"Ha! then there is a man called Grove--if it be the same. He is a +Papist?" + +"Sir, he is a lay-brother of the Society of Jesus, and dwells--" + +The King held up his hand. + +"I wish to know nothing more than I am obliged. Pickering is some sort +of Religious, too, they tell me. And what kind of a man is Grove?" + +"He is a modest kind of man, Sir. He opened the door to me, and I saw +him a-laying of the table for dinner. I know no more of him than that." + +Then the King drew himself up in his chair suddenly, as I had seen him +do before, and his mocking manner left him. It was as if another man sat +there. + +"Mr. Mallock," he said, shaking his finger at me with great solemnity, +"listen to me. I had thought for a long time that an attempt would be +made against the Catholics. There is a great deal of feeling in the +country, now that my brother is one of them, and I myself am known not +to be disinclined towards them. And I make no doubt at all that this is +such an attempt. They have begun with the Jesuits; for that will be the +most popular cry; and they have added in Sir George Wakeman's name, Her +Majesty's physician, to give colour to it all. By and by they will add +other names; (you will see if it be not so), until not a Jesuit, and +scarce a Catholic is left who is not embroiled in it. I do not know who +is behind this matter; it may be my Lord Danby himself, or Shaftesbury, +or a score of others. Or it may be some discontented fellow who will +make his fortune over it; for all know that such a cry as this will be a +popular one. But this I know for a verity--that there is not one word of +truth in the tale from beginning to end; and it will appear so +presently, no doubt. Yet meanwhile a great deal of mischief may be done; +and my brother, may be, and even Her Majesty, may suffer for it, if we +are not very prudent. Now, Mr. Mallock, I sent for you, for I did not +know who else to send for. You are not known in England, or scarcely: +you come commended to me by the Holy Father himself; you are neither +priest nor Jesuit. What, then, you must do for me is this. First, you +must speak not one word of the matter to any living soul--not even your +confessor; for if we can quash the whole matter privately, so much the +better. I had you in just now, that Danby and the others might see that +you had my confidence; but I said nothing of who you were nor where you +came from; and, if they inquire, they will know nothing but that you +come commended by the ambassadors. Very well then; you must go about +freely amongst the Jesuits, and rake together any evidence that you can +that may be of use to them if the affair should ever be made public; and +yet they must know nothing of the reason--I lay that upon you. And you +must mix freely in taverns and coffee-houses, especially among the +smaller gentry, and hear what you can--as to whether the plot hath yet +leaked out--(for it is no less)--and what they think of it; and if not, +what it is that they say of the Catholics. You understand me, Mr. +Mallock?" + +I said, Yes: but my heart had grown sick during the King's speech to me; +for all that I had ever thought in Rome, of England, seemed on the point +of fulfilment. His Majesty too had spoken with an extraordinary +vehemence, that was like a fire for heat. But I must have commanded my +countenance well; for he commended me on my behaviour. + +"Your manner is excellent, Mr. Mallock," he said, "both just now and a +few minutes ago. You take it very well. And I have your word upon it +that you will observe secrecy?" + +"My word on it, Sir," I said. + +Then His Majesty leaned back again and relaxed a little. + +"That is very well," he said; "and I think I have chosen my man well. +You need not fear, Mr. Mallock, that any harm will come to the good +Fathers, or to Grove or Pickering either. They cannot lay a finger upon +them without my consent; and that they shall never have. It is to +prevent rather the scandal of the whole matter that I am anxious; and +to save the Queen and my brother from any trouble. You do not know yet, +I think, all the feeling that there is upon the Catholics." + +I said nothing: it was my business to listen rather, and indeed what His +Majesty said next was worth hearing. + +"There be three kinds of religion in my realm," he said. "The +Presbyterian and Independent and that kind--for I count those all one; +and that is no religion for a gentleman. And there is the Church of +England, of which I am the head, which numbers many gentlemen, but is no +religion for a Christian; and there is the Catholic, which is the only +religion (so far as I am acquainted with any), suited for both gentlemen +and Christians. That is my view of the matter, Mr. Mallock." + +The merry look was back in his eyes, melancholy though they always were, +as he said this. For myself, it was on the tip of my tongue to ask His +Majesty why, if he thought so, he did not act upon it. But I did not, +thinking it too bold on so short an acquaintance; and I think I was +right in that; for he put it immediately into words himself. + +"I know what you are thinking, Mr. Mallock. Well; I am not yet a good +enough Christian for that." + +I knew very well what His Majesty meant when he said that: he was +thinking of his women to whom as yet he could not say good-bye; and the +compassion surged up in me again at the thought that a man so noble as +this, and who knew so much (as his speeches had shewed me), could be so +ignoble too--so tied and bound by his sins; and it affected me so +much--here in his presence that had so strange a fascination in it--that +it was as if a hand had squeezed my throat, so that I could not speak, +even if I would. + +"Well, sir," he said, "I must thank you for coming so quickly when I +sent for you. Mr. Chiffinch knows why you are come; but no one else; and +even to him you must not say one word. You will do well and discreetly; +of that I am sure. I will send for you again presently; and you may come +to me when you will." + +He gave me his hand to kiss; and I went out, promising that no pains +should be spared. + + * * * * * + +It was indeed a difficult task that His Majesty had laid upon me. I was +to speak freely to the priests, yet not freely; and how to collect the +evidence that was required I knew not; since I knew nothing at all of +when the conspiring was said to be done, nor what would be of avail to +protect them; and all the way to my lodgings with my man James, I was +thinking of what was best to do. My man had ordered that all things +should be ready for my entertainment, and I found the rooms prepared, +and the beds laid; and the first thing I did after dinner was to go to +bed, after I had written to my Cousin Tom at Hare Street, and sleep +until the evening. + + * * * * * + +When I was dressed and had had supper in the coffee-house, listening as +well as I could to the talk, but hearing nothing pertinent, I went back +again to Drury Lane, to Mr. Fenwick's lodging, to lay the foundation of +my plan. For I had determined, between sleeping and waking, that the +best thing to be done, was to shew myself as forward and friendly as I +could, so that I might mix with the Fathers freely, in the hope that I +might light on something; and it so fell out, that although my small +adventures that evening had no use in them in the event, yet they were +strangely relevant to what took place afterwards. + +The first small adventure was as follows: + +I was walking swiftly up Drury Lane, scanning the houses, for it was +falling dark, and the oil-lights that burned, one before every tenth +house, cast but a poor illumination, when just beyond one of the lights +I knocked against a fellow who was coming out suddenly from a little +passage at the side, just, as it chanced, opposite to Mr. Fenwick's +house. I turned, to beg his pardon, for it was more my fault than his, +that we had come together; and I set my eyes upon the most strange and +villainous face that I have ever seen. The fellow was dressed in a dark +suit, and wore a crowned hat, and carried a club in his hand, and he +appeared to be one of the vagrom-men as they are called, who are at the +bottom of all riots and such like things. He was a smallish man in his +height, but his face was the strangest thing about him; and in the light +from the lamp I thought at first that he had some kind of deformity in +it. For his mouth was, as it were in the very midst of his face; there +was a little forehead above, with eyes set close beneath it, and a +little nose, and then his mouth, turned up at the corners as if he +smiled, and beneath that a vast chin, as large as the rest of his face. + +He cried out "Lard!" as I ran against him; by which I understood him to +say "Lord!" + +I asked his pardon. + +"O Lard!" he said again, "'tis nothing, sir. My apologies to you, sir." + +I bowed to him civilly again, and passed on; but as I knocked upon Mr. +Fenwick's door, I saw that he was staring after me, from the entrance to +that same passage from which he had come. + + * * * * * + +My second adventure was that, upon coming upstairs, I found that in the +chamber with Mr. Fenwick were the mother and sister of Mr. Ireland, +waiting for him to come and take them back to their lodging. They were +quiet folks enough--a little shy, it appeared to me, of strange company. +But I did my best to be civil, and they grew more talkative. Mrs. +Ireland would be near sixty years old, I would take it, dressed in a +brown sac, such as had been fashionable ten years back, and her +daughter, I should think about thirty years old. They told me that they +had been to supper, and to the play in the Duke's Playhouse, where Mr. +Shirley's tragi-comedy _The Young Admiral_ had been done; and that Mr. +Ireland was to come for them here, as presently he did, for it was +scarce safe for ladies to be abroad at such an hour in the streets +without an escort, so wild were the pranks played (and worse than +pranks), by even the King's gentlemen themselves, as well as by the +riff-raff. + +We sat and talked a good while; and Mr. Grove brought chocolate up for +the ladies. But for myself, I had such a variety of thoughts, as I +talked with them all, knowing what I did, and they knowing nothing, that +I could scarce command my voice and manner sometimes. For here were +these innocent folk--with Mr. Grove smiling upon them with the +chocolate--talking of the play and what-not, and of which of the actors +pleased them and which did not--and I noticed that the ladies, as +always, were very severe upon the women--and the good fathers, too, +pleased that they were pleased, and rallying them upon their +gaiety--(for it appeared that these ladies did not go often into +company); and here sat I, with my secret upon my heart, knowing--or +guessing at least--that a plot was afoot to ruin them all and turn their +merriment into mourning. + +But I think that I acquitted myself pretty well; and that none guessed +that anything was amiss with me; for I spoke of the plays I had seen in +Rome, before that I was a novice, and of the singers that I heard there; +and I listened, too, to their own speeches, gathering this and that, of +what they did and where they went, if by chance I might gather something +to their own advantage thereafter. + +It was pretty to see, too, how courteous and gallant Mr. Ireland was +with his mother and sister; and how he put their cloaks about them at +the door, and feigned that he was a constable to carry them off to +prison--(at which my heart failed me again)--for frequenting the company +of suspected persons; and how he gave an arm to each of them, as they +set off into the dark. + + * * * * * + +That night too, as I lay abed, I thought much of all this again. I had +established a great friendliness with the Fathers by now, telling them I +was come up again to London, as Mr. Whitbread had recommended me, until +the Court should go again to Windsor, and that perhaps I should go with +it thither. They had told me at that, that one of their Fathers was +there, named Mr. Bedingfeld (who was of the Oxburgh family, I think), +and that he was confessor to the Duke of York, and that they would +recommend me to him if I should go. But all through my anxiety I +comforted myself with the assurance the King had given to me, that, +whatever else might ensue, not a hair of their heads should be touched, +for I had great confidence in His Majesty's word, given so solemnly. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +Now begins in earnest that chapter of horrors that will be with me till +I die; and the learning of that lesson that I might have learned long +before from one that was himself a Prince, and knew what he was talking +of--I mean King David, who bids us in his psalm to "put no trust in +princes nor in any child of man." + +For several days all passed peacefully enough. I waited upon Mr. +Chiffinch, and asked whether the King had spoken of me again, and was +told he had not; so I went about my business, which was to haunt the +taverns and to frequent the company of the Jesuits. + +I made an acquaintance or two in the taverns at this time, which served +me later, though not in the particular manner that I had wished; but for +the most part matters seemed quiet enough. Men did not speak a great +deal of the Catholics; and I always fenced off questions by beginning, +in every company that I found myself in, by speaking of some Church of +England divine with a great deal of admiration, soon earning for myself, +I fear, the name of a pious and grave fellow, but at the same time, of a +safe man in matters of Church and State. + +One of these acquaintances was a Mr. Rumbald, a maltster (which was all +I thought him then), who frequented the Mitre tavern, without Aldgate, +where I went one day, dressed in one of my sober country suits, wearing +my hat at a somewhat rakish cock, that I might seem to be a simple +fellow that aped town-ways. + +The tavern was full when I came to it, and called for dinner; but I made +such a to-do that the maid went to an inner room, and presently +returning, told me I might have my dinner there. It was a little parlour +she spewed me to, with old steel caps upon the wall, and strewed rushes +under foot; and there were three or four men there who had just done +dinner, all but one. This one was a ruddy man, with red hair going +grey, dressed very plain, but well, with a hard kind of look about him; +and he had had as much to drink as a man should have, and was in the +merry stage of his drink. Here, thought I, is the very man for me. He is +of both country and town; here is a chamber of which he seems lord--for +he ordered the maid about royally, and cursed her once or twice--and it +is a chamber apart from the rest. So I thought this a very proper place +to hear some talk in, and a very proper fellow to hear it from. For a +while I thought he had something of the look of an old soldier about +him; but then I thought no more of it. + +When the others were gone out, and there was a little delay, I too--(God +forgive me!)--cursed the poor maid for a slut once or twice, and bade +her make haste with my dinner; and my manner had its effect, for the +fellow warmed to me presently and told me that he was Mr. Rumbald, and I +said on my part that my name was Mallock; and we shook hands upon it, +for that was the mood of the ale that was in him. (But he had other +moods, too, I learned later, when he was very repentant for his drink.) + +I began then, to speak of Hare Street, and said that I lodged there +sometimes; and then began to speak of the parson there, and of what a +Churchman he was. + +"Of Hare Street, eh?" said he. "Why I am not far from there myself. I am +of Hoddesdon, or near to it. Where have you lodged in Hare Street, and +what is your business?" + +I was in a quandary at that, for it seemed to me then (though it was not +in reality), a piece of bad fortune that he should come from +thereabouts. + +"I am Jack-of-all-trades," I said. "I did some garden work there for Mr. +Jermyn, the Papist." + +"The Papist, eh?" cried Mr. Rumbald. + +"I would work for the Devil," said I, "if he would pay me enough." + +The words appeared to Mr. Rumbald very witty, though God knows why: I +suppose it was the ale in him: for he laughed aloud and beat on his leg. + +"I'll be bound you would," he said. + +And it was these words of mine which (under God's Providence, as I think +now) established my reputation with Mr. Rumbald as a dare-devil kind of +fellow that would do anything for money. He began, too, at that (which +pleased me better at the time), to speak of precisely those matters of +which I wished to hear. It was not treasonable talk, for the ale had not +driven all the sense out of him; but it was as near treasonable as might +be; and it was above all against the Catholics that he raged. I would +not defile this page by writing down all that he said; but neither Her +Majesty nor the Duke of York escaped his venom; there appeared nothing +too bad to be said of them; and he spoke of other names, too, of the +Duchess of Portsmouth whom he called by vile names (yet not viler than +she had rightfully earned) and the Duchess of Cleveland; and he began +upon the King, but stopped himself. + +"But you are a Church of England man?" he said. "Well, so am I now, at +least I call myself so, though I should be a Presbyterian; but--" And he +stopped again. + +Now all this was mighty interesting to me; for it was worse than +anything I had heard before; and yet he said it all as if it was common +talk among his kind, where he came from; and it was very consonant with +what the King had set me to do, which was to hear what the common people +had to say. My gorge rose at the man again and again; but I was a +tolerable actor in those days, and restrained myself very well. When he +went at last he clapped me on the back, as if it were I who had done all +the bragging. + +"You are the right kind of fellow," he said, "and, by God, I wish there +were more of us. You will remember my name--Mr. Rumbald the maltster--I +am to be heard of here at any time, for I come up on my business every +week--though I was not always a maltster." + +I promised I would remember him: and indeed after a while all England +has remembered him ever since. + + * * * * * + +It was that same evening, I think (for my diary is confused at this +time, and no wonder), that when I came back to my lodgings about +supper-time, I found that a man had been from Mr. Chiffinch to bid me +come to Whitehall as soon as I returned; but the messenger had not +seemed greatly perturbed, James told me; so I changed my clothes and had +my supper and set out. + +It would be about half-past seven o'clock when I came to Mr. +Chiffinch's; and when I tapped I had no answer. I tapped again; and then +a servant of Mr. Chiffinch's came running up the stairs (who had left +his post, I suspect) and asked me what I wanted there. When I told him +he seemed surprised, and he said that Mr. Chiffinch had company in his +inner closet; but that he would speak with him. So he left me standing +there; and went through, and I heard a door shut within. Presently he +came out again in something of a hurry, and bade me come in; and, to my +astonishment we went through the first room that was empty, and out +again beyond and down a dark passage. I heard voices as I went, talking +rapidly somewhere, but there was no one to be seen. Then he knocked +softly upon a door at the end of the passage; a voice cried to us to +come in; and I entered; and, to my astonishment, not only was the little +closet half full of persons, but these persons were somewhat +exceptional. + +At the end of the table that was opposite me, sat His Majesty, tilting +his chair back a little as if he were weary of the talk; but his face +was flushed as if with anger. Upon his right sat the Duke, with his +periwig pushed a little back, and his face more flushed even than the +King's. Opposite to the Duke sat two men, whom I took to be priests by +their faces--one fair, the other dark--(and I presently proved to be +right)--and beside him Mr. Chiffinch, very eager-looking, and lean, +talking at a great speed, with his hands clasped upon the table. +Finally, my Lord Danby sat next to the Duke, opposite to Mr. Chiffinch, +with a sullen look upon his face. There was a great heap of papers, +again, upon the table, between the five men. All these persons turned +their eyes upon me as I came in and bowed low to the company; and then +Mr. Chiffinch jerked back a chair that was beside him, and beckoned to +me to sit down in it. The room appeared to me a secret kind of place, +with curtains pulled across the windows, where a man might be very +private if he wished. Mr. Chiffinch ended speaking as I came in, and all +sat silent. + +His Majesty broke the silence. + +"You are very late, Mr. Mallock," he said--no more than that; but I felt +the reproof very keenly. "Tell him, Chiffinch." + +Then Mr. Chiffinch related to me an extraordinary story; and he told it +very well, balancing the two sides of it, so that I could not tell what +he thought. + +It appeared that a day or two ago, Doctor Tonge had come to my Lord +Danby, in pursuance of the tale he had told before, saying that he had +received further information, from the very man whom he had suspected, +and now had certified, to be the writer of the first information under +forty-three heads, to the effect that a packet of letters was on its way +to Windsor, to that very Mr. Bedingfeld (of whom Mr. Whitbread had +spoken to me), on the matter of the plot to murder the King, and the +Duke too unless he would consent to the affair. My Lord Danby posted +immediately to Windsor that he might intercept these letters and examine +them for himself; but found that not only had Mr. Bedingfeld received +them, but had taken them to the Duke, saying that he did not understand +one word that was written in them. Those letters purported to have been +written from a number of Jesuits, and others--amongst whom were a Mr. +Coleman, an agent of the Duke's, and Mr. Langhorn, a lawyer; and related +to a supposed plot, not only to murder the King, and his brother, too, +perhaps, but to re-establish the Popish domination, to burn Westminster, +as they had already burned the City; and that the new positions in the +State had already been designed to certain persons, whose names were all +mentioned in the letters, by the Holy Father himself. The matter that +was now being discussed in this little chamber was, What was best to be +done? + +Mr. Chiffinch told me this, as shortly almost as I have written it +down, glancing at His Majesty once or twice, and at the Duke, as if he +wished to know whether he were telling it properly; and as soon as he +ended His Majesty began: + +"That is where we stand now, Mr. Mallock. As for me, I do not believe +one word of the tale, as I have said before: and I say that it is best +to destroy the letters, to tell Doctor Tonge that he is a damned fool, +if not worse, so to be cozened, and to say no more of it. I would not +have this made public for a thousand pounds. It is as I said before: I +knew that the matter would grow." + +"And I say, Sir," put in the Duke savagely, "that Your Majesty forgets +who it is who are implicated--that it is these good Jesuit Fathers, and +my own confessor, too"--(he bowed slightly to the fair man, who returned +it)--"and that if the matter be not probed to the bottom, the names of +all will suffer, in the long run." + +"Brother, brother," said Charles, "I entreat you not to speak so +violently. We all know how good the Fathers are, and do not suspect any +one of them. It is to save their name--" + +"And I tell you," burst in James again, "that mine is the only way to do +it! Do you think, Sir, that these folks who are behind it all will let +the matter rest? It will grow and grow, as Your Majesty said; and we +shall have half the kingdom involved." + +Here was a very pretty dispute, with sense on both sides, and yet there +appeared to me that there was more on His Majesty's than on the other. +If even then Dr. Tonge had been sent for and soundly rated, and made to +produce his informant, and the matter sifted, I believe we should have +heard no more of it. But it was not ordained so. They all spoke a good +deal, appealing to the two priests--Mr. Bedingfeld and Mr. Young--and +they both gave their opinions. + +Presently Charles was silent; letting his chair come forward again on to +its four legs, and putting his head in his hands over the table. I had +never seen him so perturbed before. Then I ventured on a question. + +"Sir, may I ask who is Doctor Tonge's informant?" + +His Majesty glanced up at me as if he saw me for the first time. + +"Tell him, Chiffinch," he said. + +"His name is Doctor Oates," said the page. "He was a Papist once, and is +turned informer, he says. He still feigns secretly to be friends with +one or two of the Jesuits, he says." + +"But every word you hear here is _sub sigillo_, Mr. Mallock," added the +King. + +I knew no such name; and said no more. I had never heard of the man. + +"Have you anything to say, Mr. Mallock?" asked the King presently. + +"I have some reports to hand in, Sir," I said, "but they do not bear +directly upon this matter." + +The King lifted his heavy eyes and let them fall again. He appeared +weary and dispirited. + + * * * * * + +When we broke up at last, nothing was decided. On the one hand the +letters were not destroyed, and the Duke was still unforbidden to pursue +his researches; and, on the other there was no permission for a public +inquiry to be held. The counsels, in short, were divided; and that is +the worst state of all. The Duke said nothing to me, either at the table +or before he went out with Mr. Bedingfeld--or Mr. Mumford as he was +usually called: he appeared to consider me too young to be of any +importance, and to tolerate me only because the King wished it. I handed +to Mr. Chiffinch the reports of what folks had said to me in taverns and +elsewhere: and went away. + +The days went by; and nothing of any importance appeared further. I +still frequented the company of the Jesuit Fathers, and the taverns as +before; but no more was heard, until a few days before the end of +September. On that day I was passing through the Court of Whitehall to +see if there were anything for me at Mr. Chiffinch's--for the King was +at Windsor again--when I saw Father Whitbread and Father Ireland, coming +swiftly out from the way that led to the Duke's lodgings--for he stayed +here a good deal during these days. They were talking together, and did +not see me till I was close upon them. When I greeted them, they stopped +all of a sudden. + +"The very man!" said Mr. Whitbread. + +Then he asked me whether I would come with them to the lodgings of Mr. +Fenwick, for they had something to say to me; and I went with them very +willingly, for it appeared to me that perhaps they had heard of the +matter which I had found so hard to keep from them. We said nothing at +all on the way; and when we got within, Mr. Whitbread told Mr. Grove to +stand at the foot of the stairs that no one might come up without his +knowledge. They bolted the door also, when we were within the chamber. +Then we all sat down. + +"Now, Mr. Mallock," said Father Whitbread, "we know all that you know; +and why you have been with us so much; and we thank you for your +trouble." + +I said nothing; but I bowed to them a little. But I knew that I had been +of little service as yet. + +"It is all out," said the priest, "or will be in a day or two. Mr. Oates +hath been to Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey, the Westminster magistrate, with +the whole of his pretended information--his forty-three heads to which +he hath added now thirty-eight more, and he will be had before the +Council to-morrow. Sir Edmund hath told Mr. Coleman his friend, and the +Duke's agent, all that hath been sworn to before him; Mr. Coleman hath +told the Duke and hath fled from town to-night; and the Duke has +prevailed with the King to have the whole affair before the Council. I +think that His Majesty's way with it would have been the better; but it +is too late for that now. Now the matter must all come out; and Sir +Edmund hath said sufficient to shew us that it will largely turn upon a +consult that our Fathers held here in London, last April, at the White +Horse Tavern; for Oates hath mingled truth and falsehood in a very +ingenious fashion. He was at St. Omer's, you know, as a student; and was +expelled for an unspeakable crime, as he was expelled from our other +college at Valladolid also, for the same cause: so he knows a good deal +of our ways. He feigns, too, to be a Doctor of Divinity in Salamanca +University; but that is another of his lies, as I know for a truth. What +we wish to know, however, is how he knows so much of our movements +during these last months; for not one of us has seen him. You have been +to and fro to our lodgings a great deal, Mr. Mallock. Have you ever +seen, hanging about the streets outside any of them, a fellow with a +deformed kind of face--so that his mouth--" + +And at that I broke in: for I had never forgotten the man's face, +against whom I had knocked one night in Drury Lane. + +"I have seen the very man," I cried. "He is of middle stature; with a +little forehead and nose and a great chin." + +"That is the man," said Mr. Whitbread. "When did you see him?" + +I told them that it was on the night that I found Mrs. Ireland and her +daughter come from the play. + +"He was standing in the mouth of the passage opposite," I said, "and +watched me as I went in." + +"He will have been watching many nights, I think," said Mr. Whitbread, +"here, and in Duke Street, and at my own lodgings too." + +I asked what he would do that for, if he had his tale already. + +"That he may have more truth to stir up with his lies," said Mr. +Whitbread. "He will say who he has seen go in and out; and we shall not +be able to deny it." + +He said this very quietly, without any sign of perturbation; and Mr. +Ireland was the same. They seemed a little thoughtful only. + +"But no harm can come to you," I cried. "His Majesty hath promised it." + +"Yes: His Majesty hath promised it," said Mr. Whitbread in such a manner +that my heart turned cold; but I said no more on the point. + +"Now, Mr. Mallock," said the priest, "we must consider what is best to +be done. When the case comes on, as it surely will, the question for us +is what you must do. I doubt not that you could give evidence that you +have found us harmless folk"--(he smiled as he said this)--"but I do not +know that you will be able to add much to what other of our witnesses +will be able to say. I am not at all sure but that it may not be best +for you to keep away from the case at first at any rate. You have the +King's ear, which is worth more to us than any testimony you could +give." + +"Why do you not fly the country?" I cried. + +He smiled again. + +"Because that," he said, "would be as much as to say that we were +guilty; and so the whole Society would be thought guilty, and the Church +too. No, Mr. Mallock, we must see the matter out, and trust to what +justice we can get. But I do not think we shall get a great deal." + +So it was decided then, that I would not give testimony unless there was +some call for it; and I took my leave, marvelling at the constancy of +these men, who preferred to imperil life itself, sooner than reputation. + + * * * * * + +Well; all went forward as Mr. Whitbread had said it would. On the +twenty-eighth day of September Dr. Oates appeared before the Council to +give his testimony; and it was to the same effect as was that which I +had heard Mr. Chiffinch relate before, as to the Jesuit plot to murder +the King, and if need be, the Duke too, and to establish Catholic +domination in England. + +I went into a gallery in the Council room for a little, to confirm with +my own eyes whether it were Dr. Titus Oates himself against whom I had +knocked in Drury Lane; and it was the man without doubt, though he +looked very different in his minister's dress. It was not a very great +room, and only those were admitted who had permission. His Majesty +himself was there upon the second day; and sat in the midst of the +table, at the upper end, with the Duke beside him, and the great +officers round about; amongst whom I marked my Lord Shaftesbury, who I +was beginning to think knew more of the plot than had appeared; Dr. +Oates stood in a little pew at one side, so that when he turned to speak +I could see his face. Dr. Tonge and Mr. Kirby and others sat on a seat +behind him. + +He was dressed as a minister--for he had been one, before his pretended +reconciliation to the Catholic Church--in gown and bands and wore a +great periwig; and not his face only--which no man could forget who had +once set eyes on it--but the strange accent with which he spoke, +confirmed me that it was the man I had seen. + +My Lord Danby, I think it was, questioned him a good deal, as well as +others: and he repeated the same tale with great fluency, with many +gibes and aphorisms such as that the Jesuits had laid a wager that if +Carolus Rex would not become R.C.--which is Roman Catholic--he should +not much longer remain C.R. He said too that he had been reconciled to +the Church on Ash Wednesday of last year; but that "he took God and His +holy angels to witness that he had never changed the religion in his +heart," but that it was all a pretence to spy out Papistical plots. + +His Royal Highness broke out, when he had done, declaring the whole +matter a bundle of lies; and when one or two asked Oates for any +writings or letters that he had--since he had been so long amongst the +Jesuits, and was so much trusted by them--he said that he had none; but +could get them easily enough if warrants and officers were given him. I +suppose the truth was that he had not wit enough to write them as yet, +but had thought the Windsor letters (as I may call them) would be +enough. (These questions had also been put to him on the day before, but +were repeated now for the King's benefit.) + +His Majesty himself, I think, proved the shrewdest examiner of them all. + +"You said that you met Don Juan, the Spaniard, in your travels, Doctor +Oates. Pray, what is he like in face and figure?" + +"My Lard--Your Majesty," said Oates, "he is a tall black thin faylow, +with swatthy features"--(for so he pronounced his words.) + +"Eh?" asked the King. + +Dr. Oates repeated his words; and the King turned, nodding and smiling, +to His Royal Highness; for the Spanish bastard is far more Austrian than +Spanish, and is fair and fat and of small stature. + +"Excellent, Doctor Oates," said the King. "And now there is another +small matter. You told these gentlemen yesterday that you saw--with your +own eyes--the bribe of ten thousand pound paid down by the French King's +confessor. Pray, where was this money paid?" + +"In the Jesuits' house in Paris, your Majesty," said the man. + +"And where is that?" + +"That--Your Majesty--that house is--is near the King's own house." (But +he spoke hesitatingly.) + +Then the King broke out in indignation; and beat his hand on the table. + +"Man!" he cried. "The Jesuits have no house within one mile of the +Louvre!" + +It pleased me to hear the King say that; for I was a little uneasy at +Father Whitbread's manner when he had spoken of the King's promise; but +I was less pleased a day or two afterwards to hear that His Majesty was +gone to Newmarket, to the races, and had left the Council to do as best +it could; and that the Jesuits had been taken that same +night--Michaelmas eve--after Oates had been had before the Council. +There had been a great to-do at the taking of Father Whitbread, for the +Spanish soldiers had been called out to save the Ambassador's house, so +great was the mob that went to see him taken. + + * * * * * + +The next public event in the whole affair was the last and worst of all +the links that were being forged so swiftly: and the news of it came to +me as follows. + +I had gone to sup in Aldgate, where I had listened to a good deal of +talk from some small gentry, as to the Papist plot; and had been happy +to hear three or four of them declare that they believed there was +nothing in it, and even the rest of them were far from positive on the +matter; and I had stayed late over my pipe with them, so that it was +long after my usual time when I returned towards my lodgings, walking +alone, for I said good-bye to the last of my companions in the City. + +As I came up into the Strand, I saw before me what appeared to be the +tail of a great concourse of people, and heard the murmur of their +voices; and, mending my pace a little, I soon came up with them. I went +along for a little, trying to hear what they were saying upon the +affair, and to learn what the matter was; for by now the street was one +pack of folk all moving together. Little by little, then, I began to +hear that someone had been strangled, and that "he was found with his +neck broken," and then that "his own sword was run through his heart," +and words of that kind. + +Now I had heard talk before that Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey was run away +with a woman, and to avoid the payment of his debts, which, if it were +true, were certainly a very strange happening at such a time, since he +was the magistrate before whom Oates had laid his information; but six +days were gone by, and I had not thought very much of it, for his +running away could not now in any way affect the information that had +been laid. He was a very gentle man, though melancholy; and, though a +good Protestant, troubled no man that was of another religion than +himself--neither Papist nor Independent. + +But when I heard the people about me speaking in this manner, the name +of Sir Edmund came to my mind; and I asked a fellow that was tramping +near me, who it was that was strangled and where the body was. But he +turned on me with such a burst of oaths, that I thought it best to draw +no more attention to myself, and presently slipped away. Then I thought +myself of a little rising ground, a good bit in advance, whence, perhaps +I might be able to see something of what was passing; and I made my way +across the street, to a lane that led round on the north. As I came +across, in the fringes of the crowd, I saw a minister walking, in his +cassock; so I saluted him courteously, and asked what the matter was. + +He looked at me with an agitated face, and said nothing: his lips +worked, and he was very pale, yet it seemed to me with anger: so I asked +him again; and this time he answered. + +"Sir, I do not know who you are," he said. "But it is Sir Edmund Berry +Godfrey who has been foully murdered by the Papists. He hath been found +on Primrose Hill, and we are taking him to his house. I do not know, +sir--" + +But I was gone; and up the lane as fast as I could run. All that I had +heard, all that I had feared, all even that I had dreamed, was being +fulfilled. The links were forging swiftly. I do not know, even now as I +write, how it was that Sir Edmund met his end, whether he had killed +himself, as I think--for he was of a melancholiac disposition, as was +his father and his grandfather before him--or whether, as indeed I think +possible, he was murdered by the very man who swore so many Catholic +lives away, by way of giving colour to his own designs--for if a man +will swear away twenty lives, what should hinder him from taking one? +One thing only I know, that no Catholic, whether old or young, Jesuit or +not, saint or sinner, had any act or part in it; and on that I would lay +down my own life. + +By the time that I arrived at the rising mound--for a force mightier +than prudence drove me to see the end--the head of the great concourse +was beginning to arrive. Across the street from side to side stretched +the company, all tramping together and murmuring like the sound of the +sea. It was as if all London town was gone mad: for I do not believe +there were above twenty men in that great mob, who were not persuaded +that here was the corroboration of all that had been said upon the +matter of the plot; and that the guilt of the Papists was made plain. +Some roared, as they came, threats and curses upon the Pope, the +Jesuits, and every Catholic that drew breath; but the most part marched +silently, and more terribly, as it appeared to me. The street was +becoming as light as day, for torches were being kindled as they came; +and, at the last, came the great coach, swaying upon its swings, in +which the body was borne. + +I craned my head this way and that to see; and, as the coach passed +beneath me, I saw into its interior, and how there lay there, supported +by two men, the figure of another man whose face was covered with a +white cloth. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +It would occupy too much space, were I to set down in detail all that +passed between the finding of Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey's body, and the +being brought to trial of the Jesuit Fathers. But a brief summary must +be given. + +The funeral of Sir Edmund was held three or four days later in St. +Martin's, and the sermon was preached by Dr. Lloyd, his friend, who +spoke from a pulpit guarded by two other thumping divines, lest he +should be murdered by the Papists as he did it. There was a concourse of +people that cannot be imagined; and seventy-two ministers walked in +canonicals at the head of the procession. Dr. Lloyd spoke of the dead +man as a martyr to the Protestant religion. + +By the strangest stroke of ill-fortune Parliament met ten days before +the funeral, which happened on the thirty-first of October; so that the +excitement of the people--greatly increased by the exhibition of the +dead body of Sir Godfrey--was ratified by their rulers--I say their +rulers, since His Majesty, it appeared, could do nothing to stem the +tide. It was my Lord Danby who opened the matter in the House of Peers +that he might get what popularity he could to protect him against the +disgrace that he foresaw would come upon him presently for the French +business; and every violent word that he spoke was applauded to the +echo. The House of Commons took up the cry; a solemn fast was appointed +for the appeasing of God Almighty's wrath; guards were set in all the +streets, and chains drawn across them, to prevent any sudden rising of +the Papists; and all Catholic householders were bidden to withdraw ten +miles from London. (This I did not comply with; for I was no +householder.) Besides all this, both men and women went armed +continually--the men with the "Protestants' flails," and ladies with +little pistols hidden in their muffs. Workmen, too, were set to search +and dig everywhere for "Tewkesbury mustard-balls," as they were +called--or fire-balls, with which it was thought that the Catholics +would set London a-fire, as Oates had said they would--or vast treasures +which the Jesuits were thought to have buried in the Savoy and other +places. Folks took alarm at the leastest matters; once my Lord Treasurer +himself rode into London crying that the French army was already landed, +when all that he had seen were some horses in the mist; once it was +thought, from the noise of digging that some fat-head heard, that the +Papists were mining to blow up Westminster. The King, whom I dared not +go to see in all this uproar, and who did not send for me, went to and +fro even in Whitehall, guarded everywhere--in private, as I heard, +pouring scorn upon the plot, yet in public concealing his opinion; and +upon the ninth of November he made a speech in the House of Lords, +confirming all my fears, thanking his subjects for their devotion, and +urging them to deal effectually with the Popish recusants that were such +a danger to the kingdom! In October, too, five Catholic Lords--the Earl +of Powis, Viscount Stafford, my Lord Petre, my Lord Arundell of Wardour, +and my Lord Bellasis were committed to the Tower on a charge of treason. + +I saw Dr. Oates more than once during these days, coming out of +Whitehall with the guards that were given to protect him, carrying +himself very high, in his minister's dress; and no wonder, for the man +was the darling of the nation and was called its "Saviour," and had had +a great pension voted to him of twelve hundred pounds a year. He did not +think then, I warrant, of the day when he would be whipped from Newgate +to Tyburn at a cart's tail; and again, laid upon a sled and whipped +again through the City, for that he could not stand by reason of his +first punishment. Another fellow too had come forward, named Bedloe, +once a stable-boy to my Lord Bellasis, who had given himself up at +Bristol, with "information," as he called it, as to Sir Edmund's murder, +which he said had been done in Somerset House itself, by the priests and +others, saying that the wax that was found upon the dead man's breeches +came from the candles of the altar that the priests had held over him +while they did it! Presently too, at the trial and even before it, +Bedloe made his evidence to concur with Oates', though at the first +there was no sign of it. Even before the trial, however, the audacity of +the two villains waxed so great, as even to seek to embroil Her Majesty +herself in the matter, and to make her privy to the whole plot; and this +Oates did, at the bar of the House of Commons. But the King was so wrath +at this, that little more was heard of it. + +The Duke of York, during these proceedings, saved himself very well. +When the Bill for the disabling of Papists from the holding of office or +of sitting in either House of Parliament, had passed through the +Commons, he made a speech upon it in the House of Lords, speaking so +well that others as well as he were moved to tears by it. He said that +his religion should be a matter between his soul and God only; and +should never affect his public conduct; and this with so much weight +that the decision was given in his favour, since he was the King's +brother. I should never have thought that he could have done so well. + +Mr. Coleman was the first to be brought to trial, at the beginning of +December, for he came back and gave himself up the day after he had at +first fled. He was already pre-judged; for so violent was the feeling +against the Papists that my Lord Lucas said in the House of Lords that +if he could have his way, he "would not have even a Popish cat to mew +and purr about the King." Coleman, I say, was the first of those who had +before been accused; but a Mr. Stayley, a Catholic banker (who had his +house not far from me in Covent Garden), was even before him judged and +executed, on account of some words that a lying Scotsman had said he had +heard him use in the tavern in the same place. + +I did not go to the trial of Mr. Coleman; for that I had nothing to say +for him; and indeed Mr. Coleman's own letters--written three or four +years ago--were the severest witnesses against him, in which he had +written to Father La Chaise--(whom Oates at first called Father Le +Shee)--the French King's confessor, and others, that if he could lay +hands on a good sum of money, he could accomplish a great project he +had for the restoration of the Catholic religion in England. (These +letters were found in a drawer he had forgotten, when he had burned all +the rest; and proved very unfortunate for him.) He meant by this, I have +no doubt, the bribing of many Parliament-men to win toleration, and to +get His Royal Highness restored as Lord High Admiral. He said this was +his meaning; and I see no reason to doubt it, for he was a pragmatical +kind of man, full of great affairs; but Chief Justice Scroggs waved it +all away; and it was made to appear exactly consonant with all that +Oates and Bedloe had said as to the project of killing the King. So +great was the excitement, not of the common people only, but of those +who should have known better, and so shrewd were these who took +advantage of it, that my Lord Shaftesbury, who was waxing very hot upon +the supposed Plot, for his own ends, was heard to say that any man that +threw doubt on the plot must be treated as an enemy. Mr. Coleman was +executed at Tyburn on the third day of December. + + * * * * * + +The trial of Father Ireland, Mr. Grove and Mr. Pickering--who was a +Benedictine lay-brother--was opened on the seventeenth day of December, +in the Sessions House at Justice Hall in the Old Bailey. + +I was in the Court early, before the trial began, carrying a letter with +me which Mr. Chiffinch got for me from my Lord Peterborough, that I +might have a good place; and I had a very good one; for it was in a +little gallery that looked down into the well of the court, so that I +could see all that I wished, and the faces of all the prisoners, judges +and witnesses, and yet by leaning back could avoid observation--for I +had no wish, for others' sake, if not for my own, to be recognized by +any of the witnesses. The seats for my Lords were on the left, under a +state, with their desks before them; the place for the prisoners on the +right, facing the judges; and for the witnesses opposite to me. The jury +was beneath; and the counsels in front of them with their backs to me. + +When the Court was full to bursting, my Lords came in, with the Chief +Justice--that is Sir William Scroggs--in the midst. I had never seen him +before, though I knew how hot he was against Catholics, and I looked to +see what he was like. It was a dark morning, and the candles were +lighted on my Lords' desks; and I could see his face pretty well in +their light. He was in scarlet, and wore his great wig; and he talked +behind his hand, with what seemed a great deal of merriment to Mr. +Justice Bertue, who sat on one side of him, and the Recorder Jeffreys +who sat upon the other. He had very heavy brows; his face was +clean-shaven, and his mouth was like a trap when he shut it, and looked +grave, as he did so soon as the clerk had done his formalities. He was a +strong man, I thought, who would brook no opposition, and would have his +way--as indeed he did; and the rest of my Lords had little or no say in +the proceedings; and least of all had the jury, except to do what the +Lord Chief Justice bid them. + +The three prisoners--for Mr. Whitbread and Mr. Fenwick were presently +withdrawn to be tried later, since they could not get two false +witnesses against them at that time--were Mr. Ireland, Mr. Grove and Mr. +Pickering, and I looked upon them with infinite compassion, to see how +they would bear themselves. Mr. Pickering I had never seen before; so I +could not tell whether or no he bore himself as usual. But the two +others I had seen again and again; yet, with respect to them both I +remembered principally that occasion when Mr. Ireland had entertained +his mother and sister in Mr. Fenwick's lodging on that one night he was +in town, and gone off with them into the dark so merrily; and Mr. Grove +had brought up the chocolate in white cups, and we had all been merry +together. Now they stood here in the dock together, and answered to +their names cheerfully and courageously; and I could see that neither +anguish of heart nor the fear of death had availed to change their +countenances in the leastest degree. They stood there, scarcely moving, +except once or twice to whisper to one another, while Dr. Oates told his +lying tale. + +It was now for the first time that I understood how shrewdly, and yet +how clumsily now and then, the man had weaved together his information. +He spoke with an abundance of detail that astonished me; he spoke of +names and places with the greatest precision; he related how himself had +been sent from St. Omer's with fifty pounds promised him, to kill Dr. +Tonge who had lately translated a book from the French named "The +Jesuits' Morals"; he spoke of a chapel in Mrs. Sanders' house, at +Wild-House, where he had been present, he said, at a piece of +conspiring; and so forth continually, interlarding his tale with bursts +of adjuration and piety and indignation, so evidently feigned--though +with something of the Puritan manner in it--that I marvelled that any +man could be deceived who did not wish to be; and all with his vile +accent. He spoke much also, as Mr. Whitbread had told me that he would, +of the consult of the Fathers--of all that is, who had the _jus +suffragii_ in England--that had been held at the White Horse Tavern in +the Strand, in April; pretending that at this the murder of the King was +again decided upon, and designed too, in all particulars; how Mr. +Pickering and Mr. Grove had been deputed to do the killing in St. James' +Park with screwed pistols, as His Majesty walked there, or if not there, +at Newmarket or Windsor; and how commissions had been given to various +persons (whom he named), which they were to hold in the army that was to +be raised, when His Majesty had been murdered, and the French King Louis +let in with his troops. Worst of all, however, was the assertion which +he made again and again that no Catholic's oath, even in Court, could be +taken to be worth anything, since the Pope gave them all dispensations +to swear falsely; for such an assertion as this deprives an accused man +of all favour with the jury and destroys the testimonies of all Catholic +witnesses. And, what amazed me most of all was that Chief Justice +Scroggs supported him in this, and repeated it to the jury again and +again. He said so first to Mr. Whitbread, before he was withdrawn. + +"If you have a religion," he said, "that can give a dispensation for +oaths, sacraments, protestations and falsehoods, how can you expect that +we should believe you?" + +"I know no such thing," said Mr. Whitbread very tranquilly. + +Bedloe, too, told the same tale as he had told before, but with many +embellishments; and was treated by my Lords with as much respect, very +nearly, as Oates himself; and they were both given refreshment by the +Chief Justice's order. + + * * * * * + +I could have found it in my heart to kill that man--Oates, I mean--as he +stood there in his gown and bands and periwig, with his guards behind +him, swearing away those good men's lives; now standing upright, now +leaning on the rail before him, and now reposing himself on a stool that +was brought for him. His monstrous countenance was as the face of a +devil; he feigned now to weep, now to be merry. But most of all I hated +the man, when the piteous sight was seen of the entrance of Mrs. Ireland +and her daughter, who came to testify that Mr. Ireland was not in London +at all on those days in August when Oates had sworn that he had spoken +with him there. They stood there, as gallant women as might be, turning +their eyes now and again upon the priest who was all the world to them +by ties both of nature and grace; but all their testimony went for +nothing, since, first my Lord had told the jury that a Catholic's oath +was worth nothing, and next the prisoners had had no opportunity to know +what charges precisely they were that were to be brought against them, +and had had therefore no time to get their witnesses together. They +complained very sharply of this; but my Lord puffed it all away, and +would scarcely allow them to finish one sentence without interruption. + +Mr. Ireland said upon one occasion that though he had no witnesses, for +he had had no time to get them, yet he could get witnesses that there +were witnesses. + +"I know," said the Chief Justice, "what your way of arguing is; that is +very pretty. You have witnesses that can prove you have witnesses, and +those witnesses can prove that you have more witnesses, and so _in +infinitum_. And thus you argue in everything you do." + +It was growing dark when the evidence (for so it was called) was done; +and the end was drawing near; and the candles which had been put out +long ago were lighted again by an usher, who came in with a taper when +the Lord Chief Justice called for lights. But the candles burned very +badly, by reason of the closeness of the Court in which so many persons +had been gathered for so long; and shed but a poor illumination. My eyes +were weary too with staring upon the people--now upon the monstrous face +of Oates, that was like a nightmare for terror, now upon the prisoners +so patient in the dock, and now upon my Lords on their high seats +beneath the state, and especially upon that hard and bitter face of +Chief Justice Scroggs who, if ever a man murdered innocent folk, was +murdering to-day the three men before him, by the direction which he +gave to the jury, and the manner he conducted the case. I could, by now, +see the faces only one by one, as each leant into the light of the +candles; and it appeared to me, again and again, that these were mocking +demons and not men, and Oates the lord of them all and of hell itself +from which they all came, and to which they must return. I closed my +eyes sometimes, both to rest them, and that I might pray for bare +justice to be done; but my prayers were to me like the lifting of +weights too great for my strength. One hope only remained to me, and +that lay in His Majesty; for, although he had permitted the deaths of +Coleman and of Stayley, these might indeed have appeared guilty to one +who knew nothing of them; but I could not find it in my heart to believe +that he would suffer these Jesuits to die, of whom he had sworn to me +that not a hair of their heads should be injured. I had determined, too, +to go to His Majesty, so soon as the trial was done, and the verdict +given as I knew it would be, and hear from his own lips that he would +keep his word, at whatever cost to himself. + +It was dark then, by the time that all the evidence had been given, and +the Chief Justice had done his directing of the jury. The Court, crowded +though it was with the people, was as still as death, so soon as the +jury came back after a very short recess. I could hear only the +breathing of the folks on all hands. A woman sat beside me, who had +been as early as myself that morning; but she had roared and clapped +with the rest, at the earlier stages, when the Chief Justice had +silenced the prisoners or thrown doubt upon what they said. She was +quiet now, however, and I wondered how the evidence had affected her. + +When the jury were ready to give their verdict, the talking that had +broken out a little, grew silent again; but when the verdict of Guilty +was given, it broke out once more into a storm of shouting; so that the +rafters rang with it. The woman beside me--for I sat at the end of a +bench and had nothing but the wall beyond me--appeared to awaken at the +tumult and join her voice to it, beating with her hand at the edge of +the gallery in front of her. As for me I looked at the prisoners. They +were all upright in their places, Mr. Ireland in the midst of the three; +and were as still as if nothing were the matter. They were looking at +the Lord Chief Justice, at whom I too turned my eyes, and saw he was +grinning and talking behind his hand to the Recorder. It was a very +travesty of justice that I was looking at, and no true trial at all. +There were a thousand points of dissonance that I had remarked +myself--as to how it was, for instance, that one fellow had been +promised twenty guineas for killing the King and another fifteen hundred +pounds; as to how it was that Oates, who professed himself so loyal, had +permitted four ruffians to go to Windsor (as he said), with intent to +murder the King, and that he had said nothing of it at the time. But all +was passed over in this lust for the Jesuits' blood. + +I knew that my Lord would make a great speech on the affair, before he +would make an end and give sentence; for this was a great opportunity +for him to curry favour not only with the people, but with men like my +Lord Shaftesbury who was behind him in all the matter; and as I had no +wish to hear what he would have to say (for I knew it all by heart +already) and, still less to hear the terrible words of the sentence for +High Treason passed upon these three good men in the dock, I rose up +quietly from my place, and slipped out of the door by which I had come +in. As I was about to close the door behind me I heard silence made, and +my Lord Justice Scroggs beginning his speech--and these were the words +which first he addressed to the jury. + +"Gentlemen," he said, "you have done like very good subjects and very +good Christians; that is to say like very good Protestants; and now much +good may their thirty thousand masses do them!" When he said this, he +was referring to a piece of Dr. Oates' lying evidence as to a part of +the reward that they should get for killing the King. But I closed the +door; for I could bear to hear no more. But afterwards I heard that they +then adjourned for an hour or two, and that it was the Recorder--Sir +George Jeffreys--that gave sentence. + +When I presented myself, half an hour later, at Mr. Chiffinch's +lodgings, I had very nearly persuaded myself that all would yet be well. +For I thought it impossible that any man to whom the report of the trial +should be brought, could ever think that justice had been done; least of +all the King who is the fount of it, under God. I knew very well that +His Majesty would have to bear the brunt of some unpopularity if he +refused to sign the warrants for their death; but he appeared to me to +care not very much for popularity--since he outraged it often enough in +worse ways than in maintaining the right. He had said to me, too, so +expressly that no harm should come to the Fathers or to Mr. Grove and +Mr. Pickering either; and he had said so, I was informed, even more +forcibly to the Duke and those that were with him--saying that his right +hand should rot off if ever he took the pen into his hand for such a +purpose. I remembered these things, even while the plaudits of the crowd +still rang in my ears, and the bitter cruelty of my Lord Chief Justice's +words to the jury. His Majesty, I said to myself, is above all these +lesser folk, and will see that no wrong is done. And, besides all this, +he is half a Catholic himself and he knows against what kind of men +these charges have been made. + +I was pretty reassured then, when I knocked upon the door of Mr. +Chiffinch's lodgings, and told the man who opened to me that I must see +his master. + +He took me through immediately into the little passage I had been in +before, and himself tapped upon the door of the inner parlour; then he +opened it, and let me through: for Mr. Chiffinch was accustomed by now +to receive me at any hour. + +He rose civilly enough, and asked me what I wished with him, so soon as +the door was shut. + +"The verdict is given," I said. "I must see His Majesty." + +He screwed up his lips in a way he had. + +"It is Guilty, I suppose," he said. + +I told him Yes; + +"And I have never seen," I said, "such a travesty of justice." + +He looked down upon the table, considering, drumming his fingers upon +it. + +"That is as may be," he said. "But as for His Majesty--" + +I broke out on him at that: for I was fiercely excited. + +"Man," I cried, "there is no question about that. I must see His Majesty +instantly." + +He looked at me again, as if considering. + +"Well," he said. "What must be, must. I will see His Majesty. He is not +yet gone to supper." + +At the door he turned again. + +"The verdict was Guilty?" he said. "You were there and heard it?" + +I told him Yes; for I was all impatient. + +"And how was that verdict received in court?" + +"It was applauded," I said shortly. + +He still waited an instant. Then he went out. + + * * * * * + +I was all in a fever till he came back; for his manner and his +hesitation had renewed my terrors. Yet still I would not let myself +doubt. I went up and down the room, and looked at the pictures in it. +There was a little one by Lely, not finished, of my Lady Castlemaine, +done before she was made Duchess, which I suppose the King had given to +him; but I remembered afterwards nothing else that I saw at that time. + +In about half an hour he came back again; but he shut the door behind +him before he spoke. + +"His Majesty will see you in a few minutes," he said, "but he goes to +supper presently; and must not be detained. And there is something else +that I must ask you first." + +I was all impatient to be gone; but impatience would not help me at all. + +"Mr. Mallock," he said, sitting down, "did you see any man following you +from the Court? Or at the doors of the Palace?" + +My heart stood still when he said that; for though I had done my best at +all times for the last month or two to pass unnoticed so far as I could, +I had known well enough that having been so much with the Jesuits as I +had, it was not impossible that I had been marked by some spy or other, +or even by Oates himself, since he had seen me go into Mr. Fenwick's +lodgings. But I had fancied of late that I must have escaped notice, and +had been more bold lately, as in going to the Court to-day. + +"Followed?" I said. "What do you mean, Mr. Chiffinch?" + +"You saw no fellow after you, or loitering near, at the gates, as you +came in?" + +"I saw no one," I said. + +"The gates were barred, as usual?" + +"Yes," I said. "And the guard fetched a lieutenant before he would let +me in." + +(For ever since the late alarms extraordinary precautions had been taken +in keeping the great gates of the Palace always guarded.) + +"And you saw no one after you?" + +"No one," I said. + +"Well," said Mr. Chiffinch, "a fellow was after you. For when you were +gone in he came up to the guard and asked who you were, and by what +right you had entered. The lieutenant sent a mail to tell me so, and I +met him in the passage as I went out." + +"Who was the fellow?" + +"Oh! a man called Dangerfield. The lieutenant very prudently detained +him; and I went across and questioned him before I went to His Majesty. +I know nothing of the man, except that he hath been convicted, for I saw +the branding in his hand when we examined him. We let him go again +immediately." + +"He knows my name?" + +Mr. Chiffinch smiled. + +"We are not so foolish as that, Mr. Mallock. He thinks you have some +place at Court; but we did not satisfy him as to your name." + +I said nothing; for there was nothing to say. + +"You had best be very careful, Mr. Mallock," went on the page, standing +up again. "You have been mixing a great deal with unpopular folks. You +will be of no service to His Majesty at all if you fall under suspicion. +You had best go back by water to the Temple Stairs." + +He spoke a little coldly; and I perceived that he thought I had been +indiscreet. + +"Well," he said, "we had best be going to His Majesty's lodgings." + +I had flattered myself, up to the present, that I knew His Majesty's +capacities tolerably well. I thought him to be an easily read man, with +both virtues and vices uppermost, wearing his heart on his sleeve, as +the saying is--indolent, witty, lacking all self-control--yet not, as I +might say, a deep man. I was to learn the truth, or rather begin to +learn it, on this very night. + + * * * * * + +When I entered his private closet he was sitting not where I had seen +him before, but at the great table in the midst of the floor, with his +papers about him, and an appearance of great industry. He did not do +more than look up for an instant, and then down again; and I stood +there before him, after I had bowed and been taken no notice of, as it +were a scholar waiting to be whipped. + +He was all ready for supper, in his lace, with his hat on his head; and +he was writing a letter, with a pair of candles burning before him in +silver candlesticks. His face wore a very heavy and preoccupied look; +and I was astonished that he paid me no attention. + +He finished at last, threw sand on the paper from the pounce-box, and +pushed it aside. Then he leaned his cheeks in his hands, and his elbows +on the table, and looked at me. But he did not speak unkindly. + +"Here you are then," he said. "And I hear you bring news from the Old +Bailey?" + +"I came from there half an hour ago, Sir." + +"Ah! And the verdict was Guilty, Mr. Chiffinch tells me?" + +"Yes, Sir." + +"How did the people take it?" + +"They applauded a great deal, Sir." + +"They applauded, you say. At the end only, or all the while?" + +"They applauded, Sir, whenever any of my Lords made a hit against the +Catholics." + +"Were there any who did otherwise?" + +"Not one, Sir, that I could hear." + +"The Chief Justice. What did he say?" + +"He made many protestations of devotion to your Majesty, Sir, and to the +Protestant Religion. He beat down the Catholics at every point. He +permitted none of their witnesses to speak freely." + +The King was silent a moment. Then he went on again. + +"And the prisoners. How did they bear themselves?" + +"They bore themselves like gallant gentlemen, Sir. They fought every +point, so far as the Chief Justice would permit them." + +"Did they shew any fear when the verdict was brought in?" + +"None, Sir. They relied upon your Majesty's protection, no doubt." + +Again His Majesty was silent. I still stood on the other side of the +table from him, waiting to say what I had to say. The King shewed no +sign of having heard what I had last said. + +Then, to my astonishment he turned on me again very sharply. + +"Mr. Mallock," he said, "I have a fault to find with you. Mr. Chiffinch +tells me that you were followed from the Court, and that a fellow was +asking after you at the gate. You say that you wish to serve me. Well, +those who serve me must be very discreet and very shrewd. Plainly, you +have not been so in this instance. You are a very young man; and I do +not wish to be severe. But you must remember, Mr. Mallock, that such a +thing as this must not happen any more." + +My mouth was gone suddenly dry at this attack of His Majesty upon me. I +licked my lips with my tongue in readiness to answer; but before I could +speak, the King went on again. + +"Now I had a little business to entrust to you; but I am not sure if it +be not best to give it to another hand." + +He took up from the table before him a newly sealed little packet that I +had not noticed before; and sat weighing it in his hand, as if +considering, while his eyes searched my face. + +"Sir--" I began. + +"Yes, Mr. Mallock, I know what you would say. That is all very well; but +my servants must not make mistakes such as you have made. It was the +height of madness for you to go to the Court at all to-day. I have no +doubt that you were seen there, and followed; and you could have been of +no service to your friends there, in any case. Mr. Chiffinch tells me he +will provide a wherry for you immediately, that you may go back without +observation. You must do this. The question before my mind is as to +whether you shall take this packet with you, or not. What do you say, +Mr. Mallock?" + +All the while he had been speaking, I had been in a torment of misery. +As yet I had done little or nothing for His Majesty, after all my +commissioning from Rome; and now that the first piece of work was on +hand, it was doubtful whether I had not forfeited it by my clumsiness. +For the moment I forgot what I had come for. I was all set on acquitting +myself well. I was but twenty-one years old! + +"Sir," I cried, "if your Majesty will entrust that to me, you shall +never repent it." + +He smiled; but his face went back again to its heaviness. "It is a very +difficult commission," he said. "And, what is of more importance than +all else is that the packet should fall into no hand other than the one +that should have it. For this reason, there is no name written upon it. +But I have sealed it with a private signet of my own, both within and +without; and you must bear the packet with you until you can deliver +it." + +"I understand, Sir." + +"I can send no courier with it, for the reasons of which I have spoken. +No man, Mr. Mallock, but you and I must know of its very existence. +Neither can I tell you now to whom the packet must be given. You must +bear it with you, sir, until you have a message from me, signed with the +same seal as that which it bears, telling you where you must take it, +and to whom. You understand?" + +"I understand, Sir." + +"You must leave London immediately until your face is forgotten, and +until this storm is over. You have a cousin in the country?" + +"Yes, Sir; Mr. Jermyn at Hare Street." + +"You had best lie there for the present; and I can send to you there, so +soon as I have an opportunity. Meanwhile you must have this always at +hand, and be ready to set out with it, so soon as you hear where you +must go with it. That is all plain, Mr. Mallock?" + +"I understand, Sir." + +The King rose abruptly, pushing back his chair; and as he rose I heard +the trumpets for supper, in the Court outside. + +"Then you had best be gone. Take it, Mr. Mallock." + +I came round and received the packet; and I kissed the King's hand +which he had not given to me as I had come in. My heart was overjoyed at +the confidence which he shewed me; and I slipped the packet immediately +within my waistcoat. It was square and flat and lay there easily in a +little pocket which the tailor had contrived there. Then, as I stood up +again, the memory of what I had come for flashed back on me again. + +"Sir," I said, "there is one other matter." + +His Majesty was already turning away; but he stopped and looked over his +shoulder. + +"Eh?" he said. + +"Sir, it is with regard to the Jesuits who were condemned to-day." + +He jerked his hand impatiently in a way he had. + +"I have no time for that," he said, "no time." + +Then he was gone out at the other door, and I heard him going +downstairs. + +Now as I came downstairs again the further way, and heard the trumpets +go, to shew that the King was come out, I had no suspicion of anything +but my own foolishness in not speaking of what I had come about. But, by +the time that I was at the Temple Stairs, I wondered whether or no the +King had not had that very design, to put me off from which I wished to +say. And at the present time I am certain of it--that His Majesty wished +to hear from me at once of the proceedings at the trial, and then spoke +immediately of that other matter of the packet, and of my being followed +to the Palace Gates, with the express purpose of hindering me from +saying anything; for I am sure that at this time he had not yet made up +his mind as to what he would do when the warrants were brought to him, +and did not wish to speak of it. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +The first thing that I did when I got home was to call for my man James, +and bid him shut the door. (My man was about forty years old, and he had +been got for me in Rome, having fallen ill there in the service of my +Lord Stafford--being himself a Catholic, and a very good one, for he +went to the sacraments three or four times in the year, wherever he was. +He was a clean-shaven fellow, and very sturdy and quick, and a good hand +at cut and thrust and the quarter-staff, as I had seen for myself at +Hare Street on the summer evenings. I had found him always discreet and +silent, though I had not as yet given him any great confidence.) + +"James," I said to him with great solemnity, "I have something to say to +you which must go no further." + +He stood waiting on my word. + +"A fellow hath been after me to-day--named Dangerfield--a very brown +man, with no hair on his face" (for so Mr. Chiffinch had told me). "He +hath been branded on the hand for some conviction. I tell you this that +you may know him if you see him again. I take him to be a Protestant +spy: but I do not know for certain." + +He still stood waiting. He knew very well, I think, that I was on some +business, and that therefore I was in some danger too at such a time; +though I had never spoken to him of it. + +"And another thing that I have to say to you is that we must ride for +Hare Street to-morrow, and arrive there by to-morrow night--without +lying anywhere on the road. You must have the horses here, and all +ready, by seven o'clock in the morning. And you must tell no one where +we are going to, to hinder any from following us, if we can help it. We +must lie at Hare Street a good while. + +"And the third thing I have to say is this; that you must watch out very +shrewdly for any signs that we are known or suspected of anything. I +tell you plainly that both you and I may be in some danger for a while; +so if you have no taste for that, you had best begone. You will keep +quiet, I know very well." + +"Sir, I will stay with you, if you please," said James, as the last word +was out of my mouth. + +I gave him a look of pleasure; but no more; and he understood me very +well. + +"Then that is all that I have to say. You may bring supper in as soon as +you like." + +Before I lay down that night I had transferred His Majesty's packet to a +belt that I put next to my skin; and so I went to bed. + + * * * * * + +It was still pretty dark when we came out upon the Ware road upon the +next morning. I did not call James up to ride with me; for I had a great +number of things to think about; and first amongst them was the +commission which His Majesty had given me. What then could such a +business be?--a packet that I must carry with me, and deliver to a man +whose name should be given me afterwards! Why, then, was it entrusted to +me so soon? And why could not the name be given to me immediately? But +to such riddles there was no answer; and I left it presently alone. + +The second thing that I had to think of was the matter of the men whom I +had seen condemned yesterday; and even of that I did not know much more +than of the packet. His Majesty had not spoken of them, except to ask +questions at the beginning; and this seemed as a bad omen to me. Yet I +had the King's word on it that they should not suffer; and, when I +considered, there was no obligation or even any reason at all that he +should talk out the matter with myself. Yet, though I presently put this +affair too from my mind, since I had no certain knowledge of what would +happen, it came back to me again and again--that memory of Mr. Ireland +and Mr. Grove in the lodgings in Drury Lane, so harmless and so merry, +and again as I had seen them yesterday in the dock, with Mr. Pickering, +so helpless and yet so courageous in face of the injustice that was +being done on them. + +The third thing that I had to think upon was Hare Street to which I was +going as fast as I could, and of those who would greet me there, and +most of all, I need not say, of my Cousin Dolly. Her father had written +to me two or three times during the four months that I had been away; +and his last had been the letter of a very much frightened man, what +with the news that had come to him of the proceedings in London and the +feeling against the Catholics. But I had written back to him that +nothing was to be feared if he would but stay still and hold his tongue; +and that I myself would be with him presently, I hoped, and would +reassure him; for in spite of the hot feeling in London the country +Catholics suffered from it little or not at all, so long as they minded +their own business. But it was principally of my Cousin Dolly that I +thought; for the memory of her had been with me a great deal during the +four months I had lived in London; but I was determined to do nothing in +a hurry, since the remembrance of her father's words to me, and, even +more, of his manner and look in speaking, stuck in my throat and +hindered me from seeing clearly. I knew very well, however, that my +principal reason why I urged Peter on over the bad roads, was that I +might see her the more quickly. + +Nothing of any importance happened to us on the way. At Hoddesdon the +memory of Mr. Rumbald came back to my mind, and I wondered where it was +in Hoddesdon or near it that he had his malt-houses; and before that we +stayed again for dinner at the _Four Swans_ in Waltham Cross, where the +host knew me again and asked how matters were in London; and we came at +last in sight of the old church at Hormead Parva, just as the sun was +going down upon our left. Peter, my horse, knew where he was then, and +needed no more urging, for he knew that his stable was not far away. + +They knew of course nothing of my coming; and when I dismounted in the +yard there was not a man to be seen. I left my horse with James; and +went along the flagged path that led to the door, and beat upon the +door. The house seemed all dark and deserted; and it was not till I had +beaten once more at the door that I saw a light shewing beneath it. +Presently a very unsteady voice cried out to know who was there; and I +knew it for my Cousin Tom's; so I roared at him that it was myself. +There followed a great to-do of unlocking and unbarring--for they had +the house--as I found presently--fortified as it were a castle; and when +the door was undone there was my Cousin Tom with a great blunderbuss and +two men with swords behind him. + +"Why, whatever is forward?" I said sharply; for I was impatient with the +long waiting and the cold, for a frost was beginning as the sun set. + +"Why, Cousin Roger, we knew nothing of your coming," said my Cousin Tom, +looking a little foolish, I thought. "We did not know who was at the +door." + +"I only knew myself of my coming yesterday," I said. "And whatever is +the house fortified for?" + +My cousin was putting up the bolts again as I spoke; (the two men were +gone away into the back of the house);--and, as soon as he had done, he +said: + +"Why, there are dangerous folks about, Cousin Roger. And it is a +Catholic house, you see." + +I smiled at that; but said no more; for at that moment my Cousin Dolly +came through from the back of the house where she had been sent by her +father for safety; and at that sight I thought no more of the door. + +I saluted her as a cousin should; and she me. She looked mighty pretty +to me, in her dark dress, with her lace on, for supper was just on the +table; and I cannot but think she was pleased to see me, for she was all +smiling and flushed. + +"So it is you, Cousin Roger," she said. "I thought it might very well +be. We looked for you before Christmas." + + * * * * * + +At supper, and afterwards, I learned in what a panic poor Cousin Tom had +lived since the news of the plot, and, above all, of Sir Edmund Berry +Godfrey's death; and what he said to me made me determine to speak to +him of my own small peril, for he had the right to know, and to forbid +me his house, if he wished. But I hoped that he would not. It appeared +that when the news of Sir Edmund's death had come, there had been +something of a to-do in the village, of no great signification; for it +was no more than a few young men who marched up and down shouting +together--as such yokels will, upon the smallest excuse; and one of them +had cried out at the gate of Hare Street House. At Barkway there had +been more of a business; for there they had burnt an effigy of the Pope +in the churchyard; and the parson--who was a stout Churchman--had made a +speech upon it. However, this had played upon Cousin Tom's fears, and he +had fortified the house with bolts, and slept with a pistol by his bed. + +I told him that same night--not indeed all that happened to me; but +enough of it to satisfy him. I said that I had been a good deal at the +Jesuits' lodgings; and at the trial of the three; and that a fellow had +attempted to follow me home; but that I had thrown him off. + +Cousin Tom had the pipe from his mouth and was holding it in his hand, +by the time I had done. + +"Now, Cousin," I said, "if you think I am anything of a danger to the +house, you have but to say the word, and I will be off. On the other +hand, I and my man might be of some small service to you if it came to a +brawl." + +"You threw him off?" asked Cousin Tom. + +"It was at Whitehall--" I began; and then I stopped: for I had not +intended to speak of the King. + +"Oho!" said Cousin Tom. "Then you have been at Whitehall again?" + +"Why, yes," I said, trying to pass it off. "I have been there and +everywhere." + +Cousin Tom put the pipe back again into his mouth. + +"And there is another matter," I said (for Hare Street suited me very +well as a lodging, and I had named it as such to His Majesty). "It is +not right, Cousin Tom, that you should keep me here for nothing. Let me +pay something each month--" (And I named a suitable sum.) + +That determined Cousin Tom altogether. My speaking of Whitehall had +greatly reassured him; and now this offer of mine made up his mind; for +he was something of a skinflint in some respects. (For all that I did +for him when I was here, in the fields and at the farm, more than repaid +him for the expense of my living there.) He protested a little, and said +that between kinsfolk no such question should enter in; but he protested +with a very poor grace; and so the matter was settled, and we both +satisfied. + + * * * * * + +So, once more, the time began to pass very agreeably for me. Here was I, +safe from all the embroilments of town, in the same house with my Cousin +Dorothy, and with plenty of leisure for my languages again. Yet my +satisfaction was greatly broken up when I heard, on the last day of +January that all that I had feared was come about, and that of the three +men whom I had seen condemned at the Old Bailey, two--Mr. Ireland and +Mr. Grove--had been executed seven days before: (Mr. Pickering was kept +back on some excuse, and not put to death until May). The way I heard of +it was in this manner. + +I was in Puckeridge one day, on a matter which I do not now remember, +and was going to the stable of the _White Hart_ inn to get my horse to +ride back again, when I ran into Mr. Rumbald who was there on the same +errand. I was in my country suit, and very much splashed; and it was +going on for evening, so he noticed nothing of me but my face. + +"Why, Mallock," he cried--"It is Mr. Mallock, is it not?" + +I told him yes. + +He exchanged a few words with me, for he was one of those fellows who +when they have once made up their minds to a thing, do not easily change +it, and he was persuaded that I was of his kind and something of a +daredevil too, which was what he liked. Then at the end he said +something which made me question him as to what he meant. + +"Have you not heard?" he cried. "Why the Popish dogs were hanged a week +ago--Ireland and Grove, I mean. And there be three or four more +men--accused by Bedloe of Godfrey's murder, and will be tried +presently." + +I need not say what a horror it was to me to hear that; for I had had +more hope in my heart than I had thought. But I was collected enough to +say something that satisfied him; and, as again he had been drinking, he +was not very quick. + +"And those three or four?" I asked. "Are they Jesuits too?" + +"No," said Rumbald, "but there will be another batch presently, I make +no doubt." + +I got rid of him at last; and rode homewards; but it was with a very +heavy heart. Not once yet had the King exercised his prerogative of +mercy; and if he yielded at the first, and that against the Jesuits whom +he had sworn to protect, was there anything in which he would resist? + +My Cousin Dorothy saw in my face as I came in that something was the +matter; so I told her the truth. + +"May they rest in peace," she said; and blessed herself. + + * * * * * + +From time to time news reached us in this kind of manner. Though we were +not a great distance from London we were in a very solitary place, away +from the high-road that ran to Cambridge; and few came our way. Even in +Puckeridge it was not known, I think, who I was, nor that I was cousin +to Mr. Jermyn; so I had no fear of Mr. Rumbald suspecting me. Green, +Berry, and Hill were all convicted of Sir Edmund's murder, through the +testimony of Bedloe, who said that he had himself seen the body at +Somerset House, and that Sir Edmund had been strangled there by priests +and others and conveyed later to the ditch in Primrose Hill where he was +found. Another fellow, too, named Miles Prance, a silversmith in Princes +Street (out of Drury Lane), who was said by Bedloe to have been privy to +the murder, in the fear of his life, and after inhuman treatment in +prison, did corroborate the story and add to it, under promise of +pardon, which he got. Green, Berry, and Hill, then, were hanged on the +tenth day of February, on the testimonies of these two; and were as +innocent as unborn babes. It was remarked how strangely their names +went with the name of the murdered man and of the place he was found in. + +For a while after that, matters were more quiet. A man named Samuel +Atkins was tried presently, but was acquitted; and then a Nathaniel +Reading was tried for suppressing evidence, and was punished for it. But +our minds, rather, were fixed upon the approaching trial of the "Five +Jesuits" as they were called, who still awaited it in prison--Whitbread, +Fenwick, Harcourt, Gavan and Turner--all priests. But I had not a great +deal of hope for these, when I thought of what had happened to the rest; +and, indeed, at the end of May, Mr. Pickering himself was executed. At +the beginning of May too, we heard of the bloody murder of Dr. Sharpe, +the Protestant Archbishop in Scotland, by the old Covenanters, driven +mad by the persecution this man had put them to; but this did not +greatly affect our fortunes either way. One of the most bitter thoughts +of all was that a secular priest named Serjeant, who, with another named +Morris, was of Gallican views, had given evidence in public court +against the Jesuits' casuistry. + +Meanwhile, in other matters, we were quiet enough. Still I hesitated in +pushing my suit with my Cousin Dolly, until I could see whether she was +being forced to it or not. But my Cousin Tom had more wits than I had +thought; for he said no more to me on the point, nor I to him; and I +think I should have spoken to her that summer, had not an interruption +come to my plans that set all aside for the present. During those months +of spring and early summer we had no religious consolation at all; for +we were too near London, and at the same time too solitary for any +priest to come to us. + +The interruption came in this manner. + +I had sent my man over to Waltham Cross on an affair of a horse that was +to be sold there on the nineteenth day of June (as I very well remember, +from what happened afterwards); and when he came back he asked if he +might speak with me privately. When I had him alone in my room he told +me he had news from a Catholic ostler at the _Four Swans_, with whom he +had spoken, that a party had been asking after me there that very +morning. + +"I said to him, sir, What kind of a party was it? And he told me that +there were four men; and that they went in to drink first and to dine, +for they came there about noon. I asked him then if any of them had any +mark by which he could be known; and he laughed at that; and said that +one of them was branded in the hand, for he was pulling his glove on +when he came into the yard afterwards, so that it was seen." + +I said nothing for a moment, when James said that, for I was considering +whether so small a business of so many months ago was worth thinking of. + +"And what then?" I said. + +"Well, sir; as I was riding back I kept my eyes about me; and especially +in the villages where it might be easy to miss them; and in Puckeridge, +as I came by the inn I looked into the yard, and saw there four horses +all tied up together." + +"Did you ask after them?" I said. + +"No, sir; I thought it best not. But I pushed on as quickly as I could." + +"Did the ostler at Waltham Cross tell you what answer was given to the +inquiries?" + +"No, sir--he heard your name only from the parlour window as he went +through the yard." + +Now here was I in a quandary. On the one hand this was a very small +affair, and not much evidence either way, and I did not wish to alarm my +Cousin Tom if I need not; and, on the other if they were after me I had +best be gone as soon as I could. It was six months since the fellow +Dangerfield had asked after me at Whitehall, and no harm had followed. +Yet here was the tale of the branded hand--and, although there were many +branded hands in England, the consonance of this with what had happened, +misliked me a little. + +"And was there any more news?" I asked. + +"Why, yes, sir; I had forgot. The man told me too that the five Jesuits +were cast six days ago, and Mr. Langhorn a day later, and that they were +all sentenced together." (Mr. Langhorn was a lawyer, a very hot and +devout Catholic; but his wife was as hot a Protestant.) + +Now on hearing that I was a little more perturbed. Here were Mr. +Whitbread and Mr. Fenwick, in whose company I had often been seen in +public before the late troubles, condemned and awaiting sentence; and +here was a fellow with a branded hand asking after me in Waltham Cross. +Oates and Bedloe and Tonge and Kirby and a score of others were evidence +that any man who sought his fortune might very well do so in Popish +plots and accusations; and it was quite believable that Dangerfield was +one more of them, and that after these new events he was after me. Yet, +still, I did not wish to alarm my Cousin Tom; for he was a man who could +not hide his feelings, I thought. + +It was growing dark now; for it was after nine o'clock, and cloudy, with +no moon to rise; and all would soon be gone to bed; so what I did I must +do at once. I sat still in my chair, thinking that if I were hunted out +of Hare Street I had nowhere to go; and then on a sudden I remembered +the King's packet which he had given me, and which I still carried, as +always, wrapped in oil-cloth next to my skin, since no word had come +from him as to what I was to do with it. And at that remembrance I +determined that I must undergo no risks. + +"James," I said, "I think that we must be ready to go away if we are +threatened in any way. Go down to the stables and saddle a fresh horse +for you, and my own. Then come up here again and pack a pair of valises. +I do not know as yet whether we must go or not; but we must be ready for +it. Then take the valises and the horses down to the meadow, through the +garden, and tie all up there, under the shadow of the trees from where +you can see the house. And you must remain there yourself till twelve +o'clock to-night. At twelve o'clock, as near as I can tell it, if all is +quiet I will show a light three times from the garret window; and when +you see that you can come back again and go to bed. If they are after us +at all they will come when they think we are all asleep; and it will be +before twelve o'clock. Do you understand it all?" + +(I was very glib in all this; for I had thought it out all beforehand, +if ever there should be an alarm of this kind.) + +My man said that he understood very well, and went away, and I down to +the Great Chamber where I had left my cousins. + +As I came in at the door, my Cousin Tom woke up with a great snuffle; +and stared at me as if amazed, as folks do when suddenly awakened. + +"Well; to bed," he said. "I am half there already." + +My Cousin Dorothy looked up from her sewing; and I think she knew that +something was forward; for she continued to look at me. + +"Not to bed yet, Cousin Tom," I said. "There is a matter I must speak of +first." + +Well; I sat down and told him as gently as I could--all the affair, +except of the King's packet; and by the time I was done he was no longer +at all drowsy. I told him too of the design I had formed, and that James +was gone to carry it out. + +"Had you not best be gone at once?" he said; and I saw the terror in his +eyes, lest he too should be embroiled. But my Cousin Dorothy looked at +me, unafraid; only there was a spot of colour on either cheek. + +"Well," I said, "I can ride out into the fields and wait there, if you +wish it, until morning: if you will send for me then if all be quiet." + +But I explained to him again that I was in two minds as to whether I +should go at all, so very small was the evidence of danger. + +He looked foolish at that; but I could see that he wanted me gone: so I +stood up. + +"Well, Cousin," I said, "I see that you will be easier if I go. I will +begone first and see whether James has the horses out; and you had best +meanwhile go to my chamber and put away all that can incriminate you--in +one of your hiding-holes." + +I was half-way to the kitchen when I heard my Cousin Dorothy come after +me; and I could see that she was in a great way. + +"Cousin," she said, "I am ashamed that my father should speak like that. +If I were mistress--" + +"My dear Cousin," I said lightly, "if you were mistress, I should not be +here at all." + +"It is a shame," she said again, paying no attention, as her way was +when she liked. "It is a shame that you should spend all night in the +fields for nothing." + +As she was speaking I heard James come downstairs with the valises. As +he went past he told me he already had the horses tied under the trees. +I nodded to him, and bade him go on, and he went out into the yard and +so through the stables. + +"I had best go help your father put the things away," I said. "They will +not be here, at any rate, until the lights of the house are all out." + +We went upstairs together and found my Cousin Tom already busy: he had +my clothes all in a great heap, ready to carry down to the hiding-hole +above the door; my papers he already had put away into the little recess +behind the bed, and the books, most of which had not my name in them, he +designed to carry to his own chamber. + +We worked hard at all this--my Cousin Tom in a kind of fever, rolling +his eyes at every sound; and, at the last, we had all put away, and were +about to close the door of the hiding-hole. Then my Cousin Dorothy held +up her hand. + +"Hush!" she said; and then, "There was a step on the paved walk." + + + + +CHAPTER IX + + +When my Cousin Dorothy said that, we all became upon the instant as +still as mice; and I saw my Cousin Tom's mouth suddenly hang open and +his eyes to become fixed. For myself, I cannot say precisely what I +felt; but it would be foolish to say that I was not at all frightened. +For to be crept upon in the dark, when all is quiet, in a solitary +country place; and to know, as I did, that behind all the silence there +is the roar of a mob--(as it is called)--for blood, and the Lord Chief +Justice's face of iron and his bitter murderous tongue, and the scaffold +and the knife--this is daunting to any man. I made no mistake upon the +matter. If this were Dangerfield himself, my life was ended; he would +not have come here, so far, and with such caution; he would not have +been at the pains to smell me out at all, unless he were sure of his +end; and, indeed, my companying so much with the Jesuits and my +encounter with Oates, and my seeking service with the King, and for no +pay too--all this, in such days, was evidence enough to hang an angel +from heaven. + +This passed through my mind like a picture; and then I remembered that +it was no more than a step on a paved path. + +"If it is they," I whispered, "they will be round the house by now. We +had best look from a dark window." + +But my Cousin Tom seized me suddenly by the arm in so fierce a grip that +I winced and all but cried out; and so we stood. + +"If you have brought ruin on me--" he began presently in a horrid kind +of whisper; and then he gripped me again; for again, so that no man +could mistake it, came a single step on the paved path; and in my mind I +saw how two men had crossed from lawn to lawn, to get all round the +house, each stepping once upon the stones. They must have entered from +the yard. + +In those moments there came to me too a knowledge, of the truth of +which I neither had nor have any doubt at all, that my Cousin Tom was +considering whether he might save himself or no by handing me forthwith +to the searchers. But I suppose he thought not; for presently his hand +relaxed. + +"In with you," he whispered; and made a back for me to climb up into the +hiding-hole. I looked at my Cousin Dolly, and she nodded at me ever so +gently; so I set my foot on my Cousin Tom's broad back, and my hands to +the ledge, and raised myself up. It was a pretty wide space within, +sufficient to hold three or four men, though my clothes and a few books +covered most of the floor; but the only light I had was from the candle +that my Cousin Dolly carried in her hand. As I turned to the door again, +I caught a sight of her face, very pretty and very pale, looking up at +me: I remember even now the shadow on her eyes and beneath her hair; and +then the door was put to quickly, and I was all in the dark. + + * * * * * + +It was a very strange experience to lie there and to hear all that went +on in the house, scarcely a hand's-breadth away. + +I lay there, I should think, ten minutes or a quarter of an hour before +the assault was made; and during that time too I could tell pretty well +all that went on. There remained for a minute or thereabouts, a line of +light upon the roof of my little chamber from the candle that my Cousin +Dolly carried; (and that line of light was as a star to me); then I +heard a little whispering; the light went out; and I heard soft steps +going upstairs. Then I heard first the door of my Cousin Dolly's chamber +close, and then another door which was my Cousin Tom's. Then followed +complete silence; and I knew that the two would go to bed, and be found +there, as if ignorant of everything. + +The assault was made on two doors at once, at front and back. They had +another man or two, I have no doubt, in the stable-yard; and more +beneath the windows everywhere, so that I could not escape any way. +There came on a sudden loud hammerings and voices shouting altogether; +but I could not tell what it was that they cried; but I suppose it must +have been, "Open in the King's name!" + +Then the house awakened, all, that is, that were asleep; and the rest +feigned to do so. I heard steps run down the stairs, and voices +everywhere; as the maids over the kitchen awakened and screamed as maids +will, and the men awakened and ran down from the garret. Then, overhead, +across the lobby I heard my Cousin Tom's footsteps, and I nearly laughed +to myself at the thought of the part that he must play, and of how ill +he would play it. And all the while the beating on the doors went on; +and I heard voices through the lath and plaster from the back-hall; and +then the sound of unbolting, and the knocking ceased on that side, +though it still went on upon the, other. + +My hiding-hole, as I have said, was in the very centre of the house; one +side faced upon the back-hall; and the opposite down the front passage; +and, of the other two, one upon the stairs and one upon the kitchen +passage, and these two had the doors in them. Above me was the lobby; +and beneath me, first the little way into the back-hall, and beneath +that the cellars. It was strange how prominent the place was, and yet +how well concealed. One might live ten years in the house without +suspecting its presence. + +Presently the whole house was full of talking; and the front door was +opened; and I heard a gentleman's voice speaking. He was Mr. Harris, I +learned afterwards, a Justice of the Peace from Puckeridge, whom +Dangerfield had brought with him. + +Much of what was said I could not hear; but I heard enough to understand +why I was being looked for, and what would be the charges against me. +Now the voices came muffled; and now clear; so that I would hear half a +sentence and no more, as the speaker moved on. + +"I tell you he left for Rome to-night," I heard my Cousin Tom say (which +was an adroit lie indeed, as no one could tell whether I had or no), +"and he hath taken his man with him." + +"That is very well--" began the gentleman's voice; and then no more. + +Presently I heard one of the men of the house, named Dick--a good friend +of mine, ask what they were after me for; and some fellow, as he went +by, answered: + +"--Consorting with the Jesuits, and conspiring--" and no more. + +So, then, I lay and listened. Much that I heard had no relevance at all, +for it was the protesting of maids and such-like. The footsteps went +continually up and down; sometimes voices rose in anger; sometimes it +was only a whisper that went by. I heard presses open and shut; and once +or twice the noise of hammering overhead; and then silence again; but no +silence was for long. + +Here again I find it very hard to say all that I felt during that +search. My thoughts came and went like pictures upon the dark. Now my +heart would so beat that it sickened me, of sheer terror that I should +be found; and this especially when a man would stay for a while talking +on the stairs within an arm's length of where I lay: now it was as I +might say, more of the intellect; and I pondered on what I heard my +Cousin Tom say, and marvelled at his shrewdness; for fear, if it does +not drive away wits, sharpens them wonderfully. He had, of course, put +me in greater peril, by saying that I was gone to Rome; but he had saved +himself very adroitly, for no witness in the house could tell that I had +not done so; for here was my chamber empty, and I and my man and my +clothes and my books and my horses all vanished away. At one time, then, +I was all eyes and ears in the muffled dark, hearing my heart thump as +it had been another's; at another time I would be looking within and +contemplating my own fear. + +Again and again, however, I thought of my Cousin Dorothy and wondered +where she was and what she was at. I had not heard her voice all that +time; and, on a sudden, after the men had been in the house near an hour +I should say, I heard her sob suddenly, close to me, in a terrified kind +of voice. + +"Keep them, Nancy, keep them here as long as you can. It will give +him--" + +"Eh?" said a man's voice suddenly beneath. "What was that?" + +"I said nothing," stammered my Cousin Dolly's voice. + +Well; there was a to-do. The fellow beneath called out to Mr. Harris, +who was upstairs; and I heard him come down. My Cousin Dolly was sobbing +and crying out, and so was the maid Nancy to whom she had spoken. At +first I could make nothing of it, nor why she had said what she had; and +then, as I heard them all go into the parlour together, I understood +that if my Cousin Tom had been shrewd, his daughter had been shrewder; +and had said what she had, knowing that a man was within earshot. + +But there was nothing for me to do but to lie there still; for I could +hear nothing from the parlour but a confused sound of voices, now three +or four speaking at once, now a man's voice (which I took to be the +magistrate's), and now, I thought my Cousin Dolly's. I heard, too, above +me, my Cousin Tom speaking very angrily, and understood that he was kept +from his daughter--which was the best thing in the world for me, since +he might very well have spoiled the whole design. At last I heard Dolly +cry out very loud; then I heard the parlour-door open and three or four +men came tumbling out, who ran beneath my hiding-hole and out through +the kitchen passage to the stable. I was all a-tremble now, especially +at my cousin's cry; but I gave her credit for being as shrewd still as I +had heard her to be on the stairs; and I proved right in the event; for +almost immediately after that my Cousin Tom was let come downstairs, and +I heard every word, of the colloquy. + +"Well, Mr. Jermyn," said the gentleman's voice, immediately without my +little door, "I am sorry indeed to have troubled you in this way; but I +am the King's justice of the peace and I must do my duty. Which way did +you say Mr. Mallock was gone?" + +"By...by Puckeridge," stammered poor Tom. + +"Ah! indeed," said the other voice, with something of a sneer in it. +"Why Mistress Dorothy here says it was by Barkway and so to Harwich; and +of the two versions I prefer the lady's. For, first, we should have seen +him if he had come by Puckeridge, since we have been lying there since +three o'clock this afternoon; and second, no such man in his senses +would go to Rome by London. I am sorry I cannot commend your +truthfulness, Mr. Jermyn, as much as your professions of loyalty." + +"I tell you--" began my Cousin Tom, angrily enough. + +"I need no telling, Mr. Jermyn. Your cousin is gone by Barkway; and my +men are gone to get the horses out to follow him. We shall catch him +before Newmarket, I make no doubt." + +Then I heard Dolly's sobbing as she clung to her father. + +"Oh! father! father!" she mourned. "The gentleman forced it out of me. I +could not help it. I could not help it!" + +(As for me, I smiled near from ear to ear in the dark, to hear how well +she feigned grief; and I think I loved my Cousin Dolly then as never +before. It would have made a cat laugh, too, to hear the gentleman's +chivalry in return.) + +"Mistress Dorothy," he said, "I grieve to have troubled you like this. +But you have done your duty as an English maid should; and set your +loyalty to His Majesty before all else." + +Mistress Dorothy sobbed so admirably in return that my own eyes filled +with tears to hear her; and I was a little sorry for the poor gentleman +too. He was so stupid, and yet so well mannered too now that he had got +all that he wanted, or thought he had. + +"Well, mistress, and Mr. Jermyn, I must not delay any longer. The horses +will be ready." + +They moved away still talking, all except my Cousin Dolly who sank upon +the stairs still sobbing. She cried out after Mr. Harris to have mercy; +and then fell a-crying again. When the door of the kitchen passage +shut--for they were all gone out by now--her crying ceased mighty soon; +and then I heard her laugh very softly to herself, and break off again, +as if she had put her hand over her mouth. But I dared not speak to her +yet. + +I listened very carefully--for all the house was still now--for the +sound of the horses' feet; and presently I heard them, and reckoned that +a dozen at least must have come after me; and I heard the voices of the +men too as they rode away, grow faint and cease. Then I heard my Cousin +Dolly slip through the door beneath me, and she gave me one little rap +to the floor of my hiding-hole as she went beneath it. + +I did not hear her come back; for Cousin Tom's footsteps were loud in +the kitchen passage; and the men too were tramping in and upstairs, +while the maids went back to bed through the kitchen; and then, when all +was quiet again I heard her voice speak suddenly in a whisper. + +"You can open now, Cousin Roger, they be all gone away." I unbolted and +pushed open the little door quickly enough then; and though I was dazed +with the candlelight the first thing that I saw was Dolly's face, her +eyes as bright as stars with merriment and laughter, and her cheeks +flushed to rose, looking up at me. + + + + +CHAPTER X + + +That ride of mine all night to London was such as I shall never forget, +not from any outward incident that happened, but for the thoughts that +went continually through my heart and brain; and I do not suppose that I +spoke twenty words to James all night, until we saw about seven o'clock +the smoke and spires of London against the morning sky. + + * * * * * + +So soon as the coast was clear, and the last sound of the horses was +died away on the hill beyond the Castle Inn--for the men rode fast and +hard to catch me--I was out and away in the opposite direction, to +Puckeridge; but first we brought the horses back as softly as we could, +with James (who, like a good servant had not stirred an inch from his +orders through all the tumult which he had heard plainly enough from the +meadow), round to the head of the little lane that leads from Hormead +Magna into Hare Street. There we waited, I say, all four of us in +silence, until we heard the hoofs no more; and then James and I mounted +on our horses. + +I had said scarcely a word to Dorothy, nor she to me; for we both felt, +I think, that there was no great need of words after such an adventure, +and that it had knit us closer together than any words could do; and, +besides, that was no place to talk. Yet it was not all pure joy; for +here was the knowledge which we both had, that I must go away, and that +God only knew when I should get back again; and, whatever that knowledge +was to Dorothy, it was as a sword for pain to me. As for my Cousin Tom, +he was no better than a dummy; for he was still terrified at all that +had happened, and at the magistrate's words to him. I told them both, +while we were still in the house, that I must go to London, partly for +that that was the last place in the world that any would look for me in, +and partly--(but this I told neither of them)--for that I must return +the packet to His Majesty: and I said that from London I would go to +France for a little, until it seemed safe for me to get back again. But +there, waiting in the dark, I said nothing at all; but before I mounted +I kissed Dorothy on the cheek; and her cheek was wet, but whether with +the feigned tears she had shed in the house, or with tears even dearer +to me than those, I do not know. But I dared not delay any longer, for +fear that when Mr. Harris came to Barkway, which was five miles away, he +might learn that no one that could be James and I had passed that way, +and so return to search again. + + * * * * * + +The clouds had rolled away by now; and it was a clear night of stars +until they began to pale about two o'clock in the morning; and I think +that for a lover who desires to be alone with his thoughts, there is no +light of sun or moon or candle so sweet as the light of stars; and by +that time we were beyond Ware and coming out of the valley. + +It was solemn to me to watch that dawn coming up, for it was, I thought, +the last dawn that I should see in England for a while, since I was +determined but to see the King in London, and push straight on to Dover +and take the packet there: and it was a solemn dawn too, in another way, +for it was the first I had seen since I had been certain not only that I +loved my Cousin Dolly as I had my own heart, but that she loved me also; +and that is a great day for a lover. + +To see the King then, and to push on to Dover, was all that I had +rehearsed to myself; but Providence had one more adventure for me first, +that was one of the saddest I have ever had in all my life, and yet not +all sad. + + * * * * * + +My road took me in through the City and down Gracechurch Street; but +here I took a fancy to turn to the right up Leadenhall and Cornhill, +which were all crowded with folks, though at first I did not think why, +that I might go by Newgate where the Jesuits lay, and see at least the +walls that enclosed those saints of God; for I was pretty bold here, +knowing that Mr. Dangerfield who was my chief peril, was off to Harwich +to find me; and even if they found that I was not gone through Barkway, +I did not think that they could catch me, for their horses were tired +and ours fresh; and you do not easily get a change of a dozen horses, or +anywhere near it, in Hertfordshire villages. So I went very boldly, and +made no pretence not to look folks in the face. + +After we had passed up Cheapside it appeared to me that the streets were +strangely full, and that all the folk were going the same way; and so +astonished was I at this--for no suspicion of the truth came to me--that +I bid my man ask someone what the matter was. When he came up with me +again I could see that something was the matter indeed; and so it was. + +"Sir," he said in a low voice, so that none else could hear, "they are +taking the prisoners to execution this morning." + +Then there came upon me a kind of madness--for, although by God's +blessing it brought no harm to me--yet it was nothing else; and I +determined to go to Newgate as I had intended, and at least see them +brought out. For here was to be a martyrdom indeed--five men, all +priests, all Religious--suffering, in God's eyes at least, for nothing +in the world but the Catholic religion; yes, and in men's too, if they +had known all, for I remembered how Mr. Whitbread had refused to escape, +while he had yet a whole day for it, for fear of seeming to confess his +guilt and so bringing scandal upon the Church and his order. From such a +martyrdom, then, so near to me, how could I turn away? and I determined, +if I could, to speak with Father Whitbread, and get his blessing. + +When I got near Newgate the press grew greater every instant; but as we +were on horseback and the greater number of the folks on foot, we got +through them at last, and so came to the foot of the stairs by the +chapel, where the sleds were laid ready with a pair of horses to each. I +had never before seen an execution done in England, so I observed very +carefully everything that was to be seen. The sleds were three in +number, and were each made flat of strong wood with runners about an +inch high; and there was a pair of horses harnessed to each, with a man +to guide them. I got close to these, next behind the line of yellow +trainbandmen who kept the way open, as well as the stairs. We were in +the shadow here, in a little court of which the gates were set open, but +the people were all crowded in behind the trainbandmen as well as in the +street outside, and from them rose a great murmuring of talk, of which I +did not hear a word spoken in sympathy, for I suppose that the Catholics +there held their tongues. + +We had not very long to wait; for, by the appointment of God, I was come +just to time; and very soon the door at the head of the stairs was +opened and men began to come out. I saw Mr. Sheriff How among them, who +was to see execution done; but I did not observe these very closely, +since I was looking for the Jesuits. + +Mr. Harcourt came first into the sunlight that was at the head of the +steps; and at the sight of him I was moved very deeply; for he was an +old man with short white hair, very thick, and walked with a stick with +his other hand in some fellow's arm. A great rustle of talk began when +he appeared, and swelled into a roar, but he paid no attention to it, +and came down, smiling and looking to his steps. Next came Mr. +Whitbread; and at the sight of him I was as much affected as by the old +man; for I had spoken with him so often. He too walked cheerfully, first +looking about him resolutely as he came out at all the faces turned up +to his; and at him too was even a greater roaring, for the people +thought him to be at the head of all the conspiracy. He was pinioned +loosely with cords, but not so that he could not lift his hands (and so +were the other three that followed), and a fellow held the other end of +the cord in his hand. Mr. Turner and Mr. Gavan, who came next, I had +never seen before--(Mr. Gavan was he that was taken in the stables of +the Imperial Ambassador--Count Wallinstein)--they came one behind the +other, and paid no more attention than the others to the noise that +greeted them; and last of all came Mr. Fenwick who had entertained me so +often in Drury Lane, looking pinched, I thought, with his imprisonment, +yet as courageous as any. Behind him came a minister and then the tail +of the guard. + +As I saw Mr. Fenwick come out I put into execution a design I had formed +just now; and slipping from my horse I got out a guinea and begged in a +low voice the fellow before me--for I was just by the sled on which Mr. +Harcourt and Mr. Whitbread would be bound--to let me through enough to +speak a word with him; and at the same time I pressed the guinea into +his hand: so he stood aside a little and let me through, on my knees, +enough to speak to Mr. Whitbread. Mr. Harcourt was already laid down on +the sled, on the further side from me, and Mr. Whitbread was getting to +his knees for the same end. As he turned and sat himself on the sled he +saw me, and frowned ever so little. Then he smiled as I made the sign of +the cross on myself and he made it too at me, and I saw his lips move as +he blessed me. He was not an arm's length from me. That was enough for +me; and I stepped back again and mounted my horse once more. The fellow +who had let me through looked at me over his shoulder once or twice, but +said nothing; for he had my guinea; and, as for myself I sat content, +though my eyes pricked with tears, for I had had the last blessing (or +very nearly) which that martyr of God would ever give in this world. + + * * * * * + +When they were all ready, and the five were bound on the sleds, with +their beads to the horses' heels, I looked to see how I could best +follow; and it appeared to me that it was best for me to keep close at +the tail, rather than to attempt to go before. When the word was given, +the whips cracked, and the sled nearest me, with Mr. Whitbread and Mr. +Harcourt upon it, began to move. Then came Mr. Turner and Mr. Gavan, and +last Mr. Fenwick all by himself. The minister whose name was Samuel +Smith, as I learned later, and who was the Ordinary of Newgate, followed +on foot, and behind him came the guards to close them all in. + +My fellow in front, whom I had bribed, seemed to understand what I +wanted; for in the confusion he let me through, and my man James forced +his way after me; so that we found ourselves with three or four other +gentlemen, riding immediately behind the guards, as we came out of the +court into the street outside; and so we followed, all the way to +Tyburn. + +That adventure of mine was I think the most observable I have ever had, +and, too, the greatest privilege to my soul: for here was I, if ever any +man did, following the Cross of Christ in the passion of His +servants--such a _Via Crucis_ as I have never made in any church--for +here was the very road along which so many hundreds of the Catholic +martyrs had passed before; and at the end was waiting the very death by +which they had died. I know that the martyrdom of these five was not so +evident an one as that of others before them, since those died for the +Faith directly, and these for an alleged conspiracy; yet before God, I +think, they died no less for Religion, since it was in virtue of their +Religion that they were accused. So, then, I followed them. + +All the way along Holborn we went, and High Holborn and St. Giles, and +at last out into the Oxford Road that ran then between fields and +gardens; and all the way we went the crowds went with us, booing and +roaring from time to time, and others, too, from the windows of the +houses, joined in the din that was made. At first the way was nasty +enough, with the pails that folks had emptied out of doors into the +gutter; but by the time we reached the Oxford Road the way was dusty +only; so that the five on the sleds were first nastied, and then the +dust fell on them from the horses' heels. I could see only Mr. Fenwick's +face from time to time; he kept his eyes closed the most of the way, and +was praying, I think. Of the rest I could see nothing. + +It was a terrible sight to me when we came out at last and saw the +gallows--the "Deadly Nevergreen" as it was called--the three posts with +the beams connecting them--against the western sky. The ropes were in +place all in one line; and a cart was there beneath them. A cauldron, +too, sent up its smoke a little distance away beside the brook. All this +space was kept clear again by guards; and there were some of the new +grenadiers among them, in their piebald livery, with furred caps; and +without the guards there was a great crowd of people. Here, then, was +the place of the Passion. + +The confusion was so great as the sleds went within the line of guards, +and the people surged this way and that, that I was forced, somewhat, +out of the place I had hoped to get, and found myself at last a good way +off, with a press of people between me and the gallows; so that I could +see nothing of the unbinding; and, when they spoke later could not hear +all that they said. + +It was not long before they were all in the cart together, with the +ropes about their necks, and the hangman down again upon the ground; and +as soon as that was done, a great silence fell everywhere. I had seen +Mr. Gavan say something to the hangman, and he answered again; but I +could not hear what it was. + +Then, when the silence fell, I heard Mr. Whitbread begin; and the first +sentence was clear enough, though his voice sounded thin at that +distance. + +"I suppose," he said, "it is expected I should speak something to the +matter I am condemned for, and brought hither to suffer." + +Then he went on to say how he was wholly guiltless of any plot against +His Majesty, and that in saying so he renounced and repudiated any +pretended pardons or dispensations that were thought to have been given +him to swear falsely. He prayed God to bless His Majesty, and denied +that it was any part of Catholic teaching that a king might be killed as +it was said had been designed by the alleged plot; and he ended by +recommending his soul into the hands of his blessed Redeemer by whose +only merits and passion he hoped for salvation. He spoke very clearly, +with a kind of coldness. + +Father Harcourt's voice was not so clear, as he was an old man; but I +heard Mr. Sheriff How presently interrupt him. (He was upon horseback +close beside the gallows.) + +"Or of Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey's death?" he asked. + +"Did you not write that letter concerning the dispatch of Sir Edmund +Berry Godfrey?" + +"No, sir," cried the old man very loud. "These are the words of a dying +man. I would not do it for a thousand worlds." + +He went on to affirm his innocence of all laid to his charge; and he +ended by begging the prayers of all in the communion of the Roman Church +in which he himself died. + +When Mr. Anthony Turner had spoke a while, again Sheriff How interrupted +him. + +"You do only justify yourselves here," he said. "We will not believe a +word that you say. Spend your time in prayer, and we will not think your +time too long." + +But Mr. Turner went on as before, affirming his entire innocence; and, +at the end he prayed aloud, and I heard every word of it. + +"O my dear Saviour and Redeemer," he cried, lifting up his eyes, and his +hands too as well as he could for the cords, "I return Thee immortal +thanks for all Thou hast pleased to do for me in the whole course of my +life, and now in the hour of my death, with a firm belief of all things +Thou hast revealed, and a stedfast hope of obtaining everlasting bliss. +I cheerfully cast myself into the arms of Thy mercy, whose arms were +stretched on the Cross for my redemption. Sweet Jesus, receive my +spirit." + +Then Mr. Gavan spoke to the same effect as the rest, but he argued a +little more, and theologically too, being a young man; and spoke of +Mariana the Jesuit who had seemed to teach a king-killing doctrine; but +this sense on his words he repudiated altogether. He too, at the end, +commended his soul into the hands of God, and said that he was ready to +die for Jesus as Jesus had died for him. + +Mr. Fenwick had scarcely begun before Mr. Sheriff How broke in on him, +and argued with him concerning the murder of Sir Edmund. + +"As for Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey," cried Mr. Fenwick, "I protest before +God that I never saw the man in my life." + +"For my part," said the Sheriff, "I am of opinion that you had a hand +in it." + +"Now that I am a dying man," said the priest, "do you think that I would +go and damn my soul?" + +"I wish you all the good that I can," said Mr. How, "but I assure you I +believe never a word you say." + +Well; he let him alone after that; and Mr. Fenwick finished, once more +denying and renouncing the part that had been assigned to him, and +maintaining his innocence. + +There followed after that a very long silence, of half an hour, I should +think. The five men stood in the cart together, with their eyes cast +down; and each, I think, absolved his neighbour. The crowd about kept +pretty quiet, only murmuring together; and cried no more insults at +them. I, too, did my best to pray with them and for them; but my horse +was restless, and I had some ado to keep him quiet. After a good while, +Mr. Sheriff How spoke to them again. + +"Pray aloud, gentlemen, that we may join with you. We shall do you no +hurt if we do you no good." + +They said nothing to that; and he spoke again, with some sharpness. + +"Are you ashamed of your prayers?" + +Still they did not speak; and he turned on Father Gavan. + +"Why, Mr. Gavan," he said, "it is reported that you did preach in the +Quakers' meeting-house." + +The priest opened his eyes. + +"No, sir," he said, "I never did preach there in all my life." + +It was very solemn and dreadful to wait there while they prayed; for +they were at it again for twenty minutes, I should judge, and no more +interruptions from Mr. How, who, I think, was a shade uneasy. It was a +clear June day, beginning to be hot; and the birds were chirping in the +trees about the place--for at times the silence was so great that one +could hear a pin fall, as they say. Now I felt on the brink of hell--at +the thought of the pains that were waiting for my friends, at the memory +of that great effusion of blood that had been poured out and of the +more that was to follow. There was something shocking in the quietness +and the glory of the day--such a day as many that I had spent in the +meadows of Hare Street, or in the high woods--faced as it was with this +dreadful thing against the blue sky, and the five figures beneath it, +like figures in a frieze, and the smoke of the cauldron that drifted up +continually or brought a reek of tar to my nostrils. And, again, all +this would pass; and I would feel that it was not hell but heaven that +waited; and that all was but as a thin veil, a little shadow of death, +that hung between me and the unimaginable glories; and that at a word +all would dissolve away and Christ come and this world be ended. So, +then, the minutes passed for me: I said my _Paternoster_ and _Ave_ and +_Credo_ and _De Profundis_, over and over again; praying that the +passage of those men might be easy, and that their deaths might be as +sacrifices both for themselves and for the country. I was beyond fearing +for myself now; I was in a kind of madness of pity and longing. And, at +the last I saw Mr. Whitbread raise his head and look at the Sheriff. + +There rose then, as he made a sign, a great murmur from all the crowd. I +had thought that they would have been impatient, but they were not; and +had kept silence very well; and I think that this spectacle of the five +men praying had touched many hearts there. Now, however, when the end +approached, they seemed to awaken again, and to look for it; and they +began to move their heads about to see what was done, so that the crowd +was like a field of wheat when the wind goes over it. + +Then fell a horrible thing. + +There broke out suddenly a cry, that was like a trumpet suddenly +sounding after drums--of a different kind altogether from the murmuring +that was before. I turned my head whence it came, and saw a great +confusion break out in the outskirts of the crowd. Then I saw a horse's +head, and a man's bare head behind it, whisk out from the trees in the +direction of the park, and come like a streak across the open ground. +As the galloper came nearer, I could see that he was spurring as if for +life. Then once more a great roar broke out everywhere-- + +"A pardon! a pardon!" And so it was. + +The crowd opened out to let the man through; and immediately he was at +the gallows, and handing the paper to the sheriff. A roar was going up +now on all sides; but as in dumb play I could see that Mr. How was +speaking to the priests who still stood as before. Mr. Whitbread shook +his head in answer and so did the others. Then I saw Mr. How make a +sign; the hangman came forward again (for he had stepped back just now); +and the roar died suddenly to silence. + +Then I understood that the pardon was offered only on conditions which +these men could not accept--and indeed they turned out afterwards to be +that they should confess their guilt--and my anger at that bitter +mockery swelled up so that I could scarcely hold myself in. But I did +so. + +Then the hangman climbed once more into the cart, and, one by one with +each, he adjusted the rope, and then pulled down the caps over their +faces, beginning with Father Whitbread and ending with Father Fenwick. +Then he got down from the cart again; and the murmur rose once more to a +roar. + +I kept my eyes fixed upon the five, caring for nothing else; and even in +that horrible instant my lips moved in the _De Profundis_ for their +souls' easy passage. Then I saw old Father Harcourt suddenly stagger, +and then the rest staggered; and I saw that the cart was being pulled +away. And then all five of them were in the air together, beginning to +twist to and fro; and I shut my eyes, for I could bear no more. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + + +It was not till we were coming down St. Martin's Lane on the way to +Whitehall, that my thoughts ran clear again, and I could think upon the +designs I had formed. Until then, it seemed to me that I rode as in a +dream, seeing my thoughts before me, but having no power to look within +or consider myself. One thing too moved before me whenever I closed my +eyes; and that was the slow twisting frieze of the five figures against +the blue sky. + + * * * * * + +I spoke suddenly to James as we went. + +"You will leave me," I said, "at the Whitehall gate; and go back to my +lodgings. Procure a pair of good horses at the Covent Garden inn; and +say we will leave them at any place they name on the Dover Road." + +He answered that he would do so, and it was the first word he had spoken +since we had left Tyburn. At the palace-doors I found no difficulty in +admittance, for it was the hour for changing guard, and a lieutenant +that was known to me let me in at once; so I went straight in and across +the court, just as I was, in my dusty clothes and boots, carrying +nothing but my riding-whip. My mind now seethed with bitter thoughts and +words, now fell into a stupor, and I rehearsed nothing of what I should +say to His Majesty, except that I was done with his service and was then +going to France for a little, unless it pleased him to have me arrested +and hanged too for nothing. Then I would give him back his papers and +begone. + + * * * * * + +I came up the stairs to Mr. Chiffinch's lodgings, just as himself came +out; and he fell back a step when he saw me. + +"Why, where do you come from?" he asked. + +"They are after me," I said briefly. "But that is not all." + +"Why, what else?" said he, staring at me. + +"I am come from seeing the martyrdoms," I said. + +"For God's sake!--" he cried; and caught me by the arm and drew me in. + +"Now have you dined?" he said, when he had me in a chair. + +"Not yet." + +He looked at me, fingering his lip. + +"I suppose you have come to see His Majesty?" he said. + +I told him, Yes: no more. + +"And what if His Majesty will not see you?" he asked, trying me. + +"His Majesty will see me," I said. "I have something for him." + +Again he hesitated. I think for a minute or two he thought it might be a +pistol or a knife that I had for the King. + +"If I bring you to him," he said, "will you give me your word to remain +here till I come for you?" + +"Yes; I will do that," I said. "But I must see him immediately." + +"Well--" said Mr. Chiffinch. And then without a word he wheeled and went +out of the room. + +I do not know how long I sat there; but it may have been half an hour. I +sat like a dazed man; for I had had no sleep, and what I had seen drove +away all desire for it. I sat there, staring, and pondering round and +round in circles, like a wheel turning. Now it was of Dorothy; now of +the Jesuits; now of His Majesty and Mr. Chiffinch; now again, of the +road to Dover, and of what I should do in France. + +There came at last a step on the stairs, and Mr. Chiffinch came in. At +the door he turned, and took from a man in the passage, as I suppose, a +covered dish, with a spoon in it. Then he shut the door with his heel, +and came forward and set the dish down. + +"Dinner first--" he said. + +"I must see His Majesty," I repeated. + +"Why you are an obstinate fellow, Mr. Mallock," he said, smiling. "Have +I not given you my word you shall see him?" + +"Directly?" + +He leaned his hands on the table and looked at me. + +"Mr. Mallock; His Majesty will be here in ten minutes' time. I told him +you must eat something first; and he said he would wait till then." + + * * * * * + +The stew he had brought me was very savoury: and I ate it all up; for I +had had nothing to eat since supper last night; and, by the time I had +done, and had told him very briefly what had passed at Hare Street, I +felt some of my bewilderment was gone. It is marvellous how food can +change the moods of the immortal soul herself; but I was none the less +determined, I thought, to leave the King's service; for I could not +serve any man, I thought, whose hands were as red as his in the blood of +innocents. + +I had hardly done, and was blessing myself, when Mr. Chiffinch went out +suddenly, and had returned before I had stood up, to hold the door open +for the King. + +He came in, that great Prince,--(for in spite of all I still count him +to be that, _in posse_ if not _in esse_)--as airy and as easy as if +nothing in the world was the matter. He was but just come from dinner, +and his face was flushed a little under its brown, with wine; and his +melancholy eyes were alight. He was in one of his fine suits too, for +to-day was Saturday; and as it was hot weather his suit was all of thin +silk, puce-coloured, with yellow lace; and he carried a long cane in his +ringed hand. He might not have had a care in the world, to all +appearances; and he smiled at me, as if I were but just come back from a +day in the country. + +"Well, Mr. Mallock"--he said; and put out his hand to be kissed. + +Now I had determined not to kiss his hand--whatever the consequences +might be; but when I saw him like that I could do no otherwise; for my +love and my pity for him--(if I may use such a word of a subject towards +his Sovereign)--surged up again, which I thought were dead for ever; so +I was on my knees in an instant, and I kissed his brown hand and smelled +the faint violet essence which he used. Then, before I could say +anything, he had me down in a chair, and himself in another, and was +beginning to talk. (Mr. Chiffinch was gone out; but I had not seen him +go.) + +"It is a bloody business," he said sorrowfully--"a very bloody business. +But what else could be done? If I had not consented, I would be no +longer King; but off on my travels again; and all England in confusion. +However; that is as it may be. What do you want to see me for, Mr. +Mallock?" + +He spoke so kindly to me, and with such feeling too, and his +condescension seemed to me so infinite in his coming here to wait upon +me--(though this was very often his custom, I think, when he wished to +see a man or a woman in private)--that I determined to put off my +announcement to him that I could no longer be in his service. So first I +drew out from my waistcoat the packet I had taken from under my shirt, +and put there, while Mr. Chiffinch was away. + +"Sir;" I said, "I have brought your packet back again. I have had no +word from you as to its delivery; and as I must go abroad to-day I dare +keep it no longer. Your Majesty, I fear, must find another messenger." + +His face darkened for an instant as if he could not remember something; +but it lightened again as he took the packet from me, and turned it +over. + +"Why; I remember," he said. "It was sealed within and without, was it +not?" + +That seemed to me a strangely irrelevant thing to say but I told him, +Yes it was. + +"And you were to deliver to--eh? what was his name?" + +"Your Majesty told me that the name would be sent to me." + +"Why, so I did," said the King, smiling. "Well; let us open the packet +and see what is within." + +He took up a little ivory knife that was on the table by his elbow, and +slipped it beneath the folds of the paper, so as to burst open the +seals; and when he had done that, there was another wrapper, also +sealed. This seal he also scrutinized, still smiling a little; and then +he burst that; and when he had taken off that covering, a folded piece +of paper fell out. This he unfolded, and spread flat with his fingers; +and there was nothing written on that side; then he turned it over, and +shewed me how there was nothing written on that either. So the message I +had borne about me, was nothing in the world but a piece of blank paper. + +I drew a long breath when I saw that; for my anger surged up at the way +I had been fooled; but before I could think of anything to say, the King +spoke. + +"Mr. Mallock," he said, "you have done very well. You understand it now, +eh?" + +"No, Sir; I do not," I said. + +"Why; it is a very old trick;" went on His Majesty, "to see if a +messenger will be faithful. Your folks did it first, I think, in Queen +Bess her reign; so as to risk nothing. And you have kept it all this +while!" + +"I obeyed Your Majesty's commands," I said. + +"Well; and you have delivered it to the right person." (He tossed the +papers altogether upon the table and turned to me again.) "Now, sir; I +had no real doubt of you; but others were not so sure; and I consented +to this to please them; so now that all has been done, I can use you +more freely, if you will: I have more than one mission which must be +done for me; and if you like it, Mr. Mallock, you may have the first." + +"Sir; I must go to France immediately. The hunt is up, after me, too." + +"What do you mean by that?" he said sharply. "The hunt! What is that?" + +"I would not weary Your Majesty with it all; but the truth is that the +fellow Dangerfield, who came after me here, came yesterday with a +magistrate and near a dozen men, to Hare Street to take me. I eluded +them, and came to London." + +"You eluded them! How was that?" + +Well; I told him as shortly as I could; and he laughed outright when I +came to my Cousin Dolly's part in it. + +"Why: that was very wittily done!" he said. "The minx!" + +I did not much like that; but I could not find fault with the King. + +"And I was at Tyburn this morning, Sir." + +"What! At Tyburn!" + +"At Tyburn, Sir; and I was so sick at heart at what I saw there--five of +Your Majesty's most faithful servants murdered in the name of justice, +that I would not have cared greatly if I had been hanged with them." + +His face darkened a little; but not with anger at me. + +"It is a bloody business, as I have said," he said gently. "But +come!--it is to France that you go." + +"There is as good as any other place," I said, "so I be out of the +kingdom. I have estates there, too." + +"But to France will suit very well," said the King. "For it is to France +that I designed to send you. I have plenty of couriers who can take +written messages, and I have plenty of men who can talk--some think, too +much; but I have no one at hand at this moment whom I can send to Court, +and who will acquit himself well there, and that can take a message +too--none, that is, that is not occupied. What do you say, Mr. Mallock? +Would a couple of months there please you?" + +Here then was the time for my announcement; for I knew that if I did not +make it then I should make it never. + +I stood up; and my heart beat thickly. + +"Sir," I said. "Six months ago I would have run anywhere to serve you. +But in six months many things have happened; and I cannot serve a Prince +any more who cannot keep his word even to save the innocent. I had best +be gone again to Rome, I think, and see what they can give me there. I +am sick of England, which I once loved so much." + +It was those very words--or others very like them that I said. I do not +know where I got the courage to say them, for my life lay altogether in +the King's hand: a word from him, or even silence, and I should have +kicked my heels that night in Newgate, and a week or two later in the +air, on a charge of being in with the Jesuits in their plot. Yet I said +them; for I could say nothing else. + +His Majesty's face turned black as thunder as I began; and when I was +done it was all stiff with pride. + +"That is your mind, Mr. Mallock, then?" he said. + +"That is my mind, Sir," I answered him. + +And then a change went over his face once more. God knows why he +relented; I think it may have been that he had somewhat of a fancy for +me, and remembered how I had pleased him and tried to serve him. And +when he spoke, it was very gently indeed. + +"Mr. Mallock," he said, "those are very brave words. But I think they +are not worthy of a man of your parts. For consider; were you not sent +here by the Holy Father to help a poor sinner who had need of it? And is +it Catholic charity to leave the sinner because of his sins?" + +I said nothing to that; for I was all confounded at his mildness. I +suppose I had braced myself for something very different. + +"It is true I am not a Catholic; but were you not sent here, in answer +to my entreaty, that you might help to make it easy for me to become +one? Is it apostolic, then, to run away so soon--" + +"If Your Majesty," I burst out, "would but shew some signs--" + +He lifted his eyebrows at that. + +"Signs! In these days?" he said. "Why, I should hang, myself, in a +week's time! Are these the days, think you, to shew Catholicism? Why; do +you not think that my own heart is not near broken with all I have had +to do?" + +He spoke with extraordinary passion; for that was his way when he was +very deeply moved (which, to tell the truth, however, was not very +often). But I have never known a man so careless and indolent on the +surface, who had a softer heart than His Sacred Majesty, if it could but +be touched. + +"The blood of God's priests," he cried, holding the arms of his chair so +that it shook--"their blood cries from the ground against me! Do you +think I do not know that? Yet what can I do? I am tied and bound by +circumstance. I could not save them; and in the attempt I could only +lose my own life or throne as well. The people are mad for their blood! +Why Scroggs himself said in public at one of the trials, that even the +King's Mercy could not come between them and death. And it is at this +moment, then, that the servants to whom I had looked to help me, leave +me! Go if you will, Mr. Mallock, and save your own soul. You shall have +a safe passage to France; but never again speak to me of Catholic +charity." + +Every word that he said rang true in my heart. It was true indeed, as he +said, that no effort of his could have saved the men, and he could only +have perished himself. There were scores of men, even among his own +guards, I have no doubt, who would have killed him if he had shewn at +this time the least mercy, or the least inclination towards Catholicism. +His back was to the wall; he fought not for himself only, but for +Monarchy itself in England. There would have been an end of all, and we +back again under the tyranny of the Commonwealth if he had acted +otherwise; or as I had thought that he would. + +He had scarcely finished when I was on my knees before him. + +"Sir," I cried, "I am heartily ashamed of myself. I ask pardon for all +that I have said. I will go to France or to anywhere else; and will +think myself honoured by it, and by the forgiveness of Your Majesty. +Sir; let me be your servant once more." + +The passion was gone from his face as he looked down on me there; and he +was, as before, the great Prince, with his easy manner and his +unimaginable charm. + +"Why that is very well said," he answered me. "And I shall be glad to +have your services, Mr. Mallock. Mr. Chiffinch will give you all +instructions." + + * * * * * + +"That was a very bold speech," said Mr. Chiffinch presently, when the +King was gone away again--"which you made to His Majesty." + +"Why, did you hear it?" I cried. + +He smiled at me. + +"Why, yes," he said. "I was behind the open door just within the further +chamber. I was not sure of you, Mr. Mallock, neither was the King for +that matter." + +"Sure of me?" + +"I thought perhaps we might have a real threatener of the King's life, +at last," he said. "You had a very wild look when you came in, Mr. +Mallock." + +"Yet His Majesty came; and unarmed!" I cried: "and as happy as--as a +King!" + +"Why, what else?" asked Mr. Chiffinch. + +Our eyes met; and for the first time I understood how even a man like +this, with his pandering to the King's pleasures, and his own evil life, +could have as much love and admiration for such a man, as I myself had. + + + + +PART II + + + + +CHAPTER I + + +I do not mean to set down in this volume all that befell me during the +years that I was in the King's service, partly because that would make +too large a book, but chiefly because there were committed to me affairs +of which this French one was the first, of which I took my oath never to +speak without leave. Up to the present in England nothing had been said +to me which would be private twenty years afterwards; I take no shame at +all at revealing what little I was able to do for the King personally in +England--(except perhaps in one or two points which must not be spoken +of)--nor of my adventures and my endeavours to be of service to those +who were one with me in religion; but of the rest, the least said the +soonest mended. So the best plan which I can think of is to leave out on +every occasion all that passed, or very nearly all, when I was out of my +country, both in France and Rome, for I went away--on what I may call +secret service--three times altogether between my first coming and the +King's death. It is enough to say that this time I was in Paris about +three months, and in Normandy one; and that I had acquitted myself, so +far, to His Majesty's satisfaction.[A] + +[Footnote A: Plainly this business of Mr. Mallock had some connection +with Charles' perpetual intrigues with France, for Louis' support of +him. At this time Charles' intrigues were a little unsuccessful; so it +may be supposed that without Mr. Mallock they would have been even +worse.] + +I returned to London then on the night of the sixteenth of November, of +the same year; and I brought with me a letter to the King from a certain +personage in France. + +Now to one living in a Catholic country the rumours that come from +others not so happy, are either greatly swollen and exaggerated in his +mind, or thought nothing of. It was the latter case with me. I was in +high favour on both sides of the Channel; and this, I suppose made me +think little of the troubles in my own country: so when I and James +reached London late in the evening, after riding up from Kent, I went +straight to Whitehall, as bold as brass to demand to see Mr. Chiffinch. +We had ridden fast, and had talked with but very few folks, and these +ignorant; so that I knew nothing of what impended, and was astonished +that the sentinels at the gate eyed me so suspiciously. + +"Yes, sir," said the younger, to whom I had addressed myself, "and what +might your business with Mr. Chiffinch be?" + +I had learned by now not to quack gossip or to parley with underlings; +so I answered him very shortly. + +"Then fetch the lieutenant," I said; and sat back on my horse like a +great person. + +When the lieutenant came he was one I had never seen before, nor he me; +and he too asked me what I wanted with Mr. Chiffinch. + +"Lord, man!" I cried, for I was weary with my journey, and a little +impatient. "Do you think I shall blurt out private business for all the +world to hear? Send me under guard if you will--a man on each side--so +you send me." + +He did not do that (for I think he thought that I might be some +important personage from my way with him), but he would not let James +come in too; and he said a man must go with me to show me the way. + +"Or I, him," I said. "However; let it be so;" and I told James to ride +on to the lodgings, and make all ready for me there. + +Now I had heard in France of the events in the kingdom; but as they had +not greatly affected Catholics, and, if anything, had even helped them, +I was in no great state of mind. Within a week of my getting to Paris +the news came of how the Duke of Monmouth had been sent with an army to +Scotland and had trounced the Highlanders (who prayed and preached when +they should have fought) at Bothwell Bridge on the river Clyde; and of +the punishment he inflicted on them afterwards; though this was nothing +to what Dr. Sharpe (who had been killed by them in May) or Lauderdale +would have done to them. Of Catholic fortunes there was not a great +deal of bad news, and some good: Sir George Wakeman, with three +Benedictines, was acquitted of any design to murder the King; and Mr. +Kerne, a priest, had been acquitted at Hereford of the charge under 27 +Elizabeth--that famous statute, still in force, that forbade any priest +that had received Orders beyond the seas, to reside in England. On the +other hand, in the provinces, a few had suffered; of whom I remember, on +the Feast of the Assumption a Franciscan named Johnson, a man of family, +had been condemned at Worcester; and Mr. Will Plessington at Chester: +and these were executed. Since then, no deaths that I had heard of, had +taken place in England for such causes: and affairs seemed pretty quiet. + +I was all unprepared then for the news I had from Mr. Chiffinch, as soon +as he had greeted me, and paid me compliments on the way I had done my +French business. + +"You are come just in time," he said ruefully. "We are to have a great +to-do to-morrow, I hear." + +I asked him what that might be, lolling in my chair, for I was stiff +with riding. + +"Why it is your old friend Dangerfield, I hear, who is the thorn in our +pillow now. He hath first feigned to discover a Covenanting plot against +His Majesty; and then turned it into a Popish one. There has been much +foolish talk about a meal-tub, and papers hidden in it, and such-like: +and now there is to be a great procession of malcontents to-morrow, to +burn the Pope and the Devil and Sir George Jeffreys, and God knows who, +at Temple Bar. But that is not all." + +"Why, what else?" I asked. "And why is not the procession forbidden?" + +"Who do you think is behind it all?" he said. "Why; no one less than my +Lord Shaftesbury himself. Dangerfield is but one of his tools. And that +is not all." + +"Lord!" said I. "What a troublous country!" (I spoke lightly, for I did +not understand the weight of all these events.) "What else is the +matter?" + +"It is the Duke of Monmouth," he said, "who is the pawn in +Shaftesbury's game. My Lord would give the world to have the Duke +declared legitimate, and so oust James. His Grace of Monmouth is +something of a popular hero now, after his doings in Scotland, and most +of all since he stands for the Protestant Religion. He hath dared to +strike out the bar sinister from his arms too; and goeth about the +country as if he were truly royal. So His Royal Highness is gone back to +Scotland again in a great fury; and His Majesty is once again in a +strait betwixt two, as the Scriptures say. There is his Catholic brother +on the one side; and there is this young spark of a Protestant bastard +on the other. We shall know better to-morrow how the feeling runs. His +Majesty was taken very ill in August; and I am not surprised at it." + + * * * * * + +This was all very heavy news for me. I had hoped in France that most at +least of the Catholic troubles were over, and now, here again they were, +in a new form. I sighed aloud. + +"Heigho!" I said. "But this is all beyond me, Mr. Chiffinch. I had best +be gone into the country." + +"I think you had," he said very seriously. "You can do nothing in this +place." + +I was very glad when I heard him say that; for I had thought a great +deal of Hare Street, and of my Cousin Dolly there; and it was good news +to me to hear that I might soon see her again. + +"But I must see the sight to-morrow," I said; and soon after that I took +my leave. + + * * * * * + +It was a marvellous sight indeed, the next evening. I went to see a Mr. +Martin in the morning, that lived in the Strand, a Catholic bookseller, +and got leave from him to sit in his window from dinner onwards, that I +might see the show. + +It was about five o'clock that the affair began; and the day was pretty +dark by then. A great number of people began to assemble little by +little, up Fleet Street on the one side, the Strand on the other, and +down Chancery Lane in the midst; for it was announced everywhere, and +even by criers in some parts, that the procession would take place and +would end at Temple Bar. My Lord Shaftesbury, who had lately lost the +presidency of the Council, had rendered himself irreconcilable with the +Duke of York, and his only hope (as well as of others with him) lay in +ruining His Highness. All this, therefore, was designed to rouse popular +feeling against the Duke and the Catholic cause. So this was my welcome +home again! + +It was strange to watch the folks assembling, and the gradual kindling +of the flambeaux. In the windows on either side of the street were set +candles; and a line of coaches was drawn up against the gutter on the +further side. But still more strange and disconcerting were the +preparations already made to receive the procession. An open space was +kept by fellows with torches to the east of the City Gate; and here, +looking towards the City, with her back to the Gate, close beside the +Pillory, stood Queen Bess in effigy, upon a pedestal, as it were a +Protestant saint in her shrine; for the day had been chosen on account +of its being the day of her accession and of Queen Mary's death. She was +set about with gilded laurel-wreaths, and bore a gilded sceptre; and +beneath her, like some sacrificial fire, blazed a great bonfire, roaring +up to heaven with its sparks and smoke. Half a dozen masked fellows, in +fantastic dresses, tended the bonfire and replenished the flambeaux that +burned about the effigy. Indeed it was strangely like some pagan +religious spectacle--the goddess at the entrance of her temple (for the +gate looked like that); and the resemblance became more marked as the +ceremonies were performed which ended the show. A Catholic might well be +pardoned for retorting "Idolatry," and saying that he preferred Mary +Queen of Heaven to Bess Queen of England. + +It was from Moorfields that the procession came, and it took a good +while to come. But I was entertained enough by the sight of all the +people, to pass the time away. A number of gentlefolks opposite to my +window sat on platforms, all wrapped up in furs, and some of them +masked, with a few ministers among them; and I make no doubt that Dr. +Tonge was there, though I did not see him. But I did see a merry face +which I thought was Mistress Nell Gwyn's; and whether it was she or not +that I saw, I heard afterwards that she had been there, to His Majesty's +great displeasure. + +And in the same group I saw Mr. Killigrew's face--that had been page to +Charles the First, and came back to be page to his son--for his +grotesque and yet fine face was unmistakable; the profligate fop Sir +George Etheredge, gambler and lampooner, with drink and the devil all +over him; solemn Thomas Thynne, murdered two years afterwards, for a +woman's sake, by Count Conigsmark, who was hanged for it and lay in +great state in a satin coffin; and last, my Lord Dover, with his great +head and little legs, looking at the people through a tortoiseshell +glass. The Court, or at least, some of it, enjoyed itself here, in spite +of the character of the demonstration. Meanwhile out of sight a great +voice shouted jests and catchwords resonantly from time to time, to +amuse the people; and the crowd, that was by now packed everywhere +against the houses, upon the roofs and even up Chancery Lane, answered +his hits with roaring cheers. I heard the name of the Duke of Monmouth +several times; and each time it was received with acclamation. Once the +Duke of York's was called out; and the booing and murring at it were +great enough to have daunted even him. (But he was in Scotland now--too +far away to hear it--and seemed like to remain there.) And once Mrs. +Gwyn's name was shouted, and something else after it; and there was a +stir on the platform where I thought I had seen her; and then a great +burst of cheering; for she was popular enough, in spite of her life, for +her Protestantism. (It was not works, they hated, thought I to myself, +but Faith!) + +The first that I knew of the coming of the procession was the sound of +fifes up Fleet Street; and a great jostling and roaring that followed it +by those who strove to see better. I was distracted for an instant by a +dog that ran out suddenly, tail down, into the open space and +disappeared again yelping. When I turned again the head of the +procession was in sight, coming into view round the house that was next +to Mr. Martin's. + +First, between the torches that lined the procession through all its +length, came a band of fifers, very fine, in scarlet tunics and stiff +beaver-hats; shrilling a dirge as they walked; and immediately behind +them a funeral herald in black, walking very upright and stiff, with a +bell in one hand which he rang, while he cried out in a great mournful +bellowing voice: + +"Remember Justice Godfrey! Remember Justice Godfrey;" and then pealed +upon his bell again. (It was pretty plain from that that we Catholics +were to bear the brunt of all, as usual!) + +Behind him came a terrible set of three. In the midst, led by a groom, +was a great white horse, with bells on his bridle sounding as he came; +and on his back an effigy, dressed in riding costume, with boots, and +with white riding gloves and cravat all spattered over with blood. His +head lolled on his shoulders, as if the neck were broken, turning a pale +bloody face from side to side, with fallen jaw and great rolling +melancholy eyes; for this was of Justice Godfrey. Beside him walked a +man in black, that held him fast with one hand, and had a dripping +dagger in the other--to represent a Jesuit. This was perhaps the worst +of all; but there was plenty more to come. + +There followed, after Justice Godfrey, a pardoner, dressed as a priest, +in a black cope sown all over with death's heads, waving papers in his +hands, and proclaiming indulgences to all Protestant-killers, so loud +that he might be heard at Charing Cross; and next behind him a fellow +carrying a silver cross, that shone very fine in the red light of the +bonfire and the flambeaux, and drew attention to what came after. For +behind him came eight Religious, Carmelites and Franciscans, in the +habits of their Orders, going two by two with clasped hands and bowed +heads as if they prayed; and after them that which was, in intention, +the centre of all--for this was a set of six Jesuits in black, with lean +painted faces, each bearing a dagger which he waved, gnashing his teeth +and grinning on the folks. + +There had been enough roaring and cheering before; but at this sight +the people went near mad; and I had thought for an instant that the very +actors would be torn in pieces for the sake of the parts they played. + +Mr. Martin and his wife were close beside me in the window; and I turned +to them. + +"We are fortunate not to be Jesuits," I said, "and known to be such. Our +lives would not be worth a pin." + +He nodded at me very gravely: and I saw how white was his wife's face. + +When I looked again a very brilliant group was come into view--four +bishops in rochets and violet, with large pectoral crosses. These walked +very proud and prelatical, looking disdainfully at the people who roared +at the burlesque; and behind them, again, four more in gilded mitres. (I +do not know what this generation knew of Catholic bishops; for not one +in a thousand of them had ever set eyes on one.) + +After a little space followed six cardinals in scarlet, very gorgeous, +with caps and trains of the same colour. These swept along, looking to +neither right nor left, followed by a lean man in a black silk suit and +gown, skulking and bending, bearing a glass retort in one hand, and a +phial, with a label flying from it, in the other. On this was written, I +heard afterwards, the words "Jesuit-Powder"; but I could not read it +from where I was. + +Then at last the tail of the procession began to come into view. + +Two priests, in great white copes, bore aloft each a tall cross; and +behind them I could see through the flare and reek of the torches, a +vast scarlet chair advancing above the heads of the people. It was borne +on a platform, and was embroidered all over with gold and silver +bullion. Upon the platform itself were four boys, two and two, on either +side of the throne, in red skull-caps and cassocks and short white +surplices, each with a tall red cross held in the inner hand, and a +bloodstained dagger in the other, which they waved now and again. Upon +the throne itself sat a huge effigy. It was dressed in a scarlet robe, +embroidered like the throne; its feet in gold embroidered slippers were +thrust forward on a cushion; its hands in rich gloves were clasped to +the arms of the chair; and its grinning waxen face, very pale, was +surmounted by a vast tiara on which were three crowns, one above the +other. Round the neck hung a gold cross and chain; and a pair of great +keys hung down on one side. A devil in tight fitting black, with a +masked face, and long sprouting nails, with a tail hung behind him, and +two tall horns on his head, rolled his eyes from side to side, and +whispered continually into the ear of the effigy from behind the throne. +A great mob of people and torches and guards came shouting on behind. +And when I saw that, a kind of despair came upon me. If that, thought I, +is what my countrymen think of Catholics and the Holy Father, what use +to strive any more for their conversion? + + * * * * * + +By the time that the tail had come up, the rest of the procession was +disposed round the bonfire, leaving a broad space in the midst where the +throne and effigy might be set down. + +And now there appeared on the Pillory beside the Queen's image, one of +the six cardinals that had come up a little while before, and began a +sort of rhyming dialogue with a choir that was set on another platform +over against him. I could not hear all that was said, although the +people kept pretty quiet to hear it too; but I heard enough. The +cardinal was proclaiming the Catholic Religion as the only means of +salvation and threatened both temporal and eternal punishment to all +that would not have it; and the choir answered, roaring out the glories +of England and Protestantism. The fifes screamed for the cardinal's +words, as if accompanying them; and trumpets answered him for England; +and at the end, shaking his fist at the Queen and with another gesture +as of despair he came down from the Pillory. + +Then came the end. + +The devil, behind the throne, slipped altogether behind it and stood +tossing his hands with delight; while meantime the effigy, contrived in +some way I could not understand, rose stiffly from the seat and stood +upright. First he lifted his hands as if in entreaty towards the +Queen's image; then he shook them as if threatening, meanwhile rolling +his head with its tiara from side to side as if seeking supporters. Two +men then sprang upon the platform, as if in answer, dressed like English +apprentices, bare-armed and with leather aprons; and these seized each +an arm of the effigy; and at that the devil, after one more fit of +laughter, holding his sides, and shouting aloud as if in glee, leapt +down behind the platform, dragging the chair after him. The four boys +stood an instant as if in terror, and then followed him, with clumsy +gestures of horror. + +The three figures that remained now began to wrestle together, stamping +to and fro, up to the very edge, then reeling back again, and so on--the +two apprentices against the great red dummy. At that the shouting of the +crowd grew louder and louder, and the torches tossed up and down: it was +like hell itself, for noise and terror, there in the red flare of the +bonfire: and, at the last, all roaring together, with the trumpets and +drums sounding, and the fifes too, the effigy was got to the edge of the +platform, where it yet swayed for an instant or two, and then toppled +down into the fire beneath. + + * * * * * + +It was a great spectacle, I cannot but confess it, and admirably +designed; and I took my leave of Mr. Martin and his lady, and went home +to supper through the crowded streets, more in tune, perhaps, with my +country's state than I had been when I lolled last night in Mr. +Chiffinch's closet. + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +With Dangerfield's demonstration in my mind I was not greatly inclined +to embroil myself in other matters; and I kept my intention to ride down +to Hare Street three days after, when I had done my business in London +and kissed the King's hand; and this I had done by the evening of the +second day. I saw His Majesty on that second day; but he was much +pressed for time, and he did no more than thank me for what I had done: +and so was gone. On that evening, however, a new little adventure befell +me. + +The taverns in town were rare places for making new acquaintances; and +since I, for the most part, dined and supped in them, I met a good +number of gentlemen. From these I would conceal, usually, most of my +circumstances, and sometimes even my name, though that would not have +told them much. Above all I was very careful to conceal my dealings with +His Majesty, and as, following the directions he had first given me, I +presented myself seldom or never at Court, and did my business through +Mr. Chiffinch, and in his lodgings, usually, I do not suppose that there +were five men in town, if so many, who knew that I had any private +knowledge of him at all. In this manner then, I heard a deal of +treasonable talk of which I did not think much, and only reported +generally to Mr. Chiffinch when he asked me what was the feeling in town +with regard to Court affairs. It was through this, and helped, I +daresay, by what I have been told was the easy pleasantness which I +affected in company, that I stumbled over my next adventure; and one +that was like, before the end of it, to have cost me dear. + +I went to supper, by chance, on the second day after my coming to +London, to an inn I had never been to before--the _Red Bull_ in +Cheapside--a very large inn, in those days, with a great garden at the +back, where gentlemen would dine in summer, and a great parlour running +out into it from the back of the house, of but one story high. The +rooms beneath seemed pretty full, for it was a cold night; and as there +appeared no one to attend to me I went upstairs, and knocked on the door +of one of the rooms. The talking within ceased as I knocked, and none +answered; so I opened the door and put my head in. There was a number of +persons seated round the table who all looked at me. + +"This is a private room, sir," said one of them at the head. + +"I beg your pardon, gentlemen," I said. "I was but looking for someone +to serve me." And I was about to withdraw when a voice hailed me aloud. + +"Why it is Mr. Mallock!" the voice cried; and turning again to see who +it was I beheld my old friend Mr. Rumbald, seated next the one that +presided. + +I greeted him. + +"But I had best be gone," I said. "It is a private room, the gentleman +told me." + +"No, no," cried the maltster. "Come in, Mr. Mallock." And he said +something to the gentleman he sat by, who was dressed very finely. + +I could see that something was in the wind; and as I was out for +adventure, it seemed to me that here was one ready-made, however +harmless it might turn out in the end. So I closed the door behind me; +there was a shifting along the benches, and I stepped over into a place +next my friend. + +"How goes the world with you, sir?" demanded Mr. Rumbald of me, looking +at my suit, which indeed was pretty fine. + +"Very hungrily at present," I said. "Where the devil are the maids got +to?" + +He called out to the man that sat nearest the door, and he got up and +bawled something down the passage. + +"But it has treated me better lately," I said. "I have been in France on +my affairs." (I said this with an important air, for there is no +disguise so great as the truth, if it is put on a little awry.) + +"Oho!" said Rumbald, who again, in spite of his old Presbyterianism, had +had a cup too many. And he winked on the company. I had not an idea of +what he meant by that; but I think he was but shewing off his friend as +a travelled gentleman. + +"And we have been speaking of England," he went on, "and of them that +govern it, and of the Ten Commandments, in special the sixth." + +I observed signs of consternation among one or two of the company when +he said this, and remembering of what political complexion Mr. Rumbald +had been on our previous meeting, I saw in general, at least, what they +had been after. But what he meant of the Sixth Commandment which is that +of killing, according to the Protestant arrangement of it, I understood +nothing. + +"And of who shall govern England hereafter," I said in a low voice, but +very deliberate. + +There fell a silence when I said that; and I was wondering what in God's +name I should say next, when the maid came in, and I fell to abusing of +her with an oath or two. When she was gone away again to get me my +supper, the gentleman in the fine dress at the head of the table leaned +forward a little. + +"That, Mr. Mallock," he said, "is of what we were speaking. How did you +know that?" + +"I know my friend Mr. Rumbald," I said. + +This appeared to give the greatest pleasure to the maltster. He laughed +aloud, and beat me on the back; but his eyes were fierce for all his +merriment. I felt that this would be no easy enemy to have. + +"Mr. Mallock knows me," he said, "and I know Mr. Mallock. I assure you, +gentlemen, you can speak freely before Mr. Mallock." And he poured a +quantity of his college-ale into a tankard that stood before me. + +It appeared, however, that several of the company had sudden affairs +elsewhere; and, before we even smelled of treason, three or four of them +made their excuses and went away. This confirmed me in my thought that I +was stumbled upon one of those little gatherings of malcontents, of whom +the town was full, who talked largely over their cups of the Protestant +succession and the like, but did very little. But I was not quite right +in my surmise, as will appear presently. + +By the time that my supper came up--(I cursed the maid again for her +delay, though, poor wench, she was near run off her legs)--there were +left but four of us in the room; the gentleman at the head of the table, +a lean quiet man with a cast in his eye who sat opposite me, Mr. Rumbald +and myself. + +There was, however, a shade of caution yet left in my friend that the +ale had not yet driven out; and before proceeding any further, he +observed again that my fortunes had improved. + +"Why, they have improved a great deal," I said--for he had caught me +with my silver-hilted sword and my lace, and I saw him looking at +them--"I live in Covent Garden now, where you must come and see me, Mr. +Rumbald." + +"And your politics with them?" he asked. + +"My politics are what they ever were," I said; and that was true enough. + +"You were at Temple Bar?" he asked. + +"Why I only came from France the day before; but you may depend upon it +I was there. It warmed my heart." + +"You know who was behind it all?" asked the gentleman at the head of the +table, suddenly. + +I knew well enough that such men as these despise ignorance above all +things, and that a shrewd fellow--or a man that they think to be one is +worth a thousand simpletons in their eyes; so I made no pretence of not +knowing what he meant. + +"Why of course I do!" I said contemptuously. "It was my Lord +Shaftesbury." + +Now the truth of this was not known to everyone in London at this time, +though it was known a little while later: and I should not have known it +myself if Mr. Chiffinch had not told me. But these men knew it, it +seemed, well enough; and my knowledge of it blew me sky-high in their +view. + +"My Lord Shaftesbury, God bless him!" said the lean squinting man, +suddenly; and drained his mug. + +"God bless him!" I said too, and put my lips to mine. My hand was +immediately grasped by Mr. Rumbald; and so cordial relations were +confirmed. + + * * * * * + +Well; we settled down then to talk treason. I must not deny that these +persons skewed still some glimmerings of sense; they did not, that is to +say, as yet commit themselves irrevocably to my mercy: they appeared to +me to talk generally, with a view to trying me: but I acquitted myself +to their satisfaction. + +We deposed Charles, we excluded James, we legitimized Monmouth; we armed +the loyal citizens and took away the arms of all others. We appointed +even days of humiliation and thanksgiving; and we grew more enthusiastic +and reckless with every mug. The lean man confided to me with infinite +pride, that he had been one of the cardinals in the procession to Temple +Bar; and I grasped his hand in tearful congratulation. We were near +weeping with loyalty at the end, not to Charles but to Monmouth. The +only man who preserved his self-control completely was the gentleman at +the head of the table, though he too adventured a good deal, throwing it +before me as a bait before a trout; and each time I gulped it down and +asked for more. He was a finely featured man, with a nose set well out +in his face, and had altogether the look and bearing of a gentleman. + +It must have been full half-past nine before we broke up; and that was +at the going of our president. We too rose and saw him to the door; and +the lean man said he would see him downstairs, so Mr. Rumbald and I were +left, he swaying a little and smiling, holding on to the door-post, and +I endeavouring to preserve my dignity. + +I was about to say good-night too and begone, when he plucked me +suddenly by the sleeve. + +"Come back again, Mr. Mallock," he said. "I have something to say to +you." + +We went back again, shutting the door behind us, and sat down. It was a +pleasant little parlour this, decently furnished, and I feigned to be +looking at the hanging that was over the press where they kept the +tankards, as if I had no curiosity in the world. + +"Here, Mr. Mallock," said my friend's voice behind me. "Look at this." + +He had drawn out a little black pocket-book, leather-bound, and with it +three or four loose papers. I sat down by him, and took it from him. + +"It is some kind of an account-book," I said. + +"You are right, sir," said Mr. Rumbald. + +He sat with an air of vast importance, while I examined the book. It had +a great number of entries, concerning such things as accounts for beer +and other refreshments, with others which I could not understand. There +were also the names of inns in London, with marks opposite to them, and +times of day written down besides. I could make nothing of all this; so +I turned to the papers. Here, to my astonishment, on one of them was +written a list of names, some very well known, beginning with my Lord +Shaftesbury's, and on the two others a number of notes in short-hand, +with three or four of the same names as before written long-hand. One of +these slipped to the floor as I held them, and I stooped to pick it up; +when I raised my head again, the pocket-book and the other two papers +had disappeared again into Mr. Rumbald's possession. He did not seem to +have seen the one that fell, so I held it on my knee beneath the table, +thinking to examine it later. + +"Well?" I asked. "What is the matter?" + +The maltster had an air of great mystery upon his face. He regarded me +sternly, though his eyes watered a little. + +"Enough to hang us all," he said; and I saw the fierce light in his eyes +again, through the veil of drink. + +"Why; how is that?" asked I, slipping the paper I held, behind me, and +into the skirt pocket of my coat. + +"Those accounts," he said, "they are all for the procession; for I +provided myself a good deal of the refreshment; and was paid for it by +a man of my Lord's, who has signed the book." + +"And the two papers?" I asked. + +"Ah!" said Mr. Rumbald. "That is another matter altogether." + +I feigned that I was incurious. + +"Well," I said, "every man to his own trade. I would not meddle with +another's, for the world." + +"That is best," said my friend. + +I tried a sentence or two more; but caution seemed to have returned to +him, though a little late; and I presently saw I should get no more out +of him. I congratulated him again on the pleasant evening we had spent; +and five minutes later we went downstairs together, very friendly; and +he winked upon me as I went out, after paying my account, as if there +were some secret understanding between us. + + * * * * * + +I had a cold walk back to Covent Garden, remembering with satisfaction, +as I went, that I had not told Mr. Rumbald more particularly where I +lodged; and thinking over what I had heard. It was not a great deal +after all, I thought. When all was said, I had only heard over again +what was known well enough at Court, that my Lord Shaftesbury was behind +this demonstration, and had his finger in the whole affair of Monmouth; +I had but stumbled upon one of those companies, who were known, well +enough, to be everywhere, who were for Monmouth against His Royal +Highness: and I had but seen, what surely might be guessed to +exist,--the accounts of the refreshments supplied to the actors in the +demonstration--and had been told that my Lord's man had paid the score. +There might, indeed, be more behind; but of that I had no evidence at +all; I had received no confidence that could be of any value: and as for +the paper in my skirt-pocket, I valued it no more than a rush; and +wondered I had taken the trouble to secure it. + +When I reached my lodgings, I took it out and looked at it again. I had +not even the means of reading it. The name of my Lord Shaftesbury, as I +have said, was written in long-hand three or four times; and the Duke +of Monmouth's twice. There also appeared other names of which I did not +know a great deal, and one at least of which I knew nothing, which was +"College"; though this for all I knew was for a college in an +University. Other names were that of my Lord Essex and John Hampden, and +Algernon Sidney. The paper was about a foot in length and six inches +across; and I thought so little of it--thinking that a paper of +importance would scarcely be entrusted to a man like Rumbald, who threw +them about a tavern--that I was very near throwing it into the fire. But +I kept it--though God knows that afterwards I wished I had not done +so--and slipped it into my pocket-book where I kept three or four +others, intending, when I had an opportunity, to give it to some clerk, +learned in short-hand, to read for me. + +And so I went to bed. + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +It was with a very happy heart that the next night, about seven o'clock, +I rode down Hare Street village, and saw the lights of the house shining +through the limes. + +It was a very different coming back from my going. Then we four had +stood together in the dark at the corner of the lane, fearing lest a +window should be thrown up. Now I rode back with James, secure and +content, fearing nothing: for Mr. Chiffinch had told me that all peril +had passed from Dangerfield, even had he met me and known me, which was +not likely. They were after other game now than the old conspirators. + +I had sent a message to Hare Street on the day after I was come to +London, that I would be with them on this day: and so soon as I rode +into the yard the men ran out, and I heard a window open in the house; +so that by the time I came to the door it was open, and my cousins there +to meet me. + + * * * * * + +It was very strange, that evening there, to be so with my Cousin Dolly; +for each of us knew, and that the other knew that too, that matters were +advanced with us, since we had been through peril together. It was +strange how diffident we both were, and how we could not meet one +another's eyes; and yet I was aware that she would have it otherwise if +she could, and strove to be natural. We had music again that night, and +Dolly and her maid sang the setting of "Go, perjured man" which she had +made from Mr. Wise's. For myself, I sat in a corner by the fire and +watched her. She was in grey that night, with lace, and a string of +little fresh-water pearls. + +When she was gone to bed, my Cousin Tom and I had a crack together; and +he seemed to me more sensible than I had thought him at first. We talked +of a great number of things; and he asked me about France and my life +there; and I had a great ado from being indiscreet and telling him too +much. I represented to him that I was gone over to be out of the way of +Dangerfield, as indeed I had; but I said nothing at all to him as to my +business there: and he seemed content. + +He told me also of what he had written to me as to the return of Mr. +Harris, very tired and angry, the next afternoon after his search of the +house. He had ridden near all the way to Newmarket, inquiring for me +everywhere: and had come to the conclusion at last that I had not gone +that way after all. + +"He was very high with me," said my Cousin Tom, "but I was higher yet. I +told him that it was not my business both to make conspirators and to +arrest them; and since he had done me the honour of thinking I had done +the first, I had done him the honour of thinking that he could do the +second: but that it seemed I was wrong in that." + +This seemed a considerable effort of wit for my Cousin Tom; but scarcely +one calculated to soothe Mr. Harris. + +Finally, when I was thinking of bed my Cousin Tom opened out once again +on an old matter that was before my mind continually now: and he spoke, +I think, very sensibly. + +"Cousin Roger," he said: "there is one other affair I must speak to you +of, now that you are come again to Hare Street and seem likely to remain +here for a while; and that is of my daughter. I know you would not have +me say too much; and I will not. But have you considered the advice you +said you would give me a great while ago?" + +I did not answer him for a moment; for I was not sure if he were very +wise or very foolish in opening upon it again. Then I determined to be +open with the man. + +"Cousin Tom," I said, "I am both glad and sorry that you have spoken of +this; and I will tell you the whole truth, which I think perhaps you may +have guessed. The reason why I could not give you advice before was that +I was not sure of my own mind. Well; I am sure of it now; and I wish to +ask my Cousin Dolly, so soon as I see an opportunity to do so, if she +will marry me. But I must say this--that I am going to take no risks. I +shall not ask her so long as I think she will refuse me; and I think, to +tell the truth, that she would not have me if I asked her now." + +My Cousin Tom began to speak: but I prevented him. + +"One moment," I said, "and you shall say what you will. There is one +reason that comes to my mind which perhaps may explain her +unwillingness; and that is that she may think that she is being thrown +at my head. You have been very kind, Cousin, in allowing me to make this +my home in the country; and I know"--(here I lied vehemently)--"I know +that nothing was further from your thoughts than this. Yet it may seem +so, to a foolish maid who knows nothing of the world. I do not know if +you have ever said anything to her--" + +"Why, Cousin--" cried Tom, in such a manner that I knew he was lying +too--"what do you think--" + +"Just so," I said; for I did not wish him to lie more than he need; "I +was sure--" + +"I may have said a word or two, once or twice," pursued Cousin Tom, +intent on his own exposure--"that she must think soon about getting +married, and so forth. But to say that I have thrown her at your head, +Cousin, is not, I think, a kindly thing--" + +"My dear man!" cried I. "I have been saying expressly that I knew you +had done nothing of the sort; but that perhaps Dolly thought so." (This +quieted him a little, for I watched his face.) "So the best way, I +think, is for us all to be quiet for a little and say nothing. You know +now what my own wishes are; and that is enough for you and me. As to +estates, I will make a settlement, if ever the marriage is arranged, +that will satisfy you; but I think we need not trouble about that at +present. I will do my utmost to push my suit; but it must be in my own +way; and that way will be to say nothing at all for a while, but to +establish easy relations with her. She is a little perturbed at present: +I saw that, for I watched her to-night; and unless she can grow quiet +again, all will come to nothing." + +So I spoke, in the folly of my own wisdom that seemed to me so great at +that time. I had dealt with men, but not at all with women, and knew +nothing of them. If I had but followed my heart and spoken to her at +once, while the warmth of my welcome, and the memory of the peril we had +undergone together were still in heart, matters might have been very +different. But I thought otherwise, and that I would be very prudent and +circumspect, knowing nothing at all of a maid's heart and her ways. As +for Cousin Tom, he had to yield to me; for what else could he do? The +prospect that I opened before him was a better one than he could get +anywhere else: he had no opening at Court, in spite of his bragging; and +the Protestants round about were too wise, in their rustic way, to +engage themselves with a Papist at such a time. So there the matter +remained. + + * * * * * + +When I came to my chamber, it had a very pleasant aspect to me. The +curtains were across the windows; a great fire blazed on the hearth--(I +had heard my Cousin Dolly's footsteps pass across the landing, before +she went to bed,--no doubt to put more wood on)--my bed was ready, and +on the round table in the middle was a jug of horn-beam branches with +some winter flowers. It was six months since I had been here; and +matters were considerably better with me now than they had been then. +Then I was being hunted; now I was free from all anxiety on that score: +then I had been going up to London to resign what little position I had; +now I was re-established, owing to what I had done in France, on a +better footing than ever. More than all, I knew now, without any doubt +at all, what my heart told me of my Cousin Dolly; and I was here, with +every liberty to commend my suit to her. + +Before I went to bed I opened the little secret cupboard by my bed, and +put into it three or four private papers I had, and amongst them that +written in cipher that I had had from Mr. Rumbald. Then I went to bed; +and dreamed of Dolly. + +Then began for me a time of great peace and serenity. + +First came Christmas, with its homely joys, and Twelfth night on which +we cut and ate a great cake that Dolly had made; then there was the +winter's work to be done in preparation for the spring; and then spring +itself, with the crocuses sprouting between the joints of the paved walk +round the house; and the daffodils in the long box-bed beneath the +limes. I write these little things down, for it was principally by these +things that I remember those months; and the noise of the world outside +seemed as sounds heard in a dream. I went up to London, now and +again--but not very often; and saw His Majesty in private twice, and he +honoured me by asking my advice again on certain French affairs; but, +for the time, all these things were secondary in my mind to the cows of +Hare Street and to how the pigs did. It is marvellous how men's minds +can come down to such matters, and become absorbed in them, and let the +rest of the world go hang. I thought now and again of my mission from +Rome; yet I do not think I was faithless to it; for there was nothing at +that time which I could do for the King; and he expressly had desired me +not to mix much with the Court and so become known. The truth of the +matter was that at this time he was largely occupied with a certain +woman, whose name had best not be spoken; and when His Majesty ran upon +those lines, he could think of little else. I sent my reports regularly +to Rome; and the Cardinal Secretary seemed satisfied; and so therefore +was I. + +It was, with my Cousin Dolly, precisely as I had thought. She was at +first very shy indeed, going up to her chamber early in the evening, so +that we had little or no music; but relaxing a little as I shewed myself +friendly without being forward. I caught her eyes on me sometimes; and +she seemed to be appraising me, I thought in my stupidity, as to whether +she could trust me not to make love to her; but now, as I think, for a +very different reason; and I would see her sometimes as I went out of +doors, peeping at me for an instant out of a window. It was not, +however, all hide and seek. We would talk frankly and easily enough at +times, and spend an hour or two together, or when her father was asleep, +with the greatest friendliness; and meanwhile I, poor fool, was thinking +how wise and prudent I was; and what mighty progress I was making by +these crooked ways. + +In Easter week we had a great happiness--so great that it near broke me +down in my resolution--and I would to God it had--(at least in certain +moods I wish so). + +I was returning along the Barkway road from a meadow where I had been to +look to the new lambs, in my working dress, when I heard a horse coming +behind me. I stepped aside to let him go by, when I heard myself called. + +"My man," said the voice. "Can you tell me where is Mr. Jermyn's house?" + +"Yes, sir," I said. "I am going there myself." + +He was a grave-looking gentleman, very dark; and as I looked at him I +remembered him; but I could see he did not remember me, and no wonder, +for he had only seen me once, on a very agitating occasion, for a short +while. He was riding a very good horse, which was going lame, but +without any servant, and he had his valise strapped on the crupper. In +appearance he was a country-squire on his way to town. I determined to +give him a surprise as we went along. + +"I hope you are well, Mr. Hamerton," I said. + +He gave a great start at that, and looked at me closely. + +"I do not remember you," he said. "And why do you call me Mr. Hamerton?" + +"I knew that is not the name you were usually known by, father. Would +you be easier if I called you Mr. Young?" + +"I give it up," he said. "Who are you, sir?" + +"Do you remember a young man," I said, "a year and a half ago, who came +into Mr. Chiffinch's inner parlour on a certain occasion? You were +sitting near His Royal Highness; His Majesty was at the end of the +table; and by you was Father Bedingfeld who died in prison in December." + +He smiled at me. + +"I remember everything except the young man," he said. "So you are he. +And what is your name, sir?" + +I told him. + +"I am Mr. Jermyn's cousin," I said. "And I have been looking after his +lambs for him. I would there was some spiritual shepherd who would look +after us. We have not heard mass since Christmas." (For we had ridden +over to Standon on that day.) + +He seemed altogether easier at that. + +"Why, that can be remedied to-morrow," he said. "If you have an altar +stone and linen and vestments. I have all else with me." + +We had these, and I told him so. + +"Then you mean to lie at Hare Street to-night, sir?" I said. + +"I had hoped to do so," he said. "I am come from Lincolnshire; and I was +recommended to Mr. Jermyn's if I could not get so far as Standon; and I +cannot, for my horse is lame." + + * * * * * + +My Cousin Tom received the priest in a surprising medley of emotions +which he exhibited one by one to me who knew him so well. He was at +first plainly terrified at receiving a priest and a Jesuit; but, +presently recovered himself a little and strove to remember that here +was one of God's priests who would bring a blessing on the house--(and +said so); finally all else was swallowed up in pleasure, or very nearly, +when I took occasion on Mr. Hamerton's going upstairs to pull off his +boots, to tell him that I had seen this priest very intimate with His +Royal Highness the Duke of York; and that he had been a near friend of +Mr. Bedingfeld, the Duke's confessor. + +My Cousin Dorothy received him with the reverence that pious maids can +shew so easily towards a priest. She had his chamber ready for him in +ten minutes; with fresh water in the basin and flowers upon the table: +she even set out for his entertainment three or four books of devotion +by his bedside. And all the time at supper she never ceased to give him +attention, drawing the men's eyes to his plate and cup continually. + +Mr. Hamerton was a very quiet gentleman, wonderfully at his ease at +once, and never losing his discretion; he talked generally and +pleasantly at supper, of his road to Hare Street, and told us an +edifying story or two of Catholics at whose houses he had lain on his +way from Lincolnshire. These Jesuits are wonderful folk: he seemed to +know the country all over, and where were the safer districts and where +the dangerous. I have no doubt he could have given me an excellent +road-map with instructions that would take me safe from London to +Edinburgh, if I had wished it. + +"And have you never been troubled with highwaymen?" asked my Cousin Tom. + +"No, Mr. Jermyn," said the priest, "except once, and that was a Catholic +robber. I thought he was by the start he gave when he saw my crucifix as +he was searching me; and taxed him with it. So the end was, he returned +me my valuables, and took a little sermon from my lips instead." + + * * * * * + +When supper was over, and Dorothy had gone upstairs to make all ready +for mass on the next morning, Mr. Hamerton, at our questioning, began to +tell us a little of the state of politics and what he thought would +happen; and every word that he said came true. + +"His Grace of Monmouth will be our trouble," he said. "The King adores +him; and he hath so far prevailed with His Majesty as to get the Duke of +York sent twice to Scotland. I think few folk understand what feeling +there is in the country for the Protestant Duke. It was through my Lord +Shaftesbury, who is behind him, that His Royal Highness was actually +sent away, for Monmouth could do nothing without him; and I have no kind +of doubt that he has further schemes in his mind too." + +(This was all fulfilled a couple of months later, as I remembered when +the time came, by my Lord Shaftesbury's actually presenting James' name +as that of a recusant, before the grand jury of Middlesex; but the +judges dismissed the jury immediately.) + +"And you think, father," asked my Cousin Tom very solemnly, "that these +seditions will lead to trouble?" + +"I have no doubt of it at all," said he. "The country--especially +London--is full of disaffection. Their demonstration last year did a +deal to stir it up. The Duke of York is back now, against my advice; but +I have no doubt he will have to go on his travels again. Were His +majesty to die now--_(quod Deus avertat!)_--I do not know how we should +stand." + + * * * * * + +Mr. Hamerton took occasion to ask me that night, when we were alone for +a minute or two, what I was doing in the country. + +"I remember you perfectly now," said he. "Father Whitbread spoke to me +of you, besides." + +I told him that I had nothing to do in town; and with His Majesty's +consent was lying hid for a little, in order that what little was known +of me might be forgotten again. + +"Well; I suppose you are wise," he said, "and that you will be able to +do more hereafter. But the time will come presently when we shall all be +needed." + +It was on the tip of my tongue to ask him if he could read cipher, and +to shew him my paper--reminded of it, by his talk of disaffection; but +my Cousin Tom came back at that moment; and I put it off; and I +presently forgot it again. + + * * * * * + +The memory of the mass that we heard next morning will never leave me; +for it was the first time that I had heard it in the house. + +We used the long attic, for fear of disturbance, and had a man posted +beneath--for it was still death for a priest to say mass in England. All +the servants that were Catholics were there; and all, I think, went to +the sacraments. Mr. Hamerton heard confessions before the mass began. + +The north end of the attic had been prepared by Dolly and her maid; and +looked very pretty and fine. A couple of men had carried up a great low +press, that had the instruments of the Passion painted upon its panels; +and this served for an altar. Behind it Dolly had put up a hanging from +downstairs, that was of Abraham offering Isaac, and had set upon the +altar a pair of silver candlesticks from the parlour, and a little +standing crucifix, with jugs of country flowers between the candlesticks +and the cross. She had laid too, as a foot-pace, a Turkey rug that came +too from the parlour; and had put a little table to serve as a credence. +Mr. Hamerton had with him little altar-vessels made for travelling, with +a cup that unscrewed from the stem, and every other necessary except +what he asked us to provide. + + * * * * * + +It is the experience of everyone, I think, that mass differs from mass, +as a star (in the apostle's words) differs from another star in glory--I +do not mean in its essential effects, for that is the same always, but +in the devotion which it arouses in those that hear it. This mass then +seemed to me like scarcely any other that I had ever heard, except +perhaps that at which I received my first communion in the country +church in France. Mr. Hamerton said it with great deliberation and +recollection; and, as my Cousin Tom served him, as a host should, I was +not distracted by anything. My Cousin Dolly and I kneeled side by side +in front, and again, side by side, to receive Holy Communion. + +I was in a kind of ecstasy of delight, and not, I think unworthily; for, +though much of my delight came from being there with my cousin, and +receiving our Lord's Body with her, I do not think that is any dishonour +to God whom we must love first of all, to find a great joy in loving Him +in the company of those we love purely and uprightly. So at least it +seems to me. + + * * * * * + +Mr. Hamerton told us he must be riding very early; and not much after +seven o'clock we stood at the gate to bid him farewell. I made my man +James go with him so far as Ware to set him on his road, though the +priest begged me not to trouble myself. + +When I came back to the house I was in a torment of indecision as to +whether this would not be the best occasion I could ever find of telling +my Cousin Dorothy all that was in my heart in her regard; and I even +went into the Great Chamber after her, still undecided. But her manner +prevented me; for I thought I saw in her something of a return of that +same shyness which she had shewed to me when I had come last time back +to Hare Street; and I went out again without saying one word except of +the priest's visit and of what a good man he seemed. + +Even then, I think, if I had spoken, matters might have taken a very +different course; but, whether through God's appointment or my own +diffidence, this was not to be; and again I said nothing to her. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +Our next adventure, not unlike the last exteriorly, was very different +from it interiorly; and led to very strange results in the event. It +came about in this way. + +It was in May that Mr. Hamerton had come to us, for Easter that year +fell in that month; and the weather after that, which had been very +bitter in the winter, with so much snow as I never saw before, but +clearer about Eastertime, fell very wet and stormy again in June. + +It was on a Thursday evening, in the first week in June, that the bad +weather set in with a violent storm of rain and a high wind. We sat in +the Great Chamber after supper, and had some music as usual: and between +the music we listened to the gusts of wind and the rattle of the rain, +which made so great a noise that Dolly said that it was no use for her +to go to bed yet, for that she would not sleep if she went. Her maid +went to bed; and we three sat talking till nearly half-past ten o'clock, +which is very late for the country where men rise at four o'clock. + +The wind made such a noise that we heard nothing of the approach to the +house; and the first that we knew of anyone's coming was a hammering at +the door. + +"Why, who is that;" said I, "that comes so late?" + +I could see that my Cousin Tom did not like it, for his face shewed +it--(I suppose it was the memory of that other time when the hammering +came)--so I said nothing, but went myself to the outer door and unbolted +it. + +A fellow stood there in a great riding-cloak; but I could see he wore +some kind of a livery beneath. + +"Well," I said, "what do you want?" + +He saw that I was a gentleman by my dress; and he answered me very +civilly. + +"My master is benighted, sir," said he; "and he bid me come and ask +whether he might lie here to-night. There is no inn in the place." + +"Why, who is your master?" I asked. + +He did not seem to hear my question, for he went on immediately. + +"There are only five of the party, sir," he said. "Two gentlemen and +three servants." + +I saw that my Cousin Tom was behind me now; and that Dolly was looking +from the door of the Great Chamber. + +"You have not yet told us," I said, "what your master's name is." + +"I think, sir, he had best answer that," said the fellow. + +Now this might very well be a Catholic, and perhaps an important person +who had heard of Mr. Jermyn, but did not wish to advertise who himself +was. I looked at my Cousin Tom; and thought from his look that the same +thought had come to him. + +"Well, Cousin?" I said. + +"They had best come in--" he said shortly. "Dolly, rouse some of the +servants. They will want supper, I suppose." + +He nodded to the man, who went back immediately; and a minute later two +gentlemen came up the flagged path, also in great cloaks that appeared +soaked with the rain. + +"By God, sir!" said the first of them, "we are grateful to you. This is +a wild night." + +My Cousin, Tom said something civil, and when the door was shut, helped +this man off with his cloak, while I helped the other. The former was +explaining all the while how they were on their way to town from +Newmarket; and how they had become bogged a little after Barkway, losing +their road in the darkness. They had intended to push on to Waltham +Cross, he said, or Ware at the least, and lie there. He spoke with a +merry easy air that shewed him for a well-bred and pleasant fellow. My +own man said nothing, but left it all to the other. + +When I turned to see the one who spoke, I was more surprised than ever +in all my life before; for it was no other than the Duke of Monmouth +himself. He looked a shade older than when I had last seen him in the +park above a year ago; but he was the very same and I could not mistake +him. As for me, he would not know me from Adam, for he had never spoken +with me in all his life. I did not know what to do, as to whether I +should make to recognize him or not; but he saved me the trouble; for as +I followed the others into the Great Chamber, he was already speaking. + +"It is very good of you, Mr. Jermyn," he said, "to receive us like this. +My name is Morton, and my friend's here Mr. Atkins. You can put us where +you will--on the floor if you have no other place." + +"We can do better than that, sir," said Tom. "There is only my daughter +here and Mr. Mallock my cousin. My daughter is gone to call the +servants." + +The Duke looked very handsome and princely as he stood on the hearth, +although there was no fire, and surveyed the room. He was in a dark blue +riding-suit, darker than it should be upon the shoulders with the rain +that had soaked through his cloak; but it was of the colour of his eyes +that were very fine and attractive; and he wore his own hair. The other +man looked pretty mean beside him; and yet he was not ill-looking. He +was a fair man, too, with a rosy face; in a buff suit. + +"We can manage two changes of clothes, Mr. Morton," went on my Cousin +Tom, "if you fear to take a cold; or you can sup immediately; as you +will." + +"Why, Mr. Jermyn; I think we will sup first and go to bed afterwards. +The clothes can be dried, no doubt, before morning." + +In spite of all his efforts, he spoke as one born to command and with a +kind of easy condescension too; and certainly this had its effect upon +poor Tom; for he was all eagerness and welcome, who just now had been a +shade surly. He was beginning to say that it was for his guests to +choose, when my Cousin Dolly came in suddenly through the open door. + +"Why here is my little maid, gentlemen--" he said; and Dolly did her +reverence. + +Now I had in my mind no thought of jealousy at all; and yet when I saw +how the Duke bowed to my cousin, I am bound to say that a touch of it +pierced me like a dart--there and gone again, I thought. But it had been +there. I thought how few gentlemen poor Dolly saw down here in Hare +Street: beyond the parson--and he was a man who would go out before the +pudding in a great house, and marry the lady's maid--there was scarce +one who might write Esquire after his name; and the breeding of most of +the squires was mostly rustical. As for her, she did her reverence very +prettily, without a trace of the country in it; and, strange to say, her +manner seemed to change. I mean by that, that she seemed wholly at her +ease in this new kind of company, fully as much as with her maids. + +"You have had a very wet ride, sir," she said, without any sign of +confusion or shyness; "the maids are kindling a fire in the kitchen, to +dry your clothes before morning: and your men shall have beds in the +attic." + +The Duke made a pretty answer, which she took as prettily. + +"And a cold supper shall be in immediately," she said. + +Then my Cousin Tom must needs begin upon the maid, as if she were a +child, or idiotic; and say what a good housekeeper his little maid was +to him, and how she could do so many things; and the Duke took it all +with courtesy, yet did not encourage it, as if he understood her ways +better than her father did--which was, very likely, true enough. + +"And you come up to London, mistress," he said, "no doubt," with a look +at her dress that was not at all insolent, and yet very plain. And it +was indeed a pretty good one; and I remember it very well. It was cut +like a French sac--a fashion that had first come in about ten years +before, and still lasted; and was a little lower at the throat than many +that she wore. It was of a brownish kind of yellow, of which I do not +know the name, and had white lace to it, and silver lace on the bodice. +She was sunburnt again, but not too much, as I had first seen her; and +her blue eyes looked very bright in her face; and she wore a ring on +either hand, as she usually did in the evening, and had her little +pearls round her neck. It was strange to me how I observed all this, so +soon as the Duke had drawn attention to it; whereas I had not observed +it particularly before. + +Wen we went into supper it was the same with the Duke and her. He +behaved to her with the greatest deference, yet not at all exaggerated +so as to be in the least insolent. He treated her, it appeared to me, as +he would have treated one of his own ladies, though there had been every +excuse, especially with Cousin Tom's way of speaking to her, and the +deep country we were in, if he had not noticed her at all. Mr. Atkins, +as he called himself, followed suit; but said very little. Once, when +the dishes had to be taken away, and Dolly rose to do it--before I could +move--(my Cousin Tom, of course, sat there like a dummy)--I observed the +Duke make a little movement with his eyes towards Mr. Atkins, who +immediately rose up and did it for her. + +The effect of all this upon me was to make me do my best in talk; but it +was not very easy without betraying that I knew more of the Court than +might be supposed; but the Duke outdid me every time. He listened with +the greatest courtesy; and then said something a little better. I think +I have never seen a man do better; but it was always so with him. Five +years later he won the hearts of all the drapers in Taunton, in that +terrible enterprise of his, besides ranging on his side some of the +noblest blood in England. Twenty-six young maids in that town gave him a +Bible and a pair of colours worked by their hands; and twenty-six young +maids, it was said, went away after it in love with him. He did not +prove himself very much of a hero in the field; but from his manner in +company one could never have guessed at that. He had all the bearing of +a prince, and all the charm of a boy with it. + +My Cousin Tom said something when supper was ending about Dolly's skill +in music; and how she and her maid sang together. + +"May we not hear it for ourselves?" asked the Duke. + +"But you are wet, sir," said my Cousin Tom. + +The Duke smiled. + +"I shall not think of that, sir," he said, "if Mistress Dorothy will +sing to us." + +Well; so it was settled. The maid was in the kitchen, and was presently +fetched; and she and Dolly sang together once or twice, though it was +now after eleven o'clock. They sang Mr. Wise's "Go, perjured man," I +remember, again; and then M. Grabu's "Song upon Peace." The Duke sat +still in the great chair, shading his eyes from the candlelight, and +watching my Cousin Dolly: and once, when my Cousin Tom broke in upon the +second song with something he had just thought of to say, he put him +aside with a gesture, very royal and commanding, and yet void of +offence, until the song was done. + +"I beg your pardon, Mr. Jermyn," he said a moment afterwards, "but I +have never been so entranced. What was it that you wished to say?" + +As Dolly came towards him he stood up. + +"Mistress Dorothy," he said, "you have given us a great deal of +pleasure." And he said this with so much gravity and feeling that she +flushed. It was the first evident sign she had given that he had pleased +her. + +"And I mean it," he went on, "when I say it is a pity you do not come to +town more often. Such singing as that should have a larger audience than +the two or three you have had to-night." + +Dolly smiled at him. + +"Thank you, sir," she said. "But I know my place better than that." + +This was all a little bitter to me; for by this time a wild kind of +jealousy had risen again in me which I knew to be unreasonable, and yet +could not check. It was true that I myself took the greatest pains never +to forget my manners; but I knew very well that novelty has a +pleasantness all of its own; and the novelty of such company as this, +charged with the peculiar charm of the Duke's manner, must surely, I +thought, have its effect upon her. + +"Well," said he, "I could spend all night in this chamber with such +music; but I must not keep Mistress Dorothy from her sleep another +moment." + +He kissed her fingers with the greatest grace, and then bowed by the +door as she went out. + + * * * * * + +When we had taken them to the great guest-room that was as large, very +nearly, as the Great Chamber, and over it, and bidden them good-night, +my Cousin Tom remembered that we had forgotten to ask Mr. Morton at what +time he must ride in the morning; so I went back again to ask. + +I stayed at the door for one instant after knocking, for it seemed they +had not heard me; and in that little interval I heard the Duke's voice +within, very distinct. + +"A damned pretty wench," he cried. "We must--" + +And at that I opened the door and went in, my jealousy suddenly flaming +up again, so that I lost my wits. + +They stared at me in astonishment. The Duke already was stripped to his +shirt by one of the beds. + +"I beg your pardon, Sir," I said. "But at what hour will Your Grace have +the horses?" + +Mr. Atkins wheeled round full upon me; and the Duke's mouth opened a +little. Then the Duke burst into a fit of laughter. + +"By God, sir!" he said. "You have detected us. How long have you known +it?" + +"From the moment Your Grace took off your hat," I said. + +He laughed again, highly and merrily. + +"Well; no harm is done," he said. "We took other names to make matters +easier for all. You have told Mr. Jermyn?" + +"No, sir," I said. + +"I beg of you not to do so," he said. "It will spoil all. Nor Mistress +Dorothy. It is far easier to do without ceremony now and again." + +I bowed again; but I said nothing. + +"Then you may as well know," said the Duke, "that Mr. Atkins is none +other than my Lord of Essex. We have been at Newmarket together." + +I bowed to my lord, and he to me. + +"Well--the horses," said Monmouth. "At eight o'clock, if you please." + +I said nothing to Tom, for I was very uncertain what to do; and though I +was mad with anger at what I had heard the Duke say as I waited at the +door--(though now I cannot say that there was any great harm in the +words themselves)--I still kept my wits enough to know that I was too +angry to judge fairly. I lay awake a long time that night, turning from +side to side after that I had heard the wet clothes of our guests +carried downstairs to be dried by morning before the fire. It was all a +mighty innocent matter, so far as it had gone; but I would not see that. +I told myself that a man of the Duke's quality should not come to a +little country-house under an _alias_, even if he had been bogged ten +times over; that he should not make pretty speeches to a country maid +and kiss her fingers, and hold open the door for her, even though all +these things or some of them were just what I had done myself. Frankly, +I understand now that no harm was meant; that every word the Duke had +said was true, and that it was but natural for him to try to please all +across whom he came; but I would not see it at the time. + +On the next morning when I came downstairs early it seemed to me that my +Cousin Dorothy was herself downstairs too early for mere good manners. +The guests were not yet stirring; yet the maids were up, and the ale set +out in the dining-room, and the smell of hot oat-cake came from the +kitchen. There were flowers also upon the table; and my cousin was in a +pretty brown dress of hers that she did not wear very often. + +I looked upon her rather harshly; and I think she observed it; for she +said nothing to me as she went about her business. + +I went out into the stable-yard to see the horses; and found my Cousin +Tom there already, admiring them; and indeed they were fine, especially +a great dappled grey that was stamping under the brush of the fellow who +had first knocked at our door last night. + +"That is Mr. Morton's horse, I suppose?" said Tom. + +The man who was grooming him did not speak; and Tom repeated his +question. + +"Yes, sir," said the man, with a queer look which I understood, though +Tom did not, "this is Mr. Morton's." + +"And the chestnut is Mr. Atkins'?" asked my cousin. + +"Just so, sir; Mr. Atkins'," said the man, with the corners of his mouth +twitching. + +The grinning ape--as I thought him--very nearly set me off into saying +that I knew all about it; and that the yellow saddle-cloth was the +colour the Duke of Monmouth used always; but I did not. It appeared to +me then the worst of manners that these personages should come and make +a mock of country-folk, so that even the servants laughed at us. + + * * * * * + +Our guests were downstairs when I came in again, and talking very +merrily to my Cousin Dorothy, who was as much at her ease as last night. +The Duke sneezed once or twice. + +"You have taken a cold, sir," said Dolly. + +"It was in a good cause," he said; and sneezed again. + +"_Salute_," said I. + +He gave me a quick look, astonished, I suppose, that a rustic should +know the Italian ways. + +"_Grazie_," said he, smiling. "You have been in Italy, Mr. Mallock?" + +"Oh! I have been everywhere," I said, with a foolish idea of making him +respect me. + + * * * * * + +When they rode away at last, we all stood at the gate to watch them go. +The storm had cleared away wonderfully; and the air was fresh and +summerlike, and ten thousand jewels sparkled on the limes. They made a +very gallant cavalcade. The horses had recovered from their weariness, +for they were finely bred, all five of them; and the Duke's horse +especially was full of spirit, and curvetted a little, with pleasure and +the strength of our corn, as he went along. The servants' liveries too +were gay and pleasant to the eye:--(they were not the Duke's own +liveries; for when he went about outside town he used a plainer +sort)--and the Duke's dark blue, with his fair curls and his great hat +which he waved as he went, and my Lord Essex's spruce figure in his +buff, all made a very pretty picture as they went up the village street. + +It was this, I think, and my Cousin Dolly's silence as she looked after +them, that determined me; and as we three went back again up the flagged +path to the house, and the servants round again to the yard, I spoke. + +"Cousin Tom," I said. "Do you wish to know who our guests were?" + +He looked at me in astonishment, and my Cousin Dolly too. + +"Mr. Morton is the Duke of Monmouth," I said, "and Mr. Atkins, my Lord +Essex." + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +It was a long time before my Cousin Tom recovered from his astonishment +and his pleasure at having entertained such personages in his house. He +told me, of course, presently, when he had had time to think of it, that +he had guessed it all along, but had understood that His Grace wished to +be _incognito_; and I suppose at last he came to believe it. He would +fall suddenly musing in the evenings; and I would know what he was +thinking of; and it was piteously amusing to see, how one night again, +not long after, he rose and ran to the door when a drunken man knocked +upon it, and what ill words he gave him when he saw who it was. His was +a slow-moving mind; and I think he could not have formed the project, +which he afterwards carried out, while I was with him, or he must have +let it out to me. + + * * * * * + +It was a little piteous, too, to see with what avidity he seized upon +any news of the Duke, and how his natural inclinations and those +consonant with his religion strove with his new-found loyalty to a +bastard. A week or two later we had news of the attempt made by my Lord +Shaftesbury to injure the Duke of York's cause by presenting his name as +that of a recusant, to the Middlesex grand jury. It was a mighty bold +thing to do, and though the attempt failed so far as that the judges +dismissed the jury while they were still deliberating, it shewed how +little my Lord feared the Duke or His Majesty and how much resolved he +was to establish, if he could, the Protestant succession and the Duke of +Monmouth's pretended claim to it. A deal of nonsense, too, was talked at +this time of how the Duke was truly legitimate, and how Mistress Lucy +Walters had been secretly married to the King, before ever poor Queen +Catherine had been heard of; and the proofs of all this, it was +reported, were in a certain Black Box that no one had ever set eyes on; +and the matter became so much a thing of ridicule that once at the play, +I think, when one of the actors carried on a black box, there was a roar +of laughter and jeering from the pit. + +It was wonderful to hear my Cousin Tom hold forth upon the situation. + +One evening in September, two months after our adventure of the Duke's +coming, after a long silence, he made a little discourse upon it all. + +"I should not be surprised," said he, "if there was more in the tale +than most men think. It is not likely that the proofs of the marriage +would be easy to come by, in such a case; for Mistress Walters, whom I +think I once saw at Tunbridge Wells, was not at all of the King's +position even by blood; and it is less likely that His Majesty, who was +but a very young man at that time, would have stood out against her when +she wished marriage. Besides there is no doubt that he knew her long +before there was any prospect of his coming to the throne. Then too +there has always appeared, to my mind at least, something in the Duke's +bearing and carriage that it would be very hard for a bastard to have. +He has a very princely air." + +To such talk as this I would make no answer; but I would watch my Cousin +Dorothy's face; and think that I read there something that I did not +like--an interest that she should not feel: and, after a pause my Cousin +Tom would proceed in his conjectures. + +It was on the day following this particular discourse, which I remember +very well, for my jealousy had so much worked up that I was very near +breaking my resolution and telling my Cousin Dolly all that was in my +heart, that a letter came for me from Mr. Chiffinch, so significant that +I will write down some sentences of it. + +"His Majesty bids me to write to you to come up to town again for a few +days. He thinks that you may perhaps be of some use with His Royal +Highness to urge him to go back to Scotland again, which at present he +vows that he will not do. His Majesty is aware that the Duke scarcely +knows you at all; yet he tells me to say this, and that I will explain +to you when you come how you can be of service. There will be a deal of +trouble this autumn; the Parliament is to meet in October, and will be +in a very ill-humour, it is thought." + +There was a little more of this sort; and then came a sentence or two +that roused my anger. + +"I have heard much here of your entertainment of the Duke of Monmouth, +and of what a pretty girl your cousin is. His Majesty laughed very much +when he heard of it; and swears that he suspects you of going over to +the Protestant side after all. The Duke knows nothing of what you are, +or of anything you have done; but he has talked freely of his +entertainment at Hare Street, thinking it, I suppose, to be a Protestant +house. In public the King has had nothing to say to him; but he loves +him as much as ever, and would not, I think be very sorry, in his heart, +though he never says so, if he were to be declared legitimate." + +This made me angry then, for what the letter said as to the Duke of +Monmouth's talk; and it disconcerted me too, for, if the King himself +were to join the popular party, there would be little hope of the +Catholic succession. The Duchess of Portsmouth, also, I had heard, had +lately become of that side; and I dared say it was she who had talked +His Majesty round. + +Now my Cousin Tom knew that I had had this letter, for he had seen the +courier bring it; but he did not know from whom it came; and, as already +he was a little suspicious, I thought, of what I did in town, I thought +it best to tell him that it was from a friend at Court; and what it said +as to the Duke of Monmouth's talk, hoping that this perhaps might offend +him against the Duke. But it had the very opposite effect, much to my +discomfiture. + +"His Grace says that, does he?" he said, smiling. "I am sure it is very +courteous of him to remember his poor entertainment"; and (Dolly coming +in at this instant) he told her too what the Duke had said. + +"Hear what the Duke of Monmouth hath been saying, my dear! He says you +are a mighty pretty girl." + +And Dolly, greatly to my astonishment, did not seem displeased, as soon +as she had heard the tale; for she laughed and said nothing. + + * * * * * + +As I rode up to London next day in answer to my summons, I was wondering +how in the world I could be of service to the Duke of York. As Mr. +Chiffinch had said, I knew next to nothing of him, nor he of me; but +when I was gone round to the page's rooms the morning after I came, he +told me something of the reasons for which I had been summoned. + +"Such Jesuits as are left," he said, "and the Duke's confessor among +them, seem all of opinion that the Duke had best remain in London and +fight it out. We hear, without a doubt, that my Lord Shaftesbury, who +seems most desperate, will bring in the Exclusion Bill again this +Session; and the priests say that it is best for His Royal Highness to +be here; and to plead again for himself as he did so well two years ago. +His Majesty on the other hand is honestly of opinion--and I would sooner +trust to his foresight than to all the Jesuits in the world--that he +himself can fight better for his brother if that brother be in Scotland; +for out of sight, out of mind. And he desires you, as a Catholic, yet +not a priest, to go and talk to the Duke on that side. He hath sent half +a dozen to him already; and, since he knows that the Duke is aware of +what you have done in France, he thinks that your word may tip the +balance. For the Duke, I think, is in two minds, beneath all his +protestations." + +For myself, I was of His Majesty's opinion; for the sight of the Duke +irritated folk who had not yet forgotten the Oates Plot; and I consented +very willingly to go and see him. + + * * * * * + +I was astonished to find that by now I had really become something of a +personage myself, amongst those few who had heard what I had done in +France; and I was received by His Royal Highness in his lodgings after +supper that evening with a very different air from that which he had +when I had last spoken with him. + +The Duke was pacing up and down his closet when I came in, and turned to +me with a very friendly manner. + +"Mr. Mallock," he said, when I had saluted him and was sat down, "I am +very glad to see you. His Majesty has told me all that you have done, +and has urged me to see you, as you are devoted as I know, to the +Catholic cause, and know the world too; and men's minds. Do you think I +should go or stay?" + +"Sir," I said, "my opinion is that you should go. There is a quantity of +disaffection in town. I have met with a good deal of it myself. If Your +Royal Highness is to be seen continually going about, that disaffection +will be kept alive. Men are astonishingly stupid. They act, largely, +upon that which they see, not on that which they know: and by going to +Scotland you will meet them both ways. They will not see Your Highness +at all; and all that they will know of you is that you are doing the +King's work and helping the whole kingdom in Edinburgh." + +"But they say I torture folks there!" said the Duke. + +"They say so, Sir. They will say anything. But not a reasonable man +believes it." + +(It was true, indeed, that such gossip went about; but the substance of +it was ridiculous. Good fighters do not torture; and no one denied to +the Duke the highest pitch of personal courage. He had fought with the +greatest gallantry against the Dutch.) + +He said nothing to that; but sat brooding. + +His closet was a very magnificent chamber; but not so magnificent as he +who sat in it. He was but just come from supper, and wore his orders on +his coat; but all his dress could not distract those who looked at him +from that kingly Stuart face that he had. He was, perhaps, the heaviest +looking of them all, with not a tithe of Monmouth's brilliant charm, or +the King's melancholy power; yet he too had the air of command and more +than a touch of that strange romance which they all had. Until that +blood is diluted down to nothing, I think that a Stuart will always find +men to love and to die for him. But it was Stuart against Stuart this +time; so who could tell with whom the victory would lie? + +So I was thinking to myself, when suddenly the Duke looked up. + +"Mr. Mallock," he said, "I hear that you have a very persuasive manner +with both men and women. There is an exceedingly difficult commission +which I wish you would execute for me. You have spoken with the Duchess +of Portsmouth?" + +"Never, Sir," I said. "I have seen Her Grace in the park only." + +"Well; she has thrown her weight against me with the King. God knows +why! But I wonder you have not met her?" + +"Sir, I never go to Court, by His Majesty's wish." + +"Yes," he said. "But Her Grace is the King's chief agent in his French +affairs; and you are in them too, I hear. But that is His Majesty's way; +he uses each singly, and never two together if he can help it." (This +was perfectly true, and explained a good deal to me. I had heard much of +the Duchess in France, but nothing at all of her from the King.) + +"Well," continued the Duke, "I wish you would see her for me, Mr. +Mallock; and try to get from her why she is so hot against me. She is a +Catholic, as you are, and she should not be so. But she is all on fire +for Monmouth and the Protestant succession; and she is all powerful with +the King." + +"I shall be happy to do what I can, Sir," said I, "but I do not suppose +Her Grace will confide in me." + +"I know that," he said, "but you may pick up something. You are the +fourth I have sent on that errand, and nothing come of it." + +We talked a while longer on these affairs, myself more and more +astonished at the confidence given me (but I think now that it was +because the Duke had so few that he could trust); and when I took my +leave it was with a letter written and signed and sealed by the Duke, +which I was to present at Her Grace's lodgings immediately. + +The Duchess, at this time, was, I think, the most powerful figure in +England; since her influence over the King was unbounded. She had come +to England ten years ago as Charles' mistress, a good and simple maid in +the beginning, as I believe, and of good Breton parents, who would not +let her go to the French Court, yet were persuaded to let her go to the +English--where, God help her! she soon ceased to be either good or +simple. In the year seventy-two she was created Duchess of Portsmouth +who up to that time had been the Breton woman Madame Kéroual (or, as she +was called in England Madam Carwell). Three years later her son had been +made Duke of Richmond. At the time of the Popish Plot she had been +terrified of her life, and it was only at the King's persuasion that she +remained in England. I cannot say that she was popular with the people, +for her coach was cried after pretty often unless she had her guards +with her; and this always threw her into paroxysms of terror. Yet she +remained in England, and was treated as of royal blood both by Charles +who loved her, and James who feared her. + +A couple of days later I received a message to say that Her Grace would +receive me after supper on that same evening: so I put on my finest +suit, and set out in a hired coach. + +The Duchess lived at this time in lodgings at the end of the Great +Gallery in Whitehall; and I think that of all the apartments I had ever +set eyes on--even the royal lodgings themselves--this was the finest; +and no wonder, for they had been pulled down two or three times before +she was satisfied, thus fulfilling the old proverb of Setting a Beggar +on Horseback. I was made to wait awhile in an outer chamber, all as if +she were royal; and I examined the pieces of furniture there, and there +was nothing in the Queen's own lodging to approach to them--so massy was +the plate and so great and exquisitely carved the tables and chairs. +When I was taken through at last by a fellow dressed in a livery like +the King's own, the next room, where I was bidden to sit down, was full +as fine. There was a quantity of tapestry upon the walls, of new French +fabric, so resembling paintings that I had to touch before I was sure +of them--of Versailles, and St. Germain, with hunting pieces and +landscapes and exotic fowls. There were Japan cabinets, screens and +pendule clocks, and a great quantity of plate, all of silver, as well as +were the sconces that held the candles; and the ceilings were painted +all over, as were His Majesty's own, I suppose by Verrio. + +As I sat there, considering what I should say to her, I heard music +continually through one of the doors; and when at last it was flung open +and my Lady came through, she brought, as it were, a gust of music with +her. + +I bowed very low, as I had been instructed, in spite of the character of +the woman, and then I kneeled to kiss her hand. Then she sat down, and +left me standing, like a servant. + +She appeared at that time to be about thirty years old, though I think +she was far beyond this; but she had a wonderfully childish face, very +artfully painted and darkened by the eyes. I cannot deny, however, that +she was very handsome indeed, and well set-off by her jewels and her +silver-lace gown, cut very low so as to shew her dazzling skin. Her +fingers too, when I kissed them, were but one mass of gems. Her first +simplicity was gone, indeed. + +I loathed this work that I was sent on; since it forced me to be civil +to this spoiled creature, instead of, as I should have wished, naming +her for what she was, to her face. However, that had been done pretty +often by the mob; so I doubt if I could have told her anything she did +not know already. Her voice was set very low and was a little rough; yet +it was not ugly at all. She spoke in French; and so did I. + +"Well, Mr. Mallock," she said, "I have company; but I did not wish to +refuse another of His Royal Highness's ambassadors. What is the matter +now, if you please?" + +Now I knew that this kind of personage loved flattery--for it was +nothing but this that had ruined her--and that it could scarcely be too +thick: so I framed my first sentences in that key: for, after all, my +first business was to please her. + +"His Royal Highness is desolated, madam," I said, "because he thinks he +has displeased you." + +"Displeased me!" she cried. "Why, what talk is this of a Prince to a +poor Frenchwoman?" + +She smiled very unpleasantly as she said this; and nearly all the time I +was with her, her eyes were running up and down my figure. I was wearing +a good ring or two also, and my sword-hilt was very prettily set with +diamonds; and she always had an eye for such things. + +"There can be no talk of Prince and subject, madam," I said, "when Her +Grace of Portsmouth is in question." + +She smiled once more; and I saw that she liked this kind of talk. So I +gave her plenty of it. + +"La! la!" she said. "This is very pretty talk. What is your business, +sir, if you please?" + +"It is what I have said, madam; and nothing else upon my honour! His +Royal Highness is seriously discomposed." + +"Then why does he not come to see me, and ask me himself?" snapped my +Lady. "He hath not been these three months back. Why does he send a--a +messenger?" + +(She was on the very point of saying _servant_; and it pleased me that +she had not done so. I noted also in my mind that wounded vanity was one +of the reasons for her behaviour, as it usually is with a woman.) + +"Madam," I said, "His Royal Highness does not come, I am sure, because +he does not know how he would be received. It seems that Your Grace's +favour is given to another, altogether, now." + +"God bless us!" said the Duchess. "Why not say Monmouth and be done with +it?" + +"It is Your Grace who has named him," I said: "but the Duke of Monmouth +is the very man." + +She gave a great flirt to her fan; and I saw by her face what I had +suspected before, that it was not only with music that she was +intoxicated. Then she jerked her pretty head. + +"Sit down, sir," she said; and when I had done so, pleased at the +progress I was making, she told me everything I wanted to know, though +she did not think so herself. + +"See here, Mr. Mallock: You appear an intelligent kind of man. Now ask +yourself a question or two, and you will know all that I know myself. +What kind of a chance, think you, has a Catholic as King of England, as +against a Protestant; and what kind of a chance, think you, has the Duke +of York beside the Duke of Monmouth? I speak freely, because from your +having come on this errand, I suppose you are a man that can be trusted. +I wonder you have not seen it for yourself. His Royal Highness has no +tact--no _aplomb_: he sets all against him by his lordly ways. He could +not make a friend of any man, to save his life: he can never forget his +royalty. He sulks there in his lodgings, and will not even come to see a +poor Frenchwoman. And now, sir, you know all that I know myself." + +The woman's ill-breeding came out very plainly when she spoke; and I +remember even then wondering that His Majesty could make so much of her. +But it is often the way that men of good breeding can never see its lack +in others, especially in women: or will not. However I concealed all +this from Her Grace, and let go more of my courtesy. + +"But, madam," I said, "with all the goodwill in the world it is +Versailles to a china orange that His Royal Highness will succeed in the +event. I do not say that he will make as good a King as the Duke of +Monmouth, nor that his being a Catholic will be anything but a +disadvantage to him; but disadvantages or no, if he is King, it is +surely better to be upon his side, and help, not hinder him." + +I would not have dared to say such a thing to a respectable woman; for +it advised her, almost without disguise, to look to her own advantage +only. + +She gave me a sharp look. + +"That is where we are not agreed," said she. + +I made a little despairing gesture with my hands. + +"Well, madam--if you do not accept facts--" + +"Why do you think the Duke of York is so sure to succeed?" she asked +sharply; and I saw that I had touched her. + +"Madam," I said, "we English are a very curious people. It is true that +we cut off His late Majesty's head; but it is also true that we welcomed +back his son with acclamation. We are not quick and logical as is your +own glorious nation; we have very much more sentimentality; and, among +those matters that we are sentimental about, is that of Royalty. I dare +wager a good deal that if government by Monarchy goes in either of our +countries, it will go in Your Grace's fatherland first. We abuse those +in high places, and we disobey them, and we talk against them; yet we +cling to them. + +"And there is a second reason--" I went on rapidly; for she was at the +point of speaking--"We are a highly respectable nation, with all the +prejudices of respectability; and one of these prejudices concerns His +Grace of Monmouth's parentage"--(I saw her flare scarlet at that; but I +knew what I was doing)--"It is a foolish Pharisaic sort of prejudice, no +doubt, madam; but it is there; and I do not believe--" + +She could bear no more; for her own son had precisely that bar sinister +also; and in her anger she said what I wished to hear. + +"This is intolerable, sir," she flared at me, gripping the arms of her +chair. "I do not wish to hear any more about your stupid English nation. +It is because they are stupid that I do what I do. They can be led by +the nose, like your stupid king: I can do what I will--" + +"Madam," I entreated, and truly my accents were piteous, "I beg of you +not to speak like that. I am a servant of His Majesty's--I cannot hear +such talk--" + +I rose from my chair. + +Now in that Court there was more tittle-tattle, I think, than in any +place on God's earth; and she knew that well enough; and understood that +she had said something which unless she prevented it, would go straight +to Charles' ears. It is true that she ruled him absolutely; but he +kicked under her yoke a little now and then; and if there were one thing +that he would not brook it was to be called stupid. She let go of the +arms of her chair, and went a little white. I think she had no idea +till then that I was in the King's service. + +"I said nothing--" she murmured. + +I stood regarding her; and I think my manner must have been good. + +"I said nothing that should be repeated," she added, a little louder. + +I still kept silence. + +"You will not repeat it, Mr. Mallock?" + +"Madam," I said, "I have only one desire: and that is to serve His +Majesty and His Majesty's lawful heir. My mouth can be sealed +absolutely, if that end is served." + +I said that very slowly and deliberately. + +I saw her breathe a little more freely. It was a piteous sight to see a +woman so depending upon such things as a complexion, and whiffs of +scandal, and servants' gossip. + +"Mr. Mallock," she said, "I cannot veer round all in a moment, even +though I must confess that what you have said to me, has touched me very +closely." + +She looked at me miserably. + +"Madam," I said, for I dared not grasp at more than this, for fear of +losing all, "that has wiped out your words as if they had never been +spoken." + +I kissed her hand and went out. + + * * * * * + +I did not go to the Duke, for I hold that, when a man has to sift +carefully between what he must say and what he must not, it is best to +do it on paper; but I went back to my lodgings and wrote to him that it +was merely for her own advantage that the Duchess had behaved so, and +because she thought that the Protestant succession was certain--her own +advantage, that is to say, mingled with a little woman's vanity. I +begged His Royal Highness therefore to go and see the Duchess, if he +thought well, and, if possible, publicly, when she held her reception, +before he went to Scotland--(for I was diplomat enough to know that the +assuming he would go to Scotland would be the best persuasion to make +him)--; and at the end I told him that I thought my arguments had +prevailed a little with Her Grace, and that though she could not at once +turn weathercock, he might take my word for it that she would not be so +forward as she had been. But I did not tell him what argument I had +chiefly used; for I hold that even to such a woman as that, a man should +keep his word. + +Everything I told the Duke in that letter fell true. The Duchess began +to cool very much in the Protestant cause, though perhaps that was +helped a little by Monmouth's having fallen under the King's +displeasure: and the Duke of York went two or three times to the +Duchess' receptions; and to Scotland on the day before Parliament met. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +It was on Mr. Chiffinch's advice that I remained in London for the +present, determining however to spend Christmas at Hare Street; and +indeed I had plenty to do in making my reports to Rome on the situation. + +There was a storm brewing. From all over the country came in _addresses_ +to the King, as they were called, praying him to assemble Parliament, +and that, not only for defence against Popery, but against despotism as +well; and all these were nourished and inspired by my Lord Shaftesbury. +His Majesty answered this by proclaiming through the magistrates that +such addresses were contrary to the laws that left such things at the +King's discretion; and the court-party against the country-party +presently begun to send addresses beseeching His Majesty to defend that +prerogative of his fearlessly. Names began to be flung about: the +court-party called the other the party of _Whigs_, because of their whey +faces that would turn all sour; and the country-party nicknamed the +others _Tories_, which was the name of the banditti in the wilder parts +of Ireland. So it appeared that whenever Parliament should meet, there +would be, as the saying is, a pretty kettle of fish to fry. + +Parliament met at last on the twenty-first of October, the Duke of York +having set out to Scotland with a fine retinue on the day before; (which +some thought too pointed); and the King himself opened it. + +With all my love for His Majesty I am forced to confess that he +presented a very poor spectacle on that occasion. Not only did he +largely yield to the popular clamour, and profess himself willing, +within reason, to befriend any measures for the repression of Popery; +but he stood at the fire afterwards in the House of Lords, for a great +while, warming his back and laughing with his friends. I was in the +gallery and saw it myself. Laughter is a very good thing, but a seemly +gravity is no less good. As might be expected of curs, they barked all +the louder when there was no one to stand up to them; and within a week, +after numerous insulting proposals made to honour that horde of lying +informers that had done so much mischief already, and of preferring such +men as Dr. Tonge to high positions in the Church, once more that +Exclusion Bill of theirs came forward. + +The Commons passed it, as might be expected, since my Lord Shaftesbury +had packed that House with his own nominees. + +I was in Whitehall on the night that it was debated in the Lords--four +days later--and up to ten o'clock His Majesty had not returned from the +House; for he was present at that debate--a very unusual thing with him. +I went up and down for a little while outside His Majesty's lodgings; +and about half-past ten I saw Mr. Chiffinch coming. + +"His Majesty is not back yet," he said; and presently he proposed that +we should go to the House ourselves. + + * * * * * + +From the little gallery whither he conducted me, I had a very good view +of the House, and, yet more, of one of the strangest sights ever seen +there. + +Upon the carpet that was laid by the fire, for it was a cold night, +stood His Majesty himself with a circle of friends about him. Now and +again there came up to him one of the Peers for whom he had sent; he +talked to him a few minutes; and then let him go; for he was doing +nothing else than solicit each of them for his vote. + +The cry was raised presently to clear the House; and we went away; for +their Lordships were to record their votes; and we had not stood half an +hour in the court outside, before there came a great cheering and +shouting; followed hard by a great booing from the crowds that stood +packed outside. My Lords had thrown out the Exclusion Bill by above +two-thirds of their number--which was ninety-three. Presently His +Majesty came out by his private way, laughing and jesting aloud with two +or three others. + +It was to be expected that the country-party would make some retort to +this; and what that retort was I heard a few days later, from a couple +of gentlemen who came into the parlour at the Covent Garden tavern where +I was taking my supper. They came in very eagerly, talking together, and +when they had sat down, one of them turned to me. + +"You have heard the news, sir?" + +"No, sir. What news?" + +"My Lord Stafford is to be tried for his life." + +I did not know what political complexion these two were of; so I looked +wise and inquired how that was known. + +"A clerk that is in the House of Lords told me, sir. I have always found +his information to be correct." + +This was all very well for the clerk's friend, thought I; but not enough +for me; and so soon as I had finished my supper and bidden them +good-night I was off to Mr. Chiffinch. + +"Why yes," he said. "It is like to be true enough. I had heard talk of +it, but no more. It is he whom they have chosen as the weakest of the +Five in the Tower; and if they can prevail against him they will proceed +against the rest, I suppose. I wonder who the informers will be." + +I inquired how it was that the Peers did not resist. + +"They fear for themselves and their places," said Mr. Chiffinch. "They +will yield up anything but that, if a man or two will but push them hard +enough. And, if they try my Lord, they will certainly condemn him. There +is no question of that. To acquit him would cause a yet greater uproar +than to refuse to hear the case at all." + +"And His Majesty?" + +Mr. Chiffinch eyed me gravely. + +"His Majesty will never prefer his private feelings before the public +utility." + +"And this is to the public utility?" + +"Why yes; or the country-party thinks it is. It is the best answer they +can make to their rebuff on the matter of the Exclusion Bill." + +The rumour proved to be perfectly true. The Five Lords who were still in +the Tower, had been sent there, it may be remembered, above two years +ago, on account of their religion, although the pretended plot professed +by Oates was of course alleged against them. Since that time Parliament +had been busy with other matters; but such an opportunity was now too +good to be lost, of striking against the court-party, and, at the same +time, of feeding the excitement and fanaticism of their own. + +The trial came on pretty quickly, beginning on the last day of November; +and as I had never seen a Peer tried by his fellows, I determined to be +present, and obtained an order to admit me every day; and the first day, +strangely enough, was the birthday of my Lord Stafford himself. + + * * * * * + +Westminster Hall, in which the trial was held, was a very noble sight +when all the folks were in their places. (I sat myself in a high +gallery, in which sat, too, ambassadors and public ministers--at the +upper end, above the King's state.) + +I could not see that which was immediately beneath me, neither of the +box in which sat His Majesty during a good deal of the trial, nor, upon +the left side where the great ladies sat. But I had a very good view of +the long forms on which the Peers sat, before the state (under which was +the throne), the wool-packs for the Judges, and the chair of the Lord +Steward--all which was ranged exactly as in the House of Lords itself. +Behind the Peers' forms rose the stands, scaffolded up to the roof, for +the House of Commons to sit in; so that the Hall resembled the shape of +a V in its section, with a long arena in the midst. The lower end held, +in the middle, the bar for the prisoner to stand at, and a place for him +to retire into: a box for his two daughters, of whom one was the +Marchioness of Winchester; and the proper places for the Lieutenant of +the Tower (whence my Lord was brought by water), the axe-bearer, who had +the edge of his axe turned away from the prisoner, and the guards that +kept him. Upon either hand of the entrance, nearer to the throne, stood, +upon one side a box for the witnesses, and upon the other, those that +were called the Managers--being lawyers and attorneys and the like; but +these were in their cloaks and swords, as were others who were with +them, of the Parliamentary party, since they were here as representing +the Commons, and not as lawyers first of all. + + * * * * * + +The two first days were tedious enough; and I did not stay a great +while; for the articles of impeachment were read, and formalities +discharged. One matter of interest only appeared; and that was the names +of the witnesses, when I learned for the first time that Oates and +Dugdale and Turberville were to be the principal. I think more than I +were astonished to hear that Dr. Oates was in this conspiracy too, as in +so many others; and that he would swear, when the time came, that he had +delivered to my Lord a commission from the Holy Father, to be paymaster +in the famous Catholic army of which we had heard so much. + +I was much occupied too on these days in observing the appearance and +demeanour of the prisoner, whom I could see very well. He was now in his +seventieth year, and looked full his age; but he bore himself with great +dignity and restraint. He had somewhat of a cold look in his face; and +indeed it was true that he was not greatly beloved by anybody, though +respected by all. + +The principal witnesses, even before Oates, were Dugdale and +Turberville. First these gave their general testimony--and afterwards +their particular. Mr. Dugdale related how that the plot, in general, had +been on hand for above fifteen or sixteen years; and he repeated all the +stuff that had so stirred up the people before, as to indulgences and +pardons promised by the Pope to those who would kill the King. I must +confess that I fell asleep once or twice during this testifying, for I +knew it all by heart already. And, in particular, he said that my Lord +had debated with others at my Lord Aston's, how to kill the King: and +that himself was present at such debates. + +A great hum broke out in the Hall, when Dugdale swore that he had heard +with his own ears my Lord Stafford and others who had been present, give +their assent one by one to the King's murder. His Majesty himself, I was +told later by Mr. Chiffinch, retired to the back of his box to laugh, +when he heard that said; for neither then nor ever did he believe a word +of it. + +Next came Mr. Oates; and he too reaffirmed what he had said before, with +an hundred ingenious additions and particularities as to times and +places--and this, I think, as much as anything was the reason why so +many simple folk had believed him in the first event. + +Then Turberville, who said falsely that he had once been a friar, and at +Douay, related how my Lord, as he had said, had attempted to bribe him +to kill the King, and suchlike nonsense. This, he said, had happened in +France. + +My Lord Stafford questioned the prisoners a little; and shewed up many +holes in their story. For instance, he asked Turberville whether he had +ever been in his chamber in Paris; and put this question through the +High Steward. + +"Yes, my Lord, I have," said Turberville. + +"What kind of a room is it?" asked my Lord. + +"I can't remember that," said Turberville, who before had sworn he had +been in it many times. + +"No," said my Lord, "I dare swear you can't." + +"I cannot tell the particulars--what stools and chairs were in the +room." + + * * * * * + +On the third day, which was Thursday, my Lord was bidden to call his +witnesses and make his defence; and I must confess that he did not do +this very well; for, first he made a great pother about this and that +statute, of the 13 Charles II. and 25 Edward--nothing of which served +him at all; and next his witnesses did him harm rather than good; and +Dugdale, whom he examined was so clever and quiet and positive in his +statements that it was mere oath against oath. Third, my Lord Stafford +himself did appear a little confused as to whether he had known Dugdale +or not, not being sure of him, as he said, in his periwig; for when +Dugdale was bailiff to my Lord Aston at Tixall, he wore no such thing. +All that he did, in regard to Dugdale, was to shew by one of his +witnesses that Dugdale, when bailiff at Tixall, had been a mean +dishonest fellow; but then, as the Lord High Sheriff observed, it would +scarcely be an honest man whom one would bribe to kill the King. + +When he dealt with Turberville too, he did not do much better; for he +stood continually upon little points of no importance--such points as a +witness may very well mistake--as to where the windows of his house in +Paris looked out, and whether the Prince of Conde lodged to right or +left--such little points as a lawyer would leave alone, if he could not +prove them positively. + +On the fourth and fifth day I was not present; for I had a great deal to +do in writing my reports for Rome; and on the sixth day--which was +Monday--I was not there above an hour, for I saw that the trial would +not end that day. But on the Tuesday I was there before ten o'clock; and +at eleven o'clock my Lords came back to give judgment. It was a dark +morning, as it had been at the trial of the Jesuits; and the candles +were lighted. + +As soon as all were seated my Lord Stafford was brought in; and I +observed him during all that followed. He stood very quiet at the bar, +with his hands folded; and although, before the voting was over, he must +have known which way it was gone, he flinched never a hair nor went +white at all. (His bringing in while the voting was done was contrary to +the law; but no one observed it; and I knew nothing of it till +afterwards.) + +The Lord High Steward first asked humble leave from my Lords to sit down +as he spoke, as he was ailing a little, and then put the question to +each Lord, beginning with my Lord Butler of Weston. + +"My Lord Butler of Weston," said he, "is William Lord Viscount Stafford +guilty of the treason whereof he stands impeached, or not guilty?" + +And my Lord answered in a loud voice, laying his hand upon his breast: + +"Not guilty, upon my honour." + +There were in all eighty-six lords who voted; and each answered, Guilty, +or Not Guilty, upon his honour, as had done the first, each standing up +in his place. At the first I could not tell on which side lay the most; +but as they went on, there could be no doubt that he was condemned. +Prince Rupert, Duke of Cumberland, voted last, as he was of royal blood, +and gave it against him. + +The Lord High Sheriff, who had marked down each vote upon a paper on his +desk, now added them all up: and there was a great silence while he did +this. (I could see him doing it from where I sat.) Then he spoke in a +loud voice, raising his head. + +"My Lords," said he, "upon telling your votes I find that there are +thirty-one of my Lords that think the prisoner not guilty, and +fifty-five that have found him guilty--Serjeant," said he; and then I +think that he was about to call for the prisoner, when he saw him +already there. Then, before he spoke again, I saw the headsman turn the +edge of the axe towards my Lord Stafford; and a rustle of whispering ran +through the Hall. + +"My Lord Stafford," said the High Steward, "I have but heavy tidings for +you: your Lordship hath been impeached for high treason; you have +pleaded not guilty: my Lords have heard your defence, and have +considered of the evidence; and their Lordships do find you guilty of +the treason whereof you are impeached." + +Then my Lord Stafford, raising his head yet higher, and flinching not at +all, cried out: + +"God's holy name be praised, my Lords, for it!" + +Then the Lord High Steward asked him why judgment of death should not be +given on him; and after saying that he had not expected it, and that he +prayed God to forgive those that had sworn falsely against him, he went +on, as before, upon a legal point--that was wholly without relevance-- +that he had not been forced to hold up his hand at the beginning as he +thought to be a legal form in all trials; and when he had said that, my +Lords went out to consider their judgment. + +It was above an hour before they came back. During that hour my Lord +Stafford was permitted to sit down in the box provided for him; but no +one was admitted to speak with him. He sat very still, leaning his head +upon his hand. + +When all were come back again, he was made to stand up at the bar once +more; and his face was as resolute and quiet as ever. + +Then, when the Lord High Steward had answered his point, saying that in +no way did the holding up of the hand affect the legality of the trial; +he began to give sentence. + +"My part, therefore, which remains," said he, "is a very sad one. For I +never yet gave sentence of death upon any man, and am extremely sorry +that I must begin with your Lordship." + +My Lord Nottingham was silent for an instant when he had said that, +seeking, I think, to command his voice: and then he began his speech, +which I think he had learned by heart; and it was one of the most moving +discourses that I have ever heard, though he committed a great indecency +in it, when he said that henceforth no man could ever doubt again that +it was the Papists who had burned London; and professed himself--(though +this I suppose he was bound to do)--satisfied with the evidence. + +When he came to give sentence, I watched my Lord Stafford's face again +very hard; and he flinched never a hair. It was the same sentence as +that to which the Jesuits too had listened, and many other Catholics. + +"You go to the place," said my Lord Nottingham, "from whence you came; +from thence you must be drawn upon a hurdle to the place of execution: +when you come there you must be hanged up by the neck there, but not +till you are dead; for you must be cut down alive, your bowels ripped up +before your face and thrown into the fire. Then your head must be +severed from your body; and your body divided into four quarters, and +these must be at the disposal of the King. And God Almighty be merciful +to your soul!" + +There was a moment of silence; and then my Lord Stafford answered. + +"My Lords," he said quietly, yet so that every word was heard, "I humbly +beseech you give me leave to speak a few words: I do give your +Lordships hearty thanks for all your favours to me. I do here, in the +presence of God Almighty, declare I have no malice in my heart to them +that have condemned me. I know not who they are, nor desire to know: I +forgive them all, and beseech your Lordships all to pray for me--" (His +voice shook a little, and he was silent. Then he went on again. All else +were as still as death.) + +"My Lords, I have one humble request to make to your Lordships, and that +is, my Lords, that the little short time I have to live a prisoner, I +may not be a close prisoner as I have been of late; but that Mr. +Lieutenant may have an order that my wife and children and friends may +come at me. I do humbly beg this favour of your Lordships, which I hope +you will be pleased to give me." + +His voice grew very low as he ended; and I saw his lips shake a little. + +The Lord High Steward answered him with great feeling. + +"My Lord Stafford," he said--(and that was an unusual thing to say, +for he had said before that since he was to be attainted he could not be +called My Lord again)--"I believe I may, with my Lords' leave, tell you +one thing further; that my Lords, as they proceed with rigour of +justice, so they proceed with all the mercy and compassion that may be; +and therefore my Lords will be humble suitors to the King, that he will +remit all the punishment but the taking off of your head." + +And at that my Lord Stafford broke down altogether, and sobbed upon the +rail; and it is a terrible thing to see an old man weep like that. When +he could command his voice, he said: + +"My Lords, your justice does not make me cry, but your goodness." + +Then my Lord Nottingham stood up, and taking the staff of office that +lay across his desk, he broke it in two halves. When I looked again, the +prisoner was going out between his guards, and the axe before, with its +edge turned towards him in token of death. + + * * * * * + +I was at Mr. Chiffinch's again that night to hear the news; but he was +not there. When he came in at last, he appeared very excited. Then he +told me the news. + +"They are at His Majesty already," he said, "that he cannot remit the +penalty of High Treason. But the King swears that he will, law or no +law, judges or no judges. I have never seen him so determined. He does +not believe one word of the evidence." + +"Yet he will sign the warrant for the beheading?" I asked. + +"Why," said Mr. Chiffinch, "His Majesty does not wish to go upon his +travels again." + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +The night before I went down to Hare Street,--for I went on Christmas +Eve--I was present for the first time at the high supper in Whitehall, +which His Majesty gave to the Spanish Ambassador. I had never been at +such a ceremony before; and went out of curiosity only, being given +admission to one of the stands by the door, whence I might see it all. +It would have appeared very strange to me that the King could be so +merry, as he was that night, when so much innocent blood had been shed +upon his own warrant, and when such a man, as my Lord Stafford was, lay +in the Tower, expecting his death six days later;--had I not known the +nature of His Majesty pretty well by now. For, beneath all the +merriment, I think he was not very happy, though he never shewed a sign +of it. + +I stood, as I said, upon a little scaffold to the right of the entrance; +and I was glad of it; for there was a great pack of people crowded in, +as the custom was, also to see the spectacle; and they were all about me +and in front, as well as in the gallery where the music was. + +The Banqueting Hall had its walls all hung over with very rich tapestry, +representing all kinds of merry scenes of hunting and fighting and the +like, and there were great presses along the walls, piled with plate of +gold and silver. The music was all on the balusters above--wind-music, +trumpets and kettledrums, that played as Their Majesties came in, after +the heralds and Black Rod. I had not had before an opportunity of seeing +the Queen so well as I saw her now; and I watched her closely, for I was +sorry for the poor woman. She was very gloriously dressed in a pale +brocade, with quantities of Flanders lace upon her shoulders and at her +elbows, that set off her little figure very well. She was very handsome, +I thought, though so little; and her complexion and her face were both +very good, except that her teeth shewed too much as she smiled. She +had, however, nothing of that witty or brilliant air about her that +pleased the King so much in women; and she sat very quietly throughout +supper, beside the King, not speaking a great deal. But I thought I saw +in her at first a very piteous desire to please him; and he listened, +smiling, as a man might listen to a dull child; and, indeed, I think +that that was all that he thought of her. His Majesty himself appeared +very noble and gallant, in His Order of the Garter, and with the Golden +Fleece too, over his rich suit. Both Their Majesties wore a good number +of jewels. + +Their Majesties sat at a little high table, under a state, with their +gentlemen and ladies standing behind them; and the Spaniards, with the +King's other guests at a table that ran down the middle of the hall, yet +close enough at the upper end for the Ambassador and the King to speak +together. My Lord Shaftesbury was there; and it was strange to see him, +I knowing how much he was privately under His Majesty's displeasure, and +Prince Rupert, very fat and pale and stupid; and Sir Thomas Killigrew +and a score of others. His Majesty was served by the Lords and +pensioners; and the rest by pages and the like, and gentlemen. About the +middle of the dinner toasts were drunk--and first of all His Majesty's, +and the trumpets sounded and the music played, all standing, and when +they were sat down again I heard the guns shot off at the Tower; and I +thought of him who lay there, and how he heard them near at hand, and +how he might have been here, supping with the Spaniards, had he not +fallen under the popular displeasure on account of his religion. It was +a wonderful thing to see the toast drunk, all that company standing upon +its feet, and shouting. + +When the banquet came in, and the French wines, a very curious scene of +disorder presently began--these gentlemen flinging the dessert about +and at one another, for they were beginning to be a little drunk: and I +saw Killigrew fling a bunch of raisins at one of the Spaniards, in +sport. His Majesty sat smiling throughout, not at all displeased; but +not drunk at all himself; and indeed he seldom or never drank to excess +nor gamed to excess, though he loved to see others do so. + +At the end, when all was finished, a choir under the direction of the +King's Master of Music sang a piece very sweetly from the gallery, with +the wind music sounding softly; but no one paid the least attention; and +then we all stood up again, such as had seats on the scaffolds, to see +Their Majesties go out. But such a scene as it all was, when the fruit +and sweetmeats were flung about would not have been tolerated in Rome, +nor, I think in any Court in Europe. + +The next morning, very early, James and I set out for Hare Street. + + * * * * * + +Now the determination had been forming in my mind for some weeks past, +that I would delay no longer in that which lay nearer to my heart by +now, I think, than all politics or missions or anything else; and that +was to ask my Cousin Dolly if she would have me or no; and all the way +down to Hare Street I was considering this and rehearsing what I should +say. I still had some hesitation upon the point, for I remembered how +strange and shy she had been when I had last been there, and had thought +it to be because perhaps she believed that she was being flung at me by +her father. But the memory of my jealousy had worked upon me very much +--that jealousy, I mean, that I had had when His Grace of Monmouth had +come and made his pretty speeches; and I was all but resolved to put all +to the test, one way or the other. I had thought of her continually: in +all that I had seen--in even the sorrowful affair in Westminster Hall +and the merry business a fortnight after at the supper--I had seen it, +so to say, all through her eyes and wondered how she would judge of it +all, and wished her there. The sting of my jealousy indeed was gone: I +reproached myself for having thought ill of her even for a moment; yet +the warmth was still there; and so it was in this mood that I came at +last to the house, at supper-time. + +It was extraordinary merry and pretty within. Neither was below stairs +when I came; for my Cousin Tom was in the cellar, and my Cousin Dolly in +the kitchen; and when I went into the Great Chamber it was all +untenanted. But the walls were hung all over with wreaths and holly: and +there were wax candles in the sconces all ready for lighting the next +day. But the parlour, where were the hangings of the Knights of the +Grail was even more pretty; for there were hung streamers across the +ceiling, from corner to corner, and a great bunch of mistletoe united +them at the centre. + +As I was looking at this my Cousin Dolly ran in, her hands all over +flour; and as I saw her--"Here," I said to myself, "is the place where +it shall be done." + +She could not touch me or kiss me, because of the flour; but she +permitted me to kiss her, my cold lips against her warm cheek; and her +eyes were as stars for merriment. There is something very strange and +mystical about Christmas, to me--(which I think is why the Puritans were +so savage against it)--for I suppose that the time in which our Lord was +born as a little Child, makes children of us all, that we may understand +Him better. + +"Well, you are come then!" said Dolly to me--"and we not ready for you." + +"I am ready enough for home," said I. And she smiled very friendly at me +for that word. + +"I am glad you call it that," said she. + + * * * * * + +There was but a little dried fish and rice for supper that night, as it +was a fast day; but the supper of Christmas Eve is always a kind of +sacramental for me, when midnight mass is to follow. There was no +midnight mass for us that Christmas, nor any mass at all; though I +suppose it was celebrated as usual in the Ambassadors' chapels, and the +Queen's: yet the supper had yet that air of mystery and expectancy about +it. + +"We are all to dance to-morrow night," said Dolly. + +"So that is why the floor is cleared in the Great Chamber," I said. + +She nodded at me. She looked more of a child than I had ever seen her. + +"Will you dance with me, Dolly?" I asked. + +"Yes," she said, "but my first is with my father." + +I told them presently, though it was but a melancholy tale for Christmas +Eve, of my Lord Stafford's trial, and all that I had seen there; and of +the supper last night in Whitehall. + +"My Lord is to be beheaded in five days," I said. "We must pray for his +soul. He will die as bravely as he has lived; I make no doubt." + +"And you have no doubt of his innocence?" asked Cousin Tom. + +I stared on him. + +"Why no," I said, "nor any man, except those paid to believe his guilt." + +He pressed me to tell him more of what I had seen in London; and whether +I had seen the Duke of Monmouth again. + +"He is in Holland," I said, "under His Majesty's displeasure. But I saw +Her Grace of Portsmouth." + +"Why, that is his friend, is it not?" asked Tom. + +"Yes," I said, "and a poor friend to his father and the Duke of York." + + * * * * * + +The next night was a very merry one. + +We had dined at noon as usual: and that was pretty merry too; for all +the servants dined with us, and the men from the farm and their wives. +It was sad to have had no mass at all; and all that we had instead of it +was the sound of the bells from Hormead, from the church that had been +our own a hundred and fifty years ago--which was worse than nothing. At +dinner we observed the usual ceremonial, with the drinking of healths +and the burning of candles; and Dolly and her father and her maid sang a +grace at the beginning and end--with a carol or two afterwards that was +a surprise to me. It was very homely and friendly and Christian; and I +saw my man James with his arm around one of the dairymaids--which is +pretty Christian too, I think. We kept it up till it was near time to +get supper ready, telling of stories all the while about the fire in the +old way. Some of them were poor enough; but some were good. Dick, the +cow-man, whom we had long suspected of poaching, exposed himself very +sadly, when the ale was in him, by relating a number of poaching tricks +I had never heard before. One was of how to catch stares, or shepsters, +when they fly up and down, as they do before lodging in a thicket. Then +you must turn out, said Dick, a quick stare with a limed thread of three +yards long, when she will fly straight to the rest, and, flocking among +them, will infallibly bring down at least one or two, and perhaps five +or six, all entangled in her thread. And another was how to take wild +ducks. Go into the water, said he, up to the neck, with a pumpkin put +over your head, and whilst the ducks come up to eat the seeds, you may +take them by the legs and pull them under quietly, one by one, till they +be drowned. But I would not like to do that in cold weather; and indeed +it seems to me altogether like that other method by which you take larks +by a-putting of salt upon their tails. I asked Dick, very serious, +whether he had tried that plan; and he said he had not, but that a +friend had told him of it; and the company became very merry. + +There were other tales too, more grave than these, of sacrilege, and +suchlike. One, which my man James told, was of a man who took an altar +stone from an old church, to press cheeses with; but the cheeses ran +blood; so they took it from that and put it in the laundry to bat the +linen on. But at night, such a sound of batting was heard continually +from the laundry--and no one there--that the man took it back again to +the church, and buried it in the churchyard. And another was of two men +who had thrown down a village-cross upon a bowling-green; and when one +of them next day tried to move it from there, for the playing--he being +a very strong man, and lifting it on end--it fell upon him, backwards, +and crushed his breast, so that he never spoke again. And there were +many tales told of church-lands; and how my Lord Strafford, that was +beheaded, before his death told his son to get rid of them all, for that +they brought a curse always upon them that held them. And there was +another story told at the end by a man from the farm who had been in +London at the time, and had seen it for himself--how my Lords +Castlehaven and Arran, in St. James' Park, did, for a wager, kill a +strong buck in His Majesty's presence, by running on foot, and each with +a knife only. They took nearly three hours to do it in, but the wager +was for six, so they won that. They killed him at last in Rosamund's +Pond, having driven him in there with stones. I could well believe this +latter tale, and that the thing had been done in the king's presence, +having seen what I had at supper two nights before. + + * * * * * + +When we came into the Great Chamber after supper all was ready for the +dancing; and Mr. Thompson, who was the Hormead schoolmaster, and a +concealed Catholic--though he went to the church with the children and +did teach them their religion, for his living--was at the spinet to +which we were to dance. There was a fellow also to play the fiddle, and +another for a horn. + +The dancing was very pretty to see; and we did a great number, beginning +as the custom is, with country dances; and it was in the first of these +that my Cousin Dolly did dance with her father, and I with Dolly's maid. +We were all dressed too, not indeed in our best, but in our second +best--with silk stockings, and the farm men and the maids were in +their Sunday clothes. But each one had put on something for the +occasion; one had a pair of buckled shoes of a hundred years old, and +another an old ring. My Cousin Tom and I wore our own hair, and no +periwigs. My Cousin Dolly was very pretty in her grey sarcenet, with her +little pearls, and her hair dressed in a new fashion. + +It was all very sweet to me, for it was so natural and without +affectation; and it all might have been a hundred years ago before the +old customs went out and the new came in from France, in which men pay +dancers to dance, instead of doing it for themselves. The room was very +well decked, and the candles lighted all round the walls; and when some +of the greenery fell down and was trodden underfoot, the smell of it was +very pleasant. A little fire was on the hearth--not great, lest we +should be too hot. + +We danced country dances first, as I have said; and then my Cousin Dolly +shewed us one or two town dances, and I danced a sarabande in her +company; but then as the rest of the folk liked the country dances the +best, we went back to these. + +Presently I saw my Cousin Dolly go out, and went after her to ask if she +needed anything. + +"No," said she, "only to get cool again." + +"Come into the parlour," said I; and made her come with me. This too had +a couple of candles burning over the hearth, and a little fire, for any +who wished to come in; but it was empty, for even my Cousin Tom was +disporting himself next door in a round dance that had but just begun. + +Then it was that all my resolution came to a point; for all +circumstances looked that way--my determination to speak, the blessed +time of Christmas, the extraordinary kindness of Dolly to me all day, +and the very place empty, yet lighted and waiting, as if by design. + +For a moment after she had sat down on one side of the hearth, and I on +the other, I could not speak; for I seemed to myself all shaking, and +again she looked such a child, with her pale cheeks flushed with the +exercise, and her eyes alight with merriment. All went before me in that +moment--my old thought that I was to be a monk, my leaving the +novitiate, my mission from Rome, such as it was, and the work I had been +able to do for the King. To all this I must say good-bye; and yet this +price I should pay seemed to me scarcely to be considered as weighed +against this little maid. So it went by me like a picture, and was gone, +and I looked up. + +There was that in my air, I suppose, and the way I looked at her, that +told her what my meaning was; for before I had spoken even a syllable +she was on her feet again, and the flush was stricken from her face. + +"Oh! no! Cousin Roger," she cried. "No, no, Cousin Roger! + +"It is Yes, Yes, Cousin Dolly," said I. "Or at least I hope so." (I said +this with more assurance than I shewed, for if I was sure of anything it +was that she loved me in return. And I stood up and leaned on the +chimney-breast.) + +She stood there, staring on me; and the flush crept back. + +"What have I said?" she whispered. + +"You need say nothing more, my dear, except what I bid you. My dear +love, you have guessed just what it was that I had to say. Sit down +again, if you please, Cousin, while I tell you." + +As I looked at her, a very curious change came across her face. I saw it +at once, but I did not think upon it till afterwards. She had been a +very child just now, in her terror that I should speak--just that +terror, I should suppose, that every maid must have when a man first +speaks to her of love. Yet, as I looked, that terror went from her face, +and her wide eyes narrowed a little as she brought down her brows, and +her parted lips closed. It was, I thought, just that she had conquered +herself, and set herself to hear what I had to say, before answering me +as I wished. She moved very slowly back to her chair, and sat down, +crossing her hands on her lap. That was all that I thought it was, so +little did I know women's hearts, and least of all hers. + +I remained yet a moment longer, leaning my forehead on my hand, and my +hand flat upon the tapestry, staring into the red logs, and considering +how to say what I had to say with the least alarm to her. I felt--though +I am ashamed to say it--as it were something of condescension towards +her. I knew that it was a good match for her, for had not her father +drilled that into me by a hundred looks and hints? I knew that I was +something considerable, and like to be more so, and that I was +sacrificing a good deal for her sake. And then a kind of tenderness +came over me as I thought how courageous she was, and good and simple, +and I put these other thoughts away, and turned to her where she sat +with the firelight on her chin and brows and hair, very rigid and still. + +"Dolly, my dear," I said, "I think you know what I have to say to you. +It is that I love you very dearly, as you must have seen--" + +She made a little quick movement as if to speak. + +"Wait, cousin," I said, "till I have done. I tell you that I love you +very dearly, and honor you, and can never forget what you did for me. +And I am a man of a very considerable estate and a Catholic; so there is +nothing to think of in that respect. And your father too will be +pleased, I know; and we are--" + +Again she made that little quick movement; and I stopped. + +"Well, my dear?" + +She looked up at me very quietly. + +"Well, Cousin Roger; and what then?" + +That confused me a little; for I had thought that she had understood. +And then I thought that perhaps she too was confused. + +"Why, my dear," I said very patiently as I thought, as one would speak +to a child, "I am asking you if you will be my wife." + +I turned away from the fire altogether, and faced her, thinking I should +have her in my arms. But at first she said nothing at all, but sat +immovable, scrutinizing me, I thought, as if to read all that was in my +head and heart. But it was all new to me, for what did I know of love +except that it was very strange and sweet? So I waited for her answer. +That answer came. + +"Cousin Roger," she said in a very low voice, "I am very sorry you have +spoken as you have--" + +I straightened myself suddenly and looked at her more closely. She had +not moved at all, except her face. A kind of roaring murmur began to +fill my ears. + +"Because," said she--and every word of hers now was pain to +me--"because there is but one answer that I can give, which is No." + +"Why--" cried I. + +"You have spoken very kindly and generously. But--" and at this her +voice began to ring a little--"but I am not what you think me--a maid to +be flung at the head of any man who will choose to take her." + +"Cousin!" cried I; and then she was on her feet too, her face all +ablaze. + +"Yes, Cousin!" cried she; "and never any more than that. You have acted +very well, Cousin Roger; and I thank you for that compliment--that you +thought it worth while to play the part--and for your great kindness to +a poor country maid. I had thought it to be all over long ago--before +you went away; or I would not have behaved as I have. But since you have +considered it again carefully, and chosen to--to insult me after all; I +have no answer at all to give, except No, a thousand times over." + +"Why, Cousin--" I began again. + +She stamped her foot. I could not have imagined she could be so angry. + +"Wait till I have done," she said--"I do not know what my father thinks +of me; but I suppose that you and he have designed all this; and led me +on to make a fool of myself--Oh! Let me go! let me go!" + +Oh! the triple fool that I was! Yet who had ever taught me the ways of +love, or what women mean, or what their hearts are like? If I had been +one half the man that I thought myself, I would have seized her there, +and forced back her foolishness with kisses, and vowed that, conspirator +or not, she must have me; that we knew one another too well to play +false coin like this. Or I should have blazed at her in return; and told +her that she lied in thinking I was as base as that. Why, I should have +just borne myself like a lover to whom love is all, and dignity and +wounded pride nothing; for what else is there but love, sacred or +profane, in the whole world that God has made? If I had done that! If +only I had done that then! But I suppose that I was no lover then. + +So I drew back, smarting and wounded; and let her go by; and a minute +later I heard the door of her chamber slam behind her, and the key turn. + + * * * * * + +For myself I went out very slowly, five minutes after, and upstairs to +my own chamber, and began to consider what things I must take with me on +the morrow; for I would not stay another day in the house where I had +been so insulted and denied. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +Pride is a very good salve, when one has no humility; and it was Pride +that I applied to myself to heal the wounds I had. + +I came down again to the Great Chamber, half an hour later, very cold +and dignified, and danced again, like the solemn fool that I was, first +with one and then with another; and all the while I told myself, like +the prophet that "I did well to be angry"; and that I would shew her +that no man, of my ability, could depend upon any mere woman for his +content. Yet the pain at my heart was miserable. + +It is very near incredible to me now how I, who truly knew something of +the world, and of men and of affairs, could be so childish and ignorant +in a matter of this sort. In truth this was what I was; I knew nothing +of true love at all; how therefore should I be a proper lover? I saw my +Cousin Tom, who mopped himself a great deal, eyeing me now and again; +and he presently came up and asked me where Dolly was. + +"In her chamber, I think," said I, with my nose in the air; and with +such a manner that he said no more. + +It was enough to break my heart to continue dancing; but it was the task +I had set myself upstairs; and till near ten o'clock we continued to +dance--but no Dolly to help us. I had even determined how I should bear +myself if she came--and how superb should be my dignity; but she did not +come to see it. We ended with singing "Here's a health unto His +Majesty"; and I took care that my voice should be loud so that she +should hear it. (I had even, poor fool that I was! walked heavily past +her chamber-door just now, that she might hear me go.) + +When all were gone away at last, I waited for my Cousin Tom, and then +went with him into the parlour; where I told him very briefly all that +had passed, with the same dignity that I had set myself to preserve. I +even spoke in a high sort of voice, to shew my self-command and +detachment. My Cousin Tom appeared as if thunderstruck. + +"Good God!" said he. "The minx! to behave like that!" + +"It is no longer any concern of mine," I said. "For myself I shall go +back to town to-morrow." + +"But--" began he. + +"My dear Cousin," I said, "it is the only thing that I can do--to set to +work again. Mistress Dorothy must recover herself alone. I could not +expect her to tolerate such a personage as I must appear in her eyes." + +"But you will came back again," said Tom. "And I'll talk to the chit as +she deserves." + +I preserved my lofty attitude. + +"That again," said I, "is no concern of mine. And as for coming back, +when Mistress Dorothy has found her a husband whom she can respect--we +may perhaps consider it." + +He sat very silent for a while after that; and I know now, though I did +not know then, what was the design he was considering--at least I +suppose it was then that he saw it clear before him. At the time I +thought he was giving his attention to myself; and I wondered a little +that he did not press me again to stay, though I would not have done so. + +It was a very desolate morning when I awakened next day, and knew what +had happened, and that I must go away again from the house I had learned +so much to love; but there was no help for it; and, as I put on my +clothes, I put on my pride with them; and came down very cold and +haughty to get my "morning" as we called it, in the dining-room before +riding; and there in the dining-room was my Cousin Dolly, whom I had +thought to be in her chamber, as the door was shut when I came past it. + +We bade one another good morning very courteously indeed; but we gave no +other salute to one another. She knew last night that I was going, as my +Cousin Tom had told her maid to tell her; and I was surprised that she +was there. Presently I had an explanation of it. + +"Cousin Roger," said she, "I was very angry last night; and I wished to +tell you I was sorry for that, and for the hard words I used, before you +went away." + +I bowed my head very dignifiedly. + +"And I, too," I said, "must ask your pardon for so taking you by +surprise. I thought--" and then I ceased. + +She had looked a little white and tired, I thought; but she flushed +again with anger when I said that. + +"You thought it would be no surprise," she said. + +"I did not say so, Cousin," said I. "You have no right to interpret--" + +"But you thought it." + +I drank my ale. + +"Oh! what you must think of me!" she cried in a sudden passion; and ran +out of the room. + + * * * * * + +I think that was the most disconsolate journey I have ever taken. It was +a cold morning, with a fine rain falling: my man James was disconsolate +too (and I remembered the dairy-maid, when I saw it), and I was leaving +the one place I had begun to think of as my home, and her who had so +much made it home to me. I had not even seen her again before I went; +and our last words had been of anger; and of that chopping kind of +argument that satisfies no one. + +I tried to distract myself with other thoughts--of what I was going +to; for I had determined to go straight to Whitehall and ask for some +employment; yet back and back again came the memories, and little scenes +of the house, and the appearance of the Great Chamber when it was all +lit up, and of the figure of that little maid who had so angered me, and +the way she carried her head, and the turns of her hand--and how happy +we all were yesterday about this time. However, I need not enlarge upon +that. Those that have ever so suffered will know what I thought, without +more words; and those who have not suffered would not understand, though +I used ten thousand. And every step of all the way to London, which we +reached about six o'clock, spoke to me of her with whom I had once +ridden along it. As we came up into Covent Garden I turned to my man +James and gave him more confidence than I had ever given to him +before--for I think that he knew what had happened. + +"James," said I, "this is a very poor home-coming; but it is not my +fault." + + * * * * * + +Though fortune so far had been against me, I must confess that it +favoured me a little better afterwards, for when I went in to Mr. +Chiffinch's on the next morning, he gave me the very news that I wished +to hear. + +"Mr. Mallock," he said, "you are the very man I most wished to see. +There is a great pother in France again. I do not know all the ins and +outs of the affair; but His Majesty is very anxious. He spoke of you +only this morning, Mr. Mallock." + +My heart quickened a little. In spite of my pain it was a pleasure to +hear that His Majesty had spoken of me; for I think my love to him was +very much more deep, in one way, though not in another, than even to +Dolly herself. + +"Mr. Chiffinch," said I, "I will be very plain with you. I have had a +disappointment; and I came back to town--" + +He whistled, with a witty look. + +"The pretty cousin?" he said. + +I could not afford to quarrel with him, but I could keep my dignity. + +"That is my affair, Mr. Chiffinch. However--there is the fact. I am come +to town for this very purpose--to beg for something to do. Will His +Majesty see me?" + +He looked at me for an instant; then he thought better, I think, of any +further rallying. + +"Why I am sure he will. But it will not be for a few days, yet. There is +a hundred businesses at Christmas. Can you employ yourself till then?" + +"I can kick my heels, I suppose," said I, "as well as any man." + +"That will do very well," said Mr. Chiffinch. "But I warn you, that I +think it will be a long affair. His Majesty hath entangled himself +terribly, and Monsieur Barillon is furious." + +"The longer the better," said I. + +On the twenty-ninth I went down to see my Lord Stafford die. I was in so +distracted a mood that I must see something, or go mad; for I had heard +that it would not be until the evening of that day that His Majesty +would see me, and that I must be ready to ride for Dover on the next +morning. Mr. Chiffinch had told me enough to shew that the business +would be yet more subtle and delicate than the last; and that I might +expect some very considerable recognition if I carried it through +rightly. I longed to be at it. One half of my longing came from the +desire to occupy my mind with something better than my poor bungled +love-affairs; and the other half from a frantic kind of determination to +shew my Mistress Dolly that I was better than she thought me; and that I +was man enough to attend to my affairs and carry them out competently, +even if I were not man enough to marry her. It must be understood that I +shewed no signs of this to anyone, and scarcely allowed it even to +myself; but speaking with that honesty which I have endeavoured to +preserve throughout all these memoirs, I am bound to say that my mind +was in very much that condition of childish anger and resentment. I had +a name as a strong man: God only knew how weak I was; for I did not even +know it myself. + + * * * * * + +There was a great crowd on Tower Hill to see my Lord Stafford's +execution; for not only was he well known, although, as I have said, not +greatly beloved; but the rumours were got about--and that they were true +enough I knew from Mr. Chiffinch--that he had said very strange things +about my Lord Shaftesbury, and how he could save his own life if he +willed, not by confessing anything of which he himself had been accused, +but by relating certain matters in which my Lord Shaftesbury was +concerned. However, he did not; yet the tale had gone about that perhaps +he would; and that a reprieve might come even upon the scaffold itself. + +When I came to Tower Hill on horseback, about nine o'clock, the crowd +covered the most of it; but I drove my horse through a little, so that +I could have a fair sight both of the scaffold, and of the way, kept +clear by soldiers, along which the prisoner must come. + +I had not been there above a few minutes, when a company went by, and in +the midst the two sheriffs, on horseback, whose business it was to carry +through the execution; and they drew up outside the gate, to preserve +the liberties of the Tower. While they were waiting, I watched those +that were upon the scaffold--two writers to take down all that was said; +and the headsman with his axe in a cloth--but this he presently +uncovered--and the block which he laid down upon the black baize put +ready for it, and for the prisoner to lie down upon. Then the coffin was +put up behind, with but the two letters W.S. as I heard afterwards: and +the year 1680. + +Then, as a murmur broke out in the crowd, I turned; and there was my +Lord coming along, walking with a staff, between his guards, with the +sheriffs--of whom Mr. Cornish was one and Mr. Bethell the other--and the +rest following after. + +When my Lord was come up on the scaffold, the headsman had gone again; +but he asked for him and gave him some money at which the man seemed +very discontented, whereupon he gave him some more. It is a very curious +custom this--but I think it is that the headsman may strike straight, +and not make a botch of it. + +When my Lord turned again I could see his face very plainly. He wore a +peruke, and his hat upon that. He was in a dark suit, plain but rich; +and had rings upon his fingers, which I could see as he spoke. He was +wonderfully upright for a man of his age; and his face shewed no +perturbation at all, though it was more fallen than I had thought. + +He read all his speech, very clearly, from a paper he took out of his +pocket; but as he delivered copies of it to the Sheriffs and the +writers--(and it was put in print, too, on the very same day by two +o'clock)--I need not give it here. He declared his innocence most +emphatically; calling God to witness; and he thanked God that his death +was come on him in such a way that he could prepare himself well for +eternity; but he did not thank the King for remitting the penalties of +treason, as he might have done. He made no great references, as was +expected that he would, to disclosures that he might have made; but only +in general terms. He denied most strongly that it was any part of the +Catholic Religion to give or receive indulgences for murder or for any +other sin; and he ended by committing his soul into the hands of Jesus +Christ, by whose merits and passion he hoped to be saved. His voice was +thin, but very clear for so old a man; and the crowd listened to him +with respect and attention. I think all those Catholic deaths and the +speeches that the prisoners make will by and by begin to affect public +opinion, and lead men to reflect that those who stand in the immediate +presence of God, are not likely, one after another, to go before Him +with lies upon their lips. + +When he was done he distributed the copies of his speech, and then +presently kneeled down, and read a prayer or two. They were in Latin, +but I could not hear the words distinctly. + +When he rose up again, all observing him, he went to the rail and spoke +aloud. + +"God bless you, gentlemen!" he said. "God preserve His Majesty; he is as +good a prince as ever governed you; obey him as faithfully as I have +done, and God bless you all, gentlemen!" + +It was very affecting to hear him speak so, for he did it very +emphatically; but even then one of their ministers that was on the +scaffold would not let him be. + +"Sir," he asked, speaking loud all across the scaffold, "do you disown +the indulgences of the Romish Church?" + +My Lord turned round suddenly in a great passion. + +"Sir!" he cried. "What have you to do with my religion? However, I do +say that the Church of Rome allows no indulgences for murder, lying and +the like; and whatever I have said is true." + +"What!" cried the minister. "Have you received no absolution?" + +"I have received none at all," said my Lord, more quietly; meaning of +the kind that the minister meant, for I have no doubt at all that he +made his confession in the Tower. + +"You said that you never saw those witnesses?" asked the minister, who, +I think, must have been a little uneasy. + +"I never saw any of them," said my Lord, "but Dugdale; and that was at a +time when I spoke to him about a foot-boy." (This was at Tixall, when +Dugdale was bailiff there to my Lord Aston.) + +They let him alone after that; and he immediately began to prepare +himself for death. First he took off his watch and his rings, and gave +them to two or three of his friends who were on the scaffold with him. +Then he took his staff which was against the rail, and gave that too; +and last his crucifix, which he took, with its chain, from around his +neck. + +His man then came up to him, and very respectfully helped him off with +his peruke first, and then his coat, laying them one on the other in a +corner. My Lord's head looked very thin and shrunken when that was done, +as it were a bird's head. Then his man came up again with a black silk +cap to put his hair under, which was rather long and very grey and thin; +and he did it. And then his man disposed his waistcoat and shirt, +pulling them down and turning them back a little. + +Then my Lord looked this way and that for an instant; and then went +forward to the black baize, and kneeled on it, with his man's help, and +then laid himself down flat, putting his chin over the block which was +not above five or six inches high. + +Yet no one moved--and the headsman stood waiting in a corner, with his +axe. One of the sheriffs--Mr. Cornish, I think it was--said something to +the headsman; but I could not hear what it was; and then I saw my Lord +kneel upright again, and then stand up. I think he was a little deaf, +and had not heard what was said. + +"Why, what do you want?" he said. + +"What sign will you give?" asked Mr. Cornish. + +"No sign at all. Take your own time. God's will be done," said my Lord; +and again applied himself to the block, his man helping him as before, +and then standing back. + +"I hope you forgive me," said the headsman, before he was down. + +"I do," said my Lord; and that was the last word that he spoke; for the +headsman immediately stepped up, so soon as he was down, and with one +blow cut his head all off, except a bit of skin, which he cut through +with his knife. + +Then he lifted up the head, and carried it to the four sides of the +scaffold by the hair, crying: + +"Here is the head of a traitor," as the custom was. My Lord's face +looked very peaceful. + + * * * * * + +I rode home again alone, thinking of what I had seen, and the innocent +blood that was being shed, and wondering whether this might not be the +last shed for that miserable falsehood. But even after that sight, the +thought of my Cousin Dorothy was never very far away; and before I was +home again I was once more thinking of her more than of that from which +I was just come, or of that to which I was going, for I was to see His +Majesty that evening and so to France next day. + + + + +PART III + + + + +CHAPTER I + + +It was on a very stormy evening, ten months later, that I rode again +into London, on my way from Rome and Paris. + + * * * * * + +Now, here again, I must omit altogether, except on one or two very +general points, all that had passed since I had gone away on the day +after my Lord Stafford's execution on Tower Hill. It is enough to say +that I had done my business in Paris very much to His Majesty's +satisfaction, as well as to that of others; and that M. Barillon himself +had urged me to stay there altogether, saying that I could make a career +for myself there (as the Romans say), such as I could never make in +England. But I would not, though I must confess that I was very much +tempted to it; and I know now, though I did not know it altogether then, +that there were just two things that prevented me--and these were that +His Majesty and my Cousin Dorothy were in England and not France. + +Of my Cousin Dorothy I had heard scarcely anything at all; for the last +letter I had had from Hare Street was at Eastertide; and Tom said not +very much about his daughter, except that she was pretty well; and that +he thought of taking her to town in the summer for a little. The rest of +his letter was, two-thirds of it all about Hare Street and the lambs and +how the fruit promised; and one-third of the affairs of the kingdom. + +These affairs, of which I learned from other sources besides my Cousin +Tom, were, in brief, as follows. + +His Majesty, for the first time, since he had come to the throne, had +shewn an extraordinary open courage in dealing with the country-party. +(I must confess that my success in France was not wholly without +connection with this. He was so much strengthened in French affairs that +he felt, I suppose, that he could act more strongly at home.) + +First, in January, he had dissolved the Parliament that had threatened +the exclusion of the Duke of York, and that would vote him no money till +he would yield. First he prorogued it, though there was a great clamour +in his very presence; and then he dissolved it, coming in so early in +the morning that none suspected his design. + +Then he summoned a new Parliament to meet at Oxford: for at Oxford he +knew he would have the support of the city, whereas at London he had +not. That Parliament at Oxford will never be forgotten, I think; for it +was more like an armed camp than a Parliament. Both parties went armed. +My Lord Shaftesbury, in order to rouse the feeling on his side, went +there in a borrowed coach without his liveries, as if he feared arrest +or even death. But His Majesty answered that by himself going with all +his guards about him, as if for the same reason. There were continual +brawls in the city, and duels too. The parties went about like companies +of cats and dogs, snarling and spitting at one another continually; and +so fierce was the feeling that nothing could be done. My Lord +Shaftesbury's creatures were still strong enough to hold their own; and +at last His Majesty did the bravest thing he had ever done. He caused a +sedan-chair to be brought privately to his lodgings, and his crown and +robes to be put in there. Then he went in himself, and away to where the +House of Lords was sitting, and before anyone could utter a word, he +dissolved the Parliament once more, and altogether, and never again +summoned another. + +But that was not all. + +First, it appeared as if even His Majesty himself was frightened at what +he had done, for he allowed my Lord Archbishop of Armagh, Dr. Oliver +Plunket, to be convicted and executed in London, clean contrary to all +evidence or right or justice--just because he was a Papist, and the +popular cry had been raised against him that he was conspiring to bring +the French over to Ireland, whereas he was a good and kindly old man, +who lived in the greatest simplicity and neither did nor designed harm +to any living creature. (I do not know whether it was the name _France_ +that frightened the King; but certainly at that time I was engaged on +his behalf in some transactions with that country which would have +ruined him had they ever been known.) But then he recovered himself, +after the sacrifice of one more Catholic, and did what he should have +done a great while ago, and caused my Lord Shaftesbury to be arrested +and sent to the Tower on a charge of fomenting insurrection, which was +precisely what my Lord had been doing for the last two years at least. + +But His Majesty's scheme fell through; for the sheriffs, who were Whigs, +and on my Lord's side, therefore, packed the grand jury of the City and +acquitted him. + +Then there was another affair of which I, in my business in France, saw +something of the other side. My negotiations were coming to a successful +end, when news came over to Paris that the Prince William of Orange was +in England, and made much of by His Majesty. This last was a lie; but I +wrote across to His Majesty of what a bad impression such a rumour made; +and urged him to make amends--which he did very handsomely. The Duke of +Monmouth too was back again in London, and so was the Duke of York; so +the chess-pieces were all again for the present on the squares on which +the game had begun. It was also a little satisfaction to me to hear that +Her Grace of Portsmouth had urged the Duke of York's return; for I +thought myself not a little responsible for her change of face. Once +again, however, the Duke returned to finish affairs in Scotland, and +then came back to Court; and it was on his journey there that the +_Gloucester_ was wrecked, and His Royal Highness so nearly drowned. + +The Duke of Monmouth however saw that affairs were moving against him; +so he determined on a very bold stroke; and, after returning to England +once more without His Majesty's leave, went through all the country as +if on a royal progress; and it was astonishing how well he was received. +It was then that Mr. Chiffinch wrote to me at length, telling me of the +spies he had sent to follow the Duke everywhere, and asking whether I +would not come over myself to help in it. But I was just considering +whether I would not go to Rome; and, indeed, before I could make up my +mind, another letter came saying that the Duke was to be arrested, and +then let out on bail, and that he could do no more harm for the present. +So I went to Rome, and there I stayed a good while, reporting myself and +all that I had done, and being received very graciously by those who had +sent me. + +Since then, not very much of public import had happened, until in the +first week in November I received in Paris a very urgent letter from Mr. +Chiffinch telling me to return at once; but no more in it than that. + + * * * * * + +It was a very stormy night, as I have said, when I rode in over London +Bridge to where the lights of the City shone over the water. + +I was very content at my coming; for in spite of all my resolutions, it +was a terrible kind of happiness to me to be in the same country (and so +near to her, too) as was my Cousin Dorothy. I had striven to put her out +of my head, I had occupied myself with that which is the greatest of all +sports--and that is the game that Kings play in secret--I had become +something of a personage, and rode now with four servants, instead of +one. Yet never could I forget her. But I was resolved to play no more +with such nonsense; to live altogether in London, and to send my men in +a day or two to get my things from Hare Street. It often appears to me +very strange, when I see some great man go by whose name is in all men's +mouths for some office he holds or for his great wealth or power, to +reflect that he has his secret interests as much as any, and is moved by +them far more deeply than by those public matters for which men think +that he cares. I was not yet a great personage, though I meant to be so; +and my name was in no men's mouths, for it was of the very essence of +what I did that it should not be; yet I was held in high consideration +by two kings. But for all that, as I turned westwards from London +Bridge, I looked northwards up Gracechurch Street, and longed to be +riding to Hare Street, rather than to Whitehall. + + * * * * * + +It was strange, and yet very familiar too, to go up those stairs again, +all alone--(for I had sent my men on to Covent Garden, where I had taken +two sets of lodgings now, instead of one)--to tell the servant that Mr. +Chiffinch looked for me, and to be conducted by him straight through to +the private closet where he awaited me over his papers. I was in my +boots, all splashed, and very weary indeed. Yet I had learned, ever +since the day when His Majesty had found fault with me so long ago, +never to delay even by five minutes, when kings call. + +"Well?" I said; as I came in. + +"Well!" said he; and took me by the hands. + +Now it may seem surprising that I could tolerate such a man as was Mr. +Chiffinch, still more that I should have become on such terms with him. +The truth is, that I regarded him as two men, and not one. On the one +side he was the spy, the servant, the panderer to the King's more +disgraceful secrets; on the other he was a man of an extraordinary +shrewdness, utterly devoted to His Majesty, and very competent indeed in +very considerable affairs. If ever the secret memoirs of Charles II. see +the light of day, Mr. Chiffinch will be honoured and admired, as well as +contemned. + +"First sup;" he said. "I have all ready: and not one word till you are +done." + +He took me through into a little dining-room that was opposite the +closet; and here was all that a hungry man might desire of cold meats +and wine. He had had it set out, he told me ever since five o'clock (for +I had sent to tell him I would be there that night). + +While I ate he would say nothing at all of the business on hand; but +talked only of France and what I had done there. He told me the King was +very greatly pleased; and there were rewards if I wished them--or even a +title, though he was not sure of what kind, for I was a very young man. + +"He vows you have done a thousand times more than the Duchess of +Portsmouth in all her time. But I would recommend you to take nothing. +It will not be forgotten, you may be sure. If you took anything now, it +would make you known, and ruin half your work. If you will take my +advice, Mr. Mallock, you will tell the King, Bye and bye; and have a +peerage when the time comes." + +Now of course these thoughts had crossed my mind too: but it was more to +hear them from a man like this. I nodded at him but said nothing, +feigning that my mouth was full; for indeed I did not quite know what to +say. I need not say that the thought of my Cousin Dorothy came to me +again very forcibly. At least I should have shewn her what I could do. + +When I was quite done, Mr. Chiffinch carried me back to the parlour; and +there, having locked the door, he told me what was wanted of me. + +When he had done, I looked at him in astonishment. "You are as sure as +that?" I said. + +"We are sure, beyond the very leastest doubt, that at last there is a +plot to kill the King. There are rumours and rumours. Well, these are of +the right kind. And we are convinced that my Lord Shaftesbury is behind +it, and my Lord Essex, and Mr. Sidney; and who else we do not know. My +men whom I sent to spy out how Monmouth was received in the country, +tell me the same. But the trouble is that we have no proof at all; and +cannot lay a finger on them. And there is only that way, that I told you +of, to find it out." + +"That I should mix with them--feign to be one of them!" said I. + +The man threw out his hands. + +"Mr. Mallock," he said, "I told the King you were too nice for it. He +said on the contrary that he was sure you would do it; that it was not a +matter of niceness, but of plot against counterplot." + +"A pretty simile!" I said with some irony; for I confess I did not like +the idea; though I was far from sure I would not do it in the end. + +"'If one army is besieging a castle or town,' said he, 'and mines +beneath the ground after nightfall secretly, is it underhand action to +do the same, and to countermine them?' But I said I was not sure what +you would think of it. You see, Mr. Mallock, I scarcely know a single +person who unites the qualities that you do. We must have a gentleman, +or he would never be accepted by them; and he must be a shrewd man too. +Well, I will not say we have no shrewd gentlemen: but what shrewd +gentlemen have we, think you, who are not perfectly known--and their +politics?" + +"The Duchess of Portsmouth knows me," said I, beginning to hesitate. + +"But she does not know one word of this affair; nor will they tell her. +She is far too loyal for that." + +"But she will have told others what I am." + +"It is not likely, Mr. Mallock. We must take our chance of it. Truly I +see no one for it but yourself. I would not have sent for you, if I had, +for you were very useful in France. But the difficulty is, you see, that +we can take no observable precautions. We have doubled the guards inside +the palace at night; but we dare not in the day; for if that were known, +they would suspect that we knew all, and would be on their guard. As it +is, they have no idea that we know anything." + +"How do they mean to do it?" + +"That again we do not know. If they can find a fanatic--and there are +plenty of the old Covenanting blood left--they might shoot His Majesty +as he sits at supper. Or they may drag him out of his coach one day, as +they did with Archbishop Sharpe. Or they might poison him. I have the +cook always to taste the dishes before they come into Hall; but who can +guard against so many avenues?" + + * * * * * + +I sat considering; but I was so weary that I knew I could decide nothing +rightly. On the one side the thing appealed to me; for there was danger +in it, and what does a young man love like that? And there was a great +compliment in it for me--that I should be the one man they had for the +affair. Yet it did not sound to me very like work for a gentleman--to +feign to be a conspirator--to win confidence and then to betray it, in +however a good cause. + +What astonished me most however was the thought that the country-party +had waxed as desperate as this. Certainly their tide was going down--as +I had heard in France; but I did not know it was gone so low as this. +And that they who had lied and perjured themselves over the Oates +falsehoods, and had used them, and had kept the people's suspicions +alive, and had professed such loyalty, and had been the cause of so much +bloodshedding--that these men should now, upon their side, enter upon +the very design that they had accused the Catholics of--this was very +nearly enough to decide me. + +"Well," said I, "you must give me twenty-four hours to determine in. I +am drawn two ways. I do not know what to do." + +"I can assure you," said the page eagerly, "that His Majesty would give +you almost anything you asked for--if you did this, and were +successful." + +I pursed my lips up. + +"Perhaps he would," I said. "But I do not know that I want very much." + +"Then he would give you all the more." + +I stood up to take my leave. + +"Well, sir," I said, "I must go home again and to bed. I am tired out. I +will be with you again to-morrow at the same time." + +He rose to take me to the outer door. + +"You will not want to go to Hare Street this time," he said, smiling. + +"To Hare Street!" I said. "Why should I go there?" + +"Well--the pretty cousin!" said he. + +I set my teeth. I did not like Mr. Chiffinch's familiarities. + +"Well, then, why should I not go?" I asked. + +"Why: she is here! Did you not know?" + +"Here!--in London." + +"Aye: in Whitehall. I saw her only yesterday." + +"In Whitehall! What do you mean, Mr. Chiffinch?" + +I suppose my face went white. I knew that my heart beat like a hammer. + +"Why, what I say!" said he. "Why do you look like that, Mr. Mallock?" + +"Tell me!" I cried. "Tell me this instant!" + +"Why: she is Maid of Honour to Her Majesty. The Duchess of Portsmouth is +protecting her." + +"Where is she?" + +"Why--" + +"_Where is she?_" + +"She is with the rest, I suppose.... Mr. Mallock! Mr. Mallock! Where are +you going?" + +But I was gone. + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +When I was out in the air I stopped short; and then remembering that Mr. +Chiffinch would be after me perhaps, and would try to prevent me, I went +on as quick as I could, turned a corner or two in that maze of passages, +and stopped again. As yet I had no idea as to what to do; my brain +burned with horror and fury; and I stood there in the dark, clenching my +hands again and again, with my whip in one of them. It was enough for me +that my Cousin Dolly was in that den of tigers and serpents that was +called the Court, and under the protection of the woman once called +Carwell. There was not one thought in my brain but this--all others were +gone, or were but as phantoms--the King, the Duke, Monmouth, the +Queen--they would be so many wicked ghosts, and no more--before me--and +I would go through them as through smoke, to tear her out of it. + +I suppose that some species of sanity returned to me after a while, for +I found myself presently pacing up and down the terrace by the river, +and considering that this was a strange hour--eight o'clock at night, to +be searching out one of Her Majesty's ladies; and, after that, little by +little, persons and matters began to take their right proportions on +them again. I could not, I perceived, merely demand where Mistress +Jermyn lodged, beat down her door and carry her away with me safe to +Hare Street. Their Majesties of England still stood for something in +Whitehall, and so did reason and commonsense, and Dolly's own good name. +I began to perceive that matters were not so simple. + +I do not think I reasoned at all as to her dangers there; but I was as +one who sees a flower on a dunghill. One does not argue about the +matter, or question whether it be smirched or not, nor how it got there. +Neither did I consider at all how my cousin came to be at Court, nor +whether any evil had yet come to her. I did not even consider that I did +not know whether she were but just come, or had been there a great +while. I considered only that she must be got out of it--and how to set +about it. + +I might have stood and paced there till midnight, had not one of the +sentinels at the water-gate--placed there I suppose, as Mr. Chiffinch +had told me just now, as an additional security, after nightfall--stepped +out from his place and challenged me. I had had the word, of course, as I +came in; and I gave it him, and he was contented. But I was not. Here, +thought I, is my opportunity. + +"Here," said I, "can you tell me where Mistress Dorothy Jermyn is +lodged?" + +He was a young fellow, plainly from the country, as I saw, by his look +in the light of the lantern he had. + +"No, sir," he said. + +"Think again," I said. "She is under the protection of Her Grace of +Portsmouth. She is one of the Queen's ladies." + +"Is she a little lady, sir--from the country--that came last month?" + +"Yes," I said, feigning that I knew all about it, and trying to control +my voice. "That is she." + +"Why, she is with the others, sir," he said. + +"She is not with the Duchess then?" + +"No, sir; I know she is not. There is no lady with the Duchess beside +her own. I was on my duty there last week." + +This was something of a relief. At least she was not with that woman. + +Now I knew where the Queen's Maids lodged. It was not an hundred yards +away, divided by a little passage-way from Her Majesty's apartment, and +adjoining the King's, with a wall between. There were five of these; +besides those who lodged with their families--but they changed so +continually that I could not be sure whether I knew any of them or not. +I had had a word or two once with Mademoiselle de la Garde; but she was +the only one I had ever spoken with; and besides, she might no longer be +there; and she was a great busybody too; and beyond her I knew only that +there was an old lady, whose name I had forgot, that was called +Governess to them all and played the part of duenna, except when she +could be bribed by green oysters and Spanish wine, not to play it. Such +fragments of gossip as that was all that I could remember; as well as +certain other gossip too, as to the life of these ladies, which I strove +to forget. + +However, I could do nothing at that instant, but bid the man good-night, +and go up into the palace again with a brisk assured air, as if I knew +what I was about. A bell beat eight from the clock-tower, as I went. +Then when I had turned the corner to the left, I stopped again to reckon +up what I knew. + +This did not come to very much. Her Majesty, I knew, was attended always +by two Maids of Honour at the least; and at this hour would be, very +likely, at cards with them, if there were no reception or entertainment. +If there were, then all would be there, and Dolly with them; and even in +that humour I did not think of forcing my way into Her Majesty's +presence and demanding my cousin. These receptions or parties or some +such thing, were at least twice or three times a week, if Her Majesty +were well. The reasonable thing to do, I confess, was to go home to +Covent Garden, quietly; and come again the next day and find out a +little; but there was very little reason in me. I was set but upon one +thing; and that was to see Dolly that night with my own eyes; and assure +myself that matters were, so far, well with her. + +At the last I set out bravely, my legs carrying me along--as it appears +to me now--of their own accord: for I cannot say that I had formed any +design at all of what I should do; and there I found myself after a +minute or two of walking in the rain, at the door of the lodgings where +all the ladies that had not their families at Court lived together. +There were three steps up to the heavy oaken door that was studded over +with nails; and in the little window by the door a light was burning. I +had come by the sentinel that stood before the way up to the King's +lodgings, and had given him the word; but I saw that he was watching me, +and that I must shew no hesitation. I went therefore up the steps, as +bold as a lion, and knocked upon the oaken door. + +I waited a full minute; but there was no answer; so I knocked again, +louder; and presently heard movements within, and the sound of the bolts +being drawn. Then the door opened, but only a little; and I saw an old +woman's face looking at me. + +She said something; but I could not hear what it was. + +"Is Mistress Jermyn within doors?" I asked. + +The old face mumbled at me; but I could not hear a word. "Is Mistress +Jermyn within?" I asked again. + +Once again the face mumbled at me; and then the door began to close. + +This would never do; so I set my foot against it, suddenly all overcome +with impatience--(for I was in no mood to chop words)--and with the same +kind of fury that had seized me in Mr. Chiffinch's rooms. I saw red, as +the saying is; and it was not likely that a deaf old woman would stop +me. She fluttered the door passionately; and then, as I pushed on it, +she cried out. There was a great rattle of footsteps, and as I came into +the little paved entrance, a heavy bald fellow ran out of the room where +I had seen the light--(which was the porter's parlour)--in his +shirt-sleeves, very angry and hot-looking. + +He looked at me, like a bull, with lowered head; and I saw that he +carried some weapon in his hand. + +"Is Mistress Jermyn within doors?" I asked, putting on a high kind of +air. + +"Who the devil are you?" said he. + +I was not going to argue that point, for it was the weakest spot in my +assault. So I sat down on the stairs that rose straight up to the first +floor. (It was a little oak-panelled entrance that I was in, with a +single lamp burning in a socket on the wall.) + +"You will first answer my question," I said. "Is Mistress Jermyn within +doors?" + +Then he came at me, thinking, I suppose that my sitting down gave him +an advantage, and he lifted his weapon as he came. I had no time to draw +my own sword--which was besides, somewhere between my legs; but I rose +up, and, as I rose, struck out at his chin with all my force, with my +whole weight behind. + +He staggered back against the doorway he had come out by; and the same +moment two things happened. The old woman screamed aloud; and Dolly +sprang suddenly out on to the head of the stairs, from a door that +opened there, full into the light of the lamp. + +"Why-" cried she. + +"Oh! there you are," I said bitterly. "Then Mistress Jermyn is within +doors." + +Then I turned and went straight upstairs after her; and, as I went heard +the ring of running footsteps in the paved passage out of doors, and +knew that the guard was coming up. The fellow still leaned, dazed, +against the doorpost; and the old woman was pouring out scream after +scream. + +I went after Dolly straight into the room from which she had come. It +was a little parlour, very richly furnished, with candles burning, and +curtains across the windows. It looked out towards the river, I suppose. +Dolly was standing, as pale as paper; but I could not tell--nor did I +greatly care--whether it were anger or terror. I think I must have +looked pretty frightening--(but then, she had spirit enough for +anything!)--for I was still in my splashed boots and disordered dress, +and as angry as I have ever been in my life. I could see she was not +dressed for Her Majesty; so I supposed--(and I proved to be right)--that +she was not in attendance this evening. It was better fortune than I +deserved, to find her so. + +"Now," said I, "what are you doing here?" + +(I spoke sharply and fiercely, as to a bad child. I was far too angry to +do otherwise. As I spoke, I heard the guard come in below; and a clamour +of voices break out. I knew that they would be up directly.) + +"Now," I said again, "you have your choice! Will you give me up to the +guard; or will you hear what I have to say? You can send them away if +you will. You can say I am your cousin?" + +She looked at me; but said nothing. + +"Oh! I am not drunk," I said. "Now, you can--" + +Then came a thunder of footsteps on the stairs; and I stopped. I knew I +had broken every law of the Court; I had behaved unpardonably. It would +mean the end of everything for me. But I would not, even now, have asked +pardon from God Almighty for what I had done. + +Then Dolly, with a gesture, waved me aside; and confronted the serjeant +on the threshold. + +"You can go," she said. "This is my cousin. I will arrange with them +below." + +The man hesitated. Over his shoulder I could see a couple more faces, +glaring in at me. + +Dolly stamped her foot. + +"I tell you to go. Do you not hear me?" + +"Mistress--" began the man. + +"How dare you disobey me!" cried Dolly, all aflame with some emotion. +"This is my own parlour, is it not?" + +He still looked doubtfully; and his eyes wandered from her to me, and +back again. He was yet just without the room. Then Dolly slammed to the +door, in a passion, in his very face. + +Then she wheeled on me, like lightning. (I heard the men's footsteps +begin to go downstairs.) + +"Now you will explain, if you please--" she began, with a furious kind +of bitterness. + +"My maid," said I, "that kind of talk will not do with me"--(for at +her tone my anger blazed up higher even than hers). "It is I who have to +ask Why and How?" + +"How dare you--" she began. + +I went up without more ado, and took her by the shoulders. Never in all +the time I had known her, had the thought ever come to me, that one day +I might treat her so. She struggled violently, and seemed on the point +of crying out. Then she bit her lip; but there was no yielding in me; +and I compelled her backwards to a chair. + +"You will sit there," I said. "And I shall stand. I will have no +nonsense at all." + +She looked at me, I thought, with more hate than I had ever seen in +human eyes; glaring up at me with scorn and anger and resentment all +mingled. + +"Yes--you can bully maids finely--" she said. "You can come and +cringe for their protection first--" + +I laughed, very short and harsh. + +"That manner is of no good at all--" I said. "You will answer my +questions. How did you come here? How long have you been here?" + +She said nothing; but continued to look at me. Then again my anger rose +like a wave. + +"Do you think to stare me down?" I said. "If you will not answer me, +I'll begone to those who will." + +"You dare not!" + +"Dare not! Do you think to frighten me?--Dolly, my dear, I am not in +the mood to argue. Will you tell me how you came here, and how long ago? +I must have an answer before I go." + +For an instant she was silent. + +"Will you go straight home again if I tell you?" + +"Yes--I will promise that," said I--for now that I had seen her with +my own eyes most of what I desired was done. The rest could wait twelve +hours. + +"Well, then," she said, "I have been here a month; and my father put me +here." + +"Your father!" + +"Yes, my father. Have you anything to say against him?" + +"No: I will say it to him." + +I wheeled about to go to the door. + +"You have done enough mischief then, you think!" sneered Dolly. + +I turned about again. + +"Mischief!" + +"Why, you have ruined my name," said Dolly, with the savage look in her +eyes still there. "But you did not think of that! You thought only of +yourself. The whole palace will know to-morrow that you beat down the +porter to force your way in. And it will not lose in the telling." + +I had nothing to say to that. It was true enough, and the very kind of +talk with which the Court continually diverted itself. But I would not +show my dismay. Indeed the very thought of any trouble to her had no +more occurred to my mind than the consequences to a charging bull. + +"We will see about that," I said, "when I speak with His Majesty." + +Dolly laughed again, but without merriment. + +"Oh! you will do this and that, no doubt," she said. "And when shall you +see His Majesty?" + +I took out my watch. + +"It is nearly nine," I said. "I shall see His Majesty in thirteen hours. +You had best be packing your valises. We shall ride at noon." + +I waited no more to hear her laugh, as she did again; but went out and +down the staircase. The porter's chamber had its door half open: I +pushed the door and went in. The fellow started up. + +"Here is a guinea," said I, throwing one upon the table; "and my +apologies. But 'twas you that began it!" + +Then I turned and went out. + +As I came down the steps into the little lamplit way, a man was coming +swiftly up it from the direction of the court, with one of the guards +behind him. I stopped short, thinking I was to be arrested. But it was +the page. + +"Good God!" he said. "You have done finely indeed!" + +I was still all shaking; and I simulated anger without any difficulty. + +"And whose fault is that?" said I, as if in a fury. "Do you think--" + +"And His Majesty may come by at any instant!" he said. + +"Why; that is what I wish. In any case I must see him at ten o'clock +to-morrow." + +"You are mad!" he said. "You had best begone to the country before dawn: +and even that will not save you." He looked over his shoulder at the +young man who had fetched him, and who now stood waiting. + +"Save me! What have I done? I have but been to visit my cousin." (I said +this very loud, that the guard might hear.) + +Again Mr. Chiffinch looked over his shoulder, and back again. I could +see the shine of lanterns where others waited behind. We were just +outside the King's lodging. + +"Well, sir," he said. "But you will go now, will you not?" + +"Why, yes," I said. "And I will be with you at half-past nine +to-morrow." + +He beckoned the young soldier up. + +"See this gentleman to the gate," he said. "He will find his way home, +after that." + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +I spent a very heavy evening before I went to bed; and when I was there +I could not sleep; for it appeared to me that I had made a great fool of +myself, having injured my own prospects and done no good to anyone. I +understood perfectly that I had acted in an unpardonable manner; for Her +Majesty's Maids of Honour were kept, or were supposed to be kept, in +very great seclusion at home, as if they were Vestal virgins--which was +indeed a very great supposition. Tale after tale came back to my mind of +those Maids in the past--of Mademoiselle de la Garde herself, of Miss +Stewart, Miss Hyde, Miss Hamilton, and others like them--some of whom +were indeed good, but had the greatest difficulty in remaining so; for +the Court of Charles was a terrible place for virtue. It was astonishing +to me that the horror of the place had not before this affected me; but +it is always so. We are very philosophical, always, over the wrongs that +do not touch ourselves. + +As to how my Cousin Dolly came to be in such a place, I began to think +that I understood. It must all have dated from that unhappy visit of the +Duke of Monmouth to Hare Street; my Cousin Tom must have followed up +that strange introduction, and the affair must have been worked through +Her Grace of Portsmouth. I think I could have taken my Cousin Tom by the +throat, and choked him, as I thought of this. + +Meantime I had no idea as to what I should do the next day--except, +indeed, see His Majesty, and say, perhaps, one tenth of what I felt. I +had told Dolly we should ride at noon next day; I was beginning to +wonder whether this prediction would be fulfilled. Yet, though I had +begun to consider myself more than in the first flush, I still felt my +anger rise in me like a tide whenever I regarded the bare facts. But +mere anger would never do; and I set myself to drive it down. Besides, +it would be there, I knew, and ready, if I should need it on the next +day. + + * * * * * + +When I arrived at Mr. Chiffinch's the next morning, I found him in a +very grave mood. He did not rise as I came in, but nodded to me, only. + +"Sit down, Mr. Mallock," said he. "This is a very serious affair." + +"So I think," I said. + +He waved that away. + +"His Majesty hath heard every word of it, with embellishments. He is +very angry indeed. Nothing but what you have done for him lately could +have saved you; and even now I do not know--" + +"Man," I said, "do not let us leave such talk as this. It is not I who +am in question--" + +"I think you will find that it is," he answered me, with a quick look. + +I strove to be patient, and, even more, to appear so. + +"Well," I said, "what have I done? I am come back from France: I hear my +cousin is here; I go to see her; a fellow at the door is impertinent, +and I chastise him for it. Then I go upstairs to my cousin's parlour--" + +"That is the point," he interrupted. "It is not your cousin's. It is the +lodging of the Maids of Honour." + +Yes: he had me there. That was my weak point. But I would not let him +see that. + +"How was I to understand that distinction? I knocked at the door as +peaceably as any man could." + +"And after that," he said, smiling a little grimly, "after that, your +cousinly affection blinded you." + +"Well, that will do," I said. + +He smiled again. + +"Well; that is your case," he observed. "We will see how His Majesty +regards it. For I must tell you, Mr. Mallock, that for five minutes last +night it was touch and go whether you were not to be arrested. And I +will tell you this too, that if you had not come this morning, you +would have been brought." + +"As bad as that?" I said, laughing. (But I must confess that his gravity +dismayed me a little.) + +"As bad as that," he said. "You must go to His Majesty at ten." + +"As I arranged," I said. + +"As His Majesty arranged," said Mr. Chiffinch, rising: "and it is close +upon the time." + +And then he added, with the utmost gravity. + +"If there is one thing His Sacred Majesty is touchy upon, it is the +reputation of the ladies of the Court. I would remember that, sir, if I +were you." + +I observed a while ago that Pride is a good weapon if one has not +Humility. So is Anger a good weapon, if one has not Patience; and I do +not mean simulated Anger, but the passion itself, held in a leash, like +a dog, and loosed when the time comes. Now, so great was my feeling for +His Majesty, and that not only of an honest loyalty, but of a real kind +of respect that I had for his person and his parts--a real fear of +the very great strength of will that lay beneath his weakness--that I +understood that, unless my anger was fairly near the surface, I should +be beaten down when I came into his presence. So, as we went together +towards his lodgings, I looked to see that my anger was there, patted it +on the head so to say, and called it Good Dog: and was relieved to hear +it growl softly in answer. + +Plainly we were expected; because the two guards at the door stood aside +as soon as they saw us, and one of them called out something to a man +above. There were two more at the door itself; and we went in. + +As we came in at the door of the private closet, having had no answer to +our knock, His Majesty came in at the other with two dogs at his heels. +He paid no attention to me at all, and barely nodded at my companion. +Then he sat down to his table, and began to write; leaving us standing +there like a pair of schoolboys. + +Again I stroked the head of my anger. I could see the King was very +seriously displeased; and that unless I could keep myself determined, he +would have the best of the interview; and that I was resolved he should +not have. + +Suddenly he spoke, still writing. + +"You can go, Chiffinch," said he. "Come back in half an hour." + +He looked up for a flash and nodded; and I thought, God knows why, that +he had in mind the guards outside, and that they should be within call. +I knew precisely what my legal offence would be--that of brawling within +the precincts of the palace; and the penalties of this I did not care to +think about; for I was not sure enough what they were. + +When the door closed behind Mr. Chiffinch I felt more alone than ever. I +regarded the King's dark face, turned down upon his paper; his dusky +ringed hand with the lace turned back; the blue-gemmed quill that he +used, his great plumed hat. I looked now and again, discreetly, round +the room, at the gorgeous carvings, the tall presses, the innumerable +clocks, the brightly polished windows with the river flowing beneath. I +felt very little and lonely. Then, in a flash, the memory came back that +not fifty yards away was Dolly's little parlour, and Dolly herself; and +my determination surged up once more. + +Suddenly His Majesty threw down his pen. + +"Mr. Mallock," he said very sternly, "there is only one excuse for +you--that you were drunk last night. Do you plead that?" + +He was looking straight at me with savage melancholy eyes. I dropped my +own. + +"No, Sir." + +"You dare to say you were not drunk?" + +"Yes, Sir." + +His Majesty caught up an ivory knife and sat drawing it through his +fingers, still looking at me, I perceived; though I kept my eyes down. I +could see that he was violently impatient. + +"Mr. Mallock," said he, "this is intolerable. You come back from France +where you have done me good service--I will never deny that--and you +win my gratitude; and then you fling it all away by a piece of +unpardonable behaviour. Are you aware of the penalties for such +behaviour as yours?--brawling in the Palace itself, knocking my men +down, forcing your way into the lodgings of Her Majesty's Ladies? Have +you anything to say as to why you should not go before the Green Cloth?" + +A great surge of contradiction and defiance rose within me; but I choked +it down again. It was there if I should need it. The effort held me +steady and balanced. + +"Do you hear me, sir?" + +"Yes, Sir," said I. + +"Well--what have you to say?" + +He glanced past me towards the door; and I thought again that the guards +were in his mind. + +"Sir; I have a very great deal to say. But I fear I should offend Your +Majesty." + +The King jerked his head impatiently. + +"It is of the nature of a defence?" + +"Certainly, Sir." + +"Say it then. You need one." + +I raised my eyes and looked him in the face. He was frowning; and his +lips were moving. Evidently he was very angry; and yet he was perplexed, +too. + +"Sir, this is precisely what took place. I returned from France last +night, where, as Your Majesty was good enough to remark, I was able to +be of some little service. Upon my return I heard from Mr. Chiffinch +that my 'pretty cousin' as he was kind enough to call her, was in +Whitehall, as one of Her Majesty's ladies. I went to see my cousin, +perhaps a little precipitately, but I went peaceably, first inquiring of +one of Your Majesty's guards where her lodgings were. I knocked, +peaceably, upon the door. An old woman opened to me, and would give me +no intelligible answer to my--peaceable--inquiry as to whether my +cousin were there. I prevented her closing the door in my face, but +peaceably; then a fellow ran out, and asked me who the devil I was. +Again, peaceably, I inquired for my cousin. I even sat down upon the +stairs. Then he made at me; and in self-defence I struck him once, with +my hand. My cousin looked out of a door, and I went up into what I +understood was her parlour. When the guard came, she sent them away, +telling them I was her cousin. The serjeant was impertinent to her; and +she shut the door in his face. I remained five minutes, or six, with my +cousin, and then went peaceably away, and to my lodgings. That is the +entire truth, Sir, from beginning to end." + +The King laughed, very short and harsh. + +"You put it admirably," he said. "You are a diplomat, indeed." + +"That is my defence to Your Majesty; and it is perfectly true--neither +less nor more than the truth. But I am not only a diplomat." + +He did not fully understand me, I think, for he looked at me sharply. + +"Well?" he said. "What else?" + +"I have another defence for the public--Sir--not so courteous to Your +Majesty." + +He remained rigid an instant. + +"Then for the public," he said, "you do not think the truth enough?" + +"No, Sir; it is for Your Majesty that I think the truth too much." + +"I will have it!" cried the King. "This moment!" + +Interiorly I licked my lips, as a dog when he sees a bone. His Majesty +should have the truth now, with a vengeance. All was falling out exactly +as I had designed. He should not have kept me waiting so long; or I +might not have thought of it. + +"Well, Sir," said I, "you will remember I should not have dared to say +it to Your Majesty, had I not been commanded." + +He said nothing. Then, once more, I ruffled my growling dog's ears, so +that he snarled. + +"First, Sir; to the public I should say: If this is counted brawling, +what of other scenes in Whitehall on which no charge was made? What of +the sun-dial, smashed all to fragments one night, in the Privy Garden, +by certain of the King's Gentlemen whom I could name? What of the broken +door-knockers--not only in the City, but upon certain doors in Whitehall +itself--broken, again by certain of the King's Gentlemen whom I could +name? What of a scene I viewed myself in the Banqueting Hall last +Christmastide in Your Majesty's presence, when a Spanish gentleman +received full in his face a bunch of raisins, from--" + +"Ah!" snarled the King. "And you would say that to the public?" + +"Sir--that is only the exordium "--(my voice was raised a little, I +think, for indeed I was raging again by now). "Next, I would observe +that Mistress Jermyn is my own cousin, and that the hour was eight +o'clock in the evening--not nine, if I may so far correct Your Majesty; +whereas very different hours are kept by some members of the Court, and +the ladies are not their cousins at all." + +I had never seen the King so angry. He was unable to speak for fury. His +face paled to parchment-colour under his sallow skin, and his eyes +burned like coals. This time I lashed my anger, deliberately, instead of +tickling it merely. + +"Sir; that is not nearly all; but I will miss out a few points, and come +to my peroration. My peroration would be after this fashion. Such, I +would say, is the charge against one who has been of service to His +Majesty; and such is the Court (as I have described) of that same King. +There is not a Court in Europe that has a Prince so noble as our own can +be, of better parts, or of higher ambitions, or of so pure a blood. And +there is no Prince who is served so poorly; no Court that so stinks in +the nostrils of God and man, as does his. He is capable," I cried (for +by now I was lost to all consideration for myself; my loyalty and love +for him had come to the aid of my anger; and I saw that never again +should I have such an opportunity of speaking my mind), "He is capable +of as great achievements, as any Prince that has gone before him; for he +has already won back the throne which his fathers lost. Would it be of +service, I would say, to such a Prince as this, to punish a man who +would lay down his life for him to give him even a moment's pleasure; +and to let go scot-free men and women who have never done anything but +injure him?" + +I ceased; breathless, yet triumphing; for I knew that I had held His +Majesty with my words. How he would take it, when he recovered, I did +not know: nor did I greatly care. I had spoken my mind to him at last; +and what I had said was no more than my conviction. That blessed gift of +anger had done the rest: and, having done its work, retired again to +chaos; and left me clear-headed and master of myself. + +When I looked at him he was motionless. He was still very pale, but the +terrible brightness of his eyes was gone. + +Then he roused himself to sneer; but I did not care for that; for there +was no other way for him just then, consonant with his own dignity. + +"Very admirably preached!" said he; "even if a trifle treasonous." + +"I am pleased Your Majesty is satisfied," I said, with a little bow. + +Then he broke down altogether, in the only way that he could; he gave a +great spirt of laughter; then he leaned back and laughed till the tears +ran down. Presently he was quieter. + +"Oddsfish!" he cried, "this is a turning of tables indeed! I sent for +you, Mr. Mallock--" + +The door opened softly behind me; and a man put his head in. + +"Go away! go away!" cried the King. "Cannot you see I am being preached +to?" + +The door closed again. + +"I sent for you, Mr. Mallock, to reprimand you very severely. And +instead of that it is you who have held the whip. Little Ken is nothing +to it: you should have been a Bishop, Mr. Mallock." + +Again he spirted with laughter. Then he drew himself up in his chair a +little; and became more grave. + +"This is all very well," he said. "But I think I must get in my +reprimand, for all that. You will not be sent to the guard-room, or the +Green Cloth--(or whatever it is that would meet your case)--this time, +Mr. Mallock; I will deal with you myself. But it is a very serious +business, and your distinctions would not serve you in law. A sundial is +not so important as a Christian lady; and a bunch of raisins is not, +legally, a blow in the face. Still less are all the sundials and +Spaniards in the world, equal to one of Her Majesty's Maids of Honour. +You understand that?" + +I bowed again; reminding myself that I was not done with him, even yet. + +"Yes, Sir." + +"Consider yourself reprimanded severely, Mr. Mallock." + +I bowed; but I stood still. + +"You have my leave--Oh! by the way, Mr. Mallock; there are just ten +words I must have with you on the French affairs." + +He motioned to a seat. + +"I may kiss the hand that has beaten me?" said I. + +He laughed again. He was a very merry prince when he was in the mood. + +"It should be the other way about, I should think," he said. But he gave +me his hand; and I sat down. + + * * * * * + +All the while we were talking, still, with one-half of my mind I was +considering what was to be done next. It was a part, only, of my +business that had been done; yet how to accomplish the rest without +spoiling all? Presently His Majesty himself repeated that which Mr. +Chiffinch had already said to me; and spoke of some kind of recognition +that was due to me. That gave me my cue. + +"Your Majesty is exceedingly kind," I said. "But I trust I am not to be +dismissed from the King's service? Mr. Chiffinch appeared to think--" + +"Why, no," said he; "not even after all your crimes. Besides we have +something for you. Did he not tell you?" + +"Any public recognition, Sir," I said, "would effectually do so. The +very small value that my services may have would wholly be lost, if they +were known in any way." + +"Chiffinch said the same," observed the King meditatively. "But--" + +"Sir," I said, "might I not have some private recognition instead? There +is a very particular favour I have in mind, which would be private +altogether; and which I would take as a complete discharge of that which +Your Majesty has been good enough to call a debt of the King's." + +"Not money, man! Surely!" exclaimed the King in alarm. + +"Not in the least, Sir; it will not cost the exchequer a farthing." + +"Well, you shall have it then. You may be sure of that." + +"Well, Sir," said I, "it is a serious matter. Your Majesty will dislike +it exceedingly." + +He pursed his lips and looked at me sharply. + +"Wait!" he said. "It will not affect my honour or--or my religion in +any way?" + +I assumed an air of slight offence. + +"Sir; I should not be likely to ask it, if it affected Your Majesty's +honour. And as for religion--" I stopped: for one more opening +presented itself which I dared not neglect. From both his manner and his +words I saw that religion was not very far from his thoughts. + +"Well--sir," he said. "And what of religion?" + +"Sir, I pray every day for Your Majesty's conversion--" + +"Conversion, eh?" + +"Conversion to the Holy Catholic Church, Sir. I would give my life for +that, ten times over." + +"There! there! have done," said His Majesty, with a touch of uneasiness. + +"But I would not ask a pledge, blindfold, Sir; even to save all those +ten lives of mine." + +"One more than a cat, eh? Do you know, Mr. Mallock, you remind me +sometimes of a cat. You are so demure, and yet you can pounce and +scratch when the occasion comes." + +"I would sooner it had been a little dog, Sir," I said, glancing at the +spaniels that were curled up together before the fire. + +"Well--well; we are wandering," smiled the King. "Now what is this +favour?" + +I supposed I must have looked very grave and serious; for before I could +speak he leaned forward. + +"It is to count as a complete discharge, I understood you to say, Mr. +Mallock, for all obligations on my part. And there is no money in it?" + +"Yes, Sir," said I. "And there is no money in it." + +He must have seen I was serious. + +"Well; I take you at your word, sir. I will grant it. Tell me what it +is." + +He leaned back, looking at me curiously. + +"Sir," I said, "it is now about half-past ten o'clock. What I ask is +that my cousin, Mistress Dorothy Jermyn, receives an immediate dismissal +from Her Majesty's service; and is ordered to leave London with me, for +her father's house, at noon." + +His Majesty looked at me amazed. I think he did not know whether to be +angry, or to laugh. + +"Well, sir," he said at last. "That is the maddest request I have ever +had. You mean what you say?" + +"Certainly, Sir." + +"Well: you must have it then. It is the queerest kindness I have ever +done. Why do you ask it? Eh?" + +"Sir; you do not want my peroration over again!" + +His face darkened. + +"That is very like impudence, Mr. Mallock." + +"I do not mean it for such, Sir. It is the naked truth." + +"You think this is not a fitting place for her?" + +"I am sure it is not, Sir," I said very earnestly, "nor for any +country-maid. Would Your Majesty think--" + +He jerked his head impatiently. + +"What my Majesty thinks is one thing; what I, Charles Stuart, do, is +another. Well: you must have it. There is no more to be said." + +I think he expected me to stand up and take my leave. But I remained +still in my chair. + +"Well; what else, sir?" he asked. + +"Sir; it is near a quarter to eleven. I have not the order, yet." + +"Bah! well--am I to write it then?" + +"If Your Majesty will condescend." + +"And what shall I say to the Queen? It is not very courteous to dismiss +a lady of hers so abruptly." + +"Sir; tell Her Majesty it is a debt of honour." + +He wheeled back to his table, took up a sheet and began to write. When +he had done he scattered the sand on it, and held it out to me, his +mouth twitching a little. + +"Will that serve?" he said. + +I have that paper still. It is written with five lines only, and a +signature. It runs as follows: + + "This is to command Mistress Dorothy Jermyn, late Maid + of Honour to Her Majesty, now dismissed by the King, + though through no fault of her own, to leave the Court at + Whitehall at noon to-day, in company with her cousin Mr. + Roger Mallock, and never to return thither without his consent. + +"CHARLES R." + +Then followed the date. + +I had a criticism or two; but I dared not make them. + +"That is more than I could have asked, Sir. I am under an eternal +obligation to Your Majesty." + +"I daresay: but all mine are discharged to you, until you earn some +more. It might have meant a peerage, Mr. Mallock." + +"I do not regret it, Sir," I said. + +As I rose after kissing his hand, he said one more word to me. + +"You are either a very wise man, or a fool, Mr. Mallock. And by God I +do not know which. But I do know you are a very brave one." + +"I was a very angry one, Sir," said I. + +"But you are appeased?" + +"A thousand times, Sir." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +I knew I could never carry the matter through alone; so, upon leaving +the King's presence, I sought out Mr. Chiffinch immediately and told him +what had passed. + +He whistled, loud. + +"You are pretty fortunate," he said. "Many a man--" + +"I have no time for compliments," said I. "You must come with me to my +cousin at once. We must ride at noon; and it is close upon eleven." + +"You want me to plead for you, eh?" + +"Not at all," said I. "There will be no pleading. It is to certify only +that this is the King's writing, and that he means what he says." + +"Well, well," said Mr. Chiffinch. "And what of the matter I spoke to you +of last night? Have you decided? There is not much time to lose." + +"You must give me a day or two," I said. + + * * * * * + +It was he who knocked this time; and it was not until the old woman had +opened, and was curtseying to the King's page, that he called me up. + +"Come, Mr. Mallock. Your cousin is within." + +We went straight upstairs after the old lady; and upon her knock being +answered, she threw the door open. + +My Cousin Dolly was sitting over her needle, all alone. She looked, I +thought, unusually pale; but she flushed scarlet, and sprang up, so soon +as she saw me. + +"Good-day, Mistress Jermyn," said the page very courteously. "We are +come on a very sad errand--sad, that is, to those whom you will leave +behind." + +"What do you mean, sir?" asked Dolly, very fiercely. She did not give me +one look, after the first. + +He held out the paper to her. She took it, with fingers that shook a +little, and read it through at least twice. + +"Is this an insult, sir; or a very poor pleasantry?" (Her face was gone +pale again.) + +"It is neither, mistress. It is a very sober fact." + +"This is the King's hand?" she snapped. + +"It is," said Mr. Chiffinch. + +"Dolly," said I, "I told you to be ready by noon; but you would not +believe me. I suppose your packing is not done?" + +She paid me no more attention than if I had been a chair. + +"Mr. Chiffinch," said she, "you tell me, upon your honour, that this is +the King's hand, and that he means what is written here?" + +"I give you my honour, mistress," he said. + +She tossed the paper upon the table; she went swiftly across to the +further door, and opened it. + +"Anne!" she said. + +A voice answered her from within. + +"Put out my riding-dress. Pack all that you can, that I shall need in +the country. We have to ride at noon." She shut the door again, and +turned on us--or rather, upon Mr. Chiffinch. + +"Sir," she said, "you have done your errand. Perhaps you will now +relieve me of your company. I shall be awaiting my cousin, Mr. Roger +Mallock, as the King requires, at noon." + +"Dolly--" said I. + +She continued, looking through me, as through glass. + +"At noon: and I trust he will not keep me waiting." + +There was no more to be done. We turned and went out. + +"Lord! what a termagant is your pretty cousin, Mr. Mallock!" said my +companion when we were out of doors again. "You could have trusted her +well enough, I think." + +I was not in the mood to discuss her with him; I had other things to +think of. + +"Mr. Chiffinch," I said, "I am very much obliged to you; but I must be +off for my own packing." And I bade him good-day. + + * * * * * + +When I rode into the court, five minutes before noon, a very piteous +little group awaited me by the inner gate. Dolly, very white and angry, +stood by the mounting-block, striving to preserve her dignity. Her maid +was behind her, arguing how the bags should be disposed on the +pack-horse, with the fellow who was to lead it. Dolly's own horse was +not yet come; but as I rode up to salute her, he came out of an archway +led by a groom. + +I leapt off, and stood by the mounting-block to help her. Again it was +as if I were not there. She jerked her head to the man. + +"Help me," she said. + +He was in a quandary, for he could not leave the horse's head. + +"I am very sorry, Dolly," said I, "but you will have to put up for me +for once. Come." + +She gave a look of despair round about; but there was no help. + +"It is on the stroke of noon," I said. + +She submitted; but it was with the worst grace I have ever seen. She +accepted my ministrations; but it was as if I were a machine: not one +word did she speak, good or bad. + +By the time that she was mounted, her maid was up too, and the bags +disposed. + +"Come," I said again; and mounted my own horse. + +As we rode out through the great gate, the Clock Tower beat the hour of +noon. + + * * * * * + +I am weary of saying that my journeys were strange; but, certainly, this +was another of them. + + * * * * * + +Through the narrow streets I made no attempt to ride beside her. In the +van went three of my men; then rode I; then, about ten yards behind, +came Dolly and her maid. Then came two pack-horses, led by a fellow who +controlled them both; and my fourth man closed the dismal cavalcade. So +we went through the streets--all the way down the Strand and into the +City, wheeled to the left, and so out by Bishopsgate. It was a clear +kind of day, without rain: but the clouds hung low, and I thought it +would rain before nightfall. I intended to do the whole journey in a +day; so as to be at Hare Street before midnight at least. A night on the +way, and Dolly's company at supper, all alone with me, or even with her +maid, appeared to me too formidable to face. + +When we were out in the country, I reined my horse in. I saw a change +pass over Dolly's face; then it became like stone. + +"We have a long ride, for one day," said I. + +She made no answer. My anger rose a little. + +"My Cousin," I said, "I had the honour to speak to you." + +"I do not wish to have the dishonour of answering you," said Dolly. + +It was a weakness on her part to answer at all; but I suppose she could +not resist the repartee. + +"A very neat hit," I said. "Must all our conversation run upon these +lines?" + +She made no answer at all. + +"Anne," I said, "rein your horse back ten yards." + +"Anne," said Dolly, "ride precisely where you are." + +"Very good," said I. "I have no objection to your maid hearing what I +have to say. I thought it would be you that would object." + +"Anne," said Dolly, "did you pack the sarcenet?" + +"Yes, mistress." + +"Then tell me again the tale that you were--" + +I broke in with such fury that even Dolly ceased. + +"My Cousin," I said, "I have a louder voice than either of you; and I +shall use it, if you do not listen, so that the whole countryside shall +hear. I have to say this--that some time or another to-day I have to +have a private conversation with you. It is for you to choose the time +and place. If you give me no opportunity now, I shall make it myself, +later. Will you hear what I have to say now?" + +There was a very short silence. + +"Anne," said Dolly, "now that we can hear ourselves speak, will you tell +me again the tale that you began last night?" + +She said it, not at all lightly, but with a coldness and a distilled +kind of anger that gave me no choice. I lifted my hat a little; shook my +reins; and once more took up my position ten yards ahead. There was a +low murmur of voices behind; and then silence. It appeared that the tale +was not to be told after all. + + * * * * * + +We dined, very late, at a little inn, called the _Cross-Keys_, between +Edmonton and Ware. I remember nothing at all, either of the inn or the +host or the food--nothing but the name of the inn, for the name struck +me, with a dreary kind of wit, as reflective of the cross-purposes which +we were at. We three dined together, in profound silence, except when +Dolly addressed a word or two to her maid. As for me, she took the food +which I carved, all as if I were a servant, without even such a +thank-you as a man gives to a servant. + +We took the road again, about three o'clock; and even then the day was +beginning to draw in a little, very bleak and dismal; and that, too, I +took as a symbol of my heart within, and of my circumstances and +prospects. Certainly I had gained my desire in one way; I had got Dolly +away from Court; yet that was the single point I had to congratulate +myself upon. All else, it appeared, was ruined. I had lost all the +advantage, or very nearly all, that I had ever won from the King--(for I +knew, that although he had been merry at the end of the time, he would +not forget how I had worsted him)--and as for Dolly, I supposed she +would never speak to me again. It had been bad enough when I had left +Hare Street nearly a twelvemonth ago: my return to it now was a hundred +times worse. + +Although Dolly, however, would not speak to me, I was entirely +determined to speak to Dolly. I proposed to rehearse to her what I had +done, and why; and when that was over, I would leave it in her hands +whether I remained at Hare Street a day or two, or left again next +morning. More than a day or two, I did not even hope for. I had insulted +her--it seemed--beyond forgiveness. Yet, besides my miserableness, there +was something very like pleasure as well, though of a grim sort. I had +spoken my mind to her, pretty well, and would do so more explicitly; +and I was to speak my mind very well indeed to her father. There was a +real satisfaction to me in that prospect. Then, once more, I would shut +the door for ever on Hare Street, and go back again to town, and begin +all over again at the beginning, and try to retrieve a little of what I +had lost. Such then were my thoughts. + +We supped, at Ware--at the _Saracen's Head_, and the same wretched +performance was gone through as at the _Cross-Keys_. Night was fallen +completely; and we had candles that guttered not a little. Dolly was +silent, however, this time, even to her maid. She did not give me one +look, all through supper. + +When I came out afterwards to the horses, the yard was all in a mist: I +could see no more than a spot of light where the lamp should be by the +stable-door. The host came with me. + +"It has fallen very foggy, sir," he said. "Would it not be best to stay +the night?" + +I was considering the point before answering; but my cousin answered for +me, from behind. + +"Nonsense," said she. "I know every step of the way. Where are the +horses?" + +(Even that, I observed, she said to the host and not to me.) + +"The lady is impatient to get home," I said. "Is the fog likely to +spread far?" + +"It may be from here to Cambridge, sir," he said--"at this time of the +year." + +"Where are the horses?" said Dolly again. + +There was no help for it. Once more we mounted; Dolly, again, assisted +by the host, and not by me: but Anne was gracious enough to accept my +ministrations. + +For a few miles all went well: but the roads hereabouts were very soft +and boggy; it was next to impossible sometimes to know whether we were +right or not; and after a while one of my men waited for me--he that +carried the lantern to guide the rest of us. The first I saw of him was +his horse's ears, very black, like a pair of horns, against the lighted +mist. "Sir," he said, "I do not know the road. I can see not five yards, +light or no light." + +I called out to James. + +"James," said I, "do you know where we are?" + +"No, sir," said he, "at least not very well." + +"Cousin," I said--(for Dolly had reined up her horse close behind, not +knowing, I suppose, that I was so near). "Cousin, I am sorry to trouble +you; but unless you can lead us--" + +"Give me the lantern," she said sharply to my man. + +She took it from him, and pushed forwards. I wheeled my horse after her +and followed. The rest fell in behind somewhere. I did not say one word, +good or bad; for a certain thought had come to me of what might happen. +She thought, I suppose, that Anne was behind her. + +So impatient was my Cousin Dolly, that, certain of her road, as she +supposed, she urged her horse presently into a kind of amble. I urged +mine to the same; and so, for perhaps ten minutes, we rode in silence. I +could hear the horses behind--or rather the sucking noise of their +feet,--fall behind a little, and then a little more. The men were +talking, too; and so was Anne, to them--for she liked men's company, and +did not get very much of it in Dolly's service--and this I suppose was +the reason why they did not notice how the distance grew between us. +After about ten minutes I heard a man shout; but the fog deadened his +voice, so that it sounded a great way off; and Dolly, I suppose, thought +he was not of our party at all; for she never turned her head; and +besides, she was intent on hating me, and that, I think, absorbed her +more than she knew. I said nothing; I rode on in silence, seeing her +like an outline only in the dark, now and again--and, more commonly +nothing but a kind of lighted mist, now and then obscured. It appeared +to me that we were very far away to the right; but then I never +professed to know the way; and it was no business of mine. Truly the +very courses of nature fought against my cousin and her passionate ways. +Presently I turned at a sound; and there was James' mare at my heels. I +knew her even in the dark, by the white blaze on her forehead. I had +been listening for the voices; and had not noticed he was there. I +reined up, instantly; and as he came level I plucked his sleeve. + +"James," I whispered in Italian, lest Dolly should catch even a phrase +of what I said--"not a word. Go back and find the others. Leave us. We +will find our way." + +James was an exceedingly discreet and sensible fellow--as I knew. He +reined back upon the instant, and was gone in the black mist; and I +could hear his horse's footsteps passing into the distance. What he +thought, God and he alone knew; for he never told me. + +The soft sound of the hoofs was scarcely died away, before I too had to +pull in suddenly; for there were the haunches of Dolly's horse before +the very nose of my poor grey. She had halted; and was listening. I held +my breath. + +"Anne," she said suddenly. "Anne, where are you?" + +As in the Scripture--there was no voice nor any that answered. There was +no sound at all but the creaking of the harness, and the soft breathing +of the horses, for we had been coming over heavy ground. The world was +as if buried in wool. + +"Anne," she said again; and I caught a note of fear in her voice. + +"Cousin," said I softly, "I fear Anne is lost, and so are the rest. You +see you would not speak to me; and it was none of my business--" + +"Who is that?" said she sharply. But she knew well enough. + +I resolved to spare her nothing; for I was beginning to understand her a +little better. + +"It is Cousin Roger," I said. "You see you said you knew the road, and +so--" + +Then she lashed her horse suddenly; and I heard him plunge. But he could +not go fast, from the heaviness of the ground; and he was very weary +too, as were we all. Besides, she forgot that she carried the lantern, I +think; and I was able to follow her easily enough; as the light moved up +and down. Then the light halted once more; and I saw a great whiteness +beyond it which I could not at first understand. + +I came up quietly; and spoke again. + +"Dolly, my dear; we had best have a little truce--an armed truce, if you +will--but a truce. You can be angry with me again afterwards." + +"You coward!" she said, with a sob in her voice, "to lead me away like +this--" + +"My dear, it was you who did the leading. Do me bare justice. I have +followed very humbly." + +She made no answer. + +"Cousin; be reasonable," I said. "Let us find the way out of this; and +when we are clear you can say what you will--or say nothing once more." + +She took me at my word, and preserved her deadly silence. + +I slipped off my horse; she was within an arm's length, and, not +trusting her, I passed my arm with scarcely a noticeable movement +through her bridle. It was well that I did so; for an instant after she +tore at the bridle, not knowing I had hold of it, and lashed her horse +again, thinking to escape whilst I was on the ground. I was very near +knocked down by the horse's shoulder, but I slipped up my hand and +caught him close to the bit--holding my own with my other hand. + +"You termagant!" I said, as soon as I had them both quiet; for I was +very angry indeed to be treated so after all my gentleness. "No more +trust for me. It would serve you right if I left you here." + +"Leave me," she wailed, "leave me, you coward!" + +I set my teeth. + +"I shall not," I said. "I shall punish you by remaining. I know you hate +my company. Well, you will submit to it, then, because I choose so. Now +then, let us see--" + +Then she burst out suddenly into a passion of weeping. I set my teeth +harder than ever. There was only one way, after all, to get the better +of Dolly; and I had pitched on it. + +"Yes: it is very well to cry," I said. "You nearly had me killed just +now. Well: you will have to listen to me presently, whether you like it +or not. Give me the lantern." + +She made no movement. She had fought down the tears a little; but I +could hear her breath still sobbing. I reached up and took the lantern +from her right hand. + +"Now; where in God's name are we?" said I. + +We had ridden into some kind of blind alley, I presently saw; and that +was why Dolly's horse had halted. Even that I had not owed to her +goodwill. For we had ridden, I saw presently, lifting the lantern up and +down, into a great chalk pit; and must have turned off along the track +that led to it, from one of those sunken ways that drovers use to bring +their flocks up to the high road. That we were to the right of the high +road I was certain, of my own observation. _Ergo_; if we could get back +into the sunken way and turn to the right, we might find ourselves on +familiar ground again. However, I said nothing of this to Dolly. I was +resolved that she should suffer a little more first. I took the bridles +of the two horses more securely, slipping my hand with the lantern +through the bridle of my own, turned their heads round and walked +between them, looking very closely on this side and that, and turning my +lantern every way. After twenty yards I saw that I was right. The bank +on my left proved to be no bank, but the cliff-edge of the chalk pit +only, by which the sunken way passed very near. I led the horses round +to the right; and there were we, in the very situation I had surmised. +Still holding Dolly's bridle, I mounted my own horse; and when I had +done so, to secure myself and her the better, I pulled the reins +suddenly over her horse's head, and brought them into my left hand. + +"That is safer," I observed. "Now we can pretend to be friends again; +and hold that conversation of which I spoke after we left London." + +There was no answer, as we set out along the way. It was a little +clearer by now; and I could see the bank on my right. I glanced at her; +and in the light of the lantern I could see that she was sitting very +upright and motionless like a shadow. I lowered the lantern to the right +side, so that she was altogether in the dark and the bank illuminated. I +felt a little compassion for her indeed; but I dared not shew it. + +"Now, Cousin," I said, "I preached to His Majesty yesterday; and he +told me I should be a Bishop at least. Now it is you that must hear a +sermon." + +Again she said nothing. + +I had rehearsed pretty well by now all that I meant to say to her; and +it was good for me that I had, else I might have fallen weak again when +I saw her so unhappy. As it was I kept back some of the biting sentences +I had prepared. My address was somewhat as follows. We jogged forward +very gingerly as I spoke. + +"Cousin," I began, "you have treated me very ill. The first of your +offences to me was that, though I had earned, I think, the right to call +myself your friend, neither you nor your father gave me any hint +whatever of your going to Court. I know very well why you did not; and I +shall have a little discourse to make to your father upon the matter, at +the proper time. But for all that I had a right to be told. If you were +to go, I might at least have got you better protection in the beginning +than that of the--the--well--of Her Grace of Portsmouth. + +"Now all that was the cause of the very small offence that I committed +against you myself--that of forcing my way into your lodgings. For that +I offer my apologies--not for the fact, but for the manner of it. And +even that apology is not very deep: I shall presently tell you why. + +"The next of your offences to me was that open defiance which you +shewed, and some of the words you addressed to me, both then and +afterwards. You have told me I was a coward, several times, under +various phrases, and twice, I think, _sans phrase_. Cousin; I am a great +many things I should not be; but I do not think I am a coward; at least +I have never been a coward in your presence. Again, you have told me +that I was very good at bullying. For that I thank God, and gladly plead +guilty. If a maid is bent on her own destruction, if nothing else will +serve she must be bullied out of it. Again, I thank God that I was there +to do it." + +I looked at her out of the tail of my eye. Her head seemed to me to be a +little hung down; but she said nothing at all. + +"The third offence of yours is the intolerable discourtesy you have +shewn to me all to-day--and before servants, too. I put myself to great +pains to get you out of that stinking hole called Whitehall; I risked +His Majesty's displeasure for the same purpose: I have been at your +disposal ever since noon; and you have treated me like a dog. You will +continue to treat me so, no doubt, until we get to Hare Street; and you +will do your best no doubt to provoke a quarrel between your father and +myself. Well; I have no great objection to that; but I have not deserved +that you should behave so. I have done nothing, ever since I have known +you, but try to serve you--" (my voice rose a little; for I was truly +moved, and far more than my words shewed)--"You first treated me like a +friend; then, when you would not have me as a lover, I went away, and I +stayed away. Then, when you would not have me as a lover, and I would +not have you as my friend, I became, I think I may fairly say, your +defender; and all that you do in return--" + +Then, without any mistake at all, I caught the sound of a sob; and all +my pompous eloquence dropped from me like a cloak. My anger was long +since gone, though I had feigned it had not. To be alone with her there, +enclosed in the darkness as in a little room--her horse and mine nodding +their heads together, and myself holding her bridle--all this, and the +silence round us, and my own heart, very near bursting, broke me down. + +"Oh! Dolly," I cried. "Why are you so bitter with me? You know that I +have never thought ill of you for an instant. You know I have done +nothing but try to serve you--I have bullied you? Yes: I have; and I +would do the same a thousand times again in the same cause. You are +wilful and obstinate; but I thank God I am more wilful and obstinate +than you. I am sick of this fencing and diplomacy and irony. You know +what I am--I am not at all the fine gentleman that leaned his head on +the chimney-breast--that was make-believe and foolishness. I am a bully +and a brute--you have told me so--" + +"Oh!" wailed Dolly suddenly--no longer pretending; and I caught the +note in her voice for which I had been waiting. I dropped the lantern; +the horses plunged violently at the flare and the crash; but I cared +nothing for that. I dragged furiously on the bridle; and as the horses +swung together, I caught her round the shoulders, and kissed her +fiercely on the cheek. She clung to me, weeping. + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +Well; I had beaten her at last; and in the only way in which she would +yield. Weakness was of no use with her, nor gentleness, nor even that +lofty patronage which, poor fool! I had shewn her in the parlour at Hare +Street. She must be man's mate--which is certainly a rather savage +relation at bottom--not merely his pretty and grateful wife. This I +learned from her, as we rode onwards and up into the high road--(where, +I may say in passing, there was no sign of our party)--though she did +not know she was telling it me. + +"Oh! Roger," she said. "And I thought you were a--a pussy-cat." + +"That is the second time I have been told so in two days," I said. + +"Who told you so?" + +"His Majesty." + +"I thought His Majesty was wiser," said she. + +"He has been pretty wise, though," I said. "If it were not for him, we +should not be riding here together." + +"I suppose you made him do that too," she said. + + * * * * * + +But it was not only of Dolly that I had learned my lessons; it was of +myself also. I was astonished how inevitable it appeared to me now that +we should be riding together on such terms; and I understood that never, +for one instant, all through this miserable year away from her, had I +ever, interiorly, loosed my hold upon her. Beneath all my resolutions +and wilful distractions the intention had persevered. All the while I +was saying to myself in my own mind that I should never see Dolly again, +something that was not my mind--(I suppose my heart)--was telling me the +precise opposite. Well; the heart had been right, after all. + + * * * * * + +She asked me presently what I should say to her father. + +"I shall forgive him a great deal now, that I thought I never should," +I said with wonderful magnanimity. "A few sharp words only, and no more. +You see, my dear, it was through his sending you to Court--" + +"Yes: yes," she said. + +"He has behaved abominably, however," I said, "and I shall tell him so. +Dolly, my love." + +"Yes," said she. + +"I must go back very soon to town. I have been offered a piece of work; +and even if I do not accept it, I must speak of it to them." + +"Them?" + +"Yes, my dear. I must say no more than that. It is _secretum commissum_ +as we say in Rome." + +"And to think that you were a Benedictine novice!" exclaimed Dolly. + +We talked awhile of that then; she asked me a number of questions that +may be imagined under such circumstances: and my answers also can be +imagined; and we spoke of a great number of things, she and I riding +side by side in the dark, our very horses friendly one with another--she +telling me all of how she went to Court, and why she went, and I telling +her my side of the affair--until at last in Puckeridge a man ran out +from the inn yard to say that our party was within and waiting for us. +They had met, it appeared, a rustic fellow who had set them right, soon +after they had lost us. + +I do not know what they thought at first; but I know what they thought +in the end; for I rated them very soundly for not keeping nearer to us; +and bade James ride ahead with the lantern with all the rest between, +and Dolly and I in the rear to keep them from straying again. In this +manner then did she and I contrive to have a great deal more +conversation before we came a little before midnight to Hare Street. + +The village was all dark as we came through it; and all dark was the +House when we pushed open the yard gates and rode in. We went through +and beat upon the door, and presently heard a window thrown up. + +"Who is there?" cried my Cousin Tom's voice. + +I bade Dolly's maid answer. (She was all perplexed, poor wench, at the +change of relations between her mistress and me.) + +"It is Mistress Jermyn, sir," she said. + +"Yes, father; I have come back," cried Dolly. + +There was an exclamation from poor Tom; and in two or three minutes we +saw a light beneath the door, and heard him drawing the bolts. I pushed +Dolly and her maid forward as the door opened, and then myself strode +suddenly forward into the light. + +"Why--God bless--" cried Tom; who was in his coat and shoes. I could see +how his face fell when he saw me. I looked at him very grimly: but I +said nothing to him at once (for I was sorely tempted to laugh at his +apparition), but turned to James and bade him see to the rest and find +beds somewhere. Then I went after Dolly and her father into the Great +Chamber, still with my hat on my head and looking very stern. He was +talking very swiftly in a low voice to Dolly; but he stopped when I came +in. + +"Yes, Cousin Tom," I said, "I am come back again--all unlooked for, as I +see." + +"But, good God!" he cried. "What is the matter; and why is Dolly here? I +was but just asking--" + +I pulled out the King's paper which I had all ready, and thrust it down +before the lantern that he had put on the table: and I waited till he +had read it through. + +"There, Cousin!" I said when he was staring on me again, "that is enough +warrant for both you and me, I think. Have you anything to say?" + +He began to bluster. + +"Cousin," I said, "if I have any patience it is because Dolly has given +it back to me. You had best not say too much. You have done all the harm +you could; and it is only by God's mercy that it has not been greater." + +He said that he was Dolly's father and could do as he pleased. Besides, +she herself had consented. + +"I know that," I said, "because she has told me so; and that it was in +despair that she went, because we two fools bungled our business. Well, +you may be her father; but the Scripture tells us that a woman must +leave her father and cleave to her husband; and that is what I am to be +to her." + +Well; when I said that, there was the Devil to pay--we three standing +there in the cold chamber, with the draughts playing upon poor Tom's +legs. He looked a very piteous object, very much fallen from that fine +figure that he had presented when I had first set eyes on him; but he +strove to compensate by emphasis what he lacked in dignity. He said that +he had changed his mind; that even third cousins once removed should not +marry; that he had now other designs for his daughter; that I had no +right to dictate to him in his own house. He waxed wonderfully warm; but +even then, in the first flush of his resistance I thought I saw a kind +of wavering. I sat with one leg across the corner of the great table +until he was done; while Dolly sat in a chair, turning her merry eyes +from the one to the other of us. For myself, I felt no lack of +confidence. I had beaten the daughter; now I was to beat the father. + +When he had finished, and drew breath, I stood up. + +"Very bravely said, Cousin, bare legs and all," I said. "We will speak +of it all again to-morrow. But now for a bite; we have been riding since +noon." + +It was very strange to go upstairs again after a mouthful or two, and a +glass of warm ale, and see my chamber again from which I had departed in +such unhappiness near a twelvemonth ago. James had made a little fire +for me, before which I drew off my boots and undressed myself. For it +was from this very chamber that I had gone forth in such despair, when +Dolly had said that she would not have me: and now, here I was in it +again, all glowing with my ride and my drink and my great content, +having kissed Dolly just now in her father's presence as a symbol of +our troth. And so I went to bed and dreamed and woke and dreamed again. + +We had our talk out next morning, Tom pacing up and down the Great +Chamber, until I entreated him for God's sake to sit down and save my +stiff neck. He was very high at first; but I was astonished how quickly +he came down. + +"That is very well," I said, "to speak now of better prospects for +Dolly. But you will do me the honour of remembering, my dear Cousin, +that in this very room once you spoke to me very differently. If you +have changed your mind, you might at least have told me so; for I have +not changed mine at all; and Dolly, it seems, is come round to my way of +thinking at last." + +"But how did you do it?" asked he, stopping in his walk. + +"I lost my temper altogether," said I; "and that is a very good way if +you have tried all the rest." + +"But the King, man, the King! How did you get that paper out of him? Why +His Majesty himself, I am told, took particular notice--" + +"Eh?" said I. + +"That is no matter now," he said. "What were you going to say?" + +"I must have that first," said I. + +Tom began to pace the floor again. + +"It is nothing at all, Cousin. It is that His Majesty spoke very kindly +to my daughter upon her first coming to Court." + +"I am glad I did not know that," I said, "or I might have said more to +him." + +"Well; but what did you say?" + +Now I was in half a dozen minds as to what I should tell him. He knew +for certain nothing at all of my comings and goings and of what I did +for the King; yet I thought that he must have guessed a good deal. I +judged it safer, therefore, to tell him a little, to stop his month; but +not too much. + +"Why," I said very carefully, "I have been of a little service to the +King; and His Majesty was good enough to ask me if there were any +little favour he could do me. So that is what I asked him." + +Tom stopped in his pacing again: and it was then that I entreated him to +sit down and talk like a Christian. He did so, without a word. + +"In France, I suppose?" he said immediately after. + +"Why, yes." + +Tom looked at me again. + +"And you travel with four men now, instead of one." + +"I find it more convenient," I said. + +"And more expensive too," he observed. + +"Why, yes: a little more expensive, too," I answered. But I was a shade +uneasy; because this increase of servants was at His Majesty's desire +and cost. I made haste to turn the conversation back once more. I did +not wish Tom to think that I was of any importance at all. + +"Well; but what of Dolly?" I said. + +It was then that my Cousin suddenly came down from his loftiness. He +seemed to awake out of a little reverie. + +"You come into the enjoyment of your property," he said, "in four years +from now?" + +"In less than that," I said. "It is three years and a half. My birthday +is in June." + +He asked me one or two more questions then as to its amount, and what +arrangements I would make in the event of my marriage. When I had +satisfied him upon these matters, he fell again into a reverie. + +"Well?" said I, a little sharply. + +"Cousin," he said, "I do not wish to stand in your way. But there must +be no talk of marriage till '85. Will that content you?" + +It did not in the least; but it was what I had expected. I was scarcely +rich enough yet to support a wife, and knew that, well enough; for if I +married and left the King's service there would be no more travelling +expenses for me. Dolly and I last night had agreed upon that as the +least that we could consent to. + +"Four years is a long time," said I. + +"You said three and a half just now," he observed a little bitterly. + +"Well: three and a half. I suppose I must take that, if I can get +nothing better." + + * * * * * + +Now I was secretly a little astonished that my Cousin Tom had consented +so quickly, after his recent ambitions. Plainly he had aimed higher than +at my poor standard during those months; for when a maid went to Court +as one of the Queen's ladies the least that was expected of her was that +she would marry a pretty rich man. But the reason of it all was +unpleasantly evident to me. He must have gathered from what I had said +and done that my favour was increasing with the King; and therefore he +must have argued too that I must be serving His Majesty in some very +particular way--which was the very last thing I desired him to know, as +he was such a gossip. But I dared say no more then. We grasped one +another's hands very heartily: and then I went to find Dolly. + + * * * * * + +The days that followed were very happy ones--though, as I shall +presently relate, they were to be interrupted once more. I had in my +mind, during them all, that I must soon go up to London again to tell +Mr. Chiffinch my final decision that I could not undertake the work that +he had proposed to me; for I had spoken of it at some length with Dolly, +giving her a confidence that I dared not give to her father. But I did +not think that I should have to go so soon. + +It was in the hour before supper one evening that I told her of it, as +we sat in the tapestried parlour, looking into the fire from the settle +where we sat together. + +"My dear," said I, "I wish to ask your advice. But it is a very private +matter indeed." + +"Tell me," said Dolly contentedly. (Her hand was in mine, and she looked +extraordinary pretty in the firelight.) + +"I am asked whether I will undertake a little work. In itself it is +excellent. It concerns the protection of His Majesty; but it is the +means that I am doubtful about." + +Then I told her that of the details--of the how and the when and the +where--I knew no more than she: but that, if all went well, I might find +myself trusted by a traitor: and that I was considering whether in such +a cause as this it was a work to which I could put my hand, to betray +that trust, if I got it. But before I was done speaking I knew that I +could not--so wonderfully does speaking to another clear one's mind--and +that though I could not condemn outright a man who thought fit to do so, +any more than I would condemn a scavenger for cleaning the gutter, it +was not work for a gentleman to seek out a confidence that he might +betray it again. + +"Now that I have put it into words," I said, "I see that it cannot be +done. Certainly it would advance me very much with His Majesty; (and +that is one reason why I spoke to you of it)--but such advance would be +too dearly bought. Do you not think so too, my dear?" + +She nodded slowly and very emphatically three or four times, without +speaking, as her manner was. + +"Then that is decided," said I, "and in a day or two I will go to town +and tell them so." + +So we put the matter away then; and spoke of matters far more dear to +both of us, until Tom came in and exclaimed at our sitting in the dark +as he called it. + + * * * * * + +The interruption came that very night. + +We were at supper, and speaking of Christmas, and of how we would have +again the dancing as last year, when we heard a man ride past the house, +pulling up his horse as he came. Such interruptions came pretty +often;--it was so that I had been first sent for by Mr. Chiffinch: and +it was so again that the Duke of Monmouth had come, and others--but we +had plenty too of others who came, seeing the house at the end of the +village, to ask their way, or what not; so we paid no attention to it. +Presently, however, we heard a man's steps come along the paved walk, +and then a knocking at the door. James went out to see who was there; +and came back immediately saying that it was a courier with a letter for +me. My conscience smote me a little, for I had delayed more than a week +now from answering Mr. Chiffinch: and, sure enough, when I went out, +the man was come from him. I took the letter he gave me into the Great +Chamber to read it, and was astonished at its contents. There were but +four lines in it. + +"Mr. Mallock," it ran, "come immediately--that is to-morrow. The Lord +hath delivered them into our hands. Ride by Amwell; and go through the +place slowly between eleven and twelve with no servant near." And it was +signed with his initials only. + +I went back again into the dining-room immediately, and shut the door +behind me. + +"I must go to town, to-morrow," I said, all short. + +Dolly looked up at me, gone a little white. I shook my head and smiled +at her, but secretly; so that Tom did not see. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +I do not think that I have yet related how great was the work that Mr. +Chiffinch had done in the matter of the spies that he had everywhere +during those later years of His Majesty Charles the Second. That which +he had done during Monmouth's progress in the north--his receiving of +reports day by day, and even hour by hour--this was only one instance of +his activity. The secret-looking men, or even the bold-looking +gentlemen, whom I had met on his stairs so continually, or for whose +sake I was kept waiting sometimes when I went to see him--these were his +tools and messengers. This company of spies was of all grades; and it +was to serve in that company that he had sent for me from France, and +that I was determined to decline. + +Though, however, I was so determined, I did not dare to disobey the +directions that his letter gave me; for I could not be sure that it was +for this work in particular that he had summoned me; though I guessed +that it was. I would go, thought I, and do in everything as he had said; +I would ride through Amwell, with my servants behind at a good distance: +I would see what befell me there--for that something would, was certain +from the letter; then I would proceed on to London, and if the affair +were against my honour, as I was sure it would be, I would refuse any +further part in it. My one hardship was that I could do no more than +tell Dolly in private that I would hold to my resolution. I dared not +tell her anything of the contents of the letter which I had immediately +destroyed. I promised her that I would be back for Christmas at the +latest. She came out to the yard-gate to wish me good-bye: my servants +were gone in front; and my Cousin Tom had the sense to be out of the +way; so our good-byes were all that such miserable things ever can be. I +waved to her at the corner, and she waved back. + +When we came about two miles to the north of Amwell--which we did about +eleven o'clock, as I had been bid, I bade my servants stay behind, and +not come after me till half an hour later; further I bade them, if, when +they came, they found me in any man's company, neither to salute me nor +to make any sign of recognition; but to pass straight on to Hoddesdon +and wait for me there, not at the inn where I was known, but at another +little one--the _King's Arms_--at the further end of the village, and +there they were to dine. Even then, when I came, if I did, they were not +to salute me until I had spoken with them. All this I did, interpreting +as well as I could, what Mr. Chiffinch had said; and they, since they +were well-trained in that kind of service, understood me perfectly. + +It was near half-past eleven when I came, riding very slowly, into the +village street, looking this way and that so as to shew my face, but as +if I were just looking about me. I noticed a couple of servants, in a +very plain livery which I thought I had seen before, in the yard of the +_Mitre_, but they paid no attention to me. So I passed up the street to +the end, and no one spoke with me or shewed any sign. Now I knew that +there was something forward, and that unless I fell in with it the +arrangement would have failed; so I turned again and rode back, as if I +were looking for an inn. Again no one spoke with me; so I rode, as if +discontented, into the yard of the _Mitre_, and demanded of an ostler +whether there was any food fit to eat there. + +He looked at me in a kind of hesitation. + +"Yes, sir," he said; "but--but the parlour is full. A party is there, +from London." + +Then I knew that I had been right to come; because at the same moment I +remembered where I had seen those liveries before. They were those worn +by the men who had come with Monmouth to Hare Street. + +I said nothing to the ostler; but slipped off my horse, as he took the +bridle, and went indoors. The fellow called out after me; but I made as +if I did not hear. (I have found, more than once, that a little deafness +is a very good thing.) There were voices I heard talking beyond a door +at the end of the passage; I went up to this, and without knocking, +lifted the latch and went in. + +The room, that looked out, with one window only, into a small enclosed +garden, was full of men. There were eight of them, as I counted +presently; all round a table on which stood a couple of tall jugs and +tankards. I raised my hand to my hat. + +"I beg pardon, gentlemen. Is there room--" + +"Why--it is Mr.--" I heard a voice say, suddenly stifled. + +Beyond that, for a moment, there was silence. Then a man stood up +suddenly, with a kind of eagerness. + +"Mr. Mallock," he said, "Mr. Mallock! Do you not remember me?" + +"Your back is to the light, sir--" I began; and then: "Why it is Mr. +Rumbald." + +"The same, sir; the same. There is a friend of yours, here, sir--Come in +and sit down, sir. There is plenty of room for another friend." + +There was a very curious kind of eagerness in the maltster's voice, +which puzzled me not a little; and there was a change of manner too in +him, that puzzled me no less. He spoke as if he had almost expected me, +or was peculiarly astonished to see me there; and there was none of that +hail-fellow air about him any more. He spoke to me as to a gentleman--as +indeed I shewed I was by my dress--but yet manifested no surprise at +seeing me so. However, I had neither time nor thought to consider this +at the moment, for the friend of mine of whom he spoke, and who was now +standing up to greet me, was no other than my Lord Essex--he who had +been riding with Monmouth from Newmarket; and he whose name Mr. +Chiffinch had expressly spoken of to me. Yet how did Mr. Rumbald know +that we knew one another? + +I made haste to salute him; for he too, I thought, had an air of +eagerness. + +"Come in and sit down, Mr. Mallock," he said. "We have dined early; and +are presently off to town again. Are you riding our way?" + +"Why, yes," I said, "I am going up to my lodgings for a little." + +(As I spoke a thousand questions beseiged me. Why was there this air of +expectation in them at all? How did Mr. Chiffinch know that they would +be here at this time? Why had he arranged that I should meet them? Why +had he not spoken of their names to me; since he had told me so freely +of them before? Well; I must wait, thought I, and meantime go very +gingerly. I was not going to put my hand to this kind of work; but I did +not wish to spoil Mr. Chiffinch's design if I could help it.) + +"Why," said my Lord, "if you are going to town, may I not ride with you? +Some of these gentlemen are in a hurry; but I am sure I am not. Have you +no servants, Mr. Mallock?" + +"I have sent mine on before," I said, marvelling more than ever at the +man's friendliness, "but I shall be very happy to ride with your +Lordship, if you can wait till I have dined." + +My Lord said a word to a man who sat near the door, who slipped out: and +I heard his voice ordering dinner for me. Meantime I observed the +company. + +There were eight, as I have said; but I knew for certain two only--the +maltster and my Lord Essex. The rest puzzled me not a little. They +seemed well-bred fellows enough; but they were dressed very plainly, and +appeared no more than country squires or lawyers or suchlike. They were +talking of the most indifferent things in the world, with silences, as +if they wondered what next to speak of; they hardly looked at me at all +after a minute or two; and presently one by one began to stand up and +take their leave, saluting my Lord by name, and bowing only to me. By +the time that my dinner came there were left only my Lord, who was very +attentive to me, and Mr. Rumbald; and before I was well set-to, even Mr. +Rumbald stood up to say good-bye. + +Again I was puzzled by the man; for again he appeared very friendly with +me, and again shewed no sign of astonishment at my acquaintance with my +Lord and at my appearance as a gentleman. + +"I am very glad, sir," he said, shaking my hand with great warmth, +"that you will have so pleasant a ride to town with your friend. And you +will remember my house too, will you not, over the river, if ever you +are by that way." + +I told him that I would: and thanked him for his courtesy; and he went +out, after shaking hands too with my Lord, taking care to exchange no +glances with him, though it would be evident, even to a child, that +there was some secret between them. + +When he was gone, my Lord turned to me. + +"A very good fellow, Rumbald--a very good fellow indeed." + +I assented, heartily. + +"Honest as the day," said my Lord. + +"There is no doubt of it," said I, with my mouth full. + +"And a good patriot too. It is what we want, Mr. Mallock." + +Again I assented; and my Lord presently changed the conversation. + + * * * * * + +During the rest of dinner he said nothing that was significant of any of +the things I suspected. I knew now, beyond a doubt, both from what Mr. +Chiffinch had said and from the strangely mixed company, and the +circumstances under which I found them, that something was forward; but +as to what it was all about I knew no more than the dead. Neither did I +as yet see a single glimmer of light on the questions that had puzzled +me just now. So I determined that when we were safe out on the lonely +road I would throw a bait or two; though my resolution still held that I +would do no dirty work, even for His Majesty himself. + +I dined very tolerably, and lit a pipe afterwards: (my Lord told me that +he used no tobacco); and presently in a kind of impatience--for indeed +the position I found myself in was a little disconcerting--I observed +that it was past noon. + +"You are quite right," said my Lord, "quite right. I will tell them to +have the horses ready. Your servants are gone on before, I think you +said, Mr. Mallock?" + +I told him Yes; but I wondered why he did not shout for the maid, +instead of going out himself; but I understood the reason when I found +presently, when we took the road, that his own men kept a full hundred +yards in the rear. Evidently he had gone out to tell them to do so. + + * * * * * + +So soon as we were clear of Amwell, I began. There was a little wind, +and the weather was moist and thick, so there was no danger of our being +overheard. + +"My Lord," I said, "I am very much puzzled by what I have seen." + +"Eh?" said he. + +"It was a very mixed company just now, in Amwell." + +He frowned a little. + +"Very excellent gentlemen, all of them--" I hastened to add. "But I was +wondering what it was that drew them all together. I can only think of +two things." + +"What are they, Mr. Mallock?" asked my Lord a little eagerly. + +"Religion or politics, my Lord," I said. "And I am sure that it is not +the first." + +He appeared to reflect; but he was not a very good actor; and I could +see that it was feigned. + +"Why you are very sharp, sir," he said. "You have put your finger on the +very place--the very place." (And he continued with far too short a +pause): "On which side are you, Mr. Mallock? For the country or for the +Court?" + +"That is a dangerous question to answer, my Lord," I said, very short. + +"It is only dangerous for one side," said he. + +I nodded, in a grave and philosophical manner. Then I sighed. + +"You are quite right, my Lord." + +I could see that he was glancing at me continually. Yet no explanation +of his behaviour yet crossed my mind. + +"Mr. Mallock," said he after a silence, "it is no good fencing about the +question. I can see that you are disaffected." + +"That is a very safe way to put it," I said. "Who is not--on one side +or the other?" + +"Yes," said he, "but you are sharp enough to know what I mean." + +Again I nodded; but my mind was working like a mill; for a new thought +had come to me that seemed to illumine all the rest; and yet I could not +understand. The thought was this. Plainly my Lord Essex knew a good deal +about me: he knew enough, that is, to begin a conversation of this kind +with one whom he had only met once before--a mad proceeding altogether, +if that were all he knew. _Ergo_, thought I, he must know more than +that; and if he knew more he must know that I was in the service of His +Majesty and presumably devoted to that service; probably, too, from the +understanding between himself and Rumbald, he knew that I had chosen on +previous occasions to masquerade as if I were not a gentleman. Was he +quite mad then? For to talk like this to one in the confidence of His +Majesty was surely a crazed proceeding! Yet my Lord Essex was not a +fool. + +Looking back upon the matter as I write, it is hard for me to understand +why I did not see through his design, since I saw so much of it. Yet it +was not until London was in sight, or rather its lights against the sky, +that all fell into its place; and I wondered at the simplicity of it. I +think that it was the way he talked to me--the manner in which he +skirted continually on the fringe of treason, yet said nothing that I +could lay hold upon, and, above all, mentioned no names--that gave me +the clue. I fear I fell a little silent as I perceived how point after +point ratified the conclusion to which I had come; but I do not think he +noticed it; and, even if he did, it would only encourage him the more. +And when I saw the whole, as plain as a map, my scruples left me +altogether. I would not have betrayed the true confidence of this man, +or of any other; that resolution still held firm; but this was another +matter altogether. + +By the time that we reached Covent Garden--for he rode with me as far as +that--I think he was satisfied that he had caught me in the way that he +wished; for he had given me the names of one or two places where I +could communicate with him if I desired; and was nearer actual treason +in his talk than ever before--though he did not go much beyond deploring +the Popish succession, and feigning that he did not know that I was a +Catholic; and, on my side, I had feigned to be greatly interested in all +that he had said, and had let him see, though not too evidently, that it +was feigning on my side too. We parted, outwardly, the best of friends; +inwardly we were at one another's throats. + +So soon as I had dismounted--he having left me in the Strand--and gone +indoors, I came out again, not fearing, indeed rather hoping, that he +would be watching for me, and, in my boots just as I was, set out for +Whitehall. + + * * * * * + +Mr. Chiffinch was within, expecting me. Even he looked a little excited; +and no wonder. But first I made him answer my questions before I would +say a word beyond telling him that his design had prospered. + +"Mr. Chiffinch," said I over my supper which he had brought for me to +his parlour. "Before I say one more word, you must tell me three or four +things. The first is this. How did you know that it was in me that my +Lord Essex would confide?" + +"That is easily answered," said he. "My men told me that my Lord was +after you everywhere--both in your lodgings and here." + +"Ah!" I said, "and was there a fellow called Rumbald, with him?" + +"You are right," he said. "How did you know that?" + +"Wait," I said. "The next is, If you could tell me so much in your +letter, why did you not tell me the names of the persons?" + +He smiled. + +"Mr. Mallock," he said, "from your hesitation I knew that you would +refuse to do such work as this. So I intended to catch you unawares, and +to entangle you in it. I knew that you would not refuse to go to Amwell, +and behave there as I directed, if I said no more than I did." + +"Well; you would have failed," I said. + +"What!" said he. "You are still going to refuse?" + +"No," said I, "I accept the work: but it is not what you think it is." + +"Why--what is it then?" + +"Wait," I said. "The next is, How did you know that they would be at +Amwell at that time?" + +"Oh! that is easy enough; one of my fellows got that out of one of +Rumbald's maids--that a party of six would lie at the Ryehouse last +night; and that they would meet two more at dinner in Amwell at eleven +o'clock to-day. Rumbald has been known to us a long while. But it is the +others we are waiting for." + +I was silent. There were no more questions I wished to ask at present; +though there might be others later. + +"Well," said the page, a little eagerly; and his narrow face looked very +like a fox's, as he spoke. "Well; and what is your news?" + +I finished my stew, and laid down the spoon. + +"Mr. Chiffinch," said I, "let me first ask one more question. Why do you +think that my Lord Essex was after me at all? How did he know of me?" + +"Plainly from Rumbald," said he. + +"And why did he want me?" + +He smiled. + +"Why, Rumbald thinks you disaffected towards the King; and yet knows you +are in his service. You would be a very great helper to them, if you +cared." + +It was my turn to smile. + +"My Lord Essex is not a fool," I said. "If they know so much of me, +would they not know more?" + +"Plainly they do not," he said. "Or they would not have tried to get you +on their side." + +I laughed softly. + +"Sir," I said, "you are very sharp: but you are not sharp enough." + +Then I related to him the behaviour of them all in the inn; and how +Rumbald had shewn no surprise in seeing that I was a gentleman after +all; and how my Lord Essex had talked in what would have been the +maddest manner, if his intention had been as Chiffinch had thought it to +be; and with every word that I said the page's face grew longer. + +"Well," he cried, "it is beyond me altogether. What then is the +explanation?" + +"My friend," I said, "you were right. Neither before nor after what has +passed to-day would I have done the work you designed for me which was +to get these men's confidence, and then betray it again. But it is not +their idea to give me their confidence at all. So I will work with you +very gladly." + +"But then what can you do--" he began in amazement. + +"Listen," I said. "It will fall out just as I say. They will give me +very few names; they will admit me to none of their real secrets; but +yet they will feign to do so." + +"But, what a' God's name--" + +"Oh! man!" I cried, "you are surely slow-witted to-day. They will do all +this--" (I leaned forward as I spoke for further emphasis)--"_in order +that I may hand it on to His Majesty_; but they will give me no real +secret till the climax is come, and their designs perfected. And then +they will give me a false one altogether. They think that they will make +me a tool to further their true plans by betraying false ones. We may +know this for certain then--that whatever they tell me, knowing that I +will tell you, is not what they intend, but something else altogether. +And it will not be hard to know the truth, if we are certified of what +is false." + + * * * * * + +There was complete silence in the room when I had finished, except for +the wash of the tide outside the windows. The man's mouth was open, and +his eyes set in thought. Then sense came back to his face; and he smiled +suddenly and widely. + +"God!" he said, and slapped me suddenly on the thigh. "Good God! you +have hit it, I believe." + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +From now onwards there began for me such a series of complications that +I all but despair of making clear even the course that they ran. My +diaries are filled with notes and initials and dates which I dared not +at the time set down more explicitly; and my memory is often confused +between them. For, indeed, my work in France was but child's play to +this, neither was there any danger in France such as was here. + +For consider what, not a double part merely, but a triple, I had to +play. The gentlemen, who were beginning at this time to conspire in real +earnest against the King and the Constitution, some of whom afterwards, +such as my Lord Russell, suffered death for it, and others of whom like +my Lord Howard of Escrick escaped by turning King's evidence--although +their guilt was very various--these gentlemen, through my Lord Essex, +had got at me, as they thought, to betray not truth but falsehood to His +Majesty, and told me matters, under promise of secrecy, which they +intended me to tell to the King and his advisers. To them, therefore, I +had to feign feigning: I had to feign, that is, that I was feigning to +keep their confidence, but that in reality that I was betraying it; +while to Mr. Chiffinch I had to disclose these precious secrets not as +true but as false, and conjecture with him what was the truth. (My +evidence, later, was never called upon, nor did my name appear in any +way, for that the jury would never have understood it.) I had, +therefore, a double danger to guard against; first that which came from +the conspirators--the fear that they should discover I was tricking +them, or rather that I had discovered their trickery; and, on the other +side, that I should become involved with them in the fall that was so +certain from the beginning, and be myself accused of conspiracy--or of +misprision of treason at the least. Against the latter I guarded as well +as I could, by revealing to Mr. Chiffinch every least incident so soon +as it happened; and on three occasions in the following year having a +long discourse with His Majesty. But against the former danger I had +only my wits to protect me. + +The best thing, therefore, that I can do is to relate a few of the +events that happened to me. (I have never, I think, experienced such a +strain on my wits; for it went on for a good deal more than a year, +since I could for a long time arrive at no certain proofs of the guilt +of the conspirators, and His Majesty did not wish to strike until their +conviction was assured.) + +The first meeting of the conspirators to which I was admitted was in +January. (I had not been able, of course, to go to Hare Street for +Christmas; but the letters I had now and again from Dolly, greatly +encouraged and comforted me. I had told her that I "was keeping to my +resolution," but that "I should be in some peril for a good while to +come," and begged her to remember me often in her pure prayers.) + +A fellow came to my lodgings about the middle of January, with a letter +from my Lord Essex. It ran as follows: + +"SIR,--With regard to some matters of which we spoke together on the +occasion of our very pleasant ride to town last month, I am very anxious +to see you again. Pray do not write any answer to this; but if you can +meet me on Thursday night at the house of my friend Mr. West, in Creed +Lane, at nine o'clock, we may have a little conversation with some other +friends of ours. I am, sir, your obliged servant, + +"Essex." + +I told the fellow that the answer was Yes. My Lord had been to see me in +Covent Garden twice, but had said very little that was at all explicit; +but Mr. Chiffinch had bid me hold myself in readiness, and put aside all +else for the further invitations that would surely come. And so it had. + +I found the house without difficulty; and was shewn into a little +parlour near the door; where presently my Lord came to me alone, all +smiles. + +"I am very glad you are come, Mr. Mallock," he said. "I was sure that +you would. I have a few friends here who meet to talk politics; and they +would greatly like to hear your views on the points. I think I may now +venture to say that we know who you are, Mr. Mallock, and that you have +done a good deal for His Majesty in France. Your opinion then would be +of the greatest interest to us all." + +(I understood why he put so much emphasis on France; it was to quiet me +as to any suspicions they thought I might have as to my being the King's +servant in England too.) + +I answered him very civilly, smiling as if I was at my ease; and after a +word or two more he took me in. It was a long low room, with a beamed +ceiling and shuttered windows, in which the men were sitting. There were +six of them there; and I knew two of them, immediately. He that sat at +the head of the table, a very grim-looking man, with pointed features, +in an iron-grey peruke, was no other than my Lord Shaftesbury himself; +and the one on his left, with a highish colour in his cheeks, was my +Lord Grey. Of the rest I knew nothing; but those two were enough to shew +me that I must make no mistakes. There were candles on the table. + +My Lord Essex smiled as he turned to me. + +"Mr. Mallock," he said, "I see you know some of these gentlemen by +sight." + +"I know my Lord Shaftesbury, and my Lord Grey by sight," I said, bowing +to each. They each inclined a little in return. + +"And this is Mr. West," said my Lord. + +This was a very busy-looking active little fellow, with bright dark +eyes. (He had the name of being an atheist, I learned afterwards.) + +"Sit down, Mr. Mallock," said my Lord, pointing to a chair on my Lord +Shaftesbury's right. I did so. There was no servant in the room. The two +other men were presently made known to me as a Mr. Sheppard and a Mr. +Goodenough. I knew nothing of either of these two at this time. + +Now it may seem that it was extraordinary bold of all these persons to +admit me, believing as they did, that I was on His Majesty's side, and +would reveal all to him; and it was, in one way, bold of them; yet it +was the more clever. For, as will appear, they said nothing to me at +present that could be taken hold of in any way; and yet they sent, or +rather thought they sent, to the King, false news that would help their +cause. + +When he had discoursed for a little while on general matters, yet +drawing nearer ever to the point, my Lord Essex opened the engagement. + +"That Mr. Rumbald," he said. "Do you know who he is, Mr. Mallock?" + +"Why, he is a maltster, is he not?" I said. + +"Well: he married a maltster's widow, who is dead now. But he is an +honest old Cromwellian--loyal enough to His Majesty--" (the gentlemen +all solemnly put hands to their hats)--"yet very greatly distressed at +the course things are taking." + +"An old soldier?" I asked. + +"Yes: he was a Colonel under Oliver." + +Such was the opening; and after that we talked more freely, though not +so freely as, I doubt not, they had talked for an hour before I came. My +Lord Shaftesbury did not say a great deal; he had a quick discontented +look; but I think I satisfied him. He was in a very low condition at +this time--all but desperate--so strongly had the tide set against him +since my Lord Stafford's death and the reaction that followed it; and I +think he would have grasped at anything to further his fortunes: for +that was what he chiefly cared about. My Lord Essex did most of the +talking, and Mr. West; and I could see that they were shewing me off, as +a new capture, and one on whose treachery to them their hopes might +turn. + +Now there were three or four matters on which they were very emphatic. +First, that no injury was intended to the King or the Duke of York; but +this they did not disclaim for themselves so much as for the disaffected +persons generally; as regards themselves they said little or nothing: +and from this I deduced that the King's life would certainly be aimed +at; and the more so, as they said what a pity it was that His Majesty's +guards were still doubled. + +"It shews a lack of confidence in the people," said my Lord Essex. + +(From that, then, I argued that an attempt was contemplated upon +Whitehall.) + +The second thing that Mr. West was very emphatic upon was the need of +proceeding, if any reform were to be brought about, in a legal and +Parliamentary manner. + +"Why does not His Majesty call another Parliament?" he added, "that at +least we may air our grievances? It is true enough that my Lord +Shaftesbury--" (here he bowed to my Lord who blinked in return)--"that +my Lord Shaftesbury found Parliament against him in the event; but he +does not complain of that. He hath at least been heard." + +(From that I argued either that they thought they would be stronger in a +new Parliament, or that they contemplated acting in quite another +manner. I could not tell for certain which; but I supposed the latter.) + +The third thing that Mr. Goodenough said, relating how he had heard it +from a Mr. Ferguson of Bristol, was that the West of England was in a +very discontented condition, and that His Majesty would do well to send +troops there. + +Now I knew that his statement was tolerably true; and that therefore the +false part must be the second. The only conclusion I could draw was that +they wished troops to be withdrawn from London. + +To all these things, however, I assented civilly, arguing a little, for +form's sake; but not too much. + + * * * * * + +When at last we broke up, my Lord Essex again came with me to the door, +and carried me first, for an instant into the little parlour. + +"Mr. Mallock," he said, "we have had a pleasant evening, have we not? +But I need not tell you that our talk had best not be repeated. We have +said not a word that is disloyal to His Majesty: but even a little +fault-finding is apt to be misrepresented in these days." + +I said that I understood him perfectly (which indeed I did); and nodded +very sagely. + +"Let us meet again, then, Mr. Mallock--on that understanding. I have +some more friends I would wish you to meet; and whom I am sure you could +do good to. There is a quantity of discontent about." + +I went to see Mr. Chiffinch the next day, and reported all that had +passed, as they had intended me to do. We drew up a little report which +was carried into effect: first, that no troops should be sent out of +London; but that they should be dispersed as much as possible within the +confines of the City; next that the guards at the gates of Whitehall +should be diminished by one half--(this, to give colour to the +malcontents' hope; and provoke them to action)--but the guards within +increased by the same amount, yet kept out of sight so much as was +possible; thirdly, that a rumour should be set about that the King would +call a Parliament within the year at latest; and this Mr. Chiffinch +promised to undertake (for a very great effect indeed can be produced on +popular opinion by those who know the value of false rumours); but that +His Majesty should be dissuaded from doing anything of the kind. Such +then was the result of that first meeting to which I was admitted; and +such more or less was our course of procedure all through the spring and +summer. This I have related in full, to serve as an example of our +method, because, since it was the first, I remember it very distinctly. +In this manner I used the information I gained for the King's benefit; +and, at the same time the conspirators were led to believe that I was +their tool, and no more. + + * * * * * + +The next important incident fell in the beginning of the summer. + +Now, in the meantime I had learned, from Mr. Chiffinch for the most +part, though there were some matters I was able rather to inform him +about, that there were two separate and distinct parties amongst the +conspirators. There were those who intended nothing but some kind of a +rising--scarcely more than an armed demonstration--and to this party +would belong such a man as my Lord Russell--if he were of them at all; +and there were those who meant a great deal more than this--who were +hoping, in fact so to excite their followers as to bring about the +King's death. But of these I found it very hard to get any names--and +quite impossible, so far, to obtain any positive proof at all. The Duke +of Monmouth, I knew, was of the moderate party; so, I thought then, was +my Lord Grey--but Mr. Algernon Sidney whom I met once or twice was of +the extreme side. But as to my Lord Shaftesbury, I knew nothing: he was +pretty silent always; and it was with regard to him most of all that we +desired evidence. It was this division of parties, no doubt, that +hindered any action; the moderates were for ever trying to drag back the +fanatics; and the fanatics to urge on the moderates; so that nothing was +done. + +From my diaries I find that I spoke with my Lord Essex no less than +eight times between Christmas and July; I saw my Lord Russell only once +as I shall relate presently, but did not speak with him: the rest I met +now and again, but never all of them together. It was necessary, no +doubt, that they should be well drilled before they could be trusted +with me. Mr. Rumbald I met about four times, and my Lord Howard but +once. I think all this time they were wholly satisfied that I passed on +to Mr. Chiffinch what they told me, and nothing else; for he and I +usually contrived to carry out part at least of their recommendations. + +I first began to learn something of my Lord Russell's position in the +matter in a meeting in July, in the house of the Mr. Sheppard (whom I +had met at Mr. West's), that was situated in Wapping; and I learned +something else too at the same time. My Lord Essex; came for me in his +coach that day, and himself carried me down. (I need not say that on +these occasions I carried always some pistol or other weapon with me +beside my sword, for I never knew when they might not find me out.) + +Mr. Sheppard's house was in a little street, that was a _cul-de-sac_, +between the Garden Grounds, which was a great open space, and the Old +Stairs on the river. It was about eight o'clock, and was beginning to be +twilight when we came. + +As we descended from the coach I noticed at a little distance away a +number of fellows, very rough looking, standing together watching us; +and I perceived that they saluted my Lord who returned the salute very +heartily. I did not much like that. Who were these folks, I wondered, +who knew my Lord? + +The house was very ordinary within; it was flagged with stones that had +some kind of matting upon them: the entrance was all panelled; and, what +surprised me was that no servant was to be seen. Mr. Sheppard himself +opened the door to us when we knocked. + +We did not speak at all as we came in; and my Lord led me straight +through into the parlour on the left that was full of tobacco-smoke. +This was a very good room, hung all round with tapestry, though of a +poorish quality, and, though it was not yet dark, the windows were +shuttered and barred. At the table sat half a dozen persons, of whom I +knew my Lord Shaftesbury at the head of the table as usual, and Mr. +Goodenough that sat with his back to the hearth. Between these two sat a +gentleman whom I knew to be my Lord Howard of Escrick, though I had +never spoken with him. He carried himself with a very high air, and was +the only man there dressed as if he were still in Westminster; the rest +were subdued, somewhat, in their appearance. My Lord Howard looked at me +with an intolerant kind of disdain, which my Lord Essex made haste to +cover by directing me to my place. + +I thought that my Lord Shaftesbury seemed very heavy this evening. He +treated me with a silent kind of civility; and so, too, did he treat the +rest. His eyes wandered away sometimes as we talked, as if he were +thinking of something else. We spoke of nothing of any importance for a +time, for Mr. Sheppard was bringing in wine with his own hands, though I +saw a number of used glasses on the press which shewed me that the +company had been here some time already. + +It would be not until after ten or twelve minutes that Mr. Sheppard was +deputed to open the affair on account of which I had been sent for. + +"Now then, Sheppard," said my Lord Essex who sat on my right, "tell us +the news." + +Mr. Sheppard pushed his glass forward and leaned his elbows on the +table. I could see that all that he said was directed principally at me. + +"Well, my lords," he said, "I have very good news. You remember how I +told you that I was beginning to fear for the people down here--that +they would be provoked soon into some kind of a rising. They are still +not wholly pacified--" (here he shot a look at me, which he should not +have done)--"but I am doing my best to tell them that we have very good +hopes indeed that His Majesty will be persuaded to call a Parliament; +and I think they are beginning to believe me. I think we may say that +the danger is past." + +"Why; what danger is that, Mr. Sheppard?" said I, very innocently. + +"Why--a rising!" he said. "Has not my Lord Essex told you?" + +"Ah! yes!" said I, "I had forgot." (This was wholly false. He had told +me once or twice at least that there was danger of this. This had been a +month ago; and his object had been to persuade me that they had been +telling the truth.) + +"I saw some fellows as we came in," I said. + +"Those are the malcontents," he said. "There are not more than a very +few now, who go about and brag." + +I assented. + +"By the way," said my Lord Essex to Shaftesbury who looked at him +heavily, "I spoke with my Lord Russell a week ago. You know my Lord +Russell, Mr. Mallock?" + +I said that I did not. + +"Well; I had hoped he would have been here to-night. But he is gone down +to the country--to Stratton--where he has his seat." + +He talked a while longer of my Lord Russell; and I saw that he wished me +to believe that my Lord was of their party: whence I argued to myself +that was just what he was not; but that they wished to win him over for +the sake of his name, perhaps, and his known probity. (And, as the +event shewed, I was right in that conjecture.) + +Two or three of them were still talking together in this strain, and +while I listened enough to tell me that it was nothing very important +that they said, I was observing my Lord Shaftesbury: and, upon my heart! +I was sorry for the man. Three years ago he was in the front of the +rising tide, in the full blast of popularity and power; he had so worked +upon the old Popish Plot and the mob, that he had all the movement with +him: His Majesty himself was afraid of him, and was forced to follow his +leading. Now he was fallen from all this; the Court-party had triumphed +because he had so overshot his mark, and here was he, in this poor +quarter, in the house of a man that would have been nothing to him five +years ago, forced to this very poor kind of conspiring for his last +hopes. He sat as if he knew all this himself: his eyes strayed about him +as we talked, and there were heavy pouches beneath them, and deep lines +at the corner of his nose and mouth. It was this man, thought I, who was +so largely responsible for the death of so many innocents--and all for +his own ambition! + +Presently I heard His Grace of Monmouth spoken of. It was Mr. Sheppard +who spoke the name; and in an instant I was on the alert again. What he +said fell very pat with what I was thinking of my Lord Shaftesbury. + +"I declare," cried Mr. Sheppard, once more talking at me very evidently, +"that His Grace of Monmouth breaks my heart. I was with his Grace a +fortnight ago. His loyalty and love for the King are overpowering. I had +heard"--(this was a very bold stroke of poor Mr. Sheppard)--"I had heard +that some villainous fellows had proposed to His Grace--oh! a great +while ago, in April, I think--that an assault should be made upon the +King; and that His Grace near killed one of them for it. Yet His Majesty +will scarce speak to him, so much he distrusts him." + +This was all very pretty: and from it I argued that the Duke was deeper +in the affair than we had thought, and perhaps belonged even to the +extremest party, led, we supposed, chiefly by Mr. Sidney. But I murmured +that it was a shame that His Majesty treated him so; and while I was +listening to further eulogies on His Grace, a new thought came to me +which I determined to put into execution that very night; for I felt we +were not making any progress. + +There was not much more conversation of any significance, and I was soon +able to carry out what I determined; for my Lord Essex when we broke +about half-past nine o'clock, again offered to take me home. + +I said good-night very respectfully to the company; and followed him +into the coach. + +For a while I said nothing, but appeared preoccupied; so that at last my +Lord clapped me on the knee and asked me if I ailed--which was what I +wished him to do. + +"My Lord," said I, with an appearance of great openness, "I have a +confession to make." + +"Well?" said he. "What is it?" + +"I am disappointed," I said. "There is a deal of talk; and most +interesting talk; and all very loyal and respectful. But I had fancied +there was more behind." + +"What do you mean?" asked he. + +"Well:" I said. "If His Grace of Monmouth will do nothing, will none of +his friends do it for him?" + +"Of what nature?" asked my Lord. + +"My Lord," said I, "need I say more?" + +He was silent for a while; and I could see how his mind was a trifle +bewildered. But he did presently exactly what I hoped he would do. + +"Mr. Mallock," he said, "you are right: there is more behind. And I +promise you you shall hear of it when the time comes. Is that enough?" + + +"That is enough, my Lord," said I. "I am content." + + * * * * * + +I was with Mr. Chiffinch before the gates were shut for the night; and +this was the report I gave him. + +"I have learned three things at least," I said, when he had bolted the +door, and drawn the hanging across it. "First that they are +contemplating a rising as soon as they can get their men together; and +that it will be from Wapping and thereabouts that the insurrectionists +will come. Next that His Grace of Monmouth is more deeply involved than +we had thought. And the third thing is, that I have persuaded my Lord +Essex that I can be trusted to be a good traitor, and to report +everything; but that if they do not commit more important falsehoods to +me, I shall lose heart with them. We may expect then that after a little +while I shall have more vital and significant lies told me, whence we +can arrive at the truth." + +"Is that everything?" said he. + +"Ah! there is one thing more. They are trying to entangle my Lord +Russell; and they think that they will succeed, and so do I; but at +present he will not be caught." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +We are drawing nearer now to the heart of the conspiracy that was +forming little by little, as an abscess forms in the body of a sick man. +For two months more no great move was made. I was summoned now and again +to such meetings as those which I have described: and sometimes one man +was there and sometimes another. They were becoming less cautious with +me in this--since I had by now the names of nearly all the Londoners +involved: and Mr. Chiffinch had the names of the principal men in +Scotland and the provinces, especially in the West, with whom they were +concerting. They still fed me with lies from time to time, in small +points; and I gained a little knowledge from these as to what they +wished me to believe, and hence as to what was indeed the truth. + +It was in October that the next meeting of importance took place--the +next, that is to say, to which I myself was admitted: and it was again +in Mr. Sheppard's house in Wapping. There were gathered there, for the +first time mostly all the principal gentlemen in the affair; and this +was one more sign of how reckless they were becoming that I was admitted +there at all. But I think it was because Mr. Chiffinch and I had been +very discreet and careful that they thought that they had me in hand, +and that I was somewhat of an innocent fool, and revealed no more than +what they wished. + +Before I went there--for I went by water this time, in a private wherry, +to Wapping Old Stairs, I went first to Mr. Chiffinch to see if there +were any news for me. + +"Why, yes," he said, when he had me alone, "there is a little matter I +would like you to find out about. The Duke of Monmouth was here with my +Lord Grey, a day or two ago: they all dined with Sir Thomas Armstrong: +and all three of them went round the posts and the guardroom, and saw +everything. Now what was that for?" + +"Sir Thomas Armstrong?" said I in astonishment. "Why he is--" + +I was about to say he was one of His Majesty's closest friends and evil +geniuses; but I stopped. There was no need. + +The page smiled. + +"Yes," he said. "Well; Mr. Mallock? If you can find out anything--" + +"And the Duke too!" I said. "Well; I was right, was I not?" (For what I +had found out was true enough--that His Grace was far more deeply +involved than we had at first suspected. We had known that he was their +_protégé_, but not that he was so much in their counsel, and of one mind +with them.) + +"His Grace will come to some disaster, I think," said Mr. Chiffinch very +tranquilly. + + * * * * * + +When I came to Wapping Old Stairs it appeared that the watermen there +knew well enough what was forward; for while one ran down to help me +from the wherry, a number of others stood watching as if they knew what +I had come for; and all saluted me as I went up. At the head of the +stairs, I looked back, and two more wherries with a gentleman in each +were just coming in. + +Mr. Sheppard himself opened the door to me, and appeared a little +confused, looking over his shoulder into the entrance-hall where two or +three gentlemen were just going into the great parlour on the left. I +could have sworn that one of them was the Duke, from the way he carried +himself. With him was another whom I thought I knew, but he was not +familiar to me. I appeared to notice nothing, but beat off the mud from +my boots. + +"Mr. Mallock," said Mr. Sheppard, "they are not yet all come; and two or +three who are here have a little private business on another matter +first. Will you wait a little in another room?" + +I assented immediately; and he took me through the hall into another +little parlour behind that in which the company was assembled. + +"It will not be more than ten minutes," he said. "I will come for you +myself when they are done." + +When he was gone again I observed the room. It had but one window, which +was shuttered; but it had two doors--the one by which I was come in, and +another, beyond the hearth, leading to the great parlour. This door was +closed. + +Now it was of the greatest importance that I should hear what was +passing in the next room. I should learn more in five words spoken there +then, than in five hours when they were playing a part to me; and I had +no scruple whatever, considering what they were at, and how they were +using me, in learning by any means that were in my power what I wished +to know. Even from where I stood I could hear the murmur of talk; and it +was probable, it seemed to me, that if I laid my ear on the panel of the +door I should hear every word of it. But first I pulled out a chair and +set it by the table, with my hat and cane beside it. Then I went to the +door into the hall, which opened, fortunately, with its hinge nearer to +the hearth--(so that a man entering would not see immediately into that +part of the room in which I should be)--and beneath the door I slipped a +little sliver of wood from the wood-basket by the hearth, so that the +door would stick a little. Having done that I went on tip-toe to the +other door and put my ear to the panel. But I feared they would not say +anything very significant, with me so close. + +Now it was a little while before I could distinguish which voice +belonged to what man. I got the Duke's at once; there was a lordly kind +of ring in it that could never be forgotten; and I got presently my Lord +Grey's voice; and then one with a drawl in it which I had never heard +before; and then one that had no special characteristic, but was a +little slow. These were the four whom I heard speak, besides Mr. +Sheppard once. The conversation I heard was somewhat as follows. I set +it all down on my way home. + +The Duke said: "I am very pleased indeed that you are come after all, my +Lord. We understand by that you have put aside all suspicions; and that +is an encouragement." + +The slow voice said; "I would do anything in my power, your Grace, +which was not against my conscience, to help on that cause of which you +have spoken; but I must confess--" + +My Lord Grey said, sharply: "There, there! we understand, and are very +glad of it. The thing can be arranged without any treason at all, or any +injury to a soul. It is merely a demonstration--no more, upon my +honour." + +The drawling voice said: "No more will be needed. His Grace and we two +went round everywhere. They are not like soldiers at all; they are +remiss in everything." + +The Duke said: "You see, my Lord, it is exactly as I said. God knows we +would not injure a soul. I well know your Lordship's high principles." + +The slow voice said: "Well, your Grace, so long as that is understood--I +shall be very happy to hear what the design may be." + +Mr. Sheppard said: "One instant, my Lord--" Then he dropped his voice; +and I saw what he was at. I slipped back as quick as I could; drew out +the sliver of wood from beneath the other door, and sat down. Then I +heard his footstep outside. + +When he came in, I was in the chair; but I rose. + +"I beg pardon for keeping you, sir," he said: "there is just that trifle +of business, and no more. I am come to keep you company." + +Well; I resigned myself to it with a good air; and we sat and talked +there of indifferent matters, or very nearly, for at least half an hour +longer. It was highly provoking to me, but it could not be helped--that +I should sit there with an affair of real importance proceeding in the +next room, and I placed so favourably for the hearing of it. However I +had gained something, though at present I did not know how much. + +Suddenly Mr. Sheppard stood up; and I heard a door open and voices in +the entrance hall. + +"You will excuse me, sir, an instant," he said. "I must see these +gentlemen out." + +I bowed to him as I stood up and put myself in such a position that I +could get a good look into the hall as he went out; and fortune favoured +me, for there in the light of the pair of candles outside I caught a +plain sight of the plump and rather solemn face of my Lord Russell. It +was only for an instant; but that was enough; and at the same time I +heard the drawling voice of someone out of sight, bidding good-night to +others within the parlour. Then Mr. Sheppard shut the door behind him, +and I sat down again. + +Well; I had gained something; and I was beginning to repeat to myself +what I had heard, for that is the best way of all to imprint it on the +memory; when Mr. Sheppard came in again and invited me to follow him. + +"Who was that that spoke?" I said carelessly, "as you went out just now? +I can swear I know the voice." + +He glanced sharply at me. + +"That?" he said. "Oh! that must have been Sir Thomas Armstrong who is +just gone out." + + * * * * * + +The parlour had no more than five men in it when we entered; and one +seemed about to take his leave. That one was His Grace of Monmouth. I +was a little astonished that they let me see him there, though I +understood presently why it was so. He turned to me very friendly, while +I was observing the two others I did not know--one of whom, Mr. +Ferguson, was dressed as a minister. + +"Why, Mr. Mallock," he said, "you come as I go!" + +He recognized me a shade too swiftly. That shewed me that they had been +speaking of me to him. + +I said something civil; and then I saw that he was to say the piece they +had just taught him; for that he was not sharp enough to be trusted long +in the room with me. + +"I hear you are all consulting," said he, "how to keep the peace. Well; +I have given my counsel; and my Lord Essex here knows what I wish. I +would I could stay, gentlemen; but that cannot be done." + +There was a loyal and grateful murmur from the others. Indeed he looked +a prince, every inch of him. He took his leave with a superb courtesy, +giving his hand to each; and each bowed over it very low. I was not sure +but that Mr. Sheppard did not kiss it. For myself, I kissed it outright. +While I did so, I could have sworn that Mr. Sheppard said something +very swiftly in the ear of my Lord Essex. + +Now I was wondering why they had kept me from my Lord Russell. His +probity was known well enough; and if they had wished to reassure me +they could have done no better than tell me he was one of them; and +then, of a sudden I recollected that to reassure me was the very last +thing they wished; on the contrary, they wished to hold me tight, +betraying only what they wished me to betray, until they were ready for +their final stroke. And, just as I had arrived at that, when we were all +sat down, my Lord Essex again dumfoundered me. + +"Mr. Mallock," he said, "I wish to tell you, now we are in private, that +my Lord Russell has been here, as well as His Grace and Sir Thomas +Armstrong. You can tell from the presence of those three what our chief +difficulty will be; for not one of them will hear of even the danger of +any injury to His Majesty or the Duke of York. His Grace of Monmouth, of +course, had to be consulted on one or two points; and he brought those +other two with him to hear what we had to say. Well; I think we have +satisfied them; though I fear, later, that they will not approve of our +methods. But we did not wish my Lord Russell to see you until we had +done talking to him; for fear that he might know something of your +disaffection. We have satisfied him--and, what is more important--His +Grace too, for the present; and they will not interfere with us." + +Now this speech was an exceedingly ingenious one. Before he had done +speaking I understood that Mr. Sheppard had suspected that I had seen my +Lord Russell, and that that was why they were so open with me. But the +rest of the speech was very shrewd indeed; and I think it might have +deceived me, if I had not learned by the conversation that it was His +Grace who was trying to reassure my Lord, and no one that was trying to +reassure His Grace. But the web was so well woven that for the moment I +could not see through it all; though I understood it all presently, when +I had had a little time to think. For the instant, however, I saw one +safe answer that I could make. + +"I am obliged to your Lordship for telling me," I said, "and I trust +from what you have said that it is but a preliminary to a little more +information. Your Lordship told me in July that there would be more news +for me presently." + +He could not resist a glance at my Lord Grey--as if in triumph at his +success. + +"That is what we are met for," he said; and then--"Why, Mr. Mallock, I +have not made these other gentlemen known to you." + +They turned out to be--on the right of my Lord, the minister, Mr. +Ferguson--he who had been spoken of before as an informant from Bristol; +and a Colonel Rumsey--an old Cromwellian like the maltster of +Hoddesdon--who sat next to Mr. Ferguson. We saluted one another; and +then the affair began. + +"Mr. Mallock," said my Lord, "the first piece of news is a little +disappointing. It is that my Lord Shaftesbury is ill. It is not at all +grave; but he is confined to his bed; and that throws back some of our +designs." + +(I made a proper answer of regret; and considered what was likely to be +the truth. At the moment I could not see what this would be.) + +"The next piece of news I have, gentlemen," went on my Lord--(for I +think he thought he appeared to be speaking too much at me)--"is that +owing to my Lord Shaftesbury's illness we must relinquish all thoughts +of any demonstration in London. That, Mr. Mallock, was what we had hoped +to be able to do in a week or two from now. Well; that is impossible. +For the rest, Mr. Ferguson had better tell us." + +This gentleman I took to be somewhat of an ass by his appearance and +manner; but I am not sure he was not the cleverest liar of them all. He +spoke with a strong Scotch accent, and an appearance of shy sheepiness, +and therefore with an air too of extraordinary truth. He spoke, too, at +great length, as if he were in his pulpit; and my Lord Essex yawned +behind his hand once or twice. + +Briefly put--Mr. Ferguson's report was as follows: + +The discontent in the West was rising to a climax; and if a much longer +delay were made, real danger might follow. It was sadly disconcerting, +therefore, to him to hear that there was any hitch in the London +designs: for the promise that he had given to some of the leaders in the +West (whose names, he said, with an appearance of a stupid boorish kind +of cunning, "had best not be said even here") was that a demonstration +should be made simultaneously both here, in the West, and in Scot-- + +Here he interrupted himself sharply; and I saw that he had made a +blunder. But he covered it so admirably, that if I had not previously +known that discontent was seething among the Covenanters, I am sure I +should have suspected nothing. + +"In Scotland," said he, "we must look for nothing. They are forever +promising and not performing--though I say it of my own countrymen. Any +demonstration there would surely be a failure." + +It was admirably done; and it was then that I perceived what an actor +the man was. + +Well; when he had done, we talked over it a while. I professed myself +very well satisfied with what I had heard; and I put forward an opinion +that it would be far better to delay no longer in the West. A +demonstration there might lead to alarm here; troops might be withdrawn +here, and relieve the pressure, and thus make possible a further +demonstration in London. I spoke, I think, with some eloquence, +remembering however that they all looked on me with the same confidence +that I had in them--and no more: that is, that they believed me a liar. +My observations were received with applause, very well delivered. + +It was growing pretty late by the time we had done; yet before we went I +had learned one more piece of news, partly through a little trap I laid, +and partly through my Lord Essex's clumsiness. + +"Well," said I, "I must be getting homewards, my Lords. I wish my Lord +Shaftesbury had been here. Could I see his Lordship, do you think?--if I +were to call at his town house? There is a very particular matter--" + +My Lord Essex started a little. He was tired and overanxious, I think, +with the continual part that he had to play before me; yet it was the +first slip he made. + +"My Lord is out of town--" he said. Then he paused. "You could not tell +us, I suppose--" + +I affected indifference. (Was my Lord out of town, I wondered?) + +"Why; it is nothing," I said. + +My Lord exchanged a look with Mr. Sheppard; and made his second mistake. + +"I saw my Lord only--last week," he said suddenly. "He wishes his +address to be private for the present; but-- + +"Do not trouble yourself, my Lord," I said. "I assure you it has nothing +to do with our business here." + +I repeated this, I think, with a good enough manner to persuade them +that what I said was true; and presently afterwards took my leave. + +As I sat in the wherry that took me back to the Privy Stairs--(I had +announced of course, "to the Temple")--I was preparing in my mind what I +should say. I had learned a considerable amount for an evening; for the +conversation I had overheard, added to what Mr. Chiffinch had told me, +added to what they had all said in the parlour, interpreted and fitted +together, was pretty significant. + +These were the points I arranged. + +First, that the visit of the Duke, my Lord Grey and Sir Thomas Armstrong +to Whitehall was to see in what state the guards were in case of a +surprise; and the conclusion they had arrived at was they "were not like +soldiers at all" but "very remiss." + +Second, that a "demonstration" in London was very imminent. + +Third, that they had won over my Lord Russell enough at least to gain +the help that his name would give. + +Fourth, I was confirmed in what Mr. Chiffinch had told me as to the +probability of a rising in Scotland. + +Fifth, I was confirmed in my view that the Duke was very deeply +involved. + +Sixth, it appeared to me exceedingly probable that my Lord Shaftesbury +was still in town, though not in his own house: and, all things +considered, it was very nearly certain that he was hidden in Wapping. He +was, probably also, a little ill, or he would have been at our meeting +to-night. + +One conclusion then, immediate and pressing, came out of all this; that +an assault on Whitehall and an attack on the King's person was in urgent +contemplation. + + * * * * * + +Then, as we went up under the stars, my waterman and I, one of those +moods came upon me which come on all men in such stress as I was; and I +appeared to myself, for the time, to be worlds away from all this +sedition and passion and fever. The little affairs of men which they +thought so great seemed to me in that hour very little and wicked--like +the scheming of naughty children, or the quarrels and spites of efts in +a muddy pond. In that hour my whole heart grew sick at this miserable +murderous pother in the midst of which my duty seemed to lie; and +yearned instead to those things that are great indeed--the love of the +maid who had promised herself to me, and the Love of God that should +make us one. My religion--though I am a little ashamed to confess +it--had been very little to me lately: I had heard mass, indeed, +usually, on Sundays, in one of the privileged chapels, and had confessed +myself at Easter and once since, to one of the Capuchins, and received +Communion; yet, for the rest it had largely been blotted out by these +hot absorbing affairs in which I found myself. But, in that hour (for +the tide was beginning to set against us)--it came back on me like a +breeze in a stifling room. I thought of that cleanly passionless life I +had led as a novice, and of that no less cleanly, though perhaps less +supernatural life, that should one day be mine and Dolly's--and these +politics and these plottings and this listening at doors, and this +elaborate lying--all blew off from me like a cloud. + +When we were yet twenty yards from the Privy Stairs a wherry shot past +us, with no light burning. There was but one passenger in it, whom I +knew well enough, though I feigned to see nothing; and once more my +sickness came on me, that it was for a King like this, slipping out on +some shameful pleasure, that I so toiled and endangered myself. + + * * * * * + +When I had reported all to Mr. Chiffinch, sitting back weary in my +chair, yet knowing that I must go through with the work to which I had +set my hand, he remained silent. + +"Well?" I said. "Am I wrong in any point?" + +"Why no," he said. "Your information tallies perfectly with all I know, +and has increased the sum very much. For example, I had no idea where my +Lord Shaftesbury was. I have no doubt whatever, from what you say, that +he is in Wapping." + +"Will you send and take him there?" I asked. + +"No," he said shortly. "Leave him alone. We failed last time we took +him. And he can do no great harm there. Plainly too, he is at the +waterside that he may escape if there is need. I shall set spies there; +and no more." + +"What is to be done then? Double the guards again?" + +"Why that of course," said he. + +"And what else?" I asked; for I could see that he had not said all. + +"A counterstroke," he said. "But of what kind? You say the rising will +be pretty soon." + +"I do not suppose for a week or two at the most. They were decided, I am +sure; but no more." + +Suddenly the man slapped his leg; and his eyes grew little with his +smile. + +"I have it for sure," he said. "It will be for the seventeenth of +November. That is the popular date. Queen Bess and Dangerfield and the +rest." + +"But what can you do?" + +"Why," said he, "forbid by proclamation all processions or bonfires on +that day. Then they cannot even begin to gather." + + * * * * * + +He proved right in every particular. The proclamation was issued, and +met their intended assault to the very moment, as we learned afterwards, +besides frightening the leaders lest their intention had been +discovered: and the next night came one of the spies whom Mr. Chiffinch +had sent down to Wapping, to say that my Lord Shaftesbury had slipped +away and taken boat for Holland. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + + +Now indeed the fear grew imminent. I had thought that once my Lord +Shaftesbury was gone abroad, one of two things would happen--either that +the whole movement would collapse, or that the leaders would be arrested +forthwith. But Mr. Chiffinch was sharper than I this time; and said No +to both. + +"No," said he, sitting like a Judge, with his fingers together, on the +morning after my Lord Shaftesbury's evasion. "The feeling is far too +strong to fall away all of a sudden. I dare predict just the contrary, +that, now that the coolest of them all is gone--for he dare not come +back again--the hot-heads will take the lead; and that means the +sharpest peril we have yet encountered. This time they will not stop at +a demonstration; indeed I doubt if they could raise one successfully; +they will aim direct at the person of the King. It is their only hope +left." + +"Then why not take them before they can do any mischief?" I asked. + +"First, Mr. Mallock," he said, "because we have not enough positive +evidence--at any rate not enough to hang them all; and next we must +catch the small fry--the desperate little ones who will themselves +attempt the killing. It is now that I should be ready for a visit from +your friend Rumbald, if I were you. They can have no suspicion that you +have done anything but betray them in the way they intended: they have a +great weapon, they think, in you, to continue carrying false news. Now, +Mr. Mallock, is the very time come of which you once spoke to me--the +climax, when they will feign to reveal everything to you, and then make +their last stroke. You have seen my Lord Essex again?" + +"Not a sight of him. I had only a very guarded note, two days ago, but +very friendly: saying that the designs were fallen through for the +present." + +"Precisely what I have been saying," observed Mr. Chiffinch. "No, Mr. +Mallock, you must not stir from town. I am sorry for your pretty cousin, +and Christmas, and the rest: but you see for yourself that we must leave +no loophole unguarded. His Majesty must not die out of his bed, if we +can help it." + +There, then, I was nailed until more should happen. I dared not ask my +cousins to come to town; for God only knew what mischief my Cousin Tom +might not play; and I had not eyes on both sides of my head at once. I +wrote only to Dolly; and said that once more I was disappointed; but +that I would most certainly see her soon, if I had to ride two nights +running, from town and back. + + +I accomplished this, but not until Christmas was well over, and indeed +Lent begun. During those weeks, certainly nothing of any importance +happened to me, though my Lord Essex kept me in touch with him, and I +even was present at one very dismal meeting with him and Mr. Ferguson, +when it was deplored, in my presence, that the "demonstration"--as they +still called it--of the seventeenth of November had been so adroitly +prevented; and my Lord Shaftesbury's death--which had taken place +(chiefly, I think, from disappointment) that very week--was spoken of +with a certain relief. I think they were pleased to have matters +entirely in their own hands now. However they proposed no immediate +action, which more than ever persuaded me that this was what they +intended. Yet the days went by: and no more news came, either from them +or from Mr. Chiffinch--so I took affairs into my own hands, and one +night, before the gates of the City were shut went down to Hare Street +with a couple of men, leaving James at home, for I could trust him +better than any other man. + +Now I need not relate all that passed at Hare Street; for every lover +knows how sweet was that day to me. I had seen her not at all for more +than a year--(one year of those three that were to pass!)--and though we +had written often to one another, whenever we could get a letter taken, +yet the letters had done no more than increase my thirst. I think she +was dearer to me than ever; she was a shade paler and more grave, and I +knew what it was that had made her so, for I had told her very plainly +indeed that I was in peril and that she must pray much for me. My Cousin +Tom was friendly enough, though I saw he was no more reconciled in his +heart to our affair than he had been at the beginning; but I guessed +nothing whatever of what he was contemplating. (However perhaps he was +not contemplating it then, for he did not attempt it till much later.) +Yet he was pretty reasonable, and interrupted us no more than was +necessary; so we had that day to ourselves, until night fell, and I must +ride again. I was so weary that night, though refreshed in my spirit, +that I think I drowsed a little on my horse, and thought that I stood +again at the gate of the yard with Dolly, bareheaded in spite of the +cold, holding the lantern to help us to mount. + + * * * * * + +I was still brooding all the way up Fleet Street, and even to my own +door; until I saw James standing there; and at the sight of him I knew +that something was fallen out. + +I said nothing, but nodded at him only, as a master may, but he +understood that he was to follow upstairs. There, in my chamber I faced +him. + +"Well?" said I. "What is it?" + +"Sir," he said, "a fellow came last night and seemed much put out when I +told him you were out of town." + +"What sort of a fellow was he?" said I. + +"He was a clean-shaven man, sir, rather red in the face, with reddish +hair turning grey on his temples." + +"Heavily built?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Well; what did he say?" + +"He said that you would know what affair he was come about--that it was +very urgent; and that he could not stay in town beyond noon to-day. He +said, sir, that he was to be found till then at the _Mitre_ without +Aldgate." + +Well; that was enough for me. But I did not relish the prospect of no +sleep again; for I cannot trust my wits when I have not slept my seven +or eight hours. But there was no help for it. + +"James," said I, "bring my morning up here at once, with some meat too. +I may not be able to dine to-day, or not till late. When you have +brought it I shall have a letter ready, for Mr. Chiffinch. That you must +take yourself. Then return here, and pack a pair of valises, with a suit +in them for yourself. Have two horses ready at eleven o'clock: you must +come with me, and no one else. I do not know how long we may be away. +You understand?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Very well. I must get some sleep if I can before eleven." + +Then a thought came to me. If Rumbald must be gone from town by noon, +would he not likely want me to go with him? + +"Wait," I said. "I do not know this man very well; but I will tell you +that his name is Rumbald and that he lives at the Rye, near Hoddesdon. +You had best not come with me. But do all else as I have said; but you +must ride by yourself at eleven, to Hoddesdon; and put up at the inn +there--I forget its name, but the largest there, if there be more than +one. Remain there until you hear from me again: I may want a courier. Do +not go a hundred yards from the inn on any account; and do not seem to +know me, unless I speak to you first. You may see me, or you may not. I +know nothing till I have seen Rumbald. If you do not hear of me before +ten o'clock to-night, you can go to bed, and return here in the morning. +I will communicate with you by to-morrow night at latest. If I do not, +go to Mr. Chiffinch yourself and tell him." + +My mind was working at that swift feverish speed which weariness +sometimes will give. I was amazed afterwards at my own foresight, for +there was very little evidence of what was intended; and yet there had +come upon me, as in an illumination, that the time for which we had +waited so long was arrived at last. I do not see how I could have +guessed more than I did; neither do I now see how I guessed so much. + +My letter to Mr. Chiffinch was not long. It ran as follows: + +"Rumbald hath been to see me; and bids me be with him, if I can, by noon +to-day at the _Mitre_, without Aldgate. I know no more than that; but I +am making ready to go down with him to the Rye at Hoddesdon, if he +should want me there. I think that something is intended, if we are +right in our conjectures. I shall have my man at the inn in Hoddesdon. +You must send no one else for fear of alarming them, unless my man comes +to you to-morrow to tell you that he does not know where I am. Is His +Majesty still at Newmarket? If so, when does he purpose to return? Which +road will he come by? Send an answer back by my man who bears this. + +"R.M." + +Well; that was all that I could do. I gave the letter to James; telling +him not to awaken me with the answer till he came at eleven o'clock; and +after eating a good meal, I went to my bed and fell sound asleep; and it +seemed scarcely five minutes, before James came knocking, with Mr. +Chiffinch's answer. I sat up on my bed and read it--my mind still +swimming with sleep. + +"_Prospere procede_!" it ran. "I will observe all that you say. The King +and His Royal Highness are together at Newmarket. They purpose to return +on a Saturday, as the King usually does; but he hath not yet sent to say +whether it will be to-morrow, the 18th or the 25th. I shall hear by +night, no doubt. Neither do I know the road by which they may come." + +I read it through twice; then I tore it into fragments and gave them to +James. + +"Burn all these," I said. "Are the horses ready?" + +"Yes, sir," said James. + +Undoubtedly my sleep had refreshed me; for by the time that I rode up to +the _Mitre_ without Aldgate, I was awake with a kind of clear-headedness +that astonished me. It appeared to me that I had thought out every +contingency. I had with me a little valise, ready for the country, if +need be; yet I could return to my lodgings without remark. James was +already on his way to Hoddesdon, and would be there if I needed him. No +harm was done if my conjectures were at fault; I had left no loophole +that I could see, if they were not. It was with a tolerably contented +heart, in spite of the dangers I foresaw--(for I think these gave spice +to my adventure)--that I rode up to the _Mitre_, and saw Mr. Rumbald +himself standing astraddle in the doorway. + +I must confess however that the sight of him gave me a little check. He +appeared to me more truculent than I had ever seen him. He had his hands +behind him, with a great whip in them; he hardly smiled to me, but +nodded only, fixing his fierce eyes on my face. He had, more than I had +ever noticed it before, that hard fanatic look of the Puritan. After +all, I reflected, this maltster had commanded a troop under Cromwell at +Naseby. His manner was very different from when I had last seen him; he +appeared to me as if desperate. + +However, I think I shewed nothing of what I felt. I saluted him easily, +and swung myself off my horse. He had gone into the house at my +approach; and I followed him straight through into a little parlour to +which, it seemed, he had particular access, for he turned a key in the +door as he went in. When I was in, after him, and the door was shut, he +turned to me, with a very stern look. + +"Well, Mr. Mallock?" he said. "I see you are come ready for a ride." + +"Yes," I said. "I had your message." + +He nodded. Then he came a little closer, looking at me with his fierce +eyes. + +"You understand what is forward?" + +"I understand enough," said I. + +"That is very good then. We will ride at once." + +As we came out, a couple of men--one of them I noticed in particular, +dressed as a workman--(I set him down for a carpenter or some such +thing)--made as though they would speak to us; but Rumbald waved his +hand at them sharply, as if to hold them off. I could see that he was +displeased. I said nothing, but I marked the man closely: he was a +little fellow, that looked ill. Mr. Rumbald's horse was already there; +and mine was being held still by the ostler into whose hands I had given +him. We mounted without another word; and rode away. + +I think we did not speak one word at all till we were out from town. +Such was his mood, and such therefore I imitated. He rode like a +soldier, sitting easily and squarely in his saddle; and the more I +observed him and thought of him, the less I liked my business. It was +wonderful how some emotion had driven up the power that lay in him. All +that genial hail-fellow manner was gone completely. + +When we were clear of town he spoke at last. + +"This is a very grave business, sir," he said. "We had best not speak of +it till we are home. Have you no servants?" + +He spoke so naturally of my servants that I saw he was astonished I had +none. I had very little time to think what I should answer; it appeared +to me that I had best be open. + +"Yes," I said. "My man is gone on to Hoddesdon to await me there. I +thought it was best he should not ride with us." + +He looked at me with a peculiar expression that I could not understand; +but only for an instant. Then he nodded, and turned his stern face again +over his horse's ears. + +My moods were very various as I rode on. Now I felt as a sheep being led +to the slaughter; now as an adventurer on a quest; and, again, of a +sudden there would sweep over me a great anxiety as to His Majesty's +safety. The thought of Dolly, too, came upon me continually and affected +me now in this way, now in that. Now I longed to be free and safe back +at Hare Street; now I knew that I could never look her in the face again +if I evaded my plain duty. One thing I can say, however, from my heart, +and that is that never for an instant did I seriously consider any +evasion. It was all in the course that I had chosen--to "serve the +King." Well; I must do so now, wherever it led me. What, however, +greatly added to the horror of my position was that I knew that this +strong fellow at my side thought me to be a traitor to himself and was +using that knowledge only for his own ends. He would surely be ruthless +if he found I had served my turn; and here was I, riding to his house, +and only two men in the world knew whither I was gone. + +Rumbald had already dined; and thought not at all of me. We drew rein +therefore, nowhere; but rode straight on, through village and country +alike--now ambling for a little, once or twice cantering, and then +walking again when the way had holes in it. So we passed through +Totteridge and Barnet and Enfield Chase and Wood Green, and came at last +to Broxbourne where the roads forked, and we turned down to the right. +It was terrible that ride--all in silence; once or twice I had attempted +a general observation; but he answered so shortly that I tried no more; +and I am not ashamed to say that I committed myself again and again to +the tuition of Our Lady of Good Counsel whose picture I had venerated in +Rome. Indeed, it was counsel that I needed. + +I did not know precisely where was the Rye, nor what it was like; for I +had avoided the place, of design. I supposed it only a little place, +perhaps in a village. I was a trifle disconcerted therefore when, as we +crossed the Lea by a wooden bridge, he pointed with his whip, in +silence, to a very solid-looking house that even had battlemented +roofs--not two hundred yards away, to the left of the road. There was no +other building that I could see, except the roofs of an outhouse or two, +and suchlike. However, I nodded, and said nothing. No words were best: +in silence we rode on over the bridge, and beyond; and in silence we +turned in through a gateway, and up to the house, crossing a moat as we +went. + +Indeed, now I was astonished more than ever at the house. It was liker a +castle. There was an arched entrance, very solid, all of brick, with the +teeth even of a portcullis shewing. An old man came out of a door on our +right, as our hoofs rang out; but he made no sign or salute; he took our +horses' heads as we dismounted, and I heard him presently leading them +away. + +Still without speaking, the Colonel led me through the little guard-room +on the right, hung round with old weapons of the Civil War, and up a +staircase at the further end. At the head of the staircase a door was +open on the right, and I saw a bed within; but we went up a couple more +steps on the left, and came out into the principal living-room of the +house. + +It was a very good chamber, this, panelled about eight feet up the +walls, with the bricks shewing above, but whitewashed. A hearth was on +the right; a couple of windows in the wall opposite, and another door +beyond the hearth. The furniture was very plain but very good: a great +table stood under the windows with three or four chairs about it. The +walls seemed immensely strong and well-built; and, though the place +could not stand out for above an hour or two against guns, in the old +days it could have faced a little siege of men-at-arms, very well. + +Rumbald, when he had seen me shut the door behind me, went across to the +table and put down his whip upon it. + +"Sit down, sir," he said. "Here is my little stronghold." + +He said it with a grim kind of geniality, at which I did not know +whether to be encouraged or not: I did as he told me, and looked about +me with as easy an air as I could muster. + +"A little stronghold indeed," I said. + +He paid no attention. + +"Now, sir," he said, "we have not very much time. Supper will be up in +half in hour; we had best have our talk first, and then you may send for +your servant. Old Alick will find him out." + +"With all my heart," I said, wondering that he made so much of my +servant. + +He sat down suddenly, and looked at me very heavily and penetratingly. + +"Sir," he said, "you are going to hear the truth at last, I said we had +not much time. Well; we have not." + +"Then let me have the truth quickly," I said. + +He took his eyes from my face. I was glad of that; as I did not greatly +like his regard. What, thought I, if I be alone with a madman? + +"Well, sir," he said, "we are driven desperate, as you may have guessed. +I say, we; for you have identified yourself with our cause a hundred +times over. My Lord Shaftesbury is gone; my Lord Essex is hanging back. +Well; but those are not all. We have other men besides those that have +been urged on and urged on, and now cannot be restrained. I have tried +to restrain them myself"--(here he gulped in his throat: lying was not +very easy to this man, I think)--"and I have failed. Well, sir, I must +trust you more than I have ever trusted you before." + +Again he stopped. + +Then all came out with a rush. + +"Not half a mile from here," said he, "along the Newmarket road there be +twenty men, with blunderbusses and other arms, waiting for His Majesty +and the Duke, who will come to-morrow." + +"But how do you know?" cried I--all bewildered for the instant. + +His head shook with passion. + +"Listen," said he. "We have had certain information that they come this +way--Why, do you think we have not--" (again he broke off; but I knew +well enough what he would have said!) "I tell you we know it. The King +is not lying at Royston, to-night. He comes by this road to-morrow. Now +then, sir--what do you say to that?" + +My mind was still all in a whirl. I had looked for sudden danger, but +not so sudden as this. Half a dozen questions flashed before me. I put +the first into words: + +"Why have you told me?" I cried. + +His face contracted suddenly. (It was growing very dark by now, and we +had no candles. The muscles of his face stood out like cords.) + +"Not so loud!" said he; and then: "Well, are you not one of us? You are +pledged very deeply, sir; I tell you." + +Then came the blessed relief. For the first moment, so genuine appeared +his passion, I had believed him; and that the ambushment was there, as +he had said. Then, like a train of gunpowder, light ran along my mind +and I understood that it was the same game still that they were playing +with me; that there was no ambushment ready; that they had indeed fixed +upon this journey of the King's; but that they were unprepared and +desired delay. His anxiety about my servant; his evident displeasure and +impatience; his sending for me at all when he must have known over and +over again that I was not of his party--each detail fitted in like a +puzzle. And yet I must not shew a sign of it! + +I hid my face in my hands for a moment, to think what I could answer. +Then I looked up. + +"Mr. Rumbald," said I, "you are right. I am too deeply pledged. Tell me +what I am to do. It is sink or swim with me now." + +He believed, of course, that I was lying; and so I was, but not as he +thought. He believed that he had gained his point; and the relief of +that thought melted him. He believed, that is, that I should presently +make an excuse to get hold of my servant and send him off to delay the +King's coming. Then, I suppose, he saw the one flaw in his design; and +he strove, very pitifully, to put it right. + +"One more thing, Mr. Mallock," said he, "this is not the only party that +waits for him. There is another on the Royston road, among the downs +near Barkway. They will catch him whichever way he comes." + +I nodded. + +"I had supposed so," I said; for I did not wish to confuse him further. + +"Well," said he, "why I have sent for you is that you may help me here. +There may be more guards with the King than we think for. It may come to +a fight; and even a siege here--if they come this way. We must be ready +to defend this place for a little." + +It was, indeed, pitiful to see how poor he was as an actor. His +sternness was all gone, or very nearly: he babbled freely and +drunkenly--walking up and down the chamber, like a restless beast. He +told me point after point that he need not--even their very code--how +"swan-quills" and "goose-quills" and "crow-quills" stood for +blunderbusses and muskets and pistols; and "sand and ink" for powder and +balls. It was, as I say, pitiful to see him, now that his anxiety was +over, and he had me, as he thought, in his toils. It was a very strange +nature that he had altogether;--this old Cromwellian and Puritan--and I +am not sure to this day whether he were not in good faith in his +murderous designs. I thought of these things, even at this moment; and +wondered what he would do if he knew the truth. + +At supper he fell silent again, and even morose; and I think it +possible he may have had some suspicions of me; for he suspected +everyone, I think. But he brightened wonderfully when I said with a very +innocent air that I would like my servant to be fetched, and that I +would give him his instructions and send him back to London, for that I +did not wish to embroil him in this matter. + +"Why, certainly, Mr. Mallock," he said, "it is what I wish. I trust you +utterly, as you see. You shall see him where you will." + +He turned to his old man who came in at that instant, and bade him fetch +Mr. Mallock's servant from Hoddesdon. I described him to Alick, and +scribbled a note that would bring him. Then we fell to the same kind of +talking again. + + * * * * * + +It was eight o'clock, pretty well, by the time that James came to the +Rye. I had determined to see him out of doors where none could hear us; +and before eight I was walking up and down in the dark between the gate +and the house, talking to my host. When the two men came through the +gate, Rumbald was very particular to leave me immediately, that I might, +as he thought, send my man to Newmarket to put off the King's coming; +and have no interruption. + +"I will leave you," said he. "You shall see how much I trust you." + +I waited till he was gone in and the door shut. Then I took James apart +into a little walled garden that I had noticed as I came in, where we +could not by any chance be overheard. Even then too I spoke in a very +small whisper. + +"James," said I, "go back to Hoddesdon; and get a fresh horse. Leave all +luggage behind and ride as light as you can, for you must go straight to +Newmarket; and be there before six o'clock, at any cost. Go straight to +the King's lodgings, and ask for any of Mr. Chiffinch's men that are +there, whom you know. Do you know of any who are there?" + +"Yes, sir," whispered James; and he named one. + +"Very good. With him you must go straight to His Majesty; and have him +awakened if need be. Tell him that you come from me--Mr. Chiffinch's +men will support you in that. Tell His Majesty that if he values his +life he must return to town to-morrow--and not sleep anywhere on the +way: and that the Duke of York must come with him. Tell him that there +is no fear whatever if he comes at once; but that there is every fear if +he delays. He had best come, too, by this road and not by Royston. You +understand?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"I shall remain here until to-morrow night at the earliest. If I am not +at home by Sunday night, go to Mr. Chiffinch, as I told you this +morning. Is all clear?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Then go at once. Spare no horses or expense. Good-night, James." + +"Good-night, sir." + +I watched him out of the gate. Then I turned and went back to the house. + + + + +CHAPTER X + + +It was a strange night and day that followed. On the one side my host +found it hard, I think, to maintain the story he had told me, in action; +for, in accordance with his tale, he had to bear himself as though he +expected before nightfall the assassination of the King and His Royal +Highness half a mile away, and the rush of the murderers to his house +for shelter. On my side, it was scarcely less hard, for I knew nothing +of how my man James had fared, or whether or no His Majesty would act +upon my message. I guessed, however, that he would, if only my man got +there; for Chiffinch's men (who now followed him everywhere) would be as +eager as I that no danger should come to him. + +My plans therefore were more secure than Rumbald's; since I knew, either +that His Majesty would come, and no harm done, or that, merely, he would +not come. In the latter case Rumbald would be certified that I had done +as he thought I would; and would, no doubt, let me go peacefully, to use +me again later in the same manner, if occasion rose. For myself, then, I +intended after nightfall at the latest to ride back to London and report +all that had passed; and, if the King had not come, to lay all in Mr. +Chiffinch's hands for his further protection. + +I was left a good deal to myself during the morning--Mr. Rumbald's +powers of dissimulation being, I think, less than his desire for them; +and I did not quarrel with that. I was very restless myself, and spent a +good deal of time in examining the house and the old arms, used no +doubt, forty years ago in the Civil War, that were hung up everywhere. +Within, as well as without, it was liker an arsenal or a barracks, than +a dwelling-house. Its lonely situation too, and its strength, made it a +very suitable place for such a design as that which its owner had for +it. The great chamber, at the head of the stairs, and over the archway, +where we had our food, was no doubt the room where the conspirators had +held their meetings. + +A little before eleven o'clock, as I was walking in the open space +between the house and the gate, I saw a fellow look in suddenly from the +road, and then was away again. Every movement perturbed me, as may be +imagined in such suspense; yet anything was better than ignorance, and I +called out to let him see that I had observed him. So he came forward +again; and I saw him to be the little carpenter, or what not, that had +wished to speak to Rumbald yesterday at the inn. + +He saluted me very properly. + +"I beg your pardon, sir," said he, "but is Mr. Rumbald within?" + +Now I had seen Mr. Rumbald, not ten minutes ago, slip back into the +house from the outhouses where he had pretended to go upon some +preparation or other for the reception of the assassins this evening; +but he had not known that I saw him. + +"He is very busy at present," said I. "Cannot I do your business for +you?" + +(I tried to look as if I knew more than I did.) + +"Why, sir," he said, "I think not." + +He seemed, I thought, in a very pitiable state. (I learned some months +later that he was come down expressly to dissuade Rumbald from any +attempt at that time; but I did not know that then.) Here, only, thought +I, is one of the chicken-hearted ones. I determined to play upon his +fears, if I could, and at the same time, perhaps, upon his hopes. + +"I think I can, however," I said. "You would be out of the business, if +you could, would you not?" + +He turned so white that I thought he would have fallen. I saw that my +shot had told; but it was not a hard one to make. + +"Hold up, man," I said. "Why, what do you suppose I am here for?" + +"What business, sir?" he said. "I do not know what you mean." + +I smiled; so that he could see me do it. + +"Very good, then," I said. "I will leave you to Mr. Rumbald;" and I +made as if I would pass on. + +"Sir," he said, "can you give me any assurance?... I am terrified." And +indeed he looked it; so I supposed that he thought that the attempt was +indeed to be made to-day. I determined on a bold stroke. + +"My man!" I said. "If you will tell me your name, and then begone at +once, back to town, I will tell you something that will be of service to +you. If not--" and I broke off. + +He looked at me piteously. I think my air frightened him. He drew back a +little from the house, though we were in a place where we could not be +seen from the windows. + +"My name is Keeling, sir. You will not betray me? What is it, sir?" + +"Well," said I, "I can give you an assurance that what you fear will not +take place. There is not a man here beyond myself and Mr. Rumbald and +old Alick. Now begone at once. Stay; where do you live?" + +He shook his head. A little colour had come back to his face again at +the news. + +"No, sir; that was not in the bargain. I will begone, sir, as you said; +and thank you, sir." + +He slipped back again very quickly, and was vanished. I suppose that he +had ridden down in some cart all night, and that he went back in the +same way, for I saw no more of him. + +Well; I had gained two little points--I had kept him from Mr. Rumbald, +which was one--(for I did not want my host to consult with any if I +could help it)--and I had learned what perhaps was his name. This, +however, I would test for myself presently. + +At noon we dined; and having observed no difference in my host's manner, +that might shew that he had any idea I had met with anyone, I made two +remarks. + +"I talked with a fellow at the gate this morning," I said; "he seemed to +know nothing of the King's coming." + +Rumbald jerked his head impatiently; and I perceived that we had not +been seen. Presently I said: + +"Who was that pale-looking fellow who wished to speak with you +yesterday, Mr. Rumbald, at the _Mitre?_" + +He looked sharply at me for an instant. + +"His name is Thompson," said he. "He is one of my malting-men." + +Then I knew that he had lied. A man does not invent the name of Keeling, +but very easily the name of Thompson. So I saw that Rumbald had not yet +lost all discretion; and indeed, for all his talk, he had hardly spoken +a name that I could get hold of. + +After a while I ventured on another sentence which suited my purpose, +and at the same time confirmed him in his own view. + +"If by any chance His Majesty should not come to-day--will it be done, +do you think, to-morrow? Shall you wait till he does come?" + +He shook his head and lied again very promptly. + +"If it is not done to-day, it will never be done." + +Looking back on the affair now, I truly do wonder at the adroitness with +which we both talked. There was scarcely a slip on either side, though +we were at cross-purposes if ever men were. But I suppose that in both +of us there was a very great tension of mind--as of men walking on the +edge of a precipice; and it was the knowledge of that which saved us +both. After dinner I said I would walk again out of doors; and he +thought it was mere affectation, since I must know by now that His +Majesty was not coming. + +"Well," I said, "if by any mischance His Majesty doth not come to-day, I +will get back to town." + +He looked at me; but he kept any kind of irony out of his face. + +"You had best do that," he said. + + * * * * * + +Now it must have been forty miles from Newmarket to the Rye; and I had +calculated that His Majesty would not start till nine o'clock at the +earliest. He would have four horses and would change them at least three +times; but they would not be able to go out of a trot for most of the +way, so that I need not look for any news of him till three o'clock at +the earliest. From then till five o'clock would be the time. If he were +not come by five, or at the very latest half-past, I should know that my +design had miscarried. + +It is very difficult for me to describe at all the state I was in--all +the more as I dared not shew it. It was not merely that my Sovereign was +at stake, but a great deal more than that. My religion too was in some +peril, for if, by any mischance things should not go as I expected; if, +as certainly occurred to my mind as one possibility in ten, I had +completely mistaken Rumbald, and he had spoken the truth for once--it +was not the King only who would perish, but the Catholic heir also, and +then good-bye to all our hopes. Yet, I declare that even this did not +affect me so much as the thought that it was the man whom I had learned +to love that was in peril--to love, in spite of his selfishness and his +indolence and his sins. It was all but an intolerable thought to me that +that melancholy fiery man who had so scolded me--whom, to tell the +truth, I had scolded back--that this man might, even in imagination, be +mixed up with the horror of the firing of guns and the plunging of the +wounded horses--should himself be shot at and murdered, there in the +lonely Hertfordshire lane. + +At about three o'clock I could bear it no more. God knows how many +prayers I had said; for I think I prayed all the time, as even careless +men will do at such crises. There was the grim house behind me, the +leafless trees overhead, the lane stretching up northwards beyond the +gate. All was very silent, except for the barking of a dog now and +again. It was a very solitary place--the very place for a murder; there +were no meadows near us, where men might be working, but only the deep +woods. It was a clearish kind of day, with clouds in the west. + +At about three o'clock then I went to the stables to see my horse. These +were behind the house. There was no one about, and no other horse in the +stables but Rumbald's own black mare that had carried him yesterday. + +It came to me as I looked at my horse that no harm would be done if I +put the saddle on him. Rumbald would but think me a little foolish for +so confessing in action that I knew the King would not come; and for +myself it would be some relief to my feelings to know that if by any +mischance I did hear the sound of shots, I could at least ride up and do +my best, though I knew it would be too late. + +I saddled my horse then, and put on the bridle, as quickly as I could. +Then, again, I thought there would be no harm done if I led him out to +the gate and fastened him there. I looked out of the stable door, but +there was no one in sight. So I led my horse out, as quietly as I could, +yet openly, and brought him round past the front of the house and so +towards the gate. I thought nothing of my valise; for at that time I +intended no more than what I had said. I was uneasy, and had no +determined plans. I would tell Rumbald, if he came out, that I was but +holding myself ready to ride out if I were needed. + +Then, as I came past the front of the house, I heard, very distinctly in +the still air, the tramp of horses far away on the hill to the north; +and I knew enough of that sound to tell me that there were at least +eight or nine coming, and coming fast. + +Now it might have been the coach of anyone coming that way. The races +were at Newmarket, and plenty went to and fro, though it is true that +none had come this way all day. Yet at that sound my heart leapt up, +both in excitement and terror. What if I had made any mistake, and +enticed the King to his death? Well, it would be my death too--but I +swear I did not think of that! All I know is that I broke into a run, +and the horse into a trot after me; and as I reached the gate heard +Rumbald run out of the house behind me. + +I paid him no attention at all, though I heard his breathing at my +shoulder. I was listening for the tramp and rattle of the hoofs again, +for the sound had died away in a hollow of the road I suppose. Then +again they rang out; and I thought they must be coming very near the +place he had told me of; and I turned and looked at him; but I think he +did not see me. He too was staring out, his face gone pale under its +ruddiness, listening for what very well might be the end of all his +hopes. + +Then the distant hoofs grew muffled once more, though not altogether; +and, at that, Rumbald ran out into the road as he was, bareheaded; and I +saw that he carried a cleaver in his hand, caught up, I suppose, at +random; for it was of no use to him. + +Then, loud and clear not a hundred yards away I heard the rattle and +roar of a coach coming down the hill and the tramp of the hoofs. + +"Back, you fool," I screamed, "back!" for I dared not pull my horse out +into the road. "Throw it away!" + +He turned on me with the face of a devil. Though he must have seen the +liveries and the guardsmen from where he stood, I think not even yet did +he take in how he had been deceived; but that he began to suspect it, I +have no doubt. + +He came back at my cry, as if unwillingly, and stood by my side; but +never a word did he say: and together we waited. + +Then, past the gate on the left, over the hedge, I caught a flash of +colour, and another, come and gone again; and then the gleam of a +coach-roof; and, though I had no certainty from my senses, I was as sure +it was the King, as if I had seen him. + +So we waited still. I drew up in my hands my horse's bridle, not knowing +what I did, and moved round to where I could mount, if there were any +road; and, as I did it, past the gate, full in view there swept at a +gallop, first three guards riding abreast, a brave blaze of colour in +the dusky lane; then the four grey horses, with their postilions +cracking their whips; then the coach; and, as this passed, as plain as a +picture I saw the King lean forward and look--his great hat and periwig +thrust forward--and behind him another man. Then the coach was gone; and +two more guards flew by and were gone too. + +I lost my head completely for the single time, I think, in all this +affair; now that I knew that the King was safe. There, standing where I +was, I lifted my hat, and shouted with my full voice: + +"God save the King!" + + * * * * * + +I turned as I shouted; and, as the last word left my lips, I saw +Rumbald, his face afire with anger, coming at me, round my horse from +behind, with the cleaver upraised. If he had not been near mad with +disappointment, he would have struck at my horse; but he was too intent +on me for that. + +I leapt forward, for I had no time to do anything else, dragging my +horse's haunches forward again and round; and with the next movement I +was across my saddle, all-asprawl, as my horse started and plunged. I +was ten yards away before the man could do anything, and struggling to +my seat; but, as I rose and gripped the reins, something flew over my +head, scarce missing it by six inches; and I saw the blade of the +cleaver flash into the ditch beyond. + +At that, I turned and lifted my hat, reining in my horse; for I was as +mad with success as the other man with failure. + +"God save the King!" I cried again. "Ah! Mr. Rumbald, if only you had +learned to speak the truth!" + +Then I put in my spurs and was gone, hearing before me, the hollow tramp +and rumble of the great coach in front, as the King's party went across +the bridge. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + + +It was three months later that I sat once more, though not for the first +time since my adventure at the Rye in Mr. Chiffinch's parlour. + + * * * * * + +Of those three months I need not say very much; especially of the +beginning of them, since I received then, I think, more compliments than +ever in my life before. My interviews had been very many; not with Mr. +Chiffinch only, but with two other personages whose lives, they were +pleased to say, I had saved. + +His Majesty had laughed very heartily indeed at the tale of my +adventures. + +"Odds-fish!" said he. "We had all been done, but for you, Mr. Mallock. +It was three or four days after, at the least, that I had intended +returning; and by that time, no doubt, our friends would have had their +ambushment complete. But when your man came, all a-sweat, into my very +bed-chamber, telling me to fly for my life--well; there was no more to +be said. There was a fire too at my lodgings that same morning;--and +poor Sir Christopher's low ceilings all ruined with the smoke--but that +would not have brought me, though I suppose we must give out that it +did. No; Mr. Mallock, 'twas you, and no other. Odds-fish! I did not +think I had such an accomplished liar in my service!" + +His Royal Highness, too, was no less gracious; though he talked in a +very different fashion. + +To him there was no humour in the matter at all; 'twas all God's +Providence; and I am not sure but that he was not more right than his +brother; though indeed there are always two sides to a thing. His talk +was less of myself, and more of the interests I had served; and there +too he was right; for, as I have said, if there had been any mistake in +the matter, good-bye to Catholic hopes. + +My first interview with Mr. Chiffinch astonished me most. When he had +finished paying compliments, I began on business. + +"You will hardly catch Rumbald," said I, "unless you take him pretty +soon. He too will be off to Holland, I think." + +He shook his head, smiling. + +"I am sorry not to be able to give you vengeance for that +cleaver-throwing; but you must wait awhile." + +"Wait?" cried I. + +"What single name do you know besides that of Rumbald, which was +certainly involved in this affair? Why, Mr. Mallock, you yourself have +told me that he observed discretion so far; and did not name a single +man." + +"Well; there is Keeling," I said. + +"And what is Keeling?" he asked with some contempt. "A maltster, and a +carpenter: a fine bag of assassins! And how can you prove anything but +treasonable talk? Where were the 'swan-quills' and the 'sand and the +ink'? Did you set eyes on any of them?" + +I was silent. + +"No, no, Mr. Mallock; we must wait awhile. I have even talked to +Jeffreys, and he says the same. We must lime more birds before we pull +our twig down. Now, if you could lay your hand on Keeling!" + +He was right: I saw that well enough. + +"And meantime," said I, smiling, "I must go in peril of my life. They +surely know now what part I have played?" + +"They must be fools if they do not. But there will be no more +cleaver-throwing for the present, if you take but reasonable care. +Meanwhile, you may go to Hare Street, if you will; though I cannot say I +should advise it. And I will look for Keeling." + + * * * * * + +Well; I did not take his advice. That was too much to expect. I went to +Hare Street in April and remained there a couple of months; but I do not +propose to discourse on that beyond saying that I was very well +satisfied, and even with Cousin Tom himself, who appeared to me more +resigned to have me as a son-in-law. To neither of them could I say a +word of what had passed, except to tell Dolly that my peril was over for +the present, and to thank her for her prayers. During those two months I +had no word of Rumbald at all; and I suspect that he lay very quiet, +knowing, after all, how little I knew. If he went to Holland, he +certainly came back again. Then, in June, once more a man came from Mr. +Chiffinch, to call me to town. So here I sat once more, with the birds +singing their vespers, in the Privy Garden, a hundred yards away, and +the river flowing without the windows, as if no blood had ever flowed +with it. + +"Well," said Chiffinch, when I was down in a chair, "the first news is +that we have found Keeling. You were right, or very nearly. He is a +joiner, and lives in the City. He hath been to the Secretary of the +Council, and will go to him again to-morrow." + +"How was that done?" I asked. + +"Why, I sent a couple of men to him," said the page, "when we had marked +him down; who so worked on his fears that he went straight to my Lord +Dartmouth; and my Lord Dartmouth carried him to Sir Leoline Jenkins. The +Secretary very properly remarked that he was but one witness; and +Keeling went away again, to see if he can find another. Well; the tale +is that he hath found another--his own brother--and that both will go +again to the Secretary to-morrow. So I thought it best that you should +see him first here, to-night, to identify him for certain." + +"That is very good," I said. "But, Mr. Chaffinch, if I appear too +publicly in this matter, I shall be of very little service to the King +hereafter." + +"I know that very well," said the page. "And you shall not appear +publicly at all, neither shall your name. Indeed, the King hath a little +more business for you at last, in France; and you will wish perhaps to +go to Rome. So the best thing that you can do, when we have seen that +all is in order, is to wait no longer, but be off, and for a good while +too. Your life may be in some peril for the very particular part that +you played, for though we shall catch, I think, all the principal men +in the affair, we shall not catch all the underlings; and even a joiner +or a scavenger for that matter, if he be angry enough, is enough to let +the life out of a man. And we cannot spare you yet, Mr. Mallock." + +This seemed to me both reasonable and thoughtful; and it was not +altogether a surprise to me. Indeed I had prepared Dolly for a long +absence, thinking that I might go to Rome again, as I had not been there +for a long while. Besides, waiting in England for the time laid down by +Tom and agreed to by both of us, would make that time come no swifter; +and, if there were work to be done, I had best do it, before I had a +wife to engage my attention. + +But I sighed a little. + +"Well," said I; "and where is Keeling?" + +"I have been expecting him this last ten minutes," said he. + +Even as he spoke, a knock came upon the door. The page cried to come in; +and there entered, first a servant holding the door, and then the little +joiner himself, flushed in his face, I supposed with the excitement. He +was dressed in his Sunday clothes, rather ill-fitting. He did not know +me, I think, for he made no movement of surprise. I caught Mr. +Chiffinch's look of inquiry, and nodded very slightly. + +"Well, sir," began the page in a very severe tone, "so you have made up +your mind to evade the charge of misprision of treason--that, at the +least!" + +"Yes, sir," said the man in a very timid way. (He must have heard that +phrase pretty often lately.) + +"Well; and you have found your other witness?" + +"Yes, sir; my own brother, sir." + +"Ah! Was he too in this detestable affair?" + +"No, sir." + +"Well, then; how do you bring him in?" + +"Sir," said the man, seeming to recover himself a little, "I put my +brother in a secret place; and then caused him to overhear a +conversation between myself and another." + +"Very pretty! very pretty!" cried the page. "And who was this other?" + +"Sir; it was a Mr. Goodenough--under-sheriff once of--" + +I could not restrain a start; for I had not thought Mr. Goodenough, the +friend of my Lord Essex, to be so deep in the affair as this. Keeling +saw me start, I suppose; for he looked at me, and himself showed sudden +agitation. + +"Good evening, Keeling," said I. "We have had a little conversation once +before." + +"Oh! for God's sake, gentlemen! for God's sake! I am already within an +inch of my life." + +"I know you are," said Mr. Chiffinch severely, "and you will be nearer +even than that, if you do not speak the whole truth." + +"Sir; it is not that I mean," cried the man, in a very panic of terror. +"Rumbald hath been--" + +"Eh? What is that?" said Mr. Chiffinch. + +"Rumbald, sir, the old Colonel, of the Rye--" + +"God, man! We know all about Rumbald," said the page contemptuously. +"What hath he been at now?" + +"Sir; he and some of the others caught me but yesterday. They had heard +some tale of my having been to Mr. Secretary, and--" + +"And you swore you had not, I suppose," snarled the other. + +"Sir; what could I do? Rumbald was all for despatching me then and +there. They caught me at Wapping. I prayed them for God's love not to +believe such things: I entreated: I wept--" + +"I'll be bound you did," said Mr. Chiffinch. "Well? And what then?" + +"Sir! they let me go again." + +"They did? The damned fools!" cried Chiffinch. + +I was astonished at his vehemence. But, like his master, if there was +one thing that the page could not bear, it was a fool. I made him a +little sign. + +"Keeling," said I, "you remember me well enough. Well; I need not say +that we know pretty near everything that there is to know. But we must +have it from you, too. Tell us both now, as near as you can recollect, +every name to which you can speak with certainty. Remember, we want no +lies. We had enough of them a while back in another plot." (I could not +resist that; though Mr. Chiffinch snapped his lips together.) "Well, +now, take your time. No, do not speak. Consider yourself carefully." + +It was, indeed, a miserable sight to see this poor wretch so hemmed in. +The sweet evening light fell full upon his terrified eyes and his +working lips, as he sought to gather up the names. He was persuaded, I +am sure, that we were as gods, knowing all things--above all, he feared +myself, as I could see, having met me first at the very house of +Rumbald, as if I were his friend, and now again in the chamber of his +accuser. It was piteous to see how he sought to be very exact in his +memories, and not go by a hair's breadth beyond the truth. + +At last I let him speak. + +"Now then," I said, "tell us the names." (I saw as I spoke that Mr. +Chiffinch held a note-book below the table to take them down.) + +"Sir, these for certain. Rumbald; West; Rumsey--" + +"Slowly, man, slowly," I cried. + +"Rumsey; Goodenough; Burton; Thompson; Barber--those last three all of +Wapping, sir. Then, sir, there is Wade, Nelthrop, West, Walcot--" he +hesitated. + +"Well, sir," demanded Mr. Chiffinch very fiercely. "That is not all." + +"No, sir, no no.... There is Hone, a joiner like myself." + +"Man," cried the page, "we want better names than snivelling tradesmen +like yourself." + +The fellow turned even paler. + +"Well, sir; but how can I tell that--" + +"Sir," said the page to me sharply, "call the guard!" + +"Sir," cried the poor wretch, "I will tell all; indeed I will tell." + +"Well?" + +"Sir, the Duke of Monmouth was in it--at least we heard so. He was +certainly in the former plot!" + +"And what was that?" asked the other very quietly. + +"Why, sir; the plot to assault Whitehall; it is all one in reality; +but--" + +"We know all about that," snapped the page sharply. "Well; and what +other names?" + +"Sir; there was my Lord Russell." + +I moved in my chair. Even to this day I cannot believe that that peer +was guilty; though indeed he was found so to be. Mr. Chiffinch cast me a +look. + +"Proceed, sir," he said. + +"And there was Mr. Ferguson, a minister; and Mr. Wildman; and my Lord +Argyle in Scotland; and my Lord Howard of Escrick; and Mr. Sidney; and +my Lord Essex. I do not say, sir, that all those--" + +"There! there: go on. We shall test every word you say; you may depend +upon it. What other names have you?" + +"There was my Lord Grey, sir; and Sir Thomas Armstrong ... Sir; I can +remember no more!" + +"And a pretty load on any man's conscience!" cried the virtuous Mr. +Chiffinch. "And so all this nest of assassins--" + +"Sir; I did not say that. I said--" + +"That is enough; we want no comments and glosses, but the bare truth. +Well, Keeling, if this tale be true, you have saved your own life--that +is, if your fellow murderers do not get at you again. You have been in +trouble before, I hear, too." + +"Sir; it was on the matter of the Lord Mayor--" + +"I know that well enough. Well, sir; so this is the tale you will tell +to-morrow to Mr. Secretary." + +"Yes, sir, if I can remember it all." + +"You will remember it, I'll warrant. Well, sir; I think I have no more +questions for the present. Sir, have you any questions to ask this man?" + +I shook my head. I was near sick at the torture the man was in. + +"Well, sir; you may go," said the page. "And I would recommend you and +your brother to lie very private to-night. There must be no more +evasion." + + * * * * * + +When he was gone, Mr. Chiffinch turned to me. + +"Well?" he said. "What do you think?" + +"Oh! I think he speaks the truth, in the main," I said wearily. "Shall I +be needed any more; or when may I leave town?" + +"You must wait, Mr. Mallock, until we have laid hands on them." + + * * * * * + +It was not until the middle of July that I was able to leave. On the +eighteenth of June a proclamation was issued, with the names of some of +the conspirators; and numerous arrests were made. One matter pleased me +a little, and that was that Keeling had been man enough after all, to +warn some of the humbler folk, who had been led into the affair, of what +he had done; and the most of these got clean away. Then Sheppard came +forward and betrayed three or four who had met in his house, as I had +seen for myself: and West added many details. A second proclamation +containing the names, and offering rewards for the arrest of Monmouth, +my Lord Grey, Sir Thomas Armstrong and the Reverend Robert Ferguson, was +made after my Lord Russell's arrest; but all four of them escaped. My +Lords Howard and Essex were taken on the tenth of July; and two days +later Walcot, Hone and Rouse were convicted. + +As soon as my Lord Russell's trial was begun, and the certainty that he +would be convicted was made plain by my Lord Howard turning King's +evidence, I left London with my man James. And before we were at Dover +the news came to us that my Lord Essex, in despair, had cut his throat +in the Tower. As for myself, I was glad enough to leave; for I was both +sick and weary of intrigue. It would be of a very different sort in +France; and of a kind that a gentleman may undertake without misgivings: +so, though I was loth to leave the land where Dolly was, the balance +altogether left me refreshed rather than saddened. + + * * * * * + +It was a clear day as the packet put out from Dover; and, as I stood on +deck, watching the cliffs recede as we went, there came on me again that +same mood that had fallen on me as I went up the river so long ago from +Wapping. Once more it appeared to me as if I were in somewhat of a +dream. Those men I had left behind, awaiting trial and death; Mr. +Chiffinch; the King, the Court, even Dolly herself, appeared to have +something phantom-like about them. Once more the realities seemed to +close about me and envelop me--or rather that great Reality whom we name +God; and all else seemed but very little and trifling. + + + + +PART IV + + + + +CHAPTER I + + +Once more it was high summer, a year afterwards, as I rode in, still +with James, thank God! and three other men, over London Bridge. + + * * * * * + +My life abroad once more must remain undescribed. There is plenty of +reason against the telling of it; and nothing at all for it. One thing +only may I say, that I came last from Rome, having stayed over for the +Feast of the Apostles, and carried with me, though verbally only, some +very particular instructions for His Royal Highness the Duke of York +from personages whom he should respect, if he did not. And what those +counsels were will appear in the proper place. By those same personages +I had been complimented very considerably, and urged to yet greater +efforts. Briefly with regard to the two Royal Brothers, I was urged to +press on the one, and to restrain the other; for I heard in Rome that it +was said that they would listen to me, if I observed discretion. + +As to what had passed in England, a very short account will suffice. + +First, with regard to the conspirators, a number had been executed, +among whom I suppose must be reckoned my Lord Russell--an upright man, I +think; yet one who had at least played with very hot fire. Frankly, I do +not believe that he aimed ever at the King's life, but that my Lord +Howard witnessed that he did, in order to save himself. Of the others +that were executed, I think all deserved it; and the principal, I +suppose, was Mr. Sidney, that ancient Republican and Commonwealth man, +who was undoubtedly guilty. Besides him, my Lord Essex had killed +himself in prison--for I never believed the ugly story of the bloody +razor having been thrown out of his window--and Sir Thomas Armstrong was +executed--and richly he had earned it by a thousand crimes and +debaucheries--and old Colonel Rumbald; whose fate, I must allow, caused +me a little sorrow (even though he had flung a sharp cleaver at my +head), for he was very much more of a man than that puling treacherous +hound my Lord Howard, who was taken hiding in his shirt, up his own +chimney, and turned traitor to his friends. Holloway too--a merchant of +Bristol, and a friend of Mr. Ferguson--was executed, and several in +Edinburgh, of the Scottish plotters under Argyle, among whom the +principal was Baillie of Jerviswood. The torture of the boot and the +thumbscrews was used there, I am sorry to say; for they had plenty of +evidence without it. Of the others some evaded altogether, of whom a +good number went to Holland, which was their great refuge at this time, +and others again saved their lives by turning King's evidence. The +Reverend Mr. Ferguson proved himself a clever fellow, as indeed I had +thought him, and a courageous one too, for after attending my Lord +Shaftesbury upon his deathbed, he returned again to Edinburgh, and +there, upon search being made for him, hid himself in the very prison to +which they wished to consign him, and so escaped the death he had +earned. + +With regard to the Duke of Monmouth, affairs had taken a very strange +course; and His Majesty, as I think, had behaved with less than his +usual wisdom. Before even Mr. Sidney's death, the Duke had made his +peace, both with the King and the Duke of York, and had, after +expressing extraordinary contrition, and yet denying that he had been in +any way privy to any attempt on the King's life, received a pardon. But +he had not been content with that; and so soon as the _Gazette_ +announced that it was so, and had given men to understand that Monmouth +had made his peace by turning King's evidence, what must His Grace do, +but deny it again, and cause it to be denied too in all the +coffee-houses in town? The King was thrown into a passion by this; and +once again His Grace had to sign and read aloud a paper, in the presence +of witnesses and of the King, in the private parlour of the Duchess of +Portsmouth's lodgings--(where, it must be confessed, His Majesty did +much of his business at this time). But the paper was not explicit +enough, and must be re-written: and so the foolish shilly-shally went +on--and he guilty all the time--and at last he evaded them all, and went +back again to Holland. + +There was another piece of news that had come to me lately that pleased +me better; and that was of the trial of Oates, for treasonous speaking, +and his condemnation in one hundred thousand pounds, which caused him to +be shut up in prison without more ado, where he could do no more +mischief. Indeed his credit was all gone now, thank God! and all that he +had to do in prison was to prepare himself for his whippings which he +got a year later. A few months earlier too, the four Popish lords that +had been left in the Tower were released again, which I was very glad to +hear of. + +Other matters too had passed; but I think I have said enough to shew how +affairs stood in the month of July when I came back to England--with the +exception of what I shall relate presently as of my own experience. + + * * * * * + +The evening was as bright and fair as that on which I had come back to +London near two years and a half ago, with so heavy a heart, to find +Dolly at Court; but this time the heaviness was all gone. I had had +letters from her continually, and all those I carried with me. She told +me that her father seemed a little moody, now and again; but I did not +care very greatly about that. He could be as moody as he liked, if he +but let her and me alone. It was less than a year now from my +twenty-eighth birthday, which was the period that had been fixed. + +Now a piece of news had reached me at Dover that made me pretty content; +and that was that His Majesty desired me to have lodgings now in +Whitehall. These were very hard to come by, except a man had great +influence; and I was happy to think that such as I had was from the King +himself. So I did not return northwards this time from the Strand, but +held on, and so to the gate of Whitehall. Here I was stopped and asked +my name. + +I gave it; and the officer saluted me very civilly. + +"Your lodgings are ready, sir," said he. "Mr. Chiffinch was very urgent +about them. And he bade me tell you you would find visitors there, if +you came before eight o'clock." + +It was now scarcely gone seven; but I thought very little of my +visitors, supposing they might perhaps be Mr. Chiffinch himself and a +friend: so I inquired very, leisurely where the lodgings were situate. + +"They are my Lord Peterborough's old lodgings, sir," said the man. "He +hath moved elsewhere. They look out upon the Privy Garden and the +bowling-green; or, to be more close, on the trees between them." + +This was a fine piece of news indeed; for these lodgings were among the +best. I was indeed become a person of importance. + +There were two entrances to these lodgings--one from the Stone Gallery, +and the other from the garden; but that into the garden was only a +little door, whose use was not greatly encouraged, because of the +personages that walked there; so I went up the Stone Gallery, between +all the books and the cabinets, and so to my own door; with my James +behind me. My other men I bade follow when they had bestowed the horses +and found their own quarters. + +It was a fine entrance, with a new shield over the door; lately scraped +white, for the reception of my own arms. I knocked upon it, and a fellow +opened; and when I had told him my name, he let me through; and I went +upstairs to the parlour that looked over the garden; and there, to my +happiness were my visitors. For they were none other than my dear love +herself and her maid. + +I cannot tell what that was to me, to find her there.... The maid was +sent into the little writing-room, next door, into which my visitors +would usually be shewn; and we two sat down on the window-seat. Dolly +looked not a day older: she was in a fine dress. + +"See," she said, "you have caught me again at Court? Will you send me +away again this time?" + +She told me presently that she and her father were come up to town for a +few days; but must be gone again directly. They had written to Mr. +Chiffinch demanding news of me, and when should I be at liberty to come +to Hare Street; and he had told them that at anyrate not yet for a +while, and that they had best come and see me in my new lodgings. I was +sorry that he had said I could not go to Hare Street for the +present--though I had expected no less; but I soon forgot it again in +her dear presence. + +"You are a great man, now, I suppose," she said presently, "too great to +see to the pigs any longer. We have no such rooms as this at Hare +Street." + +They were indeed fine; and we went through them together. They were all +furnished from roof to floor; there were some good tapestries and +pictures; and the windows, as the officer had said, looked out for the +most part upon the trees beneath which so long ago I had watched ladies +walking. But I told her that I loved my panelled chamber at Hare Street, +and the little parlour, with the poor Knights of the Grail, who rode +there for ever and never attained their quest, more than all Whitehall. +Then I kissed her again, for perhaps the thirtieth time; and, as I was +doing so Cousin Tom came in. + +"Ah!" said he, "I have caught you then!" But he said it without much +merriment. + +If Dolly was no older, her father was. There were grey hairs in his +eyebrows, for that was all that I could see of his hair, since he wore a +periwig; and his face appeared a little blotchy. + +I met him however with cordiality, and congratulated him on his looks. +He sat down, and presently, to my astonishment, he too opened out upon +my prospects, though in a very different manner from Dolly. + +"You are a great man now," he said, "in these fine lodgings. I wonder +His Majesty hath not made you at least a knight." + +I was a little angry at his manner. He said it not pleasantly at all; +but as if he found fault. I determined I would not meet his ambitions at +all. + +"My dear Cousin," said I, "indeed I am not a knight; and have no hope of +being so. His Majesty hath a thousand men more competent than I." + +"Then why hath he given you these lodgings?" said he, with a sharp look. + +I shrugged my shoulders. + +"I am of some convenience to His Majesty; and the more so if I am near +him. I suppose that these lodgings fell vacant in the nick of time." + +He looked at me very earnestly. He had, of course, no idea of in what +matters I was engaged: I might have been a mere valet for all he knew. + +"That is so?" he said. + +"I have no reason to think otherwise," I answered him. + + * * * * * + +Well; it was growing late; and I had not supped, as Dolly presently +remembered; it was near eight o'clock, and after that time there would +be formalities at the gate as they went out. So they took their leave at +last; and I kissed Dolly for the thirty-first time, and went downstairs +with them, and watched them down the gallery; they having promised to +come again next day. + + * * * * * + +I had scarcely done supper and looked about me a little, when Mr. +Chiffinch's name was brought to me; and I went to see him in the little +parlour and bring him through to what would be my private closet--so +great was I become! He looked older; and I told him so. + +"Well; so I am," said he. "And so are we all. You will be astonished +when you see His Majesty." + +"Is he so much older?" I asked. + +"He has aged five years in one," said he. + +We talked presently (after looking through my lodgings again, to see if +all were as it should be, and after my thanking Mr. Chiffinch for the +pains he had put himself to), first of France and then of Rome. He +shewed himself very astute when we spoke of Rome. + +"I do not wish to pry," he said, "but I hope to God's sake that the Holy +Father hath given you a commission to His Royal Highness, to bid him +hold himself more quiet. He will ruin all, if he be not careful." + +"Why; how is that?" said I. + +"Ah! you ecclesiastics," he cried--"for I count you half an one at +least, in spite of your pretty cousin--you are more close than any of +us! Well; I will tell you as if you did not know." + +He put his fingers together, in his old manner. + +"First," said he, "he is Lord High Admiral again. I count that very +rash. We are Protestants, we English, you know; and we like not a Papist +to be our guard-in-chief." + +"You will have to put up with a Papist as a King, some day," said I. + +"Why I suppose so--though I would not have been so sure two years ago. +But a King is another matter from an High Admiral." + +"Well; what else has he done?" I asked. + +"He hath been readmitted to the Council, in the very face of the Test +Act too. But it is how he bears himself and speaks that is the worst of +all. He carries himself and his religion as openly as he can; and does +all that is in His power to relieve the Papists of disabilities. That is +very courageous, I know; but it is not very shrewd. God knows where he +will stop if once he is on the throne. I think he will not be there +long." + +I said nothing; for indeed my instructions were on those very points; +and I knew them all as well as Chiffinch, and, I think, better. + +He spoke, presently, of myself. + +"As for you, Mr. Mallock, I need not tell you how high you are in favour +here. _Si monumentum requiris, circumspice_"; and he waved his hands at +the rich rooms. + +"His Majesty is very good," I said. + +"His Majesty hath a peerage for you, if you want it. He said he had made +too many grocers and lickspittles into knights, to make you one." + +I cannot deny that to hear that news pleased me. Yet even then I +hesitated. + +"Mr. Chiffinch," said I at last, "if you mean what you say, I have +something to answer to that." + +"Well?" said he. + +"Let me have one year more of obscurity. I may be able to do much more +that way. In one year from now I shall be married, as I told you. Well, +when I have a wife she must come to town, and make acquaintances; and +so I shall be known in any case. Let me have it then, if I want it--as a +wedding gift; so that she shall come as My Lady. And I will do what I +can then, in His Majesty's service, more publicly." + +"What if His Majesty is dead before that?" said he, regarding me +closely. + +"Then we will go without," said I. + +He nodded; and said no more. + + * * * * * + +It was strange to lie down that night in a great room, with four posts +and all their hangings about me, with my Lord Peterborough's arms +emblazoned on the ceiling; and to know that it was indeed I, Roger +Mallock, who lay there, with a man within call; and a coronet, if I +would have it, within reach. It was not till then, I think, that I +understood how swift had been my rise; for here was I, but just +twenty-seven years old, and in England but the better part of six years. +Yet, even then, more than half my thoughts were of Dolly, and of how she +would look in a peeress' robes. I even determined what my title should +be--taken from my French estates in the village of Malmaison, in +Normandy, so foolish and trifling are a man's thoughts at such a time. +One thing, however, I resolved; and that was to say nothing at all of +all this either to Dolly or her father. It should be a wedding gift to +the one, and a consolation to the other; for dearly would my Cousin Tom +love to speak of his son-in-law the Viscount, or even the plain Lord +Malmaison. As for His Majesty's death before another year, I thought +nothing of that; for what young man of twenty-seven years of age thinks +ever that anyone will die? Even should he die too--which I prayed God +might not be yet!--there was His Royal Highness to follow; and I had +served him, all things considered, pretty near as well as his brother. + +So, then, I lay in thought, hearing a fountain play somewhere without my +windows, and the rustle of the wind in the limes that stood along the +Privy Garden. I heard midnight strike from the Clock-Tower at the +further end of the palace, before I slept; and presently after the cry +of the watchman that "all was well, and a fair night." + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +It was not until the third day after my coming to town that I had +audience of the Duke--in the evening after supper, having bidden +good-bye that morning, with a very heavy heart, to my cousins, at +Aldgate, whither I had escorted them. I had promised Dolly I would come +when I could; but God knew when that would be! + +Even by then, I think, I had become accustomed to my new surroundings. I +had made no friends indeed, for that was expressly contrary to my +desires, since a man on secret service must be very slow to do so; but I +had made a number of acquaintances even in that short time, and had +renewed some others. I had had a word or two with Sir George Jeffreys, +now a long time Lord Chief Justice, in Scroggs' old place; and found him +a very brilliant kind of man, of an extraordinary handsomeness, and no +less extraordinary power--not at all brutal in manner, as I had thought, +but liker to a very bright sword, at once sharp and heavy: and sharp and +heavy indeed men found him when they looked at him from the dock. It was +in Mr. Chiffinch's closet that I was made known to him. I had spoken too +with my Lord Halifax--another brilliant fellow, very satirical and +witty, for which the King loved him, though all the world guessed, and +the King, I think knew, that his opposition to our cause was so hot as +even to keep him in correspondence with the Duke of Monmouth, safe away +in Holland. At least that was the talk in the coffee-houses. He, like +the Lord Keeper North, hated a Papist like the Devil, and all his ways +and wishes. He said of my Lord Rochester, now made president of the +Council--a post of immense dignity and no power at all--that "he was +kicked upstairs," which was a very precise description of the matter. + + * * * * * + +I was taken straight through into the Duke's private closet, where he +awaited me; and, by the rarest chance His Majesty was just about to take +his leave, and they had me in before he was gone. + +I was very deeply shocked by His Majesty's appearance. He was standing +below a pair of candles when I came in, and his face was all in shadow; +but when, after I had saluted the two, he moved out presently, I could +see how fallen his face was, and how heavily lined. Since it was evening +too, and he had not shaved since morning I could see a little +frostiness, as it were, upon his chin. He dyed his eyebrows and +moustaches, I suppose, for these were as black as ever. His melancholy +eyes had a twinkle in them, as he looked at me. + +"Well," said he, "so here is our hero back again--come to pay his +respects to the rising sun, I suppose." (But he said it very pleasantly, +without any irony.) + +"Why, Sir," said I, "I have always understood that there is neither +rising nor setting with England's sun; but that it is always in +mid-heaven. The King never dies; and the King can do no wrong." + +(Such was the manner in which we spoke at Court in those days--very +foolish and bombastic, no doubt.) + +"Hark to that, brother," said the King; "there is a pretty compliment to +us both! It is to neither of us that Mr. Mallock is loyal; but to the +Crown only." + +"It is that which we all serve, Sir," said I; "even Your Majesty." + +The King smiled. + +"Well," he said, "I must be off while you two plot, I suppose. Come and +see me too, Mr. Mallock; when you have done all your duties." + +I took him to the door of the closet where the servants were waiting for +him; and even his gait seemed to me older. + +Now James had very little--(though no Stuart could have none)--of his +family's charm. He looked no older, no sharper and no lighter than a +year ago; and he had learned nothing from adversity, as I presently +understood. He very graciously made me sit down; but in even that the +condescension was evident--not as his brother did it. + +"You have been to Rome, again," he said pretty soon, when he had told +me how he did, and how the King was not so well as he had been. "And +what news do you bring with you?" + +I told him first of the Holy Father's health, and delivered a few +compliments from one or two of the Cardinals, and spoke of three or four +general matters of the Court there. He nodded and asked some questions; +but I could see that he was thinking of something else. + +"But you have more to say to me, have you not?" said he. "I had a letter +from the Cardinal Secretary--" he paused. + +"Yes, Sir," said I. "The Holy Father was graciously pleased to put me at +Your Royal Highness' disposal, if you should wish to know His Holiness' +mind on one or two affairs." + +I put it like this, as gently as I could; for indeed I had something +very like a scolding, in my pocket, for him. He saw through it, however, +for he lowered his eyelids a little sullenly as his way was, when he was +displeased. + +"Well; let us hear it," said he. "What have I done wrong now?" + +This would never do. His Royal Highness resembled a mule in this, at +least, that the harder he was pushed, the more he kicked and jibbed. He +must be drawn forward by some kind of a carrot, if he were to be moved. +I made haste to draw out my finest. + +"His Holiness is inexpressibly consoled," I said, "by Your Royal +Highness' zeal for religion, and courage too, in that course. He bade me +tell you that he could say his _Nunc Dimittis_, if he could but see such +zeal and obedience in the rest of Europe." + +The Duke smiled a little; and I could see that he was pleased. (It was +really necessary to speak to him in this manner; he would have resented +any such freedom or informality as I used towards the King.) + +"These are the sweets before the medicine," he said. "And now for the +draught." + +"Sir," I said, "there is no draught. There is but a word of warning His +Holiness--" + +"Well; call it what you will. What is it, Mr. Mallock?" + +I told him then, as gently as I could (interlarding all with a great +many compliments) that His Holiness was anxious that matters should not +go too fast; that there was still a great deal of disaffection in +England, and that, though the pendulum had swung it would surely swing +back again, though, please God! never so far as it had been; and that +meantime a great deal of caution should be used. For example, it was a +wonderful thing that His Royal Highness should be Lord High Admiral of +the Fleet again; but that great care should be observed lest the people +should be frightened that a Papist should have the guarding of them; or +again, that the Test Act should be set aside in His Royal Highness' +case, yet the exception should not be pressed too far. All this my Lord +Cardinal Howard had expressly told me; but there was one yet more +difficult matter to speak of; and this I reserved for the moment. + +"Well," said the Duke, when I had got so far, "I am obliged to His +Holiness for his solicitude; and I shall give the advice my closest +attention. Was there anything more, Mr. Mallock?" + +He had received it, I thought, with unusual humility; so I made haste to +bring out the last of what I had to say. + +"There is no more, Sir," I said, "in substance. There was only that His +Eminence thought perhaps that the extraordinary courage and fervour of +Your Royal Highness' Jesuit advisers led them to neglect discretion a +little." + +"Ah! His Eminence thought that, did he?" said James meditatively. + +His Eminence had said it a great deal more strongly than that; but I +dared not put it as he had. + +"Yes, Sir," I said. "They are largely under French influence; and French +circumstances are not at all as in England. The Society is a little apt +at present--" + +Then the Duke lost his self-command; and his heavy face lightened with a +kind of anger. + +"Mr. Mallock," he said, "you have said enough. I do not blame you at +all; but His Eminence (with all possible respect to him!) does not know +what he is talking about. These good Fathers have imperilled their lives +for England; if any have a right to speak, it is they; and I would +sooner listen to their counsel than to all the Cardinals in Christendom. +They know England, as Rome cannot; and, while I allow myself to be led +by the nose by no man living, I would sooner do what they advise than +what a Roman Cardinal advises. It is not by subtlety or plotting that +the Faith will be commended in this country; but by courageous action; +and since God has placed me here in the position that I hold, it is to +Him alone that I must answer. You can send that message back to Rome, +sir, as soon as you like." + +Now there was James, true to himself; and I could see that further words +would be wasted. I smoothed him down as well as I could; and I was happy +to see that it was not with myself that he was angry--(for he made that +very plain)--for that I still might hope he would listen to me later on. +But anything further at that time was useless; so I prepared to take my +leave; and he made no opposition. + +"Well, sir," he said, "you have given your message very well; and I +thank you for not wrapping it up. You have done very well in France, I +hear." + +"His Majesty hath been pleased to think so," I said. Then his face +lightened again. + +"Ah!" said he, "when the time comes, we shall shew Europe what England +can do. We shall astonish even Rome itself, I think. We have long been +without the light; but it is dawning once more, and when the sun is +indeed risen, as His Majesty said, men will be amazed at us. We shall +need no more help from France then. The whole land will be a garden of +the Lord." + +His face itself was alight with enthusiasm; and I wondered how, once +more in this man, as in many others, the Church shewed itself able to +inspire and warm, yet without that full moral conversion that she +desires. He was not yet by any means free from the sins of the flesh and +from pride--(which two things so commonly go together)--he could not be +released from these until humiliation should come on him--as it did, and +made him very like a Saint before the end. Meanwhile it was something to +thank God for that he should be so whole-hearted and zealous, even +though he lacked discretion. + +As I was going down the stairs whom should I run into, coming up, but +Father Huddleston, who stopped to speak with me. I did not know him very +well; though I had talked with him once or twice. He was the one priest +of English blood who was tolerated openly and legally in England, and +who had leave to wear his habit, for his saving of the King's life after +the battle of Worcester. + +"So you are home again, Mr. Mallock," he said in his cheery voice. + +I told him Yes; and that I was come for a good time. + +"And His Majesty?" he said. "Have you seen him? He is terribly aged, is +he not, this last year." + +This priest was a very pleasant-looking fellow, going on for sixty years +old, I would say; and, except for his dress, resembled some fine old +country-squire. He wore a great brown periwig that set off his rosy +face. He was not, I think, a very spiritual man, though good and +conscientious, and he meddled not at all with politics or even with +religion. He went his way, and let men alone, which, though not very +apostolic, is at least very prudent and peaceful. He was fond of country +sports, I had heard, and of the classics; and spent his time pretty +equally in them both. + +"Yes," said I; "the King is a year older since this time twelvemonth." + +He laughed loudly. + +"There speaks the courtier," he said. "And you come from the Duke?" + +I told him Yes. + +"And I go to him. Well; good day to you, Mr. Mallock." + + * * * * * + +It was very pleasant to me, this new air in which I lived. Here was I, +come from the Duke who had received me as never before, with a +deference--(if the Duke's behaviour to any man could be called +that)--such as he had never shewn me, being greeted too by this priest +who up to this time had never manifested much interest in me, going back +to my fine lodgings and my half-dozen servants. Indeed it was a great +change. As I went past the sentry a minute or two later, he saluted me, +and I returned it, feeling very happy that I was come to be of some +consideration at last, with do much more, too, in the background of +which others never dreamed. + + * * * * * + +I had my first audience of His Majesty a week later, and confirmed my +impressions of his ageing very rapidly. He received me with +extraordinary kindness; but, as to the first part of the interview, +since this concerned private affairs in France, I shall give no +description. It was the end only that was of general interest; and one +part of it very particular, since I was able to speak my mind to him +again. + +He was standing looking out of the window when he said his last word on +France, and kept silent a little. He stood as upright as ever, but there +was an air in him as if he felt the weight of his years, though they +were scarcely fifty-four in number. His hand nearest to me hung down +listlessly, with the lace over it. When he spoke, he put into words the +very thing that I was thinking. + +"I am getting an old man, Mr. Mallock," he said, suddenly turning on me; +"and I would that affairs were better settled than they are. They are +better than they were--I do not dispute that--but these endless little +matters distress me. Why cannot folk be at peace and charitable one with +another?" + +I said nothing; but I knew of what he was thinking. It was the old +business of religion which so much entered into everything and distorted +men's judgments: for he had just been speaking of His Grace of Monmouth. + +"Why cannot men serve God according to their own conscience?" he said, +"and leave others to do the same." + +"Sir," I said, "there is but one Church of God where men are at unity +with one another." + +He paid no attention to that; and his face suddenly contracted +strangely. + +"Did you hear any gossip--I mean about myself--after the death of the +Jesuit Fathers?" + +I told him No; for I had heard nothing of it at that time. + +He came and sat down, motioning me too to a seat; for I had stood up +when he did. + +"Well," he said, "it is certainly strange enough, and I should not have +believed it, if it had not happened to myself." + +Again he stopped with an odd look. + +"Well," he said, "here is the tale; and I will swear to it. You know how +unwilling I was to sign the death-warrants." + +"Yes, Sir; all the world knows that." + +"And all the world knows that I did it," he said with a vehement kind of +bitterness. "Yes; I did it, for there was no way out of it that I could +see. It was they or the Crown must go. But I never intended it; and I +swore I would not." + +"Yes, Sir," I said quietly, "you said so to me." + +"Did I? Well, I said so to many. I even swore that my right hand might +rot off if I did it." + +His heavy face was all working. I had seldom seen him so much moved. + +"Yes," he said, "that was what I swore. Well, Mr. Mallock, did you ever +hear what followed?" + +"No, Sir," I said again. + +"It was within that week, that when I awakened one morning I felt my +right hand to be all stiff. I thought nothing of it at the first; I +believed I must have strained it at tennis. Well; that day I said +nothing to anyone; but I rubbed some ointment on my hand that night." + +He stopped again, lifted his right hand a little and looked at it, as if +meditating on it. It was a square strong man's hand, but very well +shaped and very brown; it had a couple of great rings on the fingers. + +"Well," he said, "the next morning a sore had broken out on it; and I +sent for a physician. He told me it was nothing but a little humour in +the blood, and he bade me take care of my diet. I said nothing to anyone +else, and bade him not speak of it; and that night I put on some more +ointment; and the next morning another sore was broken out, between the +finger and the thumb, so that I could not hold a pen without pain; and +it was then, for the first time, that I remembered what I had sworn." + +He had his features under command again, but I could see, as he looked +at me, that his eyes were still full of emotion. + +"Well, Mr. Mallock; I was in a great way at that; but yet I dared tell +nobody. I wore my glove all day, so that no one should see my hand; and +that evening when I went in to see Her Majesty, what should I see +hanging up on the wall of the chamber but the pictures of the five men +whose warrants I had signed!" + +Once more he stopped. + +Now I remembered that I had heard a little gossip as to the King's hand +about that time; but it had been so little that I had thought nothing of +it. It was very strange to hear it all now from himself. + +"Well, sir," he said, "I am not ashamed to say what I did. I kissed +their pictures one by one, and I begged them to intercede for me. The +next morning, Mr. Mallock, the sores were healed up; and, the morning +after, the stiffness was all gone." + +I said nothing; for what could I say? It is true enough that many might +say that it had all fallen out so, by chance, that it was no more than a +strain at tennis, or a humour in the blood, as the physician had +thought. But I did not think so, nor, I think, would many Catholics. + +"You say nothing, Mr. Mallock," said the King. + +"What is there to say, Sir?" asked I. + +"What indeed?" he cried, again with the greatest emotion. "There is +nothing at all to say. The facts are as I have said." + +Then there came upon me once more that passionate desire to see this +strange and restless soul at peace. Of those who have never received the +gift of faith I say nothing: God will be their Judge, and, I doubt not, +their Saviour if they have but been faithful to what they know; but for +those who have received the knowledge of the truth and have drawn back +from it I have always feared very greatly. Now that His Majesty had +received this light long before this time, I had never had any doubt; +indeed it had been reported, though I knew falsely, that he had +submitted to the Church and been taken into her Communion while he was +yet a young man in France. Yet here he was still, holding back from what +he knew to be true--and growing old too, as he had said. All this went +through my mind; but before I could speak he was up again. + +"An instant, Mr. Mallock," he said, as I rose up with him; and he turned +swiftly towards the door that was behind him, and was out through it, +leaving it open behind him. From where I stood I could see what he did. +There was a great press in the little chamber next door, and he flung +the doors of this open so that I could see him pull forward his +strong-box that lay within. This he opened with a key that he carried +hung on a chain, and fumbled in it a minute or two, drawing out at last +a paper; and so, bearing this, and leaving the strong-box open just as +it was, he came back to me. + +"Look at that, Mr. Mallock," said he. + +It was a sheet of paper, written very closely in His Majesty's own hand, +and was headed in capital letters. + +Then there followed a set of reasons, all numbered, shewing that the +Holy Roman Church was none other than the very Church of Christ outside +of which there is no salvation. (It was made public later, as all the +world knows, so I need not set it out here in full.) + +"There, sir," he said when I had done reading it. "What do you think of +that?" + +I shall never forget how he looked, when I lifted my eyes and regarded +him. He was standing by the window, with the light on his face, and +there was an extraordinary earnestness and purpose in his features. It +was near incredible that this could be the man whom I had seen so +careless with his ladies--so light and indolent. But there are many +sides to every man, as I have learned in a very long life. + +"Sir," I cried, "what am I to say? There is nothing that I can add. This +is Your Majesty's own conscience, written out in ink." (I tapped the +paper with my finger, still holding it.) + +"Eh?" said he. + +"And by conscience God judges us all," I cried. Again I stared into his +eyes, and he into mine. + +"Your Majesty will have to answer to this," said I, "on Judgment Day." + +I could say no more, so great was my emotion; and, as I hesitated a +change went over his face. His brows came down as if he were angry, but +his lips twitched a little as if in humour. + +"There! there!" he said. "Give me the paper, Mr. Mallock." + +I gave it back to him; and he stood running his eyes down it. + +"Why, this is damned good!" he murmured. "I should have made a +theologian." + +And with that I knew that his mood was changed again, and that I could +say no more. + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +I do not know which is the more strange that, when a great time of trial +approaches a man, either he has some kind of a premonition that trouble +is coming upon him, or that he has not. Certainly it is strange enough +that some sense, of which we know nothing, should scent danger when +there are no outward signs that any is near; but it appears even more +strange to me that the storm should break all of a sudden without any +cloud in the sky to shew its coming. It was the latter case with me; and +the storm came upon me as I shall now relate. + + * * * * * + +It was now for the first time that I began to see something of the way +the Court lived--I mean as one who was himself a part of it. I had +looked on it before rather as a spectator at a show, observing the +pageants pass before me, but myself, from the nature of my employment, +taking no part in it from within. + +A great deal that I saw was very dreadful and unchristian. Many of the +persons resembled hogs and monkeys more than human beings; and a great +deal of what passed for wit and merriment was nothing other than pure +evil. Virtue was very little reckoned of; or, rather reckoned only as +giving additional zest to its own corruption. I do not mean that there +were no virtuous people at all--(there were virtuous people in Sodom and +Gomorrah themselves)--but they were unusual, and were looked upon as a +little freakish or mad. Yet, for all that, side by side with the evil, +there went on a great deal of seemliness and religion: sermons were +preached before the Court every Sunday; and His Majesty, who by his own +life was greatly responsible for the wickedness around him, went to +morning-prayers at least three or four times in the week; though I +cannot say that his behaviour there accorded very well with the business +he was engaged upon. Some blamed the Bishops and other ministers for +their laxity and the flattery that they shewed to His Majesty: but I do +not think that charge is a fair one; for they were very bold indeed upon +occasion. Dr. Ken, who preached pretty often, was as outspoken as a +preacher well could be, denouncing the sins of the Court in unmeasured +language, even in His Majesty's presence: and a certain Bishop, whose +name I forget, observing on one occasion during sermon-time that the +King was fast asleep, turned and rebuked in a loud voice some other +gentleman who was asleep too. + +"You snore so loudly, sir," he cried, "that you will awake His Majesty, +if you do not have a care." + +I went sometimes to the chapel, with the crowd, to hear the anthem, as +the custom was; for the music was extraordinary good, and no expense +spared; and I heard there some very fine motets, the most of which were +adapted from the old Catholic music and set to new words taken from the +Protestant Scripture. + + * * * * * + +I went one night in August to the Duke's Theatre, as it was called, to +see a play of Sir Charles Sedley, called _The Mulberry Garden_. + +This extraordinary man, with whom I had already talked on more than one +occasion, was, according to one account, the loosest man that ever +lived; and indeed the tales related of him are such that I could not +even hint at them in such a work as this. But he was now about +forty-five years old; and a thought steadier. It chanced that he and my +Lord Dorset--(who was of the same reputation, but had fought too both by +land and sea)--were present with ladies, of whom the Duchess of +Cleveland was one, in one of the boxes that looked upon the stage; and I +was astonished at the behaviour of them all. Sedley himself, who +appeared pretty drunk, was the noisiest person in the house; he laughed +loudly at any of his own lines that took his fancy, and conversed +equally loudly with his friends when they did not. As for the play it +was of a very poor kind, and gave me no pleasure at all; for there was +but one subject in it from beginning to end, and that was the passion +which the author would call love. There were lines too in it of the +greatest coarseness, and at these he laughed the loudest. He had a sharp +bold face, of an extraordinary insolence; and he appeared to take the +highest delight in the theme of his play--(which he had written for the +King's Theatre a good while before)--and which concerned nothing else +but the love-adventures of two maids that had an over-youthful fop for a +father. + +When the play was over, and I going out to my little coach that I used, +I found that the Duchess of Cleveland's coach stopped the way, in spite +of the others waiting behind, and Her Grace not come. However there was +nothing to be done: and I waited. Presently out they came, Sedley +leading the way with great solemnity, who knocked against me as I stood +there, and asked what the devil I did in his road. + +I saluted them as ironically as I could; and begged his pardon. + +"I had no idea, Sir Charles," said I, "that the theatre and street were +yours as well as the play." + +He looked at me as if he could not believe his ears; but my Lord Dorset +who was just behind came up and took him by the arm. + +"He is right," he said. "Mr. Mallock is quite right. Beg his pardon, I +tell you." + +"Why the devil--" began Sir Charles again, still not recognizing me. + +My Lord clapped him sharply on his hat, driving it over his eyes. + +"He is blind now, Mr. Mallock," he said, "in every sense. You would not +be angry with a blind man!" + +When Sir Charles had got his hat straight again he was now angry with my +Lord Dorset, and very friendly and apologetic to myself, whom I suppose +he had remembered by now; so the two drove away presently, after the +ladies, still disputing loudly. But I think my Lord's behaviour shewed +me more than ever that I was become a person of some consequence. Yet +this kind of manners, in the midst of the crowd, though it commended +gentlemen as well known as were those two--to the ruder elements among +the spectators, who laughed and shouted--did a great deal of harm in +those days to the Court and the King, among the more serious and sober +persons of the country; and it is these who, in the long run, always +have the ordering of things. God knows I would not live in a puritanical +country if I could help it; yet decent breeding is surely due from +gentlemen. + + * * * * * + +A week or two later I was at a _levée_ in Her Majesty's apartments; and +had a clearer sight than ever of the relations between the King and +Queen. + +Now His Majesty had behaved himself very ill to the Queen; he had +flaunted his mistresses everywhere, and had even compelled her to +receive them; he had neglected her very grossly; yet I must say in his +defence that there was one line he would not pass: he would not on any +account listen to those advisers of his who from time to time had urged +him to put her away by divorce, and marry a Protestant who might bear +him children. Even my Lord Bishop of Salisbury, Dr. Burnet, had, +thirteen or fourteen years ago given as his opinion that a barren wife +might be divorced, and even that polygamy was not contrary to the New +Testament! This, however, Charles had flatly refused to countenance; +and, when he thought of it, now and again, shewed her a sort of +compassionate kindness, in spite of his distaste for her company. Yet +his very compassionateness proved his distaste. + +It was on occasion of a reception by Her Majesty of some Moorish +deputation or embassage from Tangier, that I was present in her +apartments; and it was immediately after this, too--(so that I have good +cause to remember it)--that the first completely unexpected reverse came +to my fortunes. + +I arrived at Her Majesty's lodgings about nine o'clock in the evening; +and was pleased to see that the Yeomen of the Guard lined the staircase +up to the great gallery. This was an honour which the Queen did not very +often enjoy; and very fine they looked in their scarlet and gold, with +their halberds, all the way up from the bottom to the top. + +The Great Gallery, when I came into it, was tolerably full of people, +of whom I spoke to a good number, among whom again were Sir Charles +Sedley and my Lord Dorset, as usual inseparable. But I was very much +astonished at the manner in which the Moors were treated, for they were +seated on couches, on one side of the state under which Her Majesty sat, +as if they were some kind of raree-show, set there to be looked at. They +were extraordinary rich and barbaric in their appearance; and when I had +kissed Her Majesty's hand, I too went and looked with the rest of the +crowd who jostled all together to stare at them. They were in very +gorgeous silks, and wore turbans; and their jewels were beyond anything +that I had ever seen--great uncut emeralds, and red stones of which I +did not know the name, and ropes of pearls. The folks about me bore +themselves with an amazing insolence, regarding them as if they had been +monsters, and freely making comments on them which their interpreter, at +least, must have understood. The Moors themselves behaved with great +dignity; and it was impossible not to reflect that these shewed a far +higher degree of dignity and civilization than did my own countrymen. +They were very dark-skinned, and three or four of them of a wonderful +handsomeness. They sat there almost in silence, looking gravely at the +crowd, and observing, I thought, with surprise the bare shoulders and +bosoms of the ladies who stared and screamed as much as any. It appeared +to me that these poor Moors, too, thought that the civilization lay +principally upon their own side. I presently felt ashamed of myself for +looking at them; and turned away. + + * * * * * + +The gallery and the antechambers had some fine furniture in them, pushed +against the walls that the crowd might circulate; but all was not near +so fine as the Duchess of Portsmouth's apartments, nor even as the +King's. The cressets, I saw, most of them, were of brass, not silver; +the brocades, which were Portuguese, were a little faded here and there; +and there was not near the show of gold and silver plate that I had +expected. But of all the sights there, I think Her Majesty was the most +melancholy. She was dressed very splendid; and her skirt was so stiff +with bullion that it scarce fell in folds at all. Her pearls were +magnificent, but too many of them; for her _coiffure_ was full of them. +She resembled, to my mind, a sorrowful child dressed up for a play. Her +complexion was very dark and faded, though her features were +well-formed, all except her mouth. She was a little like a very pretty +monkey, if such a thing can be conceived. She sat under her state, with +an empty chair beside her--very upright, with the Countess of Suffolk +and her other ladies round about her and behind her. She appeared +altogether ill at ease, and eyed continually down the length of the +gallery along which His Majesty would come, if indeed he came at all; +for he had a way of sending a sudden message that he could not; and all +the world knew where he would be instead. + +To-night, however, he kept his word and came. + +I was in one of the antechambers at the time, talking to a couple of +gentlemen and to one of the Queen's Portuguese chaplains who knew a +little Italian, when I heard the music playing, and ran out in time to +see him go past from the way that led from his own lodgings. He seemed +in a very merry mood this evening, and was smiling as he walked, very +fast, as usual. He was in a dark yellow and gold brocade that set off +the darkness of his complexion wonderful well, and a dark brown periwig +with his hat upon it; and he wore his Garter and Star. The crowd closed +in behind his gentlemen so that I could not get near him; and when I +came up he was on his chair by Her Majesty, and she smiling and +tremulous with happiness, and the Moors coming up one by one to kiss his +hand. + +I could not hear very well what the interpreter was saying, when all +this was done; but I heard him speak of a gift of thirty ostriches that +this Moorish mission had brought as a gift to him. + +His Majesty laughed loud when he heard that. + +"I can send nothing more proper back again," said he, "than a flock of +geese. I have enough and to spare of them." + +Then, when all about were laughing, he turned very solemn. "You had best +not tell them that," he said; "or they might take some of my friends +away with them in mistake." + +(This was pretty fooling; but it scarce struck me as suited to the +dignity of the occasion.) + +Presently the interpreter was saying how consumed with loyal envy were +these Moors at all the splendour that they saw about them. + +"It is better to be envied than pitied," observed His Majesty, with a +very serious look. + + * * * * * + +At first be bore himself with extraordinary geniality this evening. He +had been drinking a little, I think, yet not at all to excess, for this +he never did, though he had no objection to others doing so in his +company. There was related of him, I remember, how the Lord Mayor once, +after a City Banquet, pressed His Majesty very unduly to remain a little +longer after he had risen up to go. His Majesty was already at the door +when the Mayor did this, even venturing--(for he was pretty far gone in +wine)--to lay his fingers on the King's arm. + +His Majesty looked at him for an instant, and then burst out laughing. + +"Ah well!" he said, quoting the old song, "'He that is drunk is as great +as a King.'" + +And he went back and drank another bottle. + + * * * * * + +He was in that merry kind of mood, then, this evening: but such moods +have their reactions; and half an hour later he was beginning first to +yawn behind his hand and then to wear a heavy look on his face. Her +Majesty observed it, too, as I could see: for she fell silent (which was +the worst thing in the world to do), and began to eye him sidelong with +a kind of dismay. (It was wonderful how little knowledge she had of how +to manage him; and how she shewed to all present what she was feeling.) + +Presently he was paying no more attention to her at all, but was leaning +back in his chair, listening to my Lord Dorset who was talking in his +ear; and nodding and smiling rather heavily sometimes. I felt very sorry +for the Queen; but I had best have been feeling sorry for myself, for it +was now, that, all unknown to me, a design was maturing against me, +though not from my Lord Dorset. + +As I was about to turn away, to go once more through the rooms before +taking my leave, I observed Mr. Chiffinch coming through very fast from +the direction of the King's apartments, as if he had some message. He +did not observe me, as I was within the crowd; but I saw him go up, +threading his way as well as he could, and touching one or two to make +them move out of his way, straight up to the King's side of the state. I +thought he would pause then; but he did not. He put his hand on my Lord +Dorset's shoulder from behind, and made him give way; and then he took +his place and began to whisper to His Majesty. I saw His Majesty frown +once or twice, as if he were displeased, and then glance quickly up at +the faces before him, and down again, as if he looked to see if someone +were there. But I did not know that it was for me that he looked. Then +the King nodded thrice, sharply--Mr. Chiffinch whispering all the +while--and then he leaned over and whispered to the Queen. Then both of +them stood up, the King looking heavier than ever, and the Queen very +near fit to cry, and both came down front the dais together, all the +company saluting them and making way. And so they went down the gallery +together. + +I was still staring after him, wondering what was the matter, when I +felt myself touched, and turned to find Mr. Chiffinch at my elbow. He +looked very serious. + +"Come this way, sir," said he. "I must speak with you instantly." + +I went after him, down the gallery; and he led me into the little empty +chamber where I had been talking with the priest half an hour ago. He +closed the door carefully behind him; and turned to me again. + +"Mr. Mallock," he said, "I have very serious news for you." + +"Yes," said I, never dreaming what the matter was. + +"It touches yourself very closely," he said, searching my face with his +eyes. + +"Well; what is it?" asked I--my heart beginning to beat a little. + +"Mr. Mallock," he said, very gravely, "there is an order for your +arrest. If you will come back with me quietly to my lodgings we can +effect all that is necessary without scandal." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +I said never a word as we went back, first downstairs between the +Yeomen, then to the right, and so round through the little familiar +passage and up the stairs. I could hear the tramp of guards behind, and +knew that they had followed us from the Queen's lodgings and would be at +the doors after we were within. I was completely stunned, except, I +think, for a little glimmer of sense still left which told me that the +least said in any public place, the better. Mr. Chiffinch, too, I could +see very well, was as bewildered as myself--for, so far as I was +concerned, there was not yet the faintest suspicion in my mind as to +what was the matter. At least, I told myself, my conscience was clear. + +So soon as we were within the closet, the page, having again shut the +door carefully behind me came forward to where I stood. + +"Sit down, Mr. Mallock," said he, in a low voice, but very kindly. + +I could see that his face was very pale and that he seemed greatly +agitated. When I was seated, he sat himself down at his table a little +way off. + +"This is a terrible affair," he said, "and I do not know--" + +"For God's sake," I whispered suddenly, "tell me what I am charged +with." + +He looked up at me sharply. + +"You do not know, Mr. Mallock?" + +"Before God," I said, "I have no more idea what the pother is about +than--" + +"Well, shortly," he said, "it is treason." + +"Treason! Why--" + +He leaned forward and took up a pen, to play with as be talked. + +"I will tell you the whole thing from the beginning," he said. "You +must have patience. An hour ago a clerk came to me here from the Board +of the Green Cloth to tell me that the magistrates desired my presence +there immediately on a matter of the highest importance. I went there +directly and found three or four of them there, with Sir George Jeffreys +whom they had sent for, it seemed, as they did not know what course to +pursue, and had thought perhaps that I might throw some light upon it. +They were very grave indeed, and presently mentioned your name, saying +that a charge had been laid against you before one of the Westminster +magistrates, of having been privy to the Ryehouse Plot." + +"Why--" cried I, with sudden relief. + +He held up his hand. + +"Wait," he said, "I too laughed when I heard that; and gave them to +understand on what side you had been throughout that matter, and how you +had been in His Majesty's service and that I myself was privy to every +detail of the affair. They looked more easy at that; and I thought that +all was over. But they asked me to look at papers they had of yours--" + +"Papers! Of mine!" I cried. + +"Yes, Mr. Mallock. Papers of yours. I will tell you presently how they +came by them. Well; there were about a dozen, I suppose, altogether; and +some of them I knew all about, and said so. These were notes and reports +that you had shewed to me: and there were three or four more which, +though I had not seen them I could answer for. But there was one, Mr. +Mallock, that I could not understand at all." + +He paused and looked at me; and I could see that he was uneasy. + +Now it may appear incredible; but even then I could not think of what +paper he meant. To the best of my belief I had shewn him everything that +I thought to be of the least importance--notes and reports, as he had +said, such as was that which I had made in the wherry on my way up from +Wapping one night. + +I shook my head. + +"I do not know what you mean," I said. "Where did they get the papers +from?" + +"Think again, Mr. Mallock. I said it was on a charge of treason just +now. Well: I will say now that it may be no more than misprision of +treason." + +Still I had no suspicion. I was thinking still, I suppose, of my +lodgings here in Whitehall and of a few papers I had there. + +"You must tell me," I said. + +"Mr. Mallock," he said, "this paper I speak of was in cypher. It +contained--" + +"Lord!" I cried. "Cousin Tom!--" + +Then I bit my lip; but it was too late. + +"Yes," said the other, very gravely. "I can see that you remember. It +was your cousin who brought them up from Hare Street. He found them all +in a little hiding-hole: and conceived it to be his duty--" + +"His duty!" I cried. "Good God! why--" + +Then again I checked myself. + +"Mr. Chiffinch," said I, "I remember the paper perfectly: at least I +remember that I had it, though I have never read it or thought anything +of it." + +"It is in very easy cypher, sir," said he, with some severity. + +"Well; it was too hard for me," I said. + +"Then why did you not shew it to me?" he asked. + +"Lord! man," I said, "I tell you it was gone clean from my memory. I got +it from Rumbald a great while ago--a year or two at the least before the +Plot. It was on my mind to send it to you; but I did not. I had no idea +that it was of the least importance." + +"A letter, in cypher, and from Rumbald! And you thought it of no +importance--even though the names of my Lord Shaftesbury and half a +dozen others are written in full!" + +"I tell you I forgot it," I said sullenly, for I had not looked for +suspicion from this man. + +He still looked at me, as if searching my face: and I suppose that I +presented the very picture of an unmasked villain; for the whole affair +was so surprising and unexpected that I was completely taken aback. + +"Well," he said, "if you had but shewn me that paper, we could have +forestalled the whole affair." + +"What was in it?" I asked, striving to control myself. + +"You tell me you do not know?" he asked. + +Then indeed I lost control of myself. I stood up. + +"Mr. Chiffinch," I said, "I see that you do not believe a word that I +say. It will be best if you take me straight to those who have authority +to question me." + +He did not move. + +"You had best sit down again, Mr. Mallock. I do not say that I do not +believe you. But I will allow that I do not know what to think. You are +a very shrewd man, sir; and it truly is beyond my understanding that you +should have forgotten so completely this most vital matter. I wish to be +your friend; but I confess I do not understand. Oh! sit down, man!" he +cried suddenly. "Do not playact with me. Just answer my questions." + +I sat down again. I saw that he was sincere and that indeed he was +puzzled; and my anger went. + +"Well," I said, "I suppose it may be difficult. Let me tell you the +whole affair." + +So I told him. I related the whole of my adventure in the inn, and how I +got the paper, and tried to read it, and could not: then, how I took it +to Hare Street and put it where he had described: then how I very nearly +had asked a Jesuit priest if he had any skill in cypher; and then how, +once more, it had all slipped my mind, and that, a long time having +elapsed, even when Rumbald became prominent again, even then I had not +remembered it. + +"That is absolutely the whole tale," I said; "and I know no more than +the dead what it is all about. What is it all about, Mr. Chiffinch?" + +He drew a breath and then expelled it again, and, at the same time stood +up, withdrawing his eyes from my face. I think it was then for the first +time that he put away his doubts; for I had got my wits back again and +could talk reasonably. + +"Well," he said, "we had best be off at once, and see what they say." + +"Where to?" asked I. + +"Why to His Majesty's lodgings," he said. "I fetched him out to tell +him. Did you not see me?" + +"His Majesty!" I cried. + +"Why yes; I thought it best. Else it would have meant your arrest, Mr. +Mallock." + + * * * * * + +I must confess that my uneasiness came back--(which had left me just +now)--as I went with the page to the King's lodgings, more especially +when I saw again how the guards fell in behind us and followed us every +step of the way. It was very well to say that I "should have been +arrested" if such and such a thing had not happened: the truth was, I +was already under arrest, as I should soon have found if I had attempted +to run away. It seemed to me somewhat portentous too that His Majesty +was so ready to see us, instead of mocking at the whole tale at once. + +Mr. Chiffinch said nothing to me as we went. I think he himself was +fully convinced of my innocence--at least of any deliberate +treachery--but not so convinced that others would be; and that he was +considering how he should put my case. It was a sad humiliation for +me--this trudging along like a schoolboy going to be whipped, with a +couple of guards following to see that I did not evade it. + +We went straight upstairs, through the antechamber, and to the door of +the private closet. I heard voices talking there--one of which cried to +come in as the page knocked. Then we entered. + +I had thought to find His Majesty alone, or very nearly so; and I was +astonished and disconcerted at the number of persons that were there. +The King himself was seated beyond his great table, with the rest +standing about him, five in number. On his right was Sir George Jeffreys +in his rich suit, just as he had come from some entertainment, his +handsome face flushed with wine, yet none the less full of wit and +attention. The officer of the Green Cloth was on the other side--(it was +this gentleman's business to deal with all cases, within his +jurisdiction, that took their rise in Whitehall itself); and a couple of +magistrates beside him, with neither of whom I had any acquaintance. An +officer, whose face again was new to me--named Colonel Hoskyns--a +truculent-looking fellow, in the dress of His Majesty's Lifeguards, +stood very upright beside Sir George Jeffreys, with his hat in his hand. +A sheaf of papers lay before the King on the table. + +I was even more disconcerted to see how His Majesty looked. An hour or +two ago he had been smiling and gracious: now he wore a very stern look +on his face; he made no sign of recognition as I came in after Mr. +Chiffinch, but, so soon as the door was shut, spoke immediately to the +page. + +"Well?" he said. "What have you got from him?" + +Chiffinch advanced a step nearer, glancing at the faces that all looked +on him. + +"Sir," he said, "I am convinced there has been nothing more than an +indiscretion--" + +Then the King shewed how angry he was. He threw himself back in his +chair. + +"Bah!" he cried--"an indiscretion indeed! With his guilt staring him +in the face!" + +There was a murmur from the others: and Colonel Hoskyns gave me a look +of very high disdain, as if I had been a toad or a serpent. For myself I +said nothing: I remained with my eyes down. Once or twice before I had +seen His Majesty in this very mood. For the most part he was the least +suspicious man I had ever encountered; but once his suspicion was awake +there was none harder to persuade. So he had been with His Grace of +Monmouth on two or three occasions; so, it appeared, he was to be with +me now. + +"Sir," said Mr. Chiffinch again, "I have examined Mr. Mallock very +closely: but I have told him very little. Will Your Majesty allow him +to hear what the case is against him?" + +The King, who was frowning and pursing his lips, raised his eyes; and +immediately I dropped my own. He was in a black mood indeed, and all the +blacker for his past kindness to me. + +"Tell him, Hoskyns," he said; and then, before the Colonel could speak +he addressed me directly. + +"Mr. Mallock," he said sharply, "I will tell you plainly why I have you +here, and why you are not in ward. You have been of service to me; I do +not deny that. And I have never known you yet to betray your trust. +Well, then, I do not wish to disgrace you publicly without allowing you +an opportunity of speaking and clearing yourself if that is possible. I +tell you frankly, I do not think you will. I see no loophole anywhere. +But--well there it is. Tell him, Hoskyns." + +I will not deny that I was terrified. This was so wholly unlike all I +had ever known of His Majesty. What in the world could be the case +against me? (For I now saw that Mr. Chiffinch had not told me the whole, +but only a part of the charge.) I fixed my eyes upon Mr. Hoskyns for +whom I had conceived, so soon as I had set eyes on him, an extreme +repulsion. + +He made a kind of apologetic cringing movement towards the papers. The +King made no movement, but rested heavily in his chair, with his hat +forward, his elbows on the arms of his chair and his fingers knit +beneath his chin. The Colonel took the papers up, shuffled them for a +minute, and then began. There was an extraordinary malice in his manner +which I could not understand. + +"The charge against the--the gentleman--whose name, I understand, is +Roger Mallock, consists of two distinct points: + +"The first is that he has received and concealed a paper, containing an +account of a debate held between certain of His Majesty's enemies, five +years ago, in November of sixteen hundred and seventy-nine, with the +list of the persons present and the votes that they gave as regards +compassing the King's death. The first point to which Mr. Mallock has to +answer is, How he came to be in possession of this paper at all?" + +I made a movement to speak, as his voice ceased; but the King held up +his hand. Then, as if by an afterthought he dropped it again. + +"Well; speak if you like--point by point. But I would recommend you to +hear it all first." + +"Sir," I said, "I have no reserves, and nothing to conceal. I will +answer point by point if Your Majesty will give me leave." + +He said nothing. I turned back to the other. + +"Well, sir," I said, "I had that paper from one Rumbald, in a private +parlour in the _Mitre_ inn, without Aldgate. He gave it me with some +others, and forgot to ask for it again." + +No one moved a finger or a feature, except the Colonel, who glanced at +me, and then down again. + +"The second point is, Why Mr. Mallock did not hand over the paper to the +proper authorities." Again he paused. + +"It was in cypher," said I, "and I could not read it." + +"Then why did you preserve it so carefully, sir?" asked the Colonel +angrily, speaking direct to me for the first time. + +"I preserved it because it might be of interest, seeing from whom I +received it." + +"You preserved it then, because it might be of interest; and you did not +hand it over because it might not," sneered the Colonel. + +"Come! come!" said the King sharply. "We must have a better answer than +that, Mr. Mallock." + +Then my heart blazed at the injustice. + +"Sir," I said, "I am telling the naked truth. If I were a liar and a +knave I could make up a very plausible tale, no doubt. But I am not. The +naked truth is that I preserved the paper for what it might contain; and +then--" + +I paused then; for I saw plainly what a very poor defence I had. + +"And then--" sneered the Colonel softly. + +"If you must have the truth," I said, "I forgot all about it." + +Well; it was as I thought. Sir George Jeffreys threw back his head and +laughed aloud--(he was a man of extraordinary freedom with the King)--a +great grin appeared on the Colonel's face; and His Majesty, as I saw in +the shadow beneath his hat, smiled bitterly, showing his white teeth. +Even the magistrates chuckled together. + +"Ah, sir," said Jeffreys, "for a clever man that is truly a little dull. +You might have done better than that." + +Then desperation seized me; and I flung all prudence to the winds. + +"I thought you wanted the truth," said I. "I will lie if you drive me +much further. Go on, sir," I cried to Hoskyns. "Let us have the rest." + +The King stared at me, and his face was terrible. + +"A word more like that in my presence, sir--" + +"Sir," I cried, "I mean no disrespect. But I am hard put to it--" + +"You are indeed," said Jeffreys. "Go on, Colonel Hoskyns." + +The Colonel sniffled through his nose, lifting his papers once more. + +"The next main charge against Mr. Mallock is even more grave. It is to +the effect that when His Majesty and His Royal Highness were together at +Newmarket, Mr. Mallock, knowing that there was a plot against their +lives--of which the Rye was the centre--despatched a messenger to His +Majesty bidding him come immediately, by the road that leads past the +Rye, instead of directing him by Royston." + +At that monstrous charge my spirit almost went from me. That it should +be this thing, above all others that should be brought against me! I +glanced this way and that; and saw how even Chiffinch, who had fallen +back a little as I advanced, was looking askance at me! + +"That is perfectly true," I said. "What of it?" + +"Mr. Mallock does not seem to perceive," snarled the Colonel, "that the +fact itself is enough. It is true that no harm came of it; but Mr. +Mallock will scarcely deny that an armed man stood by him, waiting for +the coach." + +"Armed with a cleaver," said I, "which he presently flung at my head." + +"So Mr. Mallock says," observed the Colonel. + +"You say I am a liar?" I cried. + +The King struck suddenly upon the table. + +"Silence, sir!" he said. "Mr. Chiffinch, you told me before that you had +something to say. You had best say it now." + +I fell back, for I saw that my bolt was shot. If Chiffinch could not +save me, no man could. It was gone clean beyond mere misprision of +treason now: I saw that plain enough. + +Then Mr. Chiffinch began; and I am bound to say that he shewed himself a +better pleader than myself. I thanked God, as he spoke, that I had +treated him with patience just now in his lodgings. + +First, he remarked that I had been in His Majesty's service now for near +six years, and that in all that time I had proved myself loyal and +faithful. Then he proceeded to deal with the charges. + +First, he said that the very weakness of my excuse with regard to the +paper was my strength. If I were indeed the villain that I seemed, why +in God's name had I not destroyed the paper? I had had near five years +to do it in! Was not that an additional sign that I had, as I said, +merely forgotten it? (As be said this I marvelled that I had not thought +of that answer myself.) It was true that the paper was of the highest +importance, but, as my story stood, I had not known that. Should not my +word then be taken, considering all the other services I had done to His +Majesty? + +With regard to the second point, first let them divest their minds of +any prejudice caused by the first; for the first was not proved. Having +done that, it was necessary to remember how carefully I had reported +every movement of the King's enemies to himself--Mr. Chiffinch. It was +true that there had been found other papers in the hiding-hole which he +himself had not seen, but he had at least known the substance of +them--except of course of the cypher of which he had already treated. +With regard to the affair at the Rye it was necessary to remember that +my policy throughout had been to report all that I had learned and to +interpret it as directly contrary to the truth; and that this policy had +proved successful. (I saw the Colonel give a very odd look as this was +said; and I saw that Mr. Chiffinch had seen it too.) At the worst it had +been an error of judgment on my part that I had recommended the road by +the Rye; but it was an error that had had no bad consequences; and to +have recommended it was only in accordance with all my policy of taking +as true the precise opposite to all that the conspirators had told me. +So far as my policy was sound, all that I knew was that the Rye road +would be safe on that one day; of the Royston road I knew little or +nothing. As regards the incident of the cleaver, I had spoken of that to +him immediately I returned to town; and, surely, it was true that a +single man with a cleaver could do very little damage to a galloping +coach. In short, though the evidence might be interpreted as against +me--(here he shot a look at the Colonel)--it might also be interpreted +for me, and, that this was the fairer interpretation, he pleaded my +record of other services done to the King. + +When he ended, there was a dead silence; and I think I knew even at that +moment that the worst at any rate had been averted. But I was not sure: +and I waited. + + * * * * * + +Sir George Jeffreys was the first to move. He had remained motionless, +smiling a little, while the page had been speaking, watching him as a +man may watch an actor who pleases him. At the end, after a little +pause, he jerked his head a little, as if to throw off the situation. I +think he had had no malice to me, but had watched the whole affair as a +kind of sport, which was what he did upon the Bench too. He made a +movement as if to move away, but remembered where he was, and stood +still. + +The two magistrates began to move also; and one nodded at the other. + +Colonel Hoskyns shook his head sharply, and began to speak. + +"Sir-" he began in his harsh voice. + +The King held up his hand; and all was dead still again. + +It was strange to me to watch the King, or rather to shoot a glance at +him now and again; for I saw presently, in spite of the shadow of his +hat and his dusky face, that he was looking from one to the other of us, +as if appraising what had been said. I heard a fellow cough somewhere, +not in the chamber, and knew by that that it was the guards, most +likely, who were waiting for the verdict. Truly, during those moments +all my confidence left me again; for this was a mood of the King that I +never understood and had never seen so clearly as I saw it now. It was a +sort of heaviness of mind, I think, that fell on him sometimes and +obscured his clear wit, for to my mind nothing could be more plain than +Mr. Chiffinch's argument. Yet I depended now, not only for my liberty, +but for my very life, on the King's judgment. As a Catholic and a member +of the secret service I could look for no hope at all if I were sent for +trial. I looked at Mr. Ramsden, the Officer of the Green Cloth; for I +had scarcely noticed him before, so quiet was he. It was through his +hands first, I supposed, that the case would pass. He was still +motionless, looking down upon the table. + +Then the King spoke, not moving at all. + +"Go into the antechamber, Mr. Mallock," he said dully, "and wait there +till you be sent for." + + * * * * * + +I suppose that that waiting was the hardest I have ever done. Again my +suspense came down on me, and I had no idea as to which way the matter +would go. I sat very still there, hearing again one of the men hemming +without the door on the one side: and very low voices talking in the +chamber I had come from. + +Then all of a sudden the door opened sharply, and Mr. Chiffinch came +through. He smiled and nodded, though a little doubtfully, as he came +through; and my heart gave a great leap, for I knew that the worst +would not happen to me. + +He said nothing, but beckoned me to follow, and we went straight through +to where the guards wailed. + +"You can go," he said; "this gentleman is no longer under arrest." + +Still, all the way as we went, he said nothing; neither did I. He said +nothing at all till we were back again in his closet, and the door shut. +Then he faced me, smiling. + +"Well, Mr. Mallock," he said, "His Majesty has determined to do nothing. +You may even keep your lodgings for the present; but you will be +watched, I need not tell you, very closely indeed: and you must expect +no more employment for a while." + +"But--" + +"Wait," said he. "That black mood is on His Majesty; and you are very +fortunate indeed to have come out of it so well. It was a very clever +little design--" + +"Design!" cried I. + +"Why, of course," he said. "Did you not see that? I should have thought +anyone--" + +"Design," I said again. "Of whom? And why?" + +He smiled. + +"You are a very innocent young gentleman," he said, "in spite of your +dexterity. Of course it was a design; and it nearly deceived even +me--" + +"My Cousin Tom--" I began. + +"Your Cousin Tom is an ass," he said, "a malicious one, no doubt; but a +mere tool. I have no doubt he intended to injure you; but he could have +done nothing if he had not met with the right man. I have no doubt that +he came up with the papers, and gossiped in the coffee-houses till he +met other of your enemies: and they have done the rest. But it was +Colonel Hoskyns no doubt who manipulated the affair." + +"Colonel Hoskyns!" I said. "Why, I have never set eyes on the man +before." + +"I daresay not," said the page, still smiling. "But I have had his name +in my books for a great while." + +"Who is he?" I cried. "And what reason had he--" + +Mr. Chiffinch shook his head at me lamentably. + +"Why he is one of the party," he said, "though I can get no evidence +that would hang a cat. I have no doubt whatever that he has been in the +whole Shaftesbury affair from the beginning, and knows that they made +shipwreck principally upon yourself. It is sheer revenge now, no doubt; +for they cannot hope to make any further attempts upon His Majesty." + +"But he is in the Guards!" I said, all in amazement. + +The page shrugged his shoulders. + +"What would you have?" he said. "I can get no evidence, even to warn His +Majesty, though I have told him what I think. And, to tell the truth, I +believe His Majesty to be safe enough. But that does not hinder them +from wishing to have their revenge. Mr. Mallock--" + +"Yes," I said, still all bewildered. + +"I wonder what he will attempt next," said Mr. Chiffinch. + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +The dreariness of the time that followed is beyond my power of +description. I besought Mr. Chiffinch to let me go abroad again, but he +forbade me very emphatically; and I owed so much to him that I could not +find it in my heart to disobey. For so desperate was I, at the ruin of +all my hopes, that the thought even came to me that I would go back and +try to be a monk again; for how, thought I, can I keep my word even to +Dolly herself? Every prospect I had was ruined; my coronet was gone like +the dream which it had always been; I had failed lamentably and +hopelessly; and it was through her father's treachery and malice that +all had come about. This I felt in my heaviest moods; but Mr. Chiffinch +would hear none of it. He said that it was but a question of time, and +His Majesty would come round once more; that he would never be content +until I was reinstated; that he had not for an instant lost heart. +Besides, he said, I was of use in another way, and that was to make +Hoskyns disclose himself. Hoskyns would never rest, he said, till he had +made at least one more attempt upon me; and next time, he hoped, he +would catch him at it, and get rid of the fellow once and for all. + +Neither could I even go to Hare Street; for how could I live again even +for an hour in the house of my Cousin who had betrayed me? I could not +even tell Dolly all that had fallen; for I was as sure as of anything in +the world that her father would tell her nothing, and I did not have the +heart to disgrace him in her eyes. I but wrote to her that I was a +little out of favour with His Majesty at present, though I kept my +lodgings, and that I must not stir from Court till I had regained my +position. Meanwhile I reserved what I had to say to my Cousin Tom, until +I should meet with him alone. I had no doubt whatever that he had done +what he had, thinking to get rid of me as his daughter's lover. + +The time dragged then very heavily; for I did not care to go much into +the society of others, and had nowhere else to go, since I must not +leave Whitehall; for it soon became known that I was out of favour, +though I do not suppose that the reason was ever named. I spent my days +principally in my own lodgings, and did a good deal of private work for +Mr. Chiffinch, which occupied me. I went to the play sometimes, taking +my man James with me; and I rode out with him usually, down Chelsea way, +or to the north, coming back for dinner or supper. I never went alone, +by Mr. Chiffinch's urgent desire. + + * * * * * + +It was after Christmas that matters were brought to a head, and that the +last great adventures of my life came about that closed all that I +thought to be life at that time. Even now, so many years after, I can +scarce bear to write them down, though, as I look back upon them now, +there were at least two matters for which I should have thanked God even +then. I thank Him now. + + * * * * * + +It was on the last Thursday but one, in January, to be precise, that I +was coming back from a ride, having been down the river-bank past +Chelsea, where I had seen, I remember, Winchester House--that great +place with all its courts--and my Lord Bishop returning in his coach: I +do not remember anything else that I saw, for I was very heavy indeed +and more than ever determined that, if matters did not mend very soon, I +would be off to France (where, six months later, I should be obliged to +go in any case when my estates would come to me), if not to Rome. It was +near five months now that I had lived in disgrace, His Majesty not +speaking to me above three or four times all that while, and then only +to avoid incivility. + +I could not understand why it was that he behaved so to me. He must know +by now, surely, that I had never been anything but faithful to him; and +I strove to put away the thought that it was mere caprice, and that he +often behaved so to others. But I am afraid that such was the case. +There were plenty of folks at Court, or who had left it, who had once +been in high favour and had ceased to be, through no fault of their own. +Neither would I seek consolation from any other source. The Duke was +civil to me whenever we met, and I suppose he knew that I was in +trouble, but he never spoke of it. Indeed it was a sad change from the +time when I had returned so joyfully, and found my new lodgings waiting +for me. + + * * * * * + +As we came up through Westminster I was riding alone, for I had bidden +my man James to go aside to a little shop that was almost on our route, +behind the abbey, to buy me something that I needed--I think it was a +pair of cuffs; but I am not sure. It was very near dark, and the lamps +were not yet lighted. + +As I came towards the gate of Whitehall, I was riding very carelessly +and heavily, paying little attention to anything, for I was thinking, as +it happened, of Dolly, with an extraordinary misery in my heart, and of +how I should ever tell her (unless matters mended soon) of what her +father had done; and whether in some manner he would not yet contrive to +separate us. My horse swerved a little, and I pulled him up, for there +were a couple of fellows immediately crossing before me. I saw that they +looked hard at me; but I noticed no more, for at that instant I heard a +horse coming up behind me, and turned to see that it was James. He +looked a little strange, thought I, but he said nothing: only he came +up, right beside me, and so rode with me through the gate. + +He said nothing then, nor did I; and it was not until I was dismounted +and a fellow had run out to take the horses that he asked if he might +speak with me. + +"Why, certainly," said I; and we turned together into the Court. + +"Sir," he said, so soon as we were out of earshot of the guard, "did you +see those two fellows without the gate?" I said that I had. + +"Sir," he said, "they were following you all the way from Chelsea. I +saw them at Winchester House; and I have seen them before to-day, too." + +"Eh?" said I, a little startled. + +Then he told me he had seen them for the last fortnight, three or four +times at least, and that he was sure they were after some mischief. Once +before to-day too, as we were riding in Southwark, and he had delayed +for a stone in his horse's foot, he had seen them run out from behind a +wall, but that they had made off when they saw him coming. + +Now I knew very well what he meant. London was very far from being a +safe place in those days for a man that had enemies. There was scarcely +a week passed but there was some outrage, in broad daylight too, in less +populated parts, and in the various Fields, and after dark men were not +very safe in the City itself. + +A year ago I should have thought nothing of it; but I was down in the +world now, I knew very well, and I had enemies who would stick at +nothing. It was true that they had let me alone for a while--no doubt +lest any suspicion should attach to them--but the winter was on us now, +and the mornings and evenings were dark; and, too, a good deal of time +had elapsed. I remembered what Mr. Chiffinch had said to me at the +beginning of the trouble. + +"You did very well to tell me," I said. "Would you know them again if +you saw them?" + +"I think so, sir," he said. + +"Well," I said, "I have no doubt that they are after me. You will tell +my other men, will you not?" + +"I told them a week ago," he said. + +I said no more to him then; but instead of going immediately to my +lodgings, I went first to see Mr. Chiffinch, and found him just come in. +I told him very briefly what James had told me; but made no comment. He +whistled, and bade me sit down. + +"They are after you then," he said. "I thought they would be." + +"But who are they?" said I, a little peevishly. + +"If I knew their names," said the page, "I could put my hands on them +on some excuse or other. But I do not know. It is the dregs of the old +country-party no doubt." + +"And what good do they think to get out of me?" + +"Why, it is revenge no doubt," he said. "They know that you are down +with the king and have not many friends; and they suspect that you are +still in with the secret service, no doubt." + +"They are after my life, then?" I asked. + +"I should suppose so." + +He considered a minute or two in silence. At last he spoke again. + +"I will have a word with His Majesty. He is treating you shamefully, Mr. +Mallock; and I will tell him so. And I will take other measures also." + +I asked what those might be. + +"I will have my men to look out closely when you go about. You had best +not go alone at all. Within Whitehall you are safe enough; but I would +not go out except with a couple of men, if I were you." + +I told him I always took one, at least. + +"Well; I would take two," he observed. "There was that murder last week, +in Lincoln's Inn Fields--put down to the Mohocks. Well; it was a +gentleman of my own who was killed, though that is not known; and it was +no more Mohocks than it was you or I." + + * * * * * + +As we were still talking my man James came up to seek me, with a letter +that he had found in my lodgings, waiting for me. I knew the hand well +enough; and I suppose that I shewed it; for when I looked up from +reading it, Mr. Chiffinch was looking at me with a quizzical face. + +"That is good news, Mr. Mallock, is it not?" + +I could not refrain from smiling; for indeed it was as if the sun had +risen on my dreariness. + +"It is very good news," I said. "It is from my cousin--the 'pretty +cousin,' Mr. Chiffinch. She is come to town with her maid; and asks me +to sup with her." + +"Well; take your two men when you go to see her," said he, laughing a +little. "They can entertain the maid, and you the mistress." + + * * * * * + +I cannot say how wonderfully the whole aspect of the world was changed +to me, as I set out in a little hired coach I used sometimes, with my +two men, half an hour later, for my old lodgings in Covent Garden where, +she said, she had come that evening. It was a very short letter; but it +was very sweet to me. She said only that she could wait no more; that +she knew how ill things must be going with me, and that she must see +with her own eyes that I was not dead altogether. I had striven in my +letters to her to make as light as I could of my troubles; but I suppose +that her woman's wit and her love had pierced my poor disguises. At +least here she was. + + * * * * * + +She was standing, all ready to greet me, in that old parlour of mine +where I had first met her six years ago; and she was more beautiful now, +a thousand times, in my eyes, than even then. The candles were lighted +all round the walls, and the curtains across the windows; and her maid +was not there. She had already changed her riding dress, and was in her +evening gown with her string of little pearls. As I close my eyes now I +can see her still, as if she stood before me. Her lips were a little +parted, and her flushed cheeks and her bright eyes made all the room +heaven for me. I had not seen her for six months. + +"Well, Cousin Roger," she said--no more. + + * * * * * + +Presently, even before supper came in, she had begun her questioning. + +"Cousin Roger," she said--(we two were by the fire, she on a couch and I +in a great chair)--"Cousin Roger, you have treated me shamefully. You +have told me nothing, except that you were in trouble; and that I could +have guessed for myself. I am come to town for three days--no more: my +father for a long time forbade me even to do that. If he were not gone +to Stortford for the horse-fair I should not be here now." + +"He does not know you are come to town!" I cried. + +She shook her head, like a child, and her eyes twinkled with merriment. + +"He thinks I am still minding the sheep," she said. "But that is not the +point. Cousin Roger, I care nothing whatever for His Majesty's affairs, +nor for secret service, nor for anything else of that kind. But I care +very much that you should be in trouble and not tell me what it is." + +Now I had not had much time to think what I should say, if she +questioned me, as I knew she would; for it would not be an easy thing to +tell her that her father was at the root of my troubles and had behaved +like a treacherous hound. Yet sooner or later she must be told, unless I +lost heart altogether. I might soften it and soften it--pretend that her +father owed a greater duty to the King than to me, and must have thought +it right to do as he had done. But she would see through it all: that I +knew very well. + +"Dolly," said I, very slowly, "I have not told you yet, because there +was nothing in the world that you could do to help me. I have waited, +thinking that matters might come straight again; but they have not. I +will tell you, then, before you go home again. I promise you that. And +on my side I ask you not to question me this evening. Let us have this +one evening without any troubles at all." + +She looked at me very earnestly for a moment without speaking; and I +could see that her lightness of manner had been but put on to disguise +how anxious she was. It is wonderful how a woman--in spite of her +foolishness at other times--can read the heart of a man. I had said very +little to her in my letters; and yet I could see now how she had +suffered all the while. I had thought myself to have been alone in my +unhappiness; now I understood that never for an instant had I been so; +and my whole heart rose up in a kind of exultation and longing. Then she +swallowed down her anxiety. + +"I take you at your word, Cousin Roger," she said lightly. "I will ask +no question at all." + +Then Anne and my man James came in with the supper. + + * * * * * + +I think there is not one moment of that evening in my old lodgings that +I have forgotten. As now I look back upon it it seems to me to have that +kind of brightness which a garden has when a storm is coming up very +quickly, and the clouds are very black, and yet the shadow has not yet +reached it. I remember how the curtains hung across the windows; they +were my own old curtains of blue stuff, a little faded but still rich +and good; how the fire glowed in the wide chimney; how Dolly looked +across the table, in her blue sac, with lace, and her wide sleeves, and +her little pearls. She had dressed up, all for me, as indeed I had for +her, for I was in my maroon suit, with my silver-handled sword and my +black periwig. Ah! and above all I remember the very look in her eyes as +she suddenly clapped her hands together. (The servants were out of the +room at that instant.) + +"Cousin Roger!" she said, "I shall never keep my promise unless I am +distracted. We will go to the play: you and I and Anne, all together: +and your man James shall wait upon us with oranges." + +Well; she had said it; and I laughed at her merriment: she was so like a +child on her holiday, and a stolen holiday too. The ways of God are very +strange--that so much should hang upon so little! It was upon that +sudden thought of hers that the whole of my life turned; and hers too! +As it was, I said nothing but that it should be as she wished; and that +my coach should set us down there and come again when the play was over. +So the threads are caught up in those great unseen shuttles that are +guided by God's Hand, and the whole pattern changed, it would appear, by +a moment's whim. And yet I cannot doubt--for if I did, my whole faith +would be shattered--that even those whims are part of the Divine design, +and that all is done according to His Holy Will. + +The rest of supper was hastened, lest we should be late for the play; +and then, when James came up to tell us that the coach was +waiting--though it was scarcely a hundred yards to the King's +Theatre--and Dolly was gone for her hood and cloak, I stood, with a +glass of wine in my hand, on the hearth, looking down at the fire. + +Now I cannot tell how it was; but I suppose that the shadow that I spoke +of just now, began to touch that little garden of love in which I stood; +for a kind of melancholy came on me again. While she had been with cue, +it had all seemed gone; we had been as merry at supper as if nothing at +all were the matter; but now, even while she was in the next chamber +with her maid, I fell a-brooding once more. I thought--God knows +why!--of the little parlour at Hare Street which I had not seen for so +long, and of the fire that burned there, upon that hearth too--the +hearth on which I had stood in my foolish patronizing pride when I had +first asked her to be my wife and she had treated me as I deserved. I +did not think then of how we had sat there together afterwards so often; +and of the happiness I had had there, but only of that miserable +Christmas night when I thought I had lost her. The mood came on me +suddenly; and I was still brooding when she came in again, alone. She +was in her hood, and her face looked out of it like a flower. + +"Cousin Roger," she said, "I have never told you why I came up to-day." + +"My dear; you did," I said. "It was your father who--" + +"No; no; but this day in particular. Cousin Roger, the woman came again +last night." + +"The woman! What woman?" I asked. + +"Why--the tall old woman--to my chamber, up the stairs. You remember? +She came the night before you were sent for--why--six years ago." + +I stared on her; and a kind of horror came on me. + +"Ah! do not look like that," she said. "It is nothing." She smiled full +at me, putting her hand on my arm. + +"You saw her!" I said. + +"No; no. I heard her only. It was just as it was before. But I came up +to town to--to see if all were well with you. And it is: or will be. +Kiss me, Roger, before we go." + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +I cannot think without horror, even now, of that play we saw on that +night in the King's Theatre. It was Mrs. Aphra Behn's tragedy, called +_Abdelazar_, or _The Moor's Revenge_, and Mrs. Lee acted the principal +part of _Isabella_, the Spanish Queen. We sat in a little box next the +stage, which we had to ourselves; and in the box opposite was my Lord +the Earl of Bath with a couple of his ladies. He was a pompous-looking +fellow, and a hot Protestant, and he looked very disdainfully at the +company. In the box over him was Mistress Gwyn herself, and the people +cried at her good-humouredly when she came in, at which she bowed very +merrily as if she were royal, this way and that, so that the whole +play-house was full of laughter. It was turned very cold, with a frost, +and before the play was half done the whole house was in a steam under +the glass cupola. Folks were eating oranges everywhere in the higher +seats, and throwing the peel down upon the heads of the people below. +The stage was lighted, as always, with wax candles burning on cressets; +and the orange girls were standing in the front row of the pit with +their backs to the stage. + +Dolly, who was a little quiet at first, got very merry and excited +presently at all the good-humour, as well as at the actors. She had +thrown her hood back, so that her head came out of it very sweet and +pretty; and a spot of colour burned on each cheek. I saw her watching +Mistress Nell once or twice with a look of amazement--for she knew who +she was--for Nell, though she was not on the stage, bore herself as +though she were, and never ceased for an instant, though full of +merriment and good humour, to turn herself this way and that, and bow to +her friends, some of whom relished it very little; and to applaud very +heartily, and then, immediately to throw a great piece of orange peel at +Mr. Harris, who played the King. She had her boy with her--whom His +Majesty had made Duke of St. Albans--and two or three gentlemen whom I +did not know. + +Dolly whispered to me once, to know who the boy was. + +"That is her boy," I said. + +Dolly said nothing; but I understood the kind of terror that she had to +see them both there, so outrageous and bold; but she presently turned +back again to the stage to observe the play. + + * * * * * + +I said just now that the play which we saw has very dreadful memories +for me; but I do not know that more than once or twice at the time I had +any such feeling. There were some pretty passages in the play that +distracted me altogether, and a song or two, of which I remember very +well one sung by a _Nymph_, and answered by her swain with his +shepherds, of which the refrain was: + + _The Sun is up and will not stay;_ + _And oh! how very short's a lover's day!_ + +For the rest there was a quantity of bloodshed and intrigue and false +accusation, but I was surprised, considering the subject, how little was +against Popery; but Mrs. Behn was content at the end of it to make the +_Cardinal_ beg pardon of _King Philip_. + +For the most part then I attended to the action--(and to Dolly, of +course, all the while). Yet certainly there were other moments for me, +when the shadow came down again, and I saw the actors and the whole +house as if in a kind of bloody mist, though I had at that time no +reason for it at all, and do not think that I shewed any sign of it. Two +or three times before, as I have related, there came on me a strange +mood--once when I came up from Wapping, and once as I put out from Dover +in the packet. But it was not that kind of mood this time. Then it was +as if all the world of sense were but a very thin veil, and all that was +happening a kind of dream, or play. Now it was as if the play had a +shocking kind of reality, as if the audience and the actors were +monstrous devils in hell; and the paint on Mrs. Lee's cheeks her true +colour, and her gestures great symbols, and the noise of the people the +roar of hell. This came and went once or twice; and at the time I +thought it to be my own humour only; but now I know that it was +something other than this. When I looked at Dolly it went again in an +instant, and she and I seemed to me the heart of everything, and all +else but our circumstances and for our pleasure. + +Well; it ended at last, and there was a great deal of applauding, and +Mrs. Lee came on to the stage again to bow and smile. It was then, for +the third time, I think, that my horror fell on me. As I stared at her, +all else seemed to turn dim and vanish. She was in her costume with the +blood on her arm and breast, and her great billowy skirts about her, and +her stage-jewels, and she was smiling; and I, as I looked at her, seemed +to see the folly and the shame of her like fire; and yet that folly and +shame had a power that nothing else had. Her smile seemed to me like the +grin of a devil; and her colour to be daubs upon her bare cheek-bones, +and she herself like some rotten thing with a semblance of life that was +not life at all. I cannot put it into words at all: I know only that I +ceased applauding, and stared on her as if I were bewitched. + +Then I saw my dear love's fingers on my arm, and her face looking at me +as if she were frightened. + +"What is the matter, Cousin Roger?" she whispered; and then: "Come, +Cousin Roger; it is late." + +Then my mood passed, or I shook myself clear of it. + +"Yes; yes," I said. "It is nothing. Come, my dear." + + * * * * * + +The little passage by which we went out was crammed full of folk, +talking and whistling and laughing; some imitating the cries of the +actors, some, both men and women, looking about them freely with bold +eyes. I saw presently that Dolly did not like it, and that we should be +a great while getting out that way; and then I saw a little door beside +me that might very well lead out to the air. I pushed upon this, and saw +another little passage. + +"James," said I, for he was close behind me, "go out and bring the +coach round to this side if there is a way out." (And then to Dolly.) +"Come, sweetheart, we will find a way out here." + +I pushed my way behind a fellow who was just in front, and got through +the door, and Dolly and her maid followed me. + +It was a little passage with doors on the right which I think led to the +actors' rooms and the stage, for I heard talking and laughing behind; +but I made nothing of that, and we went on. As we went past one of the +doors it opened all of a sudden and Mrs. Lee herself came out, still in +her dress and her jewels, and her face all a-daub with paint, and the +blood on her arm and dress, and ran through another door further along, +leaving behind her a great whiff of coarse perfume. It was but for an +instant that we saw her; yet, even in that instant, a sort of horror +came on me again as if she were something monstrous and ominous, +though--poor woman!--I have never heard anything against her more than +was said at that time against all women that were actresses--all, that +is, except Mrs. Betterton. She appeared more dreadful even than in the +play, or than when she had spoken those terrible words as she sat in her +chair, all bloody, as she died--stabbed by the mock Friar: + + --_but 'tis too late-- + And Life and Love must yield to Death and Fate._ + +I looked at Dolly; but she was laughing, though with a kind of terror in +her eyes too at that sudden apparition. + +"Oh, Roger!" she said, "and now she will go and wash it all off, will +she not?" + +"Yes, yes," I said. "She will wash it all off." And I looked at her, and +made myself laugh too. She said nothing, but took my arm a little +closer. + + * * * * * + +I was right about the passage, that it led out to the air, yet not into +Little Russell Street, but to a little yard by which, I suppose, the +players came to their rooms. The frost had fallen very sharp while we +had been in the theatre; overhead the stars tingled as if they shook, +beyond the chimneys, and there were little pools of ice between the +stones. + +I stayed an instant when we came down the three steps that led into the +yard, to pull Dolly's hood more closely about her head, for it was +bitter cold, and to gather up my own cloak, and, as I did this, I saw +that three men had followed us out, and were coming down the steps +behind us. There was no one else in the yard. There was one little +oil-lamp burning near one of the two entrances to shew the players the +way, I suppose. + +Then, when I had arranged my cloak, I gave Dolly my arm once more, and, +as I did so, heard Anne, who was behind us, suddenly give a great +scream; and, at the sound, whisked about to see what was the matter. + +There was a man coming at me from behind with a dagger, and the two +other fellows were behind him. + + * * * * * + +Now I had not an instant in which to think what to do, though I knew +well enough what they were and whom they were after. What I did, I did, +I suppose, by a kind of instinct. I tore my arm free from Dolly's hand, +pushing her behind me with my left hand, and at the same time dashed my +cloak away as well as I could, to draw out my sword. The fellow was a +little on my right when I was so turned about, but appeared a little +confounded by my quickness, for he hesitated. + +"Back to the wall, Dolly!" I shouted. "Back to the wall"; and, at the +same time I began to back myself, with her still behind me, to the wall +that was opposite to the steps we had just come down. My cloak was sadly +in my way; but, as I reached the wall, still going backwards, I had my +sword out just in time to keep off, by a flourish of it, the fellow who +had recovered himself, and was coming at me again. + +So for a moment, we stood; and in that moment I heard Anne screaming +somewhere for help. + + * * * * * + +Then I saw how the two other men, at a swift sign from their leader, +spread out on this side and that, so as to come at me from three +directions together; and, at that saw that I must delay no longer. +Before, I think, they saw what I intended, I leapt forward at the fellow +in front, and lunged with all my force; and though he threw up his arms, +with the dagger in one of his bands, and tried to evade a parry all at +once, he was too late; my point went clean through his throat, and he +fell backwards with a dreadful cry. And, at the same moment his two +companions ran in on me from either side. + +Now I do not even now see what else I could have done. I felt sure that +one of them would have me, for I could not properly deal with them both; +but I turned and stabbed quickly, with a short arm, at the face of the +one on my right, missing him altogether, and, at the same time strove to +strike with my left elbow the face of the other. + +But, ah! Dolly was too quick for me. She must have run forward on my +left to keep the fellow off, for I heard a swift dreadful sound as I +shortened my right arm to stab at the other again; and I felt something +fall about my feet. + +I turned like a madman, screaming aloud with anger, careless of all +else, or of whether or no anyone ran at me again, for I knew, in part at +least what had happened; and, at the same moment the yard seemed all +alive with folks running and crying out. The door at the head of the +steps was open, and three or four players ran out and down; while from +Little Russell Street on the right, where the coaches were, a great +number ran in. + +But I cared nothing for that at that instant. I had flung away my sword +on to the stones and was stooping to pick up my dear love who had saved +my life. There was already a great puddle of blood, and I felt it run +hot over my left hand that was about her--hot, for it flowed straight +from her heart that had been stabbed through by the knife that was aimed +at me. + + * * * * * + +When I looked up again, I saw, standing against the light in the door +opposite, at the head of the steps, the woman that had played the Queen +with that mock-blood still on her arm and breast. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +"Mr. Mallock," said the page, "the King is heartily sorry, and wishes to +tell you so himself." + +I said nothing. + +Of all that happened, after Dolly's death in the theatre-yard, I think +now as of a kind of dream, though it changed my whole life and has made +me what I am. I have, too, scarcely the heart to write of it; and what I +say of it now is gathered partly from what I can remember and partly +from what other folks told me. + +It must have been a terrible sight that they all saw as they ran in from +the lane, my man James first among them all. There lay, bloodying all +the ice about him, the fellow whom I had run through the throat, as dead +as the rat he was, but still jerking blood from beneath his ear; and +there in my arms, as I kneeled on the stones, lay Dolly, her head fallen +back and out of her hood, as white as a lily, dead too in an instant, +for she was stabbed through her heart, with her life-blood in a great +smear down her side, and all over my hands and clothes. + +My man James proved again as faithful a friend as he had always been to +me; for the affair had been no fault of his: I had sent him for the +coach, and he was bringing it up to the yard-entrance from the lane, as +Anne had run out screaming. Then he had run in, and my other man with +him, and the crowd after him, in time to see the two living assassins +make off into the dark entrance on the other side. A number had run +after them, but to no purpose, for we never heard of them again; and my +Dolly's murderer, I suppose, is still breathing God's air, unless he has +been hanged long ago for some other crime. + +The next matter was to get us home again; for James has told me that I +would allow no one to touch either her or me, until a physician came +out of the crowd and told me the truth. Then I had gathered her up in my +arms like a child without a word to any; and went out, the crowd falling +back as I came, to where the coach waited in Little Russell Street. +Still carrying her I went into the coach, and would allow no one else +within; and so we drove back to Covent Garden. + +When we came there a part of the crowd had already run on before and was +waiting. When the coach drew up, I came out of the coach, with my dear +love still in my arms, and went upstairs with her to her own chamber and +laid her on her bed; and it was a great while before I would let the +women come at her to wash her and make all sweet and clean again. I lay +all that night in the outer parlour that had been my own so long ago, +or, rather, I went up and down it till daybreak; and no one dared to +speak to me or to move away the supper-things from the table where she +and I had supped the night before. + +The inquest was held that day, but nothing came of it. I related my +story in the barest words, saying that I knew nothing of the three men, +and leaving it to Mr. Chiffinch to whisper in the officer's ear to +prevent him asking what he should not. Of the man I had killed nothing +was ever made public, except that he was a tanner's man and lived in +Wapping, and that his name was Belton. + +On the Saturday we went down to Hare Street, all together, with the body +of the little maid in a coach by itself. I rode my horse behind, but +would speak never a word to my Cousin Tom who went in a coach, neither +then nor at any other time; neither would I lie in Hare Street House, +nor even enter it; but I lay in the house of a farmer at Hormead; and +waited outside the house for the funeral to come out next day, after the +Morning Prayer had been said in the church. She lies now in the +churchyard of Hormead Parva, where we laid her on that windy Sunday, in +the shadow of the little Saxon church. I rode straight away again with +my men from the churchyard gate, and came to London very late that +night. I went straight to my lodgings, and refused myself to everyone +for three days, writing letters here and there, and giving orders as to +the packing of all my effects. On the Thursday, a week after my Cousin +Dolly had come to town, I went to Mr. Chiffinch to take my leave. + +Now of those days I dare say no more than that; and even if I would I +could add very little. My mind throughout was in a kind of dark tumult, +until, after my three days of solitude, I had determined what to do. +There were hours, I will not deny, in which my very faith in God Himself +seemed wholly gone; in which it was merely incredible to me that if He +were in Heaven such things could happen on earth. But sorrow of such a +dreadful kind as this is, in truth, if we will but yield to it, a sort +of initiation or revelation, rather than an obscurer of truth; and, by +the time that my three days were over I thought I saw where my duty lay, +and to what all those events tended. I had come from a monk's life that +I might taste what the world was like; I had tasted and found it very +bitter; there was not one affair--(for so it appeared to me then)--that +had not failure written all over it. Very well then; I would go back to +the monk's life once more if they would have me. On the third day, then, +I had written to my Lord Abbot at St. Paul's-without-the-Walls, telling +him that I was coming back again, and had thrown up my affairs here. + +"You were right, my Lord," I wrote at the end of it, "and I was wrong. +My Vocation seems very plain to me now; and I would to God that I had +seen it sooner, or at the least been more humble to Your Lordship's +opinion." + +At first I had thought that I would take no leave of the King; and had +told Mr. Chiffinch so, after I had announced to him what my intentions +were, and announced them too in such a manner that he scarcely even +attempted to dissuade me from them. But he had begged me to take my +leave in proper form; no harm would be done by that; and then he had +told me that His Majesty knew all that had passed and was very sorry for +it. + +I sat silent when he said that. + +"Yes, Mr. Mallock," he said again, "and I mean not only for your own +sorrow, but for his own treatment of you. It hath been a whim with him: +he treats often so those whom he loves. His Majesty hath something of a +woman in him, in that matter. His suspicions were real enough, at least +for a time." + +"I had done better if I had been one of his enemies, then," said I. + +"It is of no use to be bitter, sir," said the page. "Men are what they +are. We would all be otherwise, no doubt, if we could. See the King, Mr. +Mallock, I beg of you: and appear once at least at Court, publicly. You +should allow him at least to make amends." + +I gave a great sigh. + +"Well: it shall be so," I said. "But I must leave town on Tuesday." + + * * * * * + +It was with a very strange sense of detachment that I went about my +affairs all Friday and Saturday; for I had still plenty to do, and was +not to see His Majesty till the Saturday night after supper. The weather +was turned soft again, and we had sunshine for an hour or two. On one +day I watched His Majesty go to dinner, with his guards about him, and +his gentlemen; but I did not see it with the pleasure I had once had in +such brave sights. It was with me, during those days, as it had been +with me for those two or three moments during the play, though in a +gentler manner; for I thought more of the humanity beneath than of the +show above; and a rotten humanity most of it seemed to me. These were +but men like myself, and some pretty evil too. Those gentlemen that were +with the King--there was scarcely one of them about whom I did not know +something considerably to his discredit: there was my Lord Ailesbury in +strict attendance on him; and Killigrew--he that had the theatre--and +the less said of him the better: and there were three or four more like +him; the Earl of Craven was there, colonel of the foot-guards; and Lord +Keeper Guildford; and the Earl of Bath; and there, in the midst, the +King himself, with his blue silk cloak over his shoulders, and his +princely walk, going fast as he always did, and smiling-well, what of +those thirteen known mistresses of his that he had had, as well as of +those other--God knows how many!--poor maids, who must look upon him as +their ruin? It was a brave sight enough, there in the sunshine--I will +not deny that--with the sun on the jewels and the silks, and on the buff +and steel of the guards, with that swift kingly figure going in the +midst; and it was a brave noise that the music made as they went within +the Banqueting-Hall; but how, thought I, does God see it all? And for +what do such things count before His Holy Presence? + +I had not rehearsed what I should say to His Majesty when I saw him; for +indeed it was of no further moment to me what either I or he should say. +I should be gone for ever in three days to the secret service of another +King than him--to that secret service where men need not lie and cheat +and spy and get their hearts broken after all and no gratitude for it; +but to that service which is called _Opus Dei_ in the choir, and is +prayer and study and contemplation in the cloister and the cell. There I +should sing, week by week: + +"Oh! put not your trust in princes nor in any child of man: for there is +no help in them." + +In such a mood then--not wholly Christian, I will admit!--I came into +the King's closet, to take my leave of him, on that Saturday night, the +last day of January, in the year of Salvation sixteen hundred and +eighty-five. + +He was standing up when I entered his private closet, with a very +serious look on his face; and, to my astonishment, took a step towards +me, holding out both his hands. I will not deny that I was moved; but I +had determined to be very stiff. So I saluted him in the proper manner, +very carefully and punctually, kneeling to kiss his hand, and then +standing upright again. A little spaniel barked at me all the time. + +"There! there! Mr. Mallock," he said. "Sit you down! sit you down! +There are some amends due to you." + +I seated myself as he bade me; and he leaned towards me a little from +his own chair, with one leg across the other. I saw that he limped a +little as he went to his chair; and learned afterwards that he had a +sore on his heel from walking in the Park. + +"There are some amends due to you," he said again: "but first I wish to +tell you how very truly I grieve at the sorrow that has come on you, and +in my service too, as I understand." + +(Ah! thought I: then Mr. Chiffinch has made that plain enough.) He spoke +with the greatest feeling and gravity; but the next moment he near +ruined it all. + +"Ah! these ladies!" he said. "How they can torment a man's heart to be +sure! How they can torture us and yet send us into a kind of ecstasy all +at once! We hate them one day, and vow never to see them again, and yet +when they die or leave us we would give the world to get them back +again!" + +For the moment I felt myself all stiff with anger at such a manner of +speaking, and then once more a great pity came on me. What, after all, +does this man, thought I, know of love as God meant it to be? + +"Well, well!" he said. "It is of no use speaking. I know that well +enough. And it was that very cousin, I hear, that was Maid to Her +Majesty!" + +"Yes, Sir," said I, very short. + +I wondered if he would say next that that circumstance made it all the +sadder; but he was not gross enough for that. + +"Well," he said, "I will say no more on that point. I am only grieved +that it should have come upon you in my service; and I wish to make +amends. I already owed you a heavy debt, Mr. Mallock; and this has made +it the heavier; and before saying any more I wish to tell you that I am +heartily sorry for my suspicions of you. They were real enough, I am +ashamed to say: I should have known better. But at least I have got rid +of Hoskyns; and he hath gone to the devil altogether, I hear. He had a +cunning way with him, you know, Mr. Mallock." + +He spoke almost as if he pleaded; and I was amazed at his condescension. +It is not the way of Kings to ask pardon very often. + +"Well, Mr. Mallock," he said next; "and I hear that you wish to leave my +service?" + +"If Your Majesty pleases," said I. + +"My Majesty doth not please at all; but he will submit, I suppose. Tell +me, sir, why it is that you wish to leave." + +"Sir," I said, "the reasons are pretty plain. I have displeased Your +Majesty for the past half-year; and I cannot forget that, even though, +Sir, you are graciously pleased to compliment me now. Then I have +quarrelled with my Cousin Jermyn, so that I have not a kinsman left in +England; and--and I have lost her whom I was to make my wife this year. +Finally, if more reasons are wanting, I am weary of a world in which I +have failed so greatly; and I must go back again to the cloister, if +they will have me there." + +All came with a rush when I began to speak, for His Majesty's presence +had always an extraordinary effect upon me, as upon so many others. I +had determined to say very little; yet here I had said it all, and I +felt the blood in my face. He listened very patiently to me, with his +head a little on one side, and his underlip thrust out, and his great +melancholy eyes searching my face. + +"Well! well! well," he said again, "if you must be a monk there is no +more to be said. But what of your apostleship in the world?" + +"Sir," I cried--for I knew what he meant--"my apostleship as you name +it has been a greater disaster than all the rest: and God knows that is +great enough." + +He was silent a full half minute, I should think, still looking on me +earnestly. + +"Are you so sure of that?" said he. + +My heart gave a leap; but he held up his hand before I could speak. + +"Wait, sir," he said. "I will tell you this. You have said very little +to me; but I vow to you that what you have said I have remembered. It is +not argument that a man needs--at least after the first--but example. +That you have given me." + +Then I flushed up scarlet; for I was sure he was mocking me. + +"Sir," I cried, "you might have spared--" + +He lifted his eyes a little. + +"I assure you, Mr. Mallock," he said, "that I mean what I say. You have +been very faithful; you have ventured your life again and again for me; +you have refused rewards, except the very smallest; you have lost even +your sweetheart in my service; and now, when all is within your reach +again, you fling it back at me. It is not very gracious; but it is very +Christian, as I understand Christianity." + +I said nothing. What was there to say? I seemed a very poor Christian to +myself. + +"Come! come, Mr. Mallock," pursued the King very gently and kindly. +"Think of it once again. You shall have what you please--your Viscounty +or anything else of that sort; and you shall keep your lodgings and +remain here as my friend. What do you say to that?" + +For a moment again I hesitated; for it is not to everyone that a King +offers his friendship. If it had been that alone I think I might have +yielded, for I knew that I loved this man in spite of all his wickedness +and his treatment of me--for that, and for my "apostleship" as he called +it, I might have stayed. But at the word _Viscounty_ all turned to +bitterness: I remembered my childish dreams and the sweetness of them, +and the sweetness of my dear love who was to have shared them; and all +turned to bitterness and vanity. + +"No, Sir," said I--and I felt my lips tremble. "No, Sir. I will be +ungracious and--and Christian to the end. I am resolved to go; and +nothing in this world shall keep me from it." + +The King stood up abruptly; and I rose with him. I did not know whether +he were angry or not; and I did not greatly care. He stepped away from +me, and began to walk up and down. One of his bitch-spaniels whined at +him from her basket, lifting her great liquid eyes that were not unlike +his own; and he stooped and caressed her for a moment. Then the clocks +began to chime, one after the other, for it was eight o'clock, and I +heard them at it, too, in the bed-chamber beyond. There would be thirty +or forty of them, I daresay, in the two chambers. So for a minute or two +he went up and down; and I have but to close my eyes now, to see him +again. He was limping a little from the sore on his heel; but he carried +himself very kingly, his swarthy face looking straight before him, and +his lips pursed. I think that indeed he was a little angry, but that he +was resolved not to shew it. + +Suddenly he wheeled on me, and held out his hand. + +"Well, Mr. Mallock; there is no more to be said; and I must honour you +for it whatever else I do. I would that all my servants were as +disinterested." + +I knelt to kiss his hand. I think I could not have spoken at that +moment. As I stood up, he spoke again. + +"When do you leave town?" he said. + +"On Tuesday, Sir." + +"Well, come and see me again before you go. No, not in private: you need +not fear for that. Come to-morrow night, to the _levée_ after supper." + +"I will do so, Sir," said I. + + * * * * * + +On the following night then, which was Sunday, I presented myself for +the last time, I thought, to His Majesty. + +I need not say that half a dozen times since I had left him, my +resolution had faltered; though, it had never broken down. I heard mass +in Weld Street; and there again I wondered whether I had decided +rightly, and again as I burned all my papers after dinner--(for when a +man begins afresh he had best make a clean sweep of the past). I went to +take the air a little, before sunset, in St. James' Park, and from a +good distance saw His Majesty going to feed the ducks, with a dozen +spaniels, I daresay going after him, and a couple of gentlemen with him, +but no guards at all. The King walked much more slowly that day than +was his wont--I suppose because of the sore on his heel. But I did not +go near enough for him to see me; for I would trouble him now no further +than I need. All this time--or at least now and again--I wondered a +little as to whether I was right to go. I will not deny that the +prospect of remaining had a little allurement in it; but it was truly +not more than a little; and as evening fell and my heart went inwards +again, as hearts do when the curtains are drawn, I wondered that it had +been any allurement at all: for my life lay buried in the churchyard of +Hormead Parva, and I had best bury the rest of me in the place where at +least I had a few friends left. After supper, about ten o'clock, I put +on my cloak and went across to the Duchess of Portsmouth's lodgings, +where the _levée_ was held usually on such evenings. My man James went +with me to light me there. + +I do not think I have seen a more splendid sight, very often, than that +great gallery, when I came into it that night, passing on my way through +the closet where I had once talked with Her Grace. It was all alight +from end to end with candles in cressets, and on the great round table +at the further end where the company was playing basset, stood tall +candlesticks amidst all the gold. I had not seen this great gallery +before; and it was beyond everything, and far beyond Her Majesty's own +great chamber. If I had thought the closet fine, this was a thousand +times more. There were great French tapestries on the walls, and between +them paintings that had been once Her Majesty's, and those not the worst +of them. The quantity of silver in the room astonished me: there were +whole tables of it, and braziers and sconces and cressets beyond +reckoning; and there were at least five or six chiming clocks that the +King had given to Her Grace; and tall Japanese presses and cabinets of +lacquer which she loved especially. + +There was a fire of Scotch coal burning on the hearth, as in His +Majesty's own bedchamber; and on a great silver couch, beside this, +covered with silk tapestry, sat the King, smiling to himself, with two +or three dogs beside him, and Her Grace of Portsmouth on the same +couch. The Duchesses of Cleveland and Mazarin were on chairs very near +the couch. + +There was a great clamour of voices from the basset-table as I came in +and the King looked up; and, as I went across to pay my respects to His +Majesty, he said something to the Duchess, very merrily. She too glanced +up at me; and indeed she was a splendid sight in her silks and in the +jewels she had had from him. + +"Why; here is my friend!" said the King, as he put out his hand to me; +and once more the dogs yapped at me from his side. He put his left hand +out over their heads and pressed them down. + +"You must not bark at my friend Mr. Mallock," he said. "He is off to be +a holy monk." + +For a moment I thought the King was making a mock of me; but it was not +so. He was smiling at me very friendly. + + * * * * * + +He was in wonderful good humour that evening; and I heard more of his +public talk than ever before; for he made me draw up a stool presently +upon the hearth. Now and again a gentleman came across to be presented +to him; and others came and looked in for a while and away again. There +were constant comings and goings; and once, as a French boy was singing +songs to a spinet, near the door, I saw the serious face of Mr. Evelyn, +with two of his friends, look in upon the scene. + +I cannot remember one quarter of all the things that were said. Now the +King was silent, playing with the ears of his dogs and smiling to +himself; now he would say little things that stuck in the memory, God +knows why! For example, he said that he had eaten two goose's eggs for +supper, which shewed what a strong stomach he had; and he described to +us a very fierce duck that had snapped his hand that afternoon in the +park. History is not made of these things; and yet sometimes I think +that it should be; for those be the matters that interest little folk; +and most of us are no more than that. I do not suppose that in all the +world there is one person except myself who knows that His Sacred +Majesty ate two goose's eggs to his supper on that Sunday night. + +He spoke presently of his new palace at Winchester that he was +a-building, and that was near finished. + +"I shall be very happy this week," said he, "for my building will be all +covered in with lead." (He said the same thing again, later, to my Lord +Ailesbury, who remembered it when it was fulfilled, though in another +manner than the King had meant.) + +He talked too of "little Ken," as he named him (who had been made Bishop +last week), and of the story that so many told--(for the King told his +stories several times over when he was in a good humour)--and the way he +told it to-night was this. + +"Ah! that little Ken!" said he. "Little black Ken! He is the man to +tell me my sins! Your Grace should hear him"--(added he)--"upon the +Seventh Commandment! And such lessons drawn from Scripture too-from the +Old Testament!" + +He looked up sharply and merrily at Her Grace of Portsmouth as he said +this. + +"Well; when poor Nell and I went down to Winchester a good while ago," +he went on, "what must little Ken do but refuse her a lodging! This is a +man to be a Bishop, thought I. And so poor Nell had to sleep where she +could." + +Her Grace of Portsmouth looked very glum while this tale was told; for +she hated Mrs. Nelly with all her heart. She flounced a little in her +seat; and one of the dogs barked at her for it. + +"First a monk and then a Duchess!" said the King. "Did you ever hear of +the good man of Salisbury who put his hand into my carriage to greet me, +and was bitten for his pains? 'God bless Your Majesty,' said he, 'and +God damn Your Majesty's dogs!'--Eh, Fubbs?"--(for so he called the +Duchess). + +So he discoursed this evening, very freely indeed, and there was a +number of men presently behind his couch, listening to what he said. A +great deal of what he said cannot be set down here, for it was +extraordinary indecent as well as profane. Yet there was a wonderful +charm about his manner, and there is no denying it; and in this, I +suppose, lay a great deal of the injury he did to innocent souls, for it +all seemed nothing but merriment and good-humour. His quickness of +conception, his pleasantness of wit, his variety of knowledge, his +tales, his judgment of men--all these were beyond anything that I have +ever met in any other man. + +There was silence made every now and then for the French boy to sing +another song; and this singing affected me very deeply, so long as I did +not look at the lad; for he was a silly-looking creature all dressed up +like a doll; but he sang wonderfully clear and sweet, and one of the +King's chapel-gentlemen played for him. His songs were all in French, +and the substance of some of them was scarcely decent; but I had not the +pain of hearing any that I had heard in Hare Street. During the singing +of the last of these songs, near midnight, again that mood fell on me +that all was but a painted show on a stage, and that reality was +somewhere else. The great chamber was pretty hot by now, with the +roaring fire and all the folks, and a kind of steam was in the air, as +it had been in the theatre ten days ago; and the faces were some of them +flushed and some of them pale with the heat. The Duchess of Cleveland +was walking up and down before the fire, with her hands clasped as if +she were restless; for she spoke scarce a word all the evening. + +When the song was done the King clapped his hands to applaud and stood +up; and all stood with him. + +"Odd's fish!" said he, "that is a pretty boy and a pretty song." Then he +gave a great yawn. "It is time to go to bed," said he. + +As he said that the door from the outer gallery opened; and I saw my +Lord Ailesbury there--a young man, very languid and handsome who was +Gentleman of the Bed chamber this week, though his turn ended to-morrow; +and behind him Sir Thomas Killigrew who was Groom--(these two slept in +the King's bedchamber all night)--and two or three pages, one of them +of the Backstairs. My Lord Ailesbury carried a tall silver candlestick +in his hand with the candle burning in it. He bowed to His Majesty. + +"Did I not say so?" said the king. + +He did not give his hand to anyone when he said good-night, but turned +and bowed a little to the company about him on the hearth, and they back +to him, the three duchesses curtseying very low. But to me he gave his +hand to kiss. + +"Good-night, Mr. Mallock," said he, in a loud voice; then, raising it-- + +"Mr. Mallock goes abroad to-morrow; or is it Tuesday?" + +"It is Tuesday, Sir," said I. + +"Then God go with you," he said very kindly. + +I watched him go out to the door with his hat on, all the other +gentlemen uncovered and bowing to him, and him nodding and smiling in +very good humour, though still limping a little. And my heart seemed to +go with him. At the door however he stopped; for a strange thing had +happened. As my Lord Ailesbury had given the candle to the page who was +to go before them, it had suddenly gone out, though there was no draught +to blow it. The page looked very startled and afraid, and shook his head +a little. Then one of the gentlemen sprang forward and took a candle +from one of the cressets to light the other with. His Majesty stood +smiling while this was done; but he said nothing. When it was lighted, +he turned again, and waved his hand to the company. Then he went out +after his gentlemen. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +It was a little after eight o'clock next morning that I heard first of +His Majesty's seizure. + +I had drunk my morning and was on the point of going out with my +man--indeed I was descending the stairs--when I heard steps run past in +the gallery outside; and then another man also running. I came out as he +went past and saw that he was one of Mr. Chiffinch's men, very +disordered-looking and excited. I cried out to know what was the matter, +but he shook his head and flapped his hand at me as if he could not +stay, and immediately turned off from the gallery and ran out to the +right in the direction of the King's lodgings. + +I turned to my man James who was just behind me. + +"Go and see what the matter is," I said; for after seeing the King so +well and cheerful last night, I never thought of any illness. + +While he was gone, I waited just within my door, observing one of my +engravings, with my hat on. It was a very bitter morning. In less than +five minutes James was back again, very white and breathing fast. + +"His Majesty is ill," said he. "Mr. Chiffinch--" + +I heard no more, for I ran out past him at a great pace, and so to the +King's lodgings. + + * * * * * + +When I came to the door of them, all was in confusion. There was but one +guard here--(for the other was within with the Earl of Craven)--and a +little crowd was pestering him with questions. I made no bones with him, +but slipped in, and ran upstairs as fast as I could. There was no one in +the first antechamber at all, and the door was open into the private +closet beyond. It was contrary to all etiquette to enter this unbidden, +but I cared nothing for that, and ran through; and this again was empty; +so I passed out at the further door and found myself at the head of a +little stair leading down into a wide lobby, from which opened out two +or three chambers, with the King's bedchamber at the further end. And +here, in the lobby, I ran into the company. + +There was above a dozen persons there, at least, all talking together in +low voices; but I saw no one I cared to speak with, since I had no +business in the place at all. But no one paid any attention to me. It +was yet pretty dark here, for there were no candles; so I waited, +leaning against the wall at the head of the stairs. + +Then the voices grew louder; and the crowd opened out a little to let +someone through; and there came, walking very quickly, and talking +together, my Lord Craven leaning on the arm of my Lord Ailesbury. My +Lord Craven--near ninety years old at this time--was in his full-dress +as colonel of the foot-guards, for he had attended a few minutes before +to receive from His Majesty the pass-word of the day: and my Lord +Ailesbury was but half dressed with his points hanging loose; for he had +been all undressed just now, when the King had been taken ill. + +After they had passed by me I stood again to wait; but, almost +immediately, across the further end of the lobby I saw Mr. Chiffinch +pass swiftly from a door on the left to a door on the right. At that +sight I determined to wait no longer: for there was but one thought in +my mind, all this while. + +I said nothing, but I came down the stairs and laid my hand on the +shoulder of a physician (I think he was), who stood in front of me, and +pushed him aside, as if I had a right to be there; and so I went through +them very quickly, and into the room where I had seen Mr. Chiffinch go. +The door was ajar: I pushed it open and went in. + +It was a pretty small room, and there were no beds in it; it had presses +round the walls: a coal fire burned in the hearth in a brazier, and a +round table was in the midst, lit by a single candle, and near the +candle stood a heap of surgical instruments and a roll of bandages. +(This was the room, I learned later, next to the Royal Bedchamber, where +the surgeons had attended half an hour ago to dress the King's heel.) +There were three persons in the room beyond the table, talking very +earnestly together. Two of them I did not know; but the third was Mr. +Chiffinch. They all three turned when I came in, and stared at me. + +"Why--" began the page--"Mr. Mallock, what do you--" + +He came towards me with an air of impatience. + +"Mr. Chiffinch," said I, in a low voice--"how is His Majesty. I--" + +The further door which stood at the head of three or four steps leading +up to it opened sharply, and the page whisked round to see what it was. +A face looked out, very peaked-looking and white, and nodded briskly at +the bandages and the instruments; the two other men darted at those, +seized them, ran up the stairs and vanished, leaving the door but a +crack open behind them. + +Then Mr. Chiffinch turned and stared at me again. He appeared very pale +and agitated. + +"Mr. Chiffinch," said I, "I will take no refusal at all. How is His +Majesty?" + +His lips worked a little, and I could see that he was thinking more of +what was passing in the chamber beyond than of my presence here. + +"They are blooding him again," he said; and then--"What are you doing +here?" + +I took him by the lapel of his coat to make him attend to me; for his +eyes were wandering back like a mule's, at every sound behind. + +"See here," said I. "If His Majesty is ill, it is time to send for a +priest. I tell you--" + +"Priest!" snapped the page in a whisper. "What the devil--" + +I shook him gently by his coat. + +"Mr. Chiffinch; I will have the truth. Is the King dying?" + +"No, he is not then!" he whispered angrily. "Hark--" + +He tore himself free, darted back to the further door, and stood there, +at the foot of the stairs, with his head lowered, listening. Even from +where I was I could hear a gentle sort of sound as of moaning or very +heavy breathing, and then a sharp whisper or two; and then the noise of +something trickling into a basin. Presently all was quiet again; and the +page lifted his head. I stood where I was; for I know how it is with men +in a sudden anxiety: they will snap and snarl, and then all at once turn +confidential. I was not disappointed. + +After he had waited a moment or two he came towards me once more. + +"Mr. Mallock," he whispered, "the King needs no priest. He is not so ill +as that; and he is unconscious too at present." + +"Tell me," I said. + +Again he glanced behind him; but there was no further sound. He came a +little nearer. + +"His Majesty was taken with a fit soon after he awakened. Mr. King was +here, by good fortune, and blooded him at once. Now they are blooding +him again. Her Majesty hath been sent for." + +"He is not dying? You will swear that to me?" + +He nodded: and again he appeared to listen. I took him by his button +again. + +"Mr. Chiffinch," said I, "you must attend to me. This is the very thing +I have waited for. If there is any imminent danger you must send for a +priest. You promise me that?" + +He shook his head violently: so I tried another attack. + +"Well," I said, "then you will allow me to remain here? Is the Duke +come?" + +"Not yet," said he. "Ailesbury is gone for him." + +"Well--I may remain then?" + +There came a knock on the inner side of the further door; and he tore +himself free again. But I was after him, and seized him once more. + +"I may remain?" + +"Yes, yes," he snapped, "as you will! Let me go, sir." He whisked +himself out of my hold, and went swiftly up the stairs and through the +door, shutting it behind him, giving me but the smallest glimpse of a +vast candle-lit room and men's heads all together and the curtains of a +great bed near the door. But I was content: I had got my way. + + * * * * * + +As I walked up and down the antechamber, very softly, on tip-toe, it +appeared to me that I was, as it were, two persons in one. On the one +side there was the conviction and the determination that, come what +would, I must get a priest to the King if he took a turn at all for the +worse--since, for the present, I believed Mr. Chiffinch's word that His +Majesty was not actually dying. (This was not at all what the physicians +thought at that time; but I did not know that.) This conviction, I +suppose, had always been with me that it was for this that in God's +Providence I had been sent to England; at least, seven in the moment +that I had left my house and run down the gallery, there it was, all +full-formed and mature. As to how it was to be done I had no idea at +all; yet that it would be done I had no doubt. On the other side, +however, every faculty of observation that I had, was alert and +tight-stretched. I remember the very pattern of the carpet I walked on; +the pictures on the walls; and the carving on the presses. Above all I +remember the little door in the corner of the chamber--the third; and +how I opened it, and peeped down the winding staircase that led from it. +(I did not know then what part that little door and winding staircase +was to play in my great design!) Now and again I looked out of the +single window at the river beneath in the early morning sunshine; now I +paced the floor again. It seemed to me that I had found a very pretty +post of observation, as this appeared a very private little room, and +that I should not be troubled here. The great anterooms, I knew, where +the company would be, must lie on the further side of the bedchamber. + +I suppose it would be about five minutes after Mr. Chiffinch had left me +that Her Majesty came. The first I knew of it was a great murmur of +voices and footsteps without the door. I went to the door and pulled it +a little open so that I could see without being seen, and looked up the +lobby beyond the King's chamber; for in that direction, I knew, lay Her +Majesty's apartments. A couple of pages came first, very hastily, with +rods; and then immediately after them Her Majesty herself, hurrying as +fast as she could, scarce decently dressed, with a cloak flung over all, +with a hood. Behind her came two or three of her ladies. I saw the poor +woman's face very plain for a moment, since there was no one between me +and her; and even at that distance I could see her miserable agitation; +her brown face was all sallow and her mouth hung open. Then she whisked +after the pages through the door into the great antechamber that lay +beyond the bedroom. I went back again, to shut the door and listen at +the other; for I knew that the King's bed was close to it (though he was +not in it at this time, but still in the barber's chair where he had +been blooded); and presently I heard the poor soul begin to wail aloud. +I heard voices too, as if soothing her, for all the physicians were +there, and half a dozen others; but the wailing grew, as she saw, I +suppose, in what condition His Majesty was--(for he still seemed all +unconscious)--till she began to shriek. That was a terrible sound, for +she laughed and sobbed too, all at once, in a kind of fit. I could hear +the tone very plain through the door, though I could not hear what she +said; and the voices of Mr. King and others who endeavoured to quiet +her. Gradually the wailing and shrieking grew less as they forced her +away and out again; till I heard it, as she went back again to her own +apartments, die away in spasms. Poor soul indeed! she was nothing +accounted of in that Court, yet she loved the King very dearly in spite +of his neglect towards her. She could not even speak to him (I heard +afterwards), though he had spoken her name and asked for her, after his +first blooding. + + * * * * * + +Half an hour later--(in the meantime no one had come in to me, and I +could only walk up and down and listen as well as I could)--I heard +again the murmur of voices in the lobby, and steps coming swiftly down +from the private closet. Again I was in time at the door to see who it +was that went by; and it was the Duke of York, with my Lord Ailesbury +who had gone to fetch him from St. James'. He went by me so near that I +could hear his quick breathing from his run upstairs; and he had come in +such a hurry that he had only one shoe on, and on the other foot a +slipper. He went very near at a run up the lobby, and up a step or two, +and into the great antechamber and so round to the Bedchamber; and I +presently heard him enter it. Indeed I was very favourably placed for +observing all that went on. + + * * * * * + +It was about eleven o'clock, as I suppose, when I first heard His +Majesty's voice; and the relief of it to me was extraordinary. + +I had ventured up the stair or two that led from this room into the +Bedchamber, and had, very delicately, opened the door a crack so as to +hear more plainly; but I dared not look through for fear that I should +be seen. + +For a long while I had heard nothing but whispers; and once the yapping +of a little dog, very sharp and startling, but the noise was stifled +almost immediately, and the dog, I suppose, taken out at the other door. +Once or twice too had come the sudden chiming of all the clocks that +were in the Bedchamber. + +I heard first a great groan from the bed, to which by now they had moved +him from the chair, and then Ailesbury's name spoken in a very broken +voice. (My own heart beat so loud when I heard that, that I could scarce +listen to what followed.) + +"Yes, Sir," came Ailesbury's voice; and then a broken murmur again. (He +was thanking him, I heard afterwards from Mr. Chiffinch, for his +affection to him, and for having caused him to be bled so promptly by +Mr. King, and for having sent Chiffinch to him to bring him back from +his private closet.) + +Presently he grew stronger; and I could hear what he said. + +"I went there," he said, "for the King's Drops.... I felt very ailing +when I rose.... I walked about there; but felt no better. I nearly fell +from giddiness as I came down again." + +He spoke very slowly, but strongly enough; and he gave a great sigh at +the end. + +Presently he spoke again. + +"Why, brother," he said. "So there you are." + +I heard the Duke's voice answer him, but so brokenly and confusedly that +I could hear no words. + +"No, no," said His Majesty, "I do very well now." + + * * * * * + +I came down the stairs again, shaking all over. I cannot say how +affected I was to hear his voice again; and I think there could scarce +be a man in the place any less affected. He was a man who compelled love +in an extraordinary fashion. I felt that if he died I could bear no more +at all. + +I was walking up and down again very softly, when the door into the +Bedchamber was noiselessly pulled open, and Mr. Chiffinch came down the +stairs. That dreadful look of tightness and pain was gone from his face: +he was almost smiling. He nodded at me, very cheerful. + +"He is better. The King's Majesty is much better," he whispered. Then +his face twitched with emotion; and I saw that he was very near crying. +I was not far from it myself. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + + +How the hours of that day went by I scarcely know at all. I went back to +dine in my lodgings, and to counter-order all preparations for my going +on the morrow, so soon as I knew that His Majesty was out of any +immediate danger; for I could not find it in my heart to leave town +until he was altogether recovered. In the afternoon, before going back +to inquire how he was, I walked a good while in the court and the Privy +Garden, though the day was very raw and cold. + +Whitehall had been put as in a state of siege from the first moment that +the King's illness was known. The gates were closed to all but those who +had lodgings in the Palace, and those who were allowed special entry by +His Royal Highness. The sentries everywhere were greatly augmented; both +horse and foot were placed at every entrance; and the greatest +strictness was observed that no letter should pass out either to His +Grace of Monmouth or to the Prince of Orange: even M. Barillon had but +permission to send one letter to the French King as to His Majesty's +state. All this was to hinder any rising or invasion that might be made +either within or without the kingdom. I was in the court when the +couriers rode out with despatches to the Lords Lieutenant of the +Counties with advices as to what to do should His Majesty die; and I was +there too when the deputies came from the Lord Mayor and Aldermen and +Lieutenants of the City to inquire for the King and to assure His Royal +Highness of their loyalty and support. This was of the greatest +satisfaction to the Duke; for I suppose that he did not feel very +secure. + +A little before supper I went round to Mr. Chiffinch's; and, by the +greatest good fortune found him on the point of returning to His +Majesty's lodgings. He gave me an excellent account as we went together. + +"The physicians declare," said he, "that His Majesty is out of danger: +and bath permitted the Duke to tell the foreign ministers so. They have +had another consultation on him; and have prescribed God knows what! +Cowslip and Sal of Ammoniac, sneezing mixtures, plasters for his feet; +and he is to have broth and ale to his supper. They are determined to +catch hold of his disorder somehow, if not by one thing then by another. +To tell the truth I think they know not at all what is the matter with +him. They have taken near thirty ounces of blood from him too, to-day. +If the King were not a giant for health he would have died of his +remedies, I think!" + +He talked so; but he was in very cheerful spirits; and before he left me +at the door of the lodgings I had got an order from him to admit me +everywhere within reason. It was something of a surprise to me to see +how dearly this man--whose name was so evil spoken of, and, I fear with +good cause enough--yet loved his master. + + * * * * * + +On Tuesday morning I was up again very early, and round at His Majesty's +lodgings. I went up by the other way and into the great antechamber; and +there I met with one of the physicians who was just come from the +consultation that twelve of them had held together. He was a very +communicative fellow and told me that six of them had been with His +Majesty all night, and that His Majesty had slept pretty well; and +that--to encourage him, I suppose!--ten more ounces of blood had been +taken from his neck. He was proceeding to speak of some new +remedies--and mentioned an anti-spasmodic julep of Black Cherry Water +that had been prescribed, when another put out his head and called to +him from the Bedchamber; and he went away back into it with an important +air. + +All that day too I never left Whitehall. There were great crowds in all +the streets and outside the gates, I heard, but their demeanour was very +quiet and sorrowful; and prayers were said all day long in the churches. +When I went back to the antechamber in the evening I saw my Lord Bishop +of Ely there, and heard from one of the pages that he was to spend that +night in His Majesty's room. So I gathered from that that the physicians +were not very confident even yet, though couriers had been sent out +again to-day to bear the news of the King's happy recovery; and I was, +besides, in two minds, when I saw the Bishop there, as to what I should +do about a Catholic priest. If I had seen His Royal Highness then, I +think I should have said something to him upon it; but the Duke was in +the Bedchamber; and there I dared not yet penetrate. + + * * * * * + +On the Wednesday morning, when I went early to inquire, I heard that +again His Majesty had slept well, and that the physicians were well +satisfied; I saw no one but a man of Mr. Chiffinch's, who told me that; +and that Dr. Ken, my Lord Bishop of Bath and Wells, was with the King; +and I went away content: but when I went back again, for the third time +that day, just before supper-time, I saw from the faces in the +antechamber that all was not so well. Yet I could get nothing out of +anyone, and did not wish to press too hard lest I should be turned out +altogether. I saw my friend of yesterday, whose name I have never yet +learned, hurrying across the end of the chamber into another little room +where the physicians had their consultations--(it was, I think, my Lord +Ailesbury's dressing-room)--but I was not in time to catch him; so I +went away again in some little dismay, yet not greatly alarmed even now. +The Bishop, I thought, could at least do him no great harm. + +On the Thursday morning, before I was dressed, my man brought me the +_London Gazette_ that had been printed about six o'clock the evening +before. The announcement as to the King's health ran as follows. (I cut +out the passage then and there and put it in my diary.) + + * * * * * + + "At the Council Chamber, Whitehall, the 4th of February, 1684 [1685 N. + S.], at five in the afternoon. + + "The Lords of His Majesty's most Honourable Privy Council have thought + fit, for preventing false reports, I make known that His Majesty, upon + Monday morning last, was seized with a violent fit that gave great + cause to fear the issue of it; but after some hours an amendment + appeared, which with the blessing of God being improved by the + application of proper and seasonable remedies, is now so advanced, that + the physicians have this day as well as yesterday given this account to + the Council, viz.--That they conceive His Majesty to be in a condition + of safety, and that he will in a few days be freed from his distemper. + + "JOHN NICHOLAS." + +Yes, thought I, that is all very well; but what of yesterday after five +o'clock, and what of this morning? + + * * * * * + +As I went to His Majesty's lodgings an hour afterwards I heard the bells +from the churches beginning to peal, to call the folks to give thanks; +yet the faces within the Palace were very different. When I went up into +the great antechamber, the physicians were just dispersing; and, by good +fortune I was at hand when my Lord Keeper North questioned Sir Charles +Scarburgh as he went back to His Majesty's chamber. + +"Well?" said he, very short. "What do you say to-day?" + +"My Lord!" said Sir Charles, "we conclude that His Majesty hath an +intermittent fever." + +"And what the devil of that?" asked my Lord. "Could anything be worse?" + +(There was a little group round them by now; and I could see one of the +Bishops listening a little way off.) + +"My Lord," said the other, "at least we know now what to do." + +"And what is that?" snapped my Lord who seemed in a very ill humour. + +"To give the Cortex, my Lord," said Sir Charles with great dignity; for +indeed the manner of my Lord was most insolent. + +My Lord grunted at that. + +"Peruvian Bark, my Lord," said the physician, as if speaking to a child. + +Well; there was no more to be got that morning. I was in and out for a +little, again in two minds as to what to do. His Royal Highness went +through the antechamber at one time (to meet M. Barillon, as I saw +presently, and conduct him to the King's chamber), a little before +dinner, but at such a quickness, and with such sorrow in his face that I +dared not speak to him. I went back to dinner; and fell asleep +afterwards in my chair, so greatly was I wearied out with anxiety; and +did not wake till near four o'clock. Then, thank God! I did awake; and, +with all speed went again to His Majesty's lodgings; and this time, +guided, I suppose, by Divine Providence, for I had no clear intention in +what I did, I went up the private way, through the King's closet where I +found no one, down the steps, and so into the little chamber where I had +talked with Mr. Chiffinch on the first morning of His Majesty's +distemper. + +The chamber was empty; but immediately after I had entered--first +knocking, and getting no answer--who should come through, his face all +distorted with sorrow, but Mr. Chiffinch himself! There was but one +candle on the table, but by its light, I saw how it was with him. + +I went up immediately, and took him by the arms; he stared at me like a +terrified child. + +"My friend," said I, "I must have no further delay. You must take me to +His Majesty." + +He shook his head violently; but he could not speak. As for me, all my +resolution rose up as never before. + +I gripped him tighter. + +"I ask but five minutes," I said. "But that I must have!" + +"I--I cannot," said he, very low. + +I let go of him, and went straight towards the steps that led up into +His Majesty's room. As I reached the foot of them, he had seized my arm +from behind. + +"Where are you going?" he whispered sharply. "That is the way to the +King's room." + +I turned and looked at him. + +"Yes," I said very slowly, "I know that." + +"Well--well, you cannot," he stammered. + +"Then you must take me," I said. + +He still stared at me as if either he or I were mad. Then, of a sudden +his face changed; and he nodded. I could see how distraught he was, and +unsettled. + +"I will take you," he whispered, "I will take you, Mr. Mallock. For +God's sake, Mr. Mallock--" + +He went up the steps before me, in his soft shoes; and I went after, as +quietly as I could. As he put his hand on the handle he turned again. + +"For Christ's sake!" he whispered in a terrible soft voice. "For +Christ's sake! It must be but five minutes. I am sent to fetch the +Bishops, Mr. Mallock." + +He opened the door a little, and peered in. I could see nothing, so dark +was the chamber within--but the candles at the further end and a few +faces far away. A great curtain, as a wall, shut off all view to my +left. + +"Quick, Mr. Mallock," he whispered, turning back to me. "This side of +the bed is clear. Go in quick; he is turned on this side. I will fetch +you out this way again." + +He was his own man again, swift and prompt and steady. As for me, the +beating of my heart made me near sick. Then I felt myself pushed within +the chamber; and heard the door close softly behind me. + + * * * * * + +At first I could see nothing on this side, as I had been staring over +the candle just now, except a group of persons at the further end of the +great room, and among them the white of a Bishop's rochet; and the +candlelight and firelight on the roof. The clocks were all chiming four +as I came in, and drowned, I suppose, the sounds of my coming. + +Then, almost immediately I saw that the curtains were drawn back on this +side of the great bed that stood in this end of the room, and that they +were partly drawn forward on the other side, so as to shroud from the +candlelight him who lay within them, and beneath the Royal Arms of +England emblazoned on the state. + +And then I saw him. + +He was lying over on this side of the bed, propped on high pillows, but +leaning all over, and breathing loudly. His left, arm was flung over the +coverlet; and his fingers contracted and opened and contracted again. I +went forward swiftly and noiselessly, threw myself on my knees, laid my +hand softly beneath his, and kissed it. + +"Eh? eh?" murmured the heavy voice. "Who is it?" + +I saw the curtain on the other side pulled a little, and the face of Sir +Charles Scarburgh all in shadow peer in: it looked very lean and sharp +and high-browed. The King flapped his hand in a gesture of dismissal, +and the face vanished again. + +"Sir," whispered I, very earnestly, yet so low that I think none but he +could have heard me. "Sir: it is Roger Mallock--" + +"Mallock," repeated the voice; yet so low that it could not have been +understood by any but me. His face was very near to me; and it was +shockingly lined and patched, and the eyes terribly hollow and languid: +but there was intelligence in them. + +"Sir," said I, "you spoke to me once of an apostleship." + +"So I did," murmured the voice. "So I--" + +"Sir: I am come to fulfill it. It is not too late. Sir; the Bishops are +sent for. Have nothing to say to them! Sir, let me get you a true +priest--For Christ's sake!" + +The cold fingers that I yet held, twitched and pressed on mine. I was +sure that he understood. + +He drew a long breath. + +"And what of poor little Ken?" he murmured. "Poor little Ken: he will +break his heart--if he may not say his prayers." + +"Let him say what he will, Sir. But no sacrament! Let me send for a +priest!" + +There was a long silence. He sighed once or twice. His fingers all the +while twitched in mine, pressing on them, and opening again. Ah! how I +prayed in my heart; to Mary conceived without sin to pray for this poor +soul that had such a load on him. The minutes were passing. I thought, +maybe, he was unconscious again. And the Bishops, if they were in the +Palace, might be here at any instant, and all undone. I am not ashamed +to say that I entreated even my own dear love to pray for us. She had +laid down her life in his service and mine. Might it not be, thought I, +even in this agony, that by God's permission, she were near to help me? + +He stirred again at last. + +"Going to be a monk," said he, "going to be a monk, Roger Mallock. Pray +for me, Roger Mallock, when you be a monk." + +"Sir--" + +He went on as if he had not heard me. + +"Yes," murmured he. "A very good idea. But you will never do it. Go to +Fubbs, Roger Mallock. Fubbs will do it." + +"For a priest, Sir?" whispered I, scarcely able to believe that he +meant it. + +"Yes," he murmured again, "for a priest. Yes: for God's sake. Fubbs will +do it. Fubbs is always--" + +His voice trailed off into silence once more; and his fingers relaxed. +At the same instant I heard the door open softly behind, and, turning, I +saw the page's face again, lean and anxious, peering in at me. Then his +finger appeared in the line of light, beckoning. + +I kissed the loose cold fingers once again; rose up and went out on +tip-toe. + + + + +CHAPTER X + + +Then began for me the most amazing adventure of all. My adventures had +indeed been very surprising--some of them; and my last I had thought to +be the greatest of all, and the most heart-breaking, in the yard of the +Theatre Royal. I had thought that that had drained the last energy from +me and that I had no desires left except of the peace of the cloister +and death itself. Yet after my words with the King and his to me, there +awakened that in me which I had thought already dead--a fierce +overmastering ambition to accomplish one more task that was the greatest +of them all and to get salvation to the man who had again and again +flouted and neglected me, whom yet I loved as I had never yet loved any +man. As I went to and fro, as I shall now relate, until I saw him again, +there went with me the vision of him and of his fallen death-stricken +face there in the shadow of the great bed; and there went with me too, I +think, the eager presence of my own love, near as warm as in life. + +"What shall we do next? What shall we do next, Dolly?" I caught myself +murmuring more than once as I ran here and there; and I had almost sworn +that she whispered back to me, and that her breath was in my hair. + + * * * * * + +Within five minutes of my having left the King's bedchamber, I was +running up the stairs to Her Grace of Portsmouth's lodgings. I had said +scarce a word to Mr. Chiffinch when I came out into the little anteroom, +except that I was sent on a message by His Majesty; and he stared on me +as if I were mad. Then I was out again by the private way, through the +closet and the rooms beyond, and down the staircase. + +At the door of Her Grace's lodgings there stood a sentry who lowered his +pike as I came up, to bar my way. + +"Out of the way, man!" I cried at him. "I am on His Majesty's business." + +He too stared on me, and faltered, lifting his pike a little. All were +distraught by the news that was run like fire about the place that the +King was dying, or he would never have let me through. But I was past +him before he could change his mind again, and through a compile of +antechambers in one of which a page started up to know my business, but +I was past him as if he were no more than a shadow. + +Then I was in the great gallery, where I had sat with the King and his +company but four days ago. + + * * * * * + +It presented a very different appearance now. Then it had been all +ablaze with lights and merry with laughter and music. Now it was lit by +but a pair of candles over the hearth and, the glow of a dying fire. +Overhead the high roof glimmered into darkness, and the gorgeous +furniture was no more than dimness. I stopped short on the threshold, +bewildered at the gloom, thinking that the chamber was empty; then I saw +that a woman had raised herself from the great couch on which the King +had lolled with his little dogs last Sunday night, and was staring at me +like a ghost. + +At that sight I ran forward and kneeled down on one knee. + +"Madame," I said in French, "His Majesty hath sent me--" + +At that she was up, and had me by the shoulders. Her face was ghastly, +all slobbered over with crying, and her eyes sunken and her lips pale as +wax. God knows what she was dressed in; for I do not. + +"His Majesty," she cried, "His Majesty! He is not dead! For the love of +God--" + +I stood up; she still gripped me like a fury. + +"No, Madame," said I, "His Majesty is not dead. He hath sent me. I spoke +with him not five minutes ago. But he is very near death." + +"He hath sent for me! He hath sent for me!" she screamed, as if in +mingled joy and terror. + +"No, Madame; but he hath sent to you. His Majesty desires you to get him +a priest." + +Her hands relaxed and fell to her side. I do not know what she thought. +I do not judge her. But I thought that she hesitated. I fell on my knees +again; and seized her hand. I would have kneeled to the Devil, if he +could have helped me then. + +"Madame--for the love of Christ do as the King asks! He desires a +priest. For the love of Christ, Madame!" + +She was still silent for an instant, staring down on me. Then she tore +her hand free, and I thought she would refuse me. But she caught me +again by the shoulders. + +"Stand up, sir; stand up. I--I will do whatever the King desires. But +what can I do? God! there is someone coming!" + +There came very plainly, through the antechambers I had just run +through, the tramp of feet. I stood, as in a paralysis, not knowing what +to do next. Then she seized on me again as the steps came near. + +"Stand back," she said, "stand back, sir. I must see--" + +There came a knocking on the door as I sprang back away from the hearth, +and stood out of the firelight. Then the door opened, as Her Grace made +no answer, and the page whom I had seen just now stood bowing upon the +threshold. + +"Madame," said he. "M. Barillon, the French ambassador--" + +She made a swift gesture, and he fell back. There was a pause; and then, +through the door came M. Barillon, very upright and lean, walking +quickly, all alone. He stopped short when he saw Her Grace, put his +heels together and bowed very low. + +She was at him in an instant. + +"Monsieur!" she cried. "Yon are come in the very nick of time. How is +His Majesty?" + +He said nothing as he walked with her towards the hearth. She stood, +waiting, with her hands clasped, and a face of extraordinary anguish. + +"Madame," he said, "there is very bad news. I am come on behalf of His +Majesty King Louis--" + +"Sh!" she hissed at him, with a quick gesture to where I stood. He had +not observed me. He straightened himself, as he saw me, and then bowed a +little. + +The Duchess went on with extraordinary rapidity, still talking in +French. + +"This is Mr. Mallock," said she, "Mr. Mallock--but just now come from +His Majesty. He brings me very grave news. Monsieur Barillon, you will +help us, will you not? You will help us, surely?" + +All her anguish had passed into an extraordinary pleading: she was as a +child begging for life. + +"Madame--" began the ambassador. + +"Ah! listen, Monsieur, the king desires a priest. He is a Catholic at +heart, you know. He hath been a Catholic at heart a long time, ever +since--" she broke off. "You will help us, will you not, Monsieur?" + +He threw out his hands: but she paid no attention. + +"Monsieur, I swear to you that it is so. Yet what can I do? I cannot go +to him, with decency. The Queen is there continually, I hear. The Duke +is taken up with a thousand affairs and does not think of it. Go to the +Duke, I entreat you, Monsieur l'Ambassadeur; go to the Duke and tell him +what I say. Mr. Mallock shall go with you. He is a friend of the Duke. +He will bear me out. Monsieur, for the love of God lose no time. Come +and see me again; but go now, or it may be too late. Monsieur, I entreat +you." + +She had seized him by the arm as she spoke. Even his rigid face twitched +a little at the violence of her pleading. I knew well what was in his +mind, and how he wondered whether he dared do as she asked him. God knew +what complications might follow! + +"Monsieur--" + +He nodded suddenly and sharply. + +"Madame," said he, "I will go. Mr. Mallock--" + +He bowed to me. + +"Ah! God bless you, sir--" + +He stooped suddenly to her hand, lifted it and kissed it. I think in +that moment something of the compassion of the Saviour Himself fell on +him for this poor woman who yet might be forgiven much, for indeed, +under all her foolishness and sin, she loved very ardently. Then he +wheeled and went out of the room again; and I followed. No sound came +from the Duchess as we left her there in the half lit twilight. She was +standing with her hands clasped, staring after us as we went out. + + * * * * * + +He said nothing as we passed again through the anterooms and down the +stairs. Then, as we went on through the next gallery he spoke to me. His +men were a good way behind us, and another in front. + +"Mr. Mallock," said he--(for he had known me well enough in +France)--"His Majesty told you this himself?" + +"Yes, sir," said I, "not a quarter of an hour ago." + +"Then the Duke is our only chance," he said. + +He said no more till we came to the great antechamber by the King's +bedroom. It was half full of people; but the Duke was nowhere to be +seen. I waited by the door as M. Barillon went forward and spoke to +someone. Then he came back to me. + +"The Duke is with the Queen," he said. "We must go to him there." + +It was enough to send a man mad so to seek person after person in such a +simple matter as this. Why in God's name, I wondered, might not even a +King die in what religion he liked, without all this plotting and +conspiring? Was I never to be free from these things? + +At the door to the Queen's apartments M. Barillon turned to me. + +"You had best wait here, sir," he said. "I will speak with the Duke +privately first." + +He was admitted instantly so soon as he knocked; and went through +leaving me in a little gallery. + + * * * * * + +Of all that went through my mind as I walked up and down, with a page +watching me from the door, I can give no account at all. Again one half +of my attention was fixed, though with out any coherency, on the +business I was at; the other half observed the carpet under my feet, +the cabinets along the wall, and the pictures. It was not near as +splendid as were the rooms I had left so short a while ago. + +I had not to wait long. There was a sudden talking of voices beyond the +door that the Ambassador had just passed through; and I heard the Duke's +tones very plain. Then the page stiffened to attention, the door was +flung open suddenly, and the Duke came out alone at a great pace, +leaving the door open behind him. He never saw me at all. The page +darted after him, and the two disappeared together round the corner in +the direction of the King's rooms. As soon as they were gone, M. +Barillon came out and beckoned to me; and together we went up and down +the gallery. + +"You are perfectly right, sir," he said. "His Royal Highness shewed +great sorrow for not leaving thought of it. He is gone instantly to His +Majesty." + +"He will fetch a priest?" + +"He will speak to His Majesty first. He will find out, at least, what he +thinks." + +"But, good God!" said I. "His Majesty hath told me himself what he +wishes." + +"You must let His Royal Highness do it in his own way," he said. "He +must not be pushed. But I think you have done the trick, Mr. Mallock." + +"How is Her Majesty?" I asked abruptly. + +"The physicians have been at her too," he said dryly. "She had a +fainting-fit just now in His Majesty's presence; and they have been +blooding her." + +"What priest can be got?" I asked next. + +He made a gesture towards the chamber he had just come out of. + +"There is a pack of them in there," he said, "next to Her Majesty's +private closet. They have been praying all day in the oratory." + + * * * * * + +It was fallen dark by now; for it was long after five o'clock; and there +were no candles lighted here. We went up and down a good while longer, +for the most part in silence, speaking of this and that; and I will not +deny that we talked a little of French affairs, though God knows I was +in no heart for that, and answered very indifferently. It appeared to me +extraordinary that a man could think of such little things as the +affairs of kingdoms when an immortal soul was at stake. + +A little before six o'clock, when at last the servants brought lights, +the Ambassador left me again to go in to see the Queen, leaving me to +watch for the Duke; and I had not very long to wait, for soon after I +had heard a clock chime the hour, His Royal Highness came again, walking +very quickly as before; and, when he saw me waiting there, beckoned me +to follow him. We went through two or three rooms, all lighted up and +empty--the Duke sending a page to fetch M. Barillon out of the Queen's +private closet where he was talking with her--into a little chamber +that looked out upon the court, where there was a fire lighted. We had +hardly got there before the Ambassador came, all in haste, to hear what +had been done. + +"I have spoken with His Majesty," said the Duke, looking very white and +drawn in the face. "He is in most excellent dispositions. He tells me +that he hath put off the Bishops and has not received the sacrament from +them and will not." + +"And what of a priest, Sir?" asked the Ambassador sharply. + +"I did not speak to him of that," answered the Duke so pompously that I +raged to hear him. "He said that Dr. Ken hath read prayers over him, and +told him that he need make no confession unless he willed; and that he +willed not, and did not; but that Dr. Ken read an absolution over him +which he values not at a straw." + +"Sir," said I, very boldly, "this is very pretty talk; but it is not a +priest. His Majesty wishes for a priest; he told me so himself." + +The Duke turned on me very hotly. + +"Eh, sir?" + +I made haste to swallow down my wrath. + +"Sir," I said, "I did not mean to be discourteous. But I assure Your +Royal Highness that the King said so to me expressly. It is his immortal +soul that is at stake." + +Then I understood what was the matter. The Duke flung out his hands as +if in despair. + +"But what can I do?" he cried. "I am watched every instant. They will +not leave me alone with him. Dr. Ken eyed me very sharply. They suspect +something--I know they do--from my brother's having refused their +ministrations. How can I get a priest to him?" + +Then again, by God's inspiration as I truly believe, a thought came to +me. + +"Sir," I said, "I myself spoke with the King a while ago: and I do not +think that a soul saw who I was. I came through the little door at the +back of the bed. Why should not--" + +The Ambassador struck his hands together. + +"_Bon Dieu_!" he said. "I believe Mr. Mallock hath hit it again." + +The Duke turned and eyed me very sternly. + +"Well, sir, what is your plan?" + +"Sir," I said, "let the chamber be cleared, or almost. Then let M. +Barillon here go in as if he had a message from the French King. While +he is there let a priest be brought by the back way, not through the +antechamber at all--" + +M. Barillon held up his hand. + +"There would not be time," he said. "It does not take half an hour to +deliver a message; and the priest's business would take full half an +hour?" + +"No! no!" cried James. "They would suspect something. Let Her Majesty +come again to take her leave of the King; and then I will go in after +for the same thing. While we are there, let the priest come, as Mr. +Mallock has said--" + +"Sir," said the Ambassador, "we must not have too many folks in this +business--" + +All this bargaining drove me near mad. Once more I broke in; and this +time with more effect. + +"Sir," I said to the Duke, "I entreat you to hear me. There is the +little room at the back of His Majesty's bed, all ready, and empty too. +We do not need all these devices. If you, Sir, will go to the King and +prepare him for it, I will find a priest and bring him up the other way. +I do not believe that even if there were folks in the bedchamber they +would hear what passed." + +"Which way would the priest come?" asked the Duke. + +"There is a little stair in the corner of the room--" + +"God! There is," cried the Duke. "I had forgotten it." + +We stared on one another in silence. My mind raced like a mill. Then +once more the Duke near ruined the whole design by his diplomacy. + +"Gentlemen," he said, "we are too precipitate. His Majesty hath not yet +told me that he wishes for a priest--" + +"Sir--" I began in desperation. + +He looked at me so fiercely that I stopped. + +"Listen to me," said he very imperiously. "I will have it my own way. M. +Barillon, do you come with me now to His Majesty. I will bid the company +withdraw into the antechamber--Bishops and all--on the pretext that I +wish to consult with my brother privately. M. Barillon shall be in the +doorway that none may come through. Mr. Mallock shall be with the +company and hear what they say. Then, if the King wishes for a priest, +we will consult again here, and see if Mr. Mallock's plan is a possible +one." + +He strode towards the door. There was no more to be said. It was a +dreadful risk that we ran in so long delaying; but there was no +gainsaying James when he had made up his mind. + + * * * * * + +The great antechamber was near full of folks of all kinds when we three +came to it again. They fell back as they saw the Duke; and he passed +straight through, as was arranged, with M. Barillon, leaving me behind, +near the door. The King's bedchamber was pretty dark, and I could see no +more of the bed at the far distant end than its curtains. + +Presently I heard the Duke in a low voice saying something to the +company that was within: and immediately they began to come out, three +or four Bishops, among them, my Lord Halifax, Lord Keeper North, and my +Lord Craven; I noticed that M. Barillon was very careful to let all in +the antechamber have a clear view of the bed, at which, by now the Duke +was kneeling down, having drawn back the curtains a little, yet not so +much as to shew us the King lying there. + +Round about me they talked very little, though I saw the Bishops +whispering together. The two brothers spoke together, very low, for ten +minutes or a quarter of an hour; and I could hear the murmur of the +Duke's voice. Of His Majesty's I heard nothing except that twice he +said, very clear: + +"Yes.... Yes, with all my heart." + +And I thanked God when I heard that. + + * * * * * + +Yet, even so, all was not yet done. + +So soon as I saw the Duke stand up again from his kneeling, and coming +down the chamber, I slipped away to the door that leads out towards Her +Majesty's apartments, that I might be ready for him. I saw him come +through, all the people standing and bowing to him, and M. Barillon +following him; and I noticed in particular a young gentleman whose name +I did not know at that time--(it was the Comte de Castelmelhor, a very +good Catholic)--standing out, a little by himself. I noticed this man +because I saw that the Duke looked at him as he came and presently +signed to him very slightly, with his head, to follow. So all four of us +passed through the door into the long gallery that unites their +Majesties' apartments and found ourselves alone in it. The Count was a +little behind. + +"He has consented," said the Duke in a low voice, "to my bringing him a +priest. We must send for one. But I dare not bring one of the Duchess': +they are too well-known." + +"Sir," said Monsieur Barillon, "I will do so with pleasure. Why not one +of Her Majesty's priests?" + +The Duke nodded. We three were all standing together about the middle of +the gallery. The Comte de Castelmelhor was halted, uncovered, a little +behind us. The Duke turned to him. + +"Count," said he, speaking in French, "we are on a very urgent business. +His Majesty hath consented that a priest should come to him. Will you +go for us to the Queen and ask for one of her chaplains?" + +The young man flushed up with pleasure. + +"With all my heart, Sir," he said. "Which priest shall I ask for? Is +there one that can speak English?" + +The Duke struck his forehead with his open hand. + +"Lord!" he said. "I never thought of that. We must have an Englishman. +Where shall we send?" + +"Sir," said the Ambassador; "there is one at least at the Venetian +Resident's." + +Again I broke in. (My impatience drove me near mad. Time was passing +quickly. I could have fetched a priest myself ten times over if the Duke +had but allowed me to go in the beginning.) + +"Sir," said I, "for God's sake let me go first to Her Majesty's +apartments. I'll be bound there's one at least there that knows English. +Let this gentleman come with me." + +The Duke stared at me as if bewildered. I think he saw that he had done +little but hinder the business, so far. + +"Go," he said suddenly. "Go both of you together--Stay. Bring a priest +with you, if you can find one, to the little room behind the King's bed; +but bring him up the stairs the other way. Bid him stay till I send +Chiffinch to him." + +Then we were gone at full speed. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + + +It was eight o'clock at night; and the priest and I were still waiting +in the little room; and no word was come through from the Bedchamber, +beyond that Mr. Chiffinch had come through once to bid us be ready. + + * * * * * + +Once again God had favoured us in spite of all our blunders. The Count +and I had run together through to Her Majesty's lodging and there we had +found, as I knew we should, a priest that knew English. But I had not +thought that God's Hand should be so visible in the matter as that we +should find none other but Mr. Huddleston himself, the Scotsman, that +had saved the King's life after the battle of Worcester. There was a +very particular seemliness in this--though I had not much time to think +of it then. But our difficulties were not all over. + +First, Mr. Huddleston declared that he had never reconciled a convert in +his life; and did not know how to set about it. Next he said that he was +the worst man in the world to do it, as his face was very well known, +and that he would surely be suspected if he were seen: and third that +the Most Holy Sacrament was not in Whitehall at all, and that therefore +he could not give _Viaticum._ He looked very agitated, in spite of his +ruddy face. + +I was amazed at the man; but I forced myself to treat him with patience, +for he was the only priest we could get. + +First I told him that nothing was needed but to hear the King's +confession, give him absolution and anoint him: next, that we would +disguise him in a great periwig and a gown, such as the Protestant +Divines wore--(for, as I spoke, I actually spied such a gown hanging on +the wall of the chamber in which I was speaking with him). Third, that +another priest could go to St. James' and bring the Most Holy Sacrament +to him from there. + +At that point Father Bento de Lemoz, who was listening to our talk, +came forward and interposed. He would get a little Ritual directly, he +said (in very poor English)--that had in it all that was necessary: and +he would go himself, not to St. James', for that was too far off, but to +Somerset House, and get the Holy Sacrament from the royal chapel there. +Mr. Huddleston had nothing to say to that; and in five minutes we had +him in his periwig and gown, with the book in his pocket, with the holy +oils, and away downstairs, and along the passage beneath, and up again +by the little winding stair into the chamber beyond the King's bed. I +gave him no time to think of any more objections. + + * * * * * + +That was a very strange vigil that we held for very near, I should +think, twenty minutes or half an hour. We both sat there together +without speaking. For the most of the time Mr. Huddleston was reading in +his Ritual, and I could see his brow furrowed and his lips moving, as be +conned over all that he would have to do and say to His Majesty. He was +a man, as he had said, completely unaccustomed to such ministrations, +though he was a very good man and a good priest too, in other matters. +After a while he laid aside his book, and prayed, I think, for he +covered his face with his hands. + + * * * * * + +A minute or two later I could bear the delay no longer. I rose and went +up the three or four steps that led to the King's Bedchamber, and +listened. There was a low murmur of voices within; so that it seemed to +me that the room was not yet cleared. I put my hand upon the door and +pushed it a little; and to my satisfaction it was not latched, but +opened an inch or two. But someone was standing immediately on the other +side of it. I stepped back, and the door opened again just enough for me +to see the face of Mr. Chiffinch. He looked past me quickly to see that +the priest was there, I suppose, and then nodded at me two or three +times. Then he pushed the door almost to, again. A moment after I heard +the Duke's voice within, a little unsteady, but very clear and distinct. +He was standing up, I think, on the far side of the bed. + +"Gentlemen," he said, "the King wishes all to retire excepting the +Earls of Bath and Feversham." + +(Bath and Feversham! thought I. Why those two, in God's name, that were +such a pair of Protestants? But, indeed, it was the one good stroke that +the Duke made, for the names reassured, as I heard afterwards, all that +had any suspicions, and even the Bishops themselves.) + +There was a rustle of footsteps, very plain, that followed the Duke's +words. I turned to the room behind me, again, and saw that Mr. +Huddleston too had heard what had passed. He was standing up, very pale +and agitated, with the book clasped in his hands. I moved down the steps +again so as not to block the way; and again there followed a silence, in +the midst of which I heard a door latched somewhere in the Bedchamber. + +Then, suddenly, the door opened at the head of the stairs; and the Duke +stood there, he too as pale as death. He nodded once, very emphatically, +and disappeared again. Then the priest went by me without a word, up the +steps and so through. The door, as before, remained a crack open. I went +up to it, and put my eye to the crack. + +On the left was the end of the bed, with the curtains drawn across it; +and beyond the bed I could see the whole room down to the end, for the +candles were burning everywhere, as well as the fire. I could see the +great table before the hearth, the physician's instruments and bottles +and cupping-glasses upon it, the chairs about it; the tall furniture +against the walls, and at least half a dozen clocks, whose ticking was +very plain in the silence. Three figures only were visible there. That +nearest, standing very rigid by the table, was Mr. Chiffinch: of the two +beyond I could recognize only my Lord Bath whose face looked this way: +the other I supposed to be my Lord Feversham. The Duke was not within +sight. He was kneeling, I suppose, out of my sight, beyond the bed. + +Then I heard His Majesty's voice very plain, though very weak and slow. + +"Ah!" said he, "you that saved my body is now come to save my soul." + +There was the murmur of the priest's voice in answer. (The two of them +were not more than three or four yards away from me, at the most.) Then +again I heard the King, very clear and continuous, though still weak, +and not so loud as he had first spoken. + +"Yes," said he, "I desire to die in the Faith and Communion of the Holy +Roman Catholic Church. I am sorry with all my heart that I have deferred +it for so long; and for all my sins." + +(He said it quite distinctly, as if he had rehearsed it beforehand.) + +Then the priest and he spoke together--the King repeating the priest's +words sometimes, and sometimes volunteering word or two of his own. + +He said that through Christ's Passion he hoped to be saved; that he was +in charity with all the world; that he pardoned his enemies most +heartily, and desired pardon of all whom he had offended; that if God +would yet spare him, he would amend his life in every particular. + +All that I heard with my own ears, and with inexpressible comfort. His +Majesty's voice was low, but very distinct, though sometimes he spoke +scarce above a whisper; and I do not think that any man who heard him +could doubt his sincerity--however late it was to shew it. But he was +not altogether too late, thank God! + + * * * * * + +So soon as His Majesty began his confession, after Mr. Huddleston's +moving him to it, I slipped away from the door and began, as softly as I +could to walk up and down the little chamber again. I was satisfied +beyond measure: yet it seemed to me sometimes near incredible that I +should in very truth, be here at such a time, and that I should have +been, under God's merciful Providence, the instrument in such an affair. +My life was ended, I knew well enough now, in all matters that the world +counts life to consist of; yet was there ever such an ending? I had seen +all else go from me--my natural activities of every kind, my ambitions, +even the most sacred thing that the world can give, after the Love of +God, and that is the love of a woman! Yet the one purely supernatural +end that I had set before me--that end to which, four days ago, I had +said, as I thought, good-bye for ever in the Duchess of Portsmouth's +gallery--this was the one single thing that was mine after all. I could +take that at least with me into the cloister, and could praise God for +it all my life long--I mean the conversion of the man that was called +King of England, the man who, for all his sins and his treatment of me, +I yet loved as I have never loved any other man on earth. I think that +in those minutes of sorrow and joy as I paced up and down the little +room, my dearest Dolly was not very far away from me and that she knew +all that I felt. + +Once--in a loud broken voice through the door--I heard these words: + +--"Sweet Jesus. Amen.... Mercy, Sweet Jesus, Mercy!" + +That was the King's voice that I heard: and I kneeled down when I heard +them. + + * * * * * + +It would be about ten minutes later, as I still kneeled, that I heard, +upon the outside of the door that led down the winding stairs, a very +small tapping. + +I ran to the door to open it, wondering who it could be; for I had +forgotten all about the Portuguese priest, though I had set the candles +ready burning, with a napkin on the table between them, in readiness for +his coming. And there he stood, with his eyes cast down, and his hands +clasped upon his breast. + +I beckoned him forward, pointing to the table, and kneeled down again. + +He went past me without a word, kneeled himself before the table and +then, unbuttoning his cloak he drew from round his neck the chain and +the Pyx from his breast, and laid it all upon the table, continuing +himself to kneel. + +Presently he turned and looked at me, lifting his brows. + +I knew what he wished; rose from my knees and went up the stairs, but +very cautiously, lest I should hear anything that I should not. There +was but a very faint murmur of the priest's voice, so I took courage and +pushed the door a little open so that I could see the King. + +It was very dark within the curtains, for they were drawn against the +candlelight; but I could see what was passing. His Majesty was lying +flat upon his back, with his hands clasped beneath his chin, and Mr. +Huddleston was in the very act of arranging the coverlet over him again, +after the last Anointing. As I looked the priest turned and caught my +eyes, as he put the oil-stock and the wool away again in his cassock +breast. I nodded three times very emphatically--(His Majesty did not see +me at all, for his eyes were closed)--and went back again down the +stairs and kneeled once more. A few moments later Mr. Huddleston came +through. + +I have never seen so swift a change in any man's face. He had been +terrified as he had gone in--all pale and shaking. Now he was still +pale, but his eyes shone, and there was a look of great assurance in his +face. He came straight down the steps without speaking, kneeled, rose +again, took up the Pyx and the corporal which Father de Lemoz had spread +beneath it, and passed up and out again. His priesthood, I suppose, had +risen in him like a great tide, and driven out all other emotions. + + * * * * * + +Again I followed him to the door, and kneeled there where I could see; +and then there followed such a scene as I had never dreamed of. + +The curtains on the other side of the bed had been drawn back just +enough to admit the face of the Duke who now kneeled there, yet not so +much that any of the three others at the further end of the chamber +could see into the bed. The candlelight streamed in through the opening +above the Duke's head; and in it, I saw His Majesty, all weak as he was, +striving to rise, with his eyes fixed on That which the priest was +holding in his right hand. I saw the priest's left hand go out to +restrain him; but I heard the King's voice distinctly. + +"Father," he said very brokenly, "let me receive my Heavenly Saviour in +a better posture than lying on my bed." + +"Sir," said Mr. Huddleston with great firmness, "lie down again, if you +please. God Almighty who sees your heart will accept your good +intention." + +(But neither of them spoke loud enough to be heard at the further end of +the great chamber.) + +And so he was persuaded to lie down again. + +Then the priest repeated again, still holding the Blessed Sacrament +before the King's eyes, the Act of Contrition of which I had heard a +word or two a while ago; and His Majesty repeated it after him, word for +word, very devoutly. + +Then, as the time was short Mr. Huddleston omitted several of the proper +prayers, and proceeded at once to the Communion, saying but the _Agnus +Dei_ three times, and then communicating him immediately. With my own +eyes I saw that holy act which sealed all and admitted the dying man to +sacramental union with his God. His eyes were closed throughout; and +when it was done he lay as still as a stone, his poor wasted face all +dark against the white pillows. I caught a glimpse too of the Duke: his +face was bowed in his hands, and he was weeping so that his shoulders +shook with it. + +Presently the priest was reading again as well as he could in a very low +whisper the prayers for the Recommendation of a Departing Soul, down to +the very end. His Majesty lay motionless throughout. At the end he +opened his eyes. + +"Father," he whispered, "the Act of Contrition once more, if you please. +I have sinned, I have sinned very--" He could speak no more for +weeping. + +Then, once more, very slowly and tenderly, the priest repeated it; down +to _Mercy, Sweet Jesus, Mercy!_ My own eyes were all dim with tears, and +as fast as I brushed them away, they came again. When at last I could +see plainly once more, the priest was holding up a little crucifix +before the King's eyes; and he made him a short address, very Christian +and forcible. I remember near every word of it, as he said it. + +"Lift up the eyes of your soul, Sir," he said, "and represent to +yourself your sweet Saviour here crucified, bowing down His Head to kiss +you; His Arms stretched out to embrace you; His Body and members all +bloody and pale with death to redeem you. Beseech Him, Sir, with all +humility that His most Precious Blood may not be shed in vain for you; +and that it will please Him, by the merits of His bitter Death and +Passion, to pardon and forgive you all your offences; and, finally, to +receive your soul into His Blessed Hands; and, when it shall please Him +to take it out of this transitory world, to grant you a joyful +resurrection, and an eternal crown of glory in the next." + +He bent lower, making a great sign of the cross with his right +hand--(and the King too tried to bless himself in response). + +"In the Name," said he, "of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy +Ghost. Amen." + + * * * * * + +One more joy and sorrow all in one was yet to be mine before the end. As +I opened the door for the priest to come back, His Majesty lifted his +eyes and saw me there; and I perceived that he recognized me. The Duke +had already risen up and gone down the room to bid them, I suppose, to +open the door and let the folks in again. Then, as the King's eyes met +my own he made a sign with his head that I should come near. I think +that if the chamber had been filled with but one mob of priest-hunters +and Protestants, I should have obeyed him then, even though I should +have been torn to pieces the next instant. + +I went forward without a word, leaving the door open behind me, and +flung myself on my knees at the bedside. + +His Majesty was too weary to speak, but, as I kneeled there, with my +face in my hands on the bedclothes, and my tears raining down, he lifted +his right hand and put it on my head, leaving it there for an instant. +It was all he could do to thank me; and I value that blessing from him, +a penitent sinner as he was, with the Body of our Saviour still in his +breast, as much as any blessing I have ever had from any man, priest or +bishop or Pope. + +As he lifted his hand off again, I caught at it, and kissed it three or +four times, careless whether or no my tears poured down upon it. + + * * * * * + +As I passed back again through the door to where Mr. Huddleston was +waiting for me, I heard the doors at the further end of the chamber +unlatched and the footsteps of the folks--physicians, courtiers, Bishops +and the rest--that poured in to see the end. + + + + +EPILOGUE + + +I have said again and again how strange this or that moment or incident +appeared to me as I experienced it; yet as I sit here now in my cell, +thirty years later, looking out upon the cloister-garth with its twisted +columns, and the cypresses and the grass, it is not so much this or that +thing that appears to me strange, but the whole of my experiences and +indeed human life altogether. For what can be more extraordinary than a +life which began as mine did, when I first went to England in sixteen +hundred and seventy-eight, should be ending as mine will end presently, +if God will, as a monk of St. Paul's-Without-the-Walls, in Holy Rome? To +what purpose, I ask myself, was that part of my life designed by Divine +Providence? For what did I labour so long, when all was to come to +nothing? For what was I to learn the passion of human love; if but to +lose it again? For what was I to intrigue and spy and labour and +adventure my life, for the cause of England and the Catholic Church, +when all a year or two later was to fall back, and further than it had +ever fallen before, into the darkness of heresy? There is but one effort +in all those years of which I saw the fruition, and that was the +conversion of my master upon his deathbed. + +However, I have not yet related what passed after I had gone from the +King again, and took Mr. Huddleston downstairs. I will relate that very +shortly; and make an end. I had it all from Mr. Chiffinch before I left +London. + + * * * * * + +His Majesty, after we were gone from him, rallied a little, in so far as +to make some think that he would recover altogether; but the physicians +said No; and they were right for near the first time in all their +diagnosis of his state. But they continued to give him their remedies of +Sal Ammoniac and Peruvian Bark, and later the Oriental Bezoar Stone, +which is a pebble, I understand, taken from the stomach of a goat. Also +they blooded him again, twelve ounces more, and all to no purpose. + +His Majesty said a number of things that night that were very +characteristic of him; for God gave him back his gift of merriment, now +that he had the Gift of Faith as well: and he shewed a great tenderness +too from time to time and a very Christian appreciation of his own +condition. + +For example, he said that he was suffering very much, but he thanked God +for it and that he was able to bear it with patience, as indeed he did. + +Two or three times however he seemed to sigh for death to come quickly; +and once he looked round with his old laughter at the solemn faces round +his bed, and begged their pardon that he was "such an unconscionable +time in dying." "My work in this world seems over," he said--"such as it +has been. I pray God I may be at a better occupation presently." + +He thanked His Royal Highness the Duke of York (who was by his bed all +that night, weeping and kissing his hand repeatedly) for all his +attention and love for him, and asked his pardon for any hardship that +had been done to his brother, through his fault. He gave him his clothes +and his keys; telling him that all was now his; and that he prayed God +to give him a prosperous reign. + +To Her Majesty who came to see him again about midnight, he shewed the +tenderest consideration and love: but the Queen, who swooned again and +again at the sight of him, and had to be carried back to her apartments, +sent him a message later begging his pardon for any offence that she had +ever done to him. + +"What!" whispered the King. "What! She beg my pardon, poor woman! Rather +I beg hers with all my heart. Carry that message back to Her Majesty." + +No less than twice did the King commend the Duchess of Portsmouth to the +Duke's care--poor "Fubbs" as he had called her to me. Some blamed him +for thinking of her at all at such a time; as also for bidding his +brother "not to let poor Nell starve"; but for myself I cannot +understand such blame at all. If ever there were two poor souls who +needed care and forgiveness it was those two women, Mrs. Nell and Her +Grace. + +All his natural sons were there--all except the Duke of Monmouth whose +name never passed his lips from the beginning of his sickness to the +end--and these too he recommended to his brother--the three sons of the +Duchess of Cleveland, and the rest. I do not wonder that he left out His +Grace of Monmouth: it seems to me very near prophetical of what was to +fall presently, when the Duke was to revolt against his new Sovereign +and suffer the last penalty for it, at his hands. But His Majesty +blessed all the rest of his children one by one, drawing them down to +him upon the bed--they weeping aloud, as I heard. + +A very strange scene followed this. One of the Bishops fell down upon +his knees, and begged him, who was the "Lord's Anointed"--(and anointed +too, lately, in a fashion the Bishop never dreamed of!)--to bless all +that were there, since they were all his children, and all his subjects +too. The Bedchamber was now full from end to end; and all the company +fell together upon their knees. His Majesty, raising himself in bed, +first begged the pardon of all in a loud voice for anything in which he +had acted contrary to the interests of his country or the principles of +good government; and then, still in a loud voice, pronounced a blessing +on them all. Then he fell back again upon his pillows. + +So that night went slowly by. The dogs were still in the room, whining +from time to time, as Mr. Chiffinch told me afterwards--(for it was +thought better that I myself, as one so deeply involved in what had +lately passed should not be present)--and one of the little dogs sought +repeatedly to leap upon the bed, but was prevented; and at last was +carried away, crying. Again and again first one Bishop and then another +begged him to receive the sacrament; but he would not: so they prayed by +him instead, which was all they could do. + +At about six o'clock, when dawn came, he begged that the curtains of his +bed might be drawn back yet further, and the windows opened, that he +might see daylight again and breathe the fresh air: and this was done. +Then, at the chiming of the hour by the clocks in the room, he +remembered that one of them, which was an eight-day one, should be wound +up, for it was a Friday on which it was always wound. And this too was +done. + +At seven o'clock breathlessness came on him again, and he was compelled +to sit up in bed, with his brother's arm about him on one side, and a +physician's upon the other. They blooded him again, to twelve ounces +more, which I suppose took his last remnant of strength from him; for in +spite of their remedies, he sank very rapidly; and about half-past eight +lost all power of speech. He kept his consciousness, however, moving his +eyes and shewing that he understood what was said to him till ten +o'clock; and then he became unconscious altogether. + +At a little before noon, without a struggle or agony of any kind, His +Sacred Majesty ceased to breathe. + +Of all that followed, there is no need that I should write; for I +remained in England only till after the funeral in Westminster +Abbey--which was very poorly done--eight days later; and I left on the +Sunday morning, for Dover, after being present first, for a remembrance, +at the first mass celebrated publicly in England, with open doors, in +the presence of the Sovereign, since over a hundred and thirty years. I +had audience with King James on the night before, when I went to take my +leave of him; and he renewed to me the offer of the Viscounty, of which +I think Mr. Chiffinch had spoken to him. But I refused it as courteously +as I could, telling him that I was for Rome and the cloister. + +All the rest, however, is known by others better than by myself; and the +events that followed. His Majesty shewed himself as he had always +been--courageous, obstinate, well-intentioned and entirely without +understanding. He was profuse in his promises of religious equality; but +slow to observe them. He shewed ruthlessness where he should have shewn +tenderness, and tenderness where he should have shewn ruthlessness. So, +once more, all our labours went for nothing; and William came in; and +the Catholic cause vanished clean out of England until it shall please +God to bring it back again. + +So here I sit near sixty years old, a monk of the Order of Saint Benet, +in my cell at St. Paul's-Without-the-Walls. I have been Novice Master +three times; but I shall never be more than that; for governmental +affairs and I have said farewell to one another a long while ago. It was +through my telling of my adventures to my Novices at recreation-time +that the writing of them down came about; for my Lord Abbot heard of +them, and put me under obedience to write them down. He did this when he +heard one of my Novices name me to another as Father Viscount! I have +written them, then, down all in full, leaving nothing out except the +French affairs on which I was put under oath by His Majesty never to +reveal anything: I have left out not even the tale of my Cousin Dolly; +for I hold that in such a love as was ours there is nothing that a monk +need be ashamed of. I will venture even further than that, and will say +that I am a better monk than I should have been without it; and as one +last piece of rashness I will say that amongst "those good things which +God hath prepared for them that love Him" in that world which is beyond +this (if I ever come at it by His Grace), will be, I think, the look on +my Cousin Dolly's face when I see her again. + +Of other personages whose acquaintance I made in England--excepting +always His Majesty, and my master, Charles the Second--I neither speak +nor think very much now. My Cousin Tom died of an apoplexy three years +after I left England, and God knows who hath Hare Street House to-day! +His Majesty James the Second, as all the world knows, made a most +excellent end of it in France, dying as he had never lived till after +his coming to France, a very humble and Christian soul. In regard to Mr. +Chiffinch, I think of him sometimes and wonder what kind of an end he +made. He was very reprobate while I knew him; yet he had the gift of +fidelity, and that, I think, must count for something before God who +gave it him. Of the ladies of the Court I know nothing at all, nor how +they fared nor how they ended, nor even if they are all dead yet--I mean +such ladies as was Her Grace of Portsmouth. + +But all of them I commend to God every day in my mass living or dead; +and trust that all may have found the mercy of God, or may yet find it. +But most of all I remember at the altar the names of two persons, than +between whom there could be no greater difference in this world--the +names of Dorothy Mary Jermyn, the least of all sinners; and of Charles +Stuart, King of England, the greatest of all sinners, yet a penitent +one. For these are the two whom I have loved as I can never love any +others. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Oddsfish!, by Robert Hugh Benson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ODDSFISH! *** + +***** This file should be named 16288-8.txt or 16288-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/2/8/16288/ + +Produced by Geoff Horton and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + +*** END: FULL LICENSE *** + diff --git a/16288-8.zip b/16288-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f4962fa --- /dev/null +++ b/16288-8.zip diff --git a/16288.txt b/16288.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5b391b3 --- /dev/null +++ b/16288.txt @@ -0,0 +1,17980 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Oddsfish!, by Robert Hugh Benson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Oddsfish! + +Author: Robert Hugh Benson + +Release Date: July 13, 2005 [EBook #16288] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ODDSFISH! *** + + + + +Produced by Geoff Horton and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +ODDSFISH! + +BY + +ROBERT HUGH BENSON + +Author of "Come Rack! Come Rope!", "Lord of the World," "Initiation," +etc. + +NEW YORK +DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY + +1914 +AUTHOR'S NOTE. + + +I wish to express my gratitude for great help received in the writing of +this book to Miss MacDermot, Miss Stearne and others, as well as to +three friends who submitted to hearing it read aloud in manuscript, and +who assisted me by their criticisms and suggestions. + +Further, I think it worth saying that in all historical episodes in this +book I have taken pains to be as accurate as possible. The various +plots, the political movements, and the closing scenes of Charles II's +life are here described with as much fidelity to truth as is compatible +with historical romance. In particular, I do not think that the King +himself is represented as doing or saying anything--except of course to +my fictitious personages--to which sound history does not testify. I +have also taken considerable pains in the topographical descriptions of +Whitehall. + + + + +PROLOGUE + + +The day from which I reckon the beginning of all those adventures which +occupied me in the Courts of England and France and elsewhere, was the +first day of May in the year sixteen hundred and seventy-eight--the day, +that is, on which my Lord Abbot carried me from St. Paul's-without-the- +Walls to the Vatican Palace, to see our Most Holy Lord Innocent the +Eleventh. + +It had been a very hot day in Rome, as was to be expected at that +season; and I had stayed in the cloister in the cool, as my Lord Abbot +had bidden me, not knowing whether it would be on that day or another, +or, indeed, on any at all, that His Holiness would send for me. I knew +that my Lord Abbot had been to the Vatican again and again on the +business; and had spoken of me, as he said he would, not to the Holy +Father only, but to the Cardinal Secretary of State and to others; but I +did not know, and he did not tell me, as to whether that business had +been prosperous; though I think he must have known long before how it +would end. An hour before _Ave Maria_, then, he sent to me, as I walked +in the cloisters, and when I came to him, told me, all short, to dress +myself in my old secular clothes, as fine as I could, and to be ready to +ride with him in half an hour, because our Most Holy Lord had consented +to receive me one hour after _Ave Maria_. He said nothing more to me +than that; he did not tell me how I was to bear myself, nor what I was +to say, neither as I stood in his cell, nor as we rode as fast as we +could, with the servants before and behind, into Rome and through the +streets of it. I knew nothing more than this--that since neither I nor +my novice-master were in the least satisfied as to my vocation, and +since I had considerable estates of my own in France (though I was an +Englishman altogether on my father's side), and could speak both French +and English with equal ease, and Italian and Spanish tolerably--that +since, in short, I was a very well-educated young gentleman, and looked +more than my years, and bore myself--(so I was told)--with ease and +discretion in any company, and could act a part if it were required of +me--I might perhaps be of better service to the Church in some secular +employment than in sacred. This was all that I knew. The rest my Lord +Abbot left to my own wits to understand, and to our Holy Father, if he +would, to discover to me: and that, indeed, was presently what he did. + + * * * * * + +I had been within the Vatican before three or four times, both when I +had first come to Rome four years ago, and once as attendant upon my +Lord Abbot; but never before had I felt of such importance within those +walls; for this time it was myself to whom the Holy Father was to give +audience, and not merely to one in whose company I was. I was in secular +clothes too--the peruke, buckles, sword, and all the rest, which I had +laid aside two years ago, though these were a little old and +tarnished--and I bore myself as young men will (for I was only +twenty-one years old at that time), with an air and a swing; though my +heart beat a little faster as we passed through the great rooms, after +leaving our cloaks in an antechamber and arranging our dress after the +ride; and at last were bidden to sit down while the young Monsignore who +had received us in the last saloon went in to know if the Holy Father +were ready to see us. + +It was a smaller room--this in which we sat--than the others through +which we had passed, and in which the crimson liveried servants were; +and its walls were all covered with hangings from cornice to floor. That +which was opposite to me presented, I remember, Jacob receiving the +blessing which his brother Esau should have had; and I wondered, as I +sat there, whether I myself were come, as Jacob, to get a blessing to +which I had no right. Idly Lord Abbot said nothing at all; for he was a +stout man and a little out of breath; and almost before he had got it +again, and before I was sure as to whether I were more like to the liar +Jacob, who won a blessing when he should not, or to unspiritual Esau, +who lost a blessing which he should have had, the young Monsignore in +his purple came back again, and, bowing so low that we saw the little +tonsure on the top of his head, beckoned to us to enter. + + * * * * * + +By the time that, behind my Lord Abbot, I had performed the three +genuflections and, at the third, was kissing the ring of our Most Holy +Lord, I had already taken into my mind something of the room I was in +and of him who sat there, wheeled round in his chair to greet us. The +room was far more plain than I had thought to find it, though pretty +rich too. The walls had sacred hangings upon them; but it was so dark +with the shuttered windows that I could not make out very well what +their subjects were. A dozen damask and gilt chairs stood round the +walls, and three or four tables; and, in the centre of all, where I was +now arrived, stood the greatest table of all, carved of some black wood, +and at the middle of one side the chair in which sat the Holy Father +himself. + +He had very kind but very piercing eyes: this was the first thing that I +thought; his hair beneath his cap, as well as his beard, was all +iron-grey; his complexion was a little sallow, and seemed all the more +sallow because of his red velvet cap and white soutane; (for he wore no +cloak because of the heat). As soon as I had kissed his ring he bade me +stand up--(speaking in Italian, as he did all through the audience)--and +then beckoned me to a chair opposite to his, and my Lord Abbot to +another on one side. And then at once he went on to speak of the +business on which we were come--as if he knew all about it, and had no +time to spend on compliments. + +Now our Holy Father Innocent the Eleventh was, I suppose, one of the +greatest men that ever sat in Peter's Seat. I would not speak evil, if I +could help it, of any of Christ's Vicars; but this at least I may +say--that Pope Innocent reformed a number of things that sorely needed +it. He would have no nepotism at the Papal Court; men stood or fell by +their own merits: so I knew very well that my estates in France, even +if they had been ten times as great, would serve me nothing at all. He +was very humble too--(he asked pardon, it was said, even of his own +servants if he troubled them)--so I knew that no swashbuckling air on my +part would do me anything but harm--(and, indeed, that was all laid +aside, willy nilly, so soon as I came in)--since, like all humble men he +esteemed the pride, even of kings, at exactly its proper worth, which is +nothing at all. He was, too, a man of great spirituality, so I knew that +my having come to St. Paul's as a novice and now wishing to leave it +again, would scarcely exalt me in his eyes. I felt then a very poor +creature indeed as I sat there and listened to him. + +"This, then, is Master Roger Mallock," he said to my Lord Abbot, "of +whom your Lordship spoke to me." + +"This is he, Holy Father," said my Lord. + +"He has been a novice for two years then; and his superiors are not sure +of his vocation?" + +"Yes, Holy Father." + +The Pope looked again at me then, and I dropped my eyes. + +"And you yourself, my son?" he asked. + +"Holy Father," I said, "I am sure that at present I have no vocation. +What God may give me in the future I do not know. I only know what He +has not given me in the present." + +Innocent tightened his lips at that; but I think it was to prevent +himself smiling. + +"And he is an English gentleman," he went on presently, "and he has +estates in France that bring him in above twenty thousand francs yearly; +and he is twenty-one years of age; and he is accustomed to all kinds of +society, and he is a devoted son of Holy Church, and he speaks French +and English and Italian and Spanish and German--" + +"No, Holy Father, not German--except a few words," I said. + +"And he is discreet and courageous and virtuous--" + +"Holy Father--" I began in distress, for I thought he was mocking me. + +"And he desires nothing; better than to serve his spiritual superiors +in any employment to which they may put him--Eh, my son?" + +I looked into the Pope's face and down again; but I said nothing. + +"Eh, my son?" he said again with a certain sharpness. + +"Holy Father, I have been taught never to contradict my superiors; but +indeed in this--" + +"Bravo!" said Innocent. + +Then he turned to my Lord Abbot, as if I were no longer in the room. + +"The question," he said, "is not only whether this young gentleman is +capable of hearing everything and saying nothing, of preserving his +virtue, of handling locked caskets without even desiring to look inside +unless it is his business, of living in the world yet not being of +it--but whether he is willing to do all this without being paid for +it--except perhaps his bare expenses." + +My Lord Abbot said nothing. + +"I can have a thousand paid servants," said Innocent, "who are worth +exactly their wages; but, since money cannot buy virtue or discretion or +courage, in such servants I cannot demand those things. And I can have a +thousand foolish servants who could earn no wages anywhere because of +their foolishness, and these never have discretion and not often either +virtue or courage. But what I wish is to have servants who are as wise +sons to me--who have all these things, and will use them for love's +sake--for the love of Holy Church and of Christ and His Mother, and who +will be content with the wages that These give." + +He stopped suddenly and looked at me quickly again; and my heart burned +in my breast; for this that he was saying was all that I most desired; +and I saw by that that my talk must have been reported to him. I loved +Holy Church then, and the cause of Jesus and Mary, as young men do love, +and as I hope to love till I die. I asked nothing better than to serve +such causes as these even to death. It was not for lack of ardour that I +wished to leave the monastery; it was because, truthfully, I had a +fever on me of greater activity; because, truthfully, I was not sure of +my vocation; because, truthfully, I doubted whether such gifts and such +wealth and such education as were mine could not be used better in the +world than in the cloister. I knew that I could take a place to-morrow +in either the French or the English Court, without disgracing myself or +others; and it was precisely of this that I had spoken to my Lord Abbot; +and here was our Holy Father himself putting into words those very +ambitions that I had. I met his eyes, and knew that I was beginning to +flush. + +"Well, my son?" he said. + +"Holy Father," I said, "my virtues and capacities, such as they are, I +must leave to my superiors. But my desires are those of which your +Holiness has spoken. I ask no wages: I ask only to be allowed to serve +whatever cause my superiors may assign to me." + +He continued to look at me, and for very shame I presently dropped my +eyes again. + +"Well, my Lord Abbot?" he said again. "Let us hear what you have to +say." + +Then my lord began to speak; and before he was half-done I wished myself +anywhere else in the world. For, as great men alone are capable, he +could be as lavish of praise as of blame. He said that I was all that of +which His Holiness had spoken; that I had been obedient and exact as a +novice; and he said other things too of which even under obedience I +could not speak. Then too he added what he had never said to me before, +that he was not sure that I had no vocation; but that since God spoke +through exterior circumstances as well as through interior drawings, His +Holy Will seemed to point, at least at present, to a life in the world +for me; that he was sure I would be as obedient there as here; that I +had learned not only to use my tongue but, what is much harder, to hold +it. And he ended by begging the Holy Father to take me into his service +and to use me in the ways in which perhaps I might be useful. All this, +of course, I now understand to have been rehearsed before; but just at +that time I had no more than a suspicion that this was so. + +When he had finished, His Holiness once more turned and looked at me; +and I upon the ground: and then at last he spoke. + +"My son," he said, "you have heard what his Reverence has said of you; +and I too have heard it, and not to-day for the first time. It seems +that you are right in thinking that for the present at any rate you have +no vocation to Holy Religion. Well, then, the question is as to what is +your Vocation, for Our Lord never leaves any man without a Vocation of +some kind. You are very young for such service as that on which we think +to send you; for we shall send you to the Court of England first, and +then perhaps now and again to France; but you look five years at least +older than your age, and, I am told, have ten times its discretion. I +need not tell you that you will have no very heavy mission given to you +at first; you must mix freely with the world and use your wits and see +what is best to be done, sending back reports to the Cardinal Secretary. +You will live at your own charges, as you yourself have said that you +wished to do; but you may draw upon us here for any journeys that you +may undertake upon our business up to a certain amount. In a word you +will be in the diplomatic service of the Holy See, though without direct +office or commission beyond that which I now give you myself. You will +have full liberty to make a career for yourself in the English or French +Courts, so long as this comes always second to your service to +ourselves. If you acquit yourself well--in the way which will be +explained to you later--you may make a career with us too, and will have +rewards if you want them: but for the present there must be no talk of +that. As you must be in the world yet not of it; so you must be of the +Court of Rome yet not in it. It is a delicate position that you will +hold; and, to compensate for the informality of it, you will have the +more liberty on your side, to make a career, as I have said, or to +marry, if God calls you to that, or in any other way.... Does that +content you, my son?" + +I do not know what I said; for all that the Holy Father had told me was +what I myself had said to my Lord Abbot. I knew that affairs in England +were in a very strange condition, that the Duke of York who was next +heir to the throne was a Catholic, and that Charles himself was +favourably disposed to us; and I knew a number of other things too which +will appear in the course of this tale; and I had said to my Lord that +sometimes even a hair's weight will make a balance tip; and had asked +again and again if I might not, with my advantages, such as they were, +be of more service to Holy Church in a more worldly place than the +cloister; and now here was our Most Holy Lord himself granting and +confirming all that I had wished. + +"There! there!" he said to me presently, when I had tried to say what +was in my heart. "Go and serve God in this way as well as you can; and +remember that you can be as well sanctified in the Court of a King as in +a cloister--and better, if it is the Court that is your Vocation. Go and +do your best, my son; and we shall see what you can make of it." + + * * * * * + +When we were outside again I saw that my Lord Abbot's face was all +suffused, as was my own, for there was something strangely fiery and +keen and holy about Innocent; but he said nothing, except that we must +now go and see His Eminence the Cardinal Secretary of State, for I was +to receive my more particular instructions from him. + + + + +PART ONE + + + + +CHAPTER I + + +I came to London on the fifteenth of June, having left it seven years +before in company with my father, to go to Paris, two years before he +died. + +It was drawing on to sunset as we rode up through the Southwark fields +and, at the top of a little eminence in the ground saw for the first +time plainly all the City displayed before us. + +We came along the Kent road, having caught sight again and again of such +spires as had risen after the Great Fire, and of the smoke that rose +from the chimneys; but I may say that I was astonished at the progress +the builders had made from what I could remember of seven years before. +Then there had still been left great open spaces where there should have +been none; now it was a city once more; and even the Cathedral shewed +its walls and a few roofs above the houses. The steeples too of Sir +Christopher Wren's new churches pricked everywhere; though I saw later +that there was yet much building to be done, both in these and in many +of the greater houses. My man James rode with me; (for I had been +careful not to form too great intimacies with the party with whom I had +ridden from Dover); and I remarked to him upon the matter. + +"And there, sir," he said to me, pointing to it, "is the monument no +doubt that they have raised to it." + +And so we found it to be a day or two later--a tall pillar, with an +inscription upon it saying that the Fire had been caused by the +Papists--a black lie, as every honest man knows. + +By the time that we came to London Bridge the sun was yet lower, setting +in a glory of crimson, so that it was hard to see against it much of +Westminster, across the Southwark marshes and the river; but yet I could +make out the roofs of the Abbey and of some of the great buildings of +Whitehall, where my adventures, I thought, were to lie. But between +that and the other end of London Bridge, just before we set foot on it, +the rest of the City was plain enough; and, indeed, it was a splendid +sight to see the river, all, as it seemed, of molten gold with the +barges and the wherries plying upon it, and the great houses on the +banks and their gardens coming down to the water-gates, and the forest +of chimneys and roofs and steeples behind, and all of a translucent blue +colour. The sounds of the City, too, came to us plainly across the +water--the chiming of bells and the firing of some sunset gun, and even +the noise of wheels and the barking of dogs and the crowing of +cocks--all in a soft medley of human music that made my heart rejoice; +for in spite of my long exile abroad and my French and Italianate +manners, I counted myself always an Englishman. + +Now the first design that I had in mind, and for which I had made my +dispositions, was to go straight to my lodging that had been secured for +me by my cousin Tom Jermyn, where he was to meet me, and where he too +would lie that night. It was with him that I was to present my letters +at Whitehall in a day or two, after I had bought my clothes and other +necessaries; in short he was to be my _cicerone_ for a while--for he was +a Catholic too, like myself--but he was not to be told that I had come +on any mission at all, until at anyrate I had well tested his +discretion. + + * * * * * + +Now the mission on which I had been instructed by the Cardinal Secretary +was in one sense a very light one, and in another a very difficult one; +for its express duties were of the smallest. + +Affairs in England at this time were in a very strange condition. First, +the Duke of York, who was heir to the throne, was a declared Catholic; +and then the King himself was next door to one, in heart at anyrate. +Certainly he had never been reconciled to the Church, though the report +among some was that he had been, during his life in Paris: but in heart, +as I have said, he was one, and waited only for a favourable occasion to +declare himself. For he had been so bold seventeen years before, as to +send to Rome a scheme by which the Church of England was to be reunited +to Rome under certain conditions, as that the mass, or parts of it, +should be read in English, that the Protestant clergy who would submit +to ordination should be allowed to keep their wives, and other matters +of that kind. His answer from Rome, sent by word of mouth only, was that +no scheme could be nearer to the heart of His Holiness; but that he must +not be too precipitate. Let him first show that his subjects were with +him in his laudable desires; and then perhaps the terms of the matter +might be spoken of again. For the King himself, and indeed even the Duke +too at this time (though later he amended his life), Catholic in spirit, +were scarce Christian in life. The ladies of the Court then must not be +overlooked, for they as much as any statesman, and some think, more, +controlled the king and his brother very greatly at this time. + +But this was not all. Next, the King was embroiled in a great number of +ways. The more extreme of his Protestant subjects feared and hated the +Catholic Church as much as good Catholics hate and fear the Devil; and +although for the present our people had great liberty both at Court and +elsewhere, no man could tell when that liberty might be curtailed. And, +indeed, it had been to a great part already curtailed five years before +by the Test Act, forbidding the Catholics to hold any high place at the +Court or elsewhere, though this was largely evaded. There was even a +movement among some of them, and among the most important of them too, +in the House of Lords and elsewhere, to exclude the Duke of York from +the succession; and they advanced amongst themselves in support of this +the fear that a French army might be brought in to subdue England to the +Church. And, worst of all, as I had learned privately in Rome, there was +some substance in their fear, though few else knew it; since the King +was in private treaty with Louis for this very purpose. Again, a further +embroilment lay in the propositions that had been made privately to the +King that he should rid himself of his Queen--Catherine--on the pretext +that she had borne no child to him, and could not, and marry instead +some Protestant princess. Lastly, and most important of all, so greatly +was Charles turned towards the Church, that he had begged more than +once, and again lately, that a priest might be sent to him to be always +at hand, in the event of his sudden sickness, whom none else knew to be +a priest; and it was this last matter, I think, that had determined the +Holy Father to let me go, as I had wished, though I was no priest, to +see how the King would bear himself to me; and then, perhaps afterwards, +a priest might be sent as he desired. + +This then was the mission on which I was come to London. + +I was to present myself at Court and place myself at His Majesty's +disposal. The letters that I carried were no more than such as any +gentleman might bring with him; but the King had been told beforehand +who I was, and that I was come to be a messenger or a go-between if he +so wished, with him and Rome. So much the King was told, and the Duke. +But on my side I was told a little more--that I was to do my utmost, if +the King were pleased with me, to further his conversion and his +declaration of himself as a Catholic; that I was to mix with all kinds +of folks, and observe what men really thought of all such matters as +these, and send my reports regularly to Rome; that I was to place myself +at the King's service in any way that I could--in short that I was to +follow my discretion and do, as a layman may sometimes even more than a +priest, all that was in my power for the furtherance of the Catholic +cause. + +Now it may be wondered perhaps how it was that I, who was so young, +should be entrusted with such matters as these. Here then, I am bound to +say, however immodest it may appear, that I have had always the art of +making friends easily and of commending myself quickly. I had lived too +in the societies of both Paris and Rome; and I had the accomplishments +of a gentleman as well as his blood. I was thought a pleasant fellow, +that is to say, who could make himself agreeable; and I certainly had +too--and I am not ashamed to say this--but one single ambition in the +world, and that was to serve God's cause: and these things do not always +go together in this world. Last of all, it must be observed, that no +very weighty secrets were entrusted to me: I bore no letters; and I had +been told no more of affairs in general than such as any quick and +intelligent man might pick up for himself. Even should I prove +untrustworthy or indiscreet, or even turn traitor, no very great harm +would be done. If, upon the other hand, I proved ready and capable, all +that I could learn in England and, later perhaps, in France, would serve +me well in the carrying out of weightier designs that might then be +given into my charge. + +Such then I was; and such was my mission, on this fifteenth day of June, +as I rode up with James my man--a servant found for me in Rome, who had +once been in the service of my Lord Stafford--to the door of the +lodgings engaged for me in Covent Garden Piazza above a jeweller's shop. + + * * * * * + +It was after sunset that we came there; and all the way along the +Strand, until we nearly reached the York Stairs, I had said nothing to +my man, but had used my eyes instead, striving to remember what I could +of seven years before. The houses of great folk were for the most part +on my left--Italianate in design, with the river seen between them, and +lesser houses, of the architecture that is called "magpie," on the +right. The way was very foul, for there had been rain that morning, and +there seemed nothing to carry the filth away: in places faggots had been +thrown down to enable carts to pass over. The Strand was very full of +folk of all kinds going back to their houses for supper. + +Covent Garden Piazza was a fairer place altogether. It was enclosed in +railings, and a sun-dial stood in the centre; and on the south was the +space for the market, with a cobbled pavement. To the east of St. Paul's +Church stood the greater houses, built on arcades, where many +fashionable people of the Court lived or had their lodgings, and it was +in one of these that I too was to lodge: for I had bidden my Cousin +Jermyn to do the best he could for me, and his letter had reached me at +Dover, telling me to what place I was to come. + +As I sat on my horse, waiting while my man went in to one of the +doorways to inquire, a gentleman ran suddenly out of another, with no +hat on his head. + +"Why, you are my Cousin Roger, are you not?" he cried from the steps. + +"Then you are my Cousin Tom Jermyn," I said. + +"The very man!" he cried back; and ran down to hold my stirrup. + +All the way up the stairs he was talking and I was observing him. He +seemed a hearty kind of fellow enough, with a sunburnt face from living +in the country; and he wore his own hair. He was still in riding-dress; +and he told me, before we had reached the first landing, that he was +come but an hour ago from his house at Hare Street, in Hertfordshire. + +"And I have brought little Dorothy with me," he cried. "You remember +little Dorothy? She is a lady of quality now, aged no less than sixteen; +and is come up to renew her fal-lals for her cousin's arrival; for you +must come down with us to Hare Street when your business is done." + +I cannot say that even after all this heartiness, I thought very much of +my Cousin Tom. He spoke too loud, I thought, on the common stair: but I +forgot all that when I came into the room that was already lighted with +a pair of wax candles and set eyes on my Cousin Dorothy, who stood up as +we came in, still in her riding-dress, with her whip and gloves on the +table. Now let me once and for all describe my Cousin Dorothy; and then +I need say no more. She was sixteen years old at this time--as her +father had just told me. She was of a pale skin, with blue eyes and +black lashes and black hair; but she too was greatly sunburnt, with the +haymaking (as her father presently told me again; for she spoke very +little after we had saluted one another). She was in a green skirt and a +skirted doublet of the same colour, and wore a green hat with a white +feather; but those things I did not remember till I was gone to bed and +was thinking of her. It is a hard business for a lover to speak as he +should of the maid who first taught him his lessons in that art; but I +think it was her silence, and the look in her eyes, that embodied for me +at first what I found so dear afterwards. She was neither tall nor +short; she was very slender; and she moved without noise. All these +things I write down now from my remembrance of the observations that I +made afterwards. It would be foolish to say that I loved her so soon as +I saw her; for no man does that in reality, whatever he may say of it +later; I was aware only that here was a maid whose presence made the +little room very pleasant to me, and with whom taking supper would be +something more than the swallowing of food and drink. + +The rooms of my lodging were good enough, as I saw when my Cousin Tom +flung open the doors to show me them all. They were three in number: +this room into which we had first come from the stairs was hung in green +damask, with candles in sconces between the panels of the stuff; the +door on the left opened into the room where my Cousin Dorothy would lie, +with her maid; and that on the right my Cousin Tom and I would share +between us. The windows of all three looked out upon the piazza. + +He said a great number of times that he was sorry that he had brought up +his daughter without giving me warning; but that the maid had set her +heart on it and would take no denial. (This I presently discovered to be +wholly false.) For a week, he said, and no more, I should be +discommoded; and after that, when I had come back from Hare Street, I +should be able to entertain my friends in peace. + +I answered him, of course, with the proper compliments; but I liked his +manner less than ever. He was too boisterous, I thought, on a first +meeting; and too hearty in his expressions of goodwill. When we were set +down to supper, he began again, with what I thought a good deal of +indiscretion. + +"So you are come from Rome!" he said loudly, "and from a monastery too, +as I hear. Well, no man loves a monk more than I do--in their +monasteries; but I am glad you are not to be one. We will teach him +better here--eh, Dolly, my dear?" + +It was only my man James who was in the room when he spoke; yet as soon +as he was gone out to fetch another dish I thought I had best say a +word. + +"Cousin," I said, "with your leave; I think it best not to speak of +monasteries--" + +He interrupted me. + +"Why, you need fear nothing," he cried. "We Catholics are all in the +fashion these days. Why, there is Mr. Huddleston that goes about in his +priest's habit: and the Capuchins at St. James', and the very Jesuits +too--" + +"I think it would be better not--" I began. + +"Oho!" cried Cousin Tom. "That is in the wind, is it? Why, I'll be as +mum as a mouse!" + +I did not know what he meant; and I supposed that he did not know +himself, unless indeed by sheer blundering he had pitched upon the truth +that I was come on a mission. But so soon as James was in the room +again, he began upon the other tack, and talked of Prince this and the +Duke of that, with whom I might be supposed to be on terms of intimacy, +winking on me all the while, so that my man saw it. However, I answered +him civilly. I could do no less; for he was my cousin, and in a manner +my host; and, most of all, I must depend upon him for a few days at +least, to tell me how I must set about my audiences and my personal +affairs. + +My Cousin Dorothy said little or nothing all this time; but sat with +downcast eyes, giving a look now and again at the table to see if we had +all that we needed; for she was housekeeper at Hare Street, her mother +having died ten years before, and she herself being the only child. She +did not look at me at all, or shew any displeasure; and yet it seemed to +me that she was not best pleased with her father's manners. Once, +towards the end of supper, when James came behind him with the wine-jug, +I saw her shake her head at him; and, indeed, Cousin Tom was already +pretty red in the face with all that he had drunk. + +When the meal was finished at last, and the table cleared, and the +servants gone downstairs to their own supper, he began again with his +talk, stretching his legs in the window-seat where he sat; while I sat +still in my chair wheeled away from the table, and my Cousin Dorothy +went in and out of the rooms, bestowing the luggage that she and her +maid had unpacked. I watched her as she went to and fro, telling myself +(as some lads will, who pride themselves on being come to manhood) that +she was only a little maid. + +"As to your affairs, Cousin Roger," he said, "they will soon be +determined. I take it that when you have kissed His Majesty's hand and +paid your duty to the Duke, you will have done all that you should for +the present." + +I did not contradict him; but he was not to be restrained. + +"You are come to seek your fortune, no doubt:" (he winked on me again as +he said this, to draw attention to his discretion); "and there is +nothing else in the world but that, no doubt, that brings you to +England." (He said this with an evident irony that even a child would +have understood.) "Not that you have not a very pretty fortune already: +I understand that it is near upon a thousand pounds a year; and great +estates in Normandy too, when you shall be twenty-eight years old. I am +right, am I not?" + +Now he was right; but I wondered that he should take such pains to know +it all. + +"There or thereabouts," I said. + +"That condition of twenty-eight years is a strange one," he went on. +"Now what made your poor father fix upon that, I wonder?" + +I told him that my father held that a man's life went by sevens, and +that every man was a boy till he was twenty-one, a fool till he was +twenty-eight, and a man, by God's grace, after that. + +"Ah, that was it, was it?" he said, stretching his legs yet further. "I +have often wondered as to how that was." + +And that shewed me that his mind must have run a good deal upon my +fortunes; but as yet I did not understand the reason. + +When, presently, my Cousin Dorothy had shut the door of her room, and +my man was gone down again to the horses, he began again on his old +tack. + +"You and I, Cousin Roger," he said, "will soon understand one another. I +knew that as soon as I clapped eyes on you. Come, tell me what your +business is here. I'm as close as the grave over a friend's secrets." + +"My dear cousin," I said, "I do not know what business you mean. Was not +my letter explicit enough? I am come to live here as an English +gentleman. What other business should I have?" + +He winked again at me. + +"Yes, yes," he said. "And now having done your duty to your discretion, +do it to your friendship for me too. I know very well that a man who +comes from a Roman monastery, with letters from the French ambassador, +does not come for nothing. Is there some new scheme on hand?--for the +honour of Holy Church, no doubt?" + +I thanked God then that I had said not one word in my letter that +Shaftesbury himself might not have read. I had been in two minds about +it; but had determined to wait until I saw my cousin and learned for +myself what kind of man he was. + +"My dear cousin," I said again, "even if I had come on some such +mission, I should assure you, as I do now, that it was nothing of the +kind. How else could such missions be kept secret at all? It would be a +_secretum commissum_ in any case; as the theologians would say. I can +but repeat what I said in my letter to you; and, if you will think of +it, you will see that it is not likely that any matter of importance +would be entrusted to a young man of my age." + +That seemed to quiet him. I have often noticed that to appeal to the +experience and wisdom of a fool is the surest way to content him. + +He began then to talk of the Court; and it would not be decent of me to +record even a tenth part of the gossip he told me regarding the +corruption that prevailed in Whitehall. Much of it was no doubt true; +and a great deal more than he told me in some matters; but it came +pouring out from him, and with such evident pleasure to himself, that it +was all I could do to preserve a pleasant face towards him. He told me +of the little orange-girl, Nell Gwyn, who was now just twenty-eight +years old; and how she lived here and there as the King gave her +houses--in Pall Mall, and in Sandford House in Chelsea, and at first at +the "Cock and Pie" in Drury Lane; and how her hair was of a reddish +brown, and how, when she laughed her eyes disappeared in her head; and +of the Duchess of Cleveland, that was once Mrs. Palmer and then my Lady +Castlemaine, now in France; and of the Duchess of Portsmouth, and her +son created Duke of Richmond three years ago; and of the mock marriage +that was celebrated, in my Lord Arlington's house at Euston, seven years +ago between her and the King. And these things were only the more decent +matters of which he spoke; and of all he spoke with that kind of +chuckling pleasure that a heavy country squire usually shews in such +things, so that I nearly hated him as he sat there. For to myself such +things seem infinitely sorrowful; and all the more so in such a man as +the King was; and they seemed the more sorrowful the more that I knew of +him later; for he had so much of the supernatural in him after all, and +knew what he did. + +Then presently my Cousin Jermyn began upon the Duke; and at that I +nearly loosed my tongue at him altogether. For I knew very well that the +guilt of the Duke was heavier even than the guilt of the King, since +James had the grace of the Sacraments to help him and the light of the +Faith to guide him. But I judged it better not to shew my anger, since I +was, as the Holy Father had told me, to be "in the world," though +interiorly not of it: and so I feigned sleep instead, and presently had +to snore aloud before my cousin could see it: and, as he stopped +speaking, my Cousin Dorothy came in to bid us good-night. + +"Why, I have been half asleep," I said. "I am tired with my journey. +What were you saying, cousin?" + +He leered again at that, as if to draw attention to his daughter's +presence. + +"Why, we were talking of high matters of state," he said, "when you fell +asleep--matters too high for little maids to hear of. Give me a kiss, my +dear." + +When she came to me, I kissed her on the forehead, and not upon the +cheek which she offered me. + +"Is that the Italian custom?" cried my Cousin Tom. "Why, we can teach +you better than that--eh, Dolly?" + +She said nothing to that; but looked at me a little anxiously and then +at the table where the wine stood; and I thought that I understood her. + +"Well, cousin," I said, "I, too, had best be off to bed. We had best +both go. I do not want to lie awake half the night; and if you wake me +when you come to bed, I shall not sleep again." + +He tried to persuade me to stay and drink a little more; but I would +not: and for very courtesy he had to come with me. + +In spite of my drowsiness, however, when I was once in bed and the light +was out I could not at once sleep. I heard the watchman go by and cry +that it was a fine night; and I heard the carriages go by, and the +chairs; and saw the light of the links on the ceiling at the end of my +bed; and I heard a brawl once and the clash of swords and the scream of +a woman; as well as the snoring of my Cousin Tom, who fell asleep at +once, so full he was of French wine. But it was not these things that +kept me awake, except so far as they were signs to me of where I was. + +For here I was in London at last, which, whatever men may say, is the +heart of the world, as Rome is the heart of the Church; and there, +within a gunshot, was the gate of Whitehall where the King lived, and +where my fortunes lay. Neither was I here as a mere Englishman come home +again after seven years, but as a messenger from the Holy See, with work +both to find and to do. To-morrow I must set out, to buy, as I may say, +the munitions of war--my clothes and my new periwigs and my swords and +my horses; and then after that my holy war was to begin. I had my +letters not only to the Court, but to the Jesuits as well--though of +these I had been careful to say nothing to my cousin; for I could +present these very well without his assistance. And this holy war I was +to carry on by my own wits, though a soldier in that great army of +Christ that fights continually with spiritual weapons against the +deceits of Satan. + +I wondered, then, as I lay there in the dark, as to whether this war +would be as bloodless as seemed likely; whether indeed it were true (and +if true, whether it were good or bad) that Catholics should again almost +be in the fashion, as my cousin had said. There were still those old +bloody laws against us; was it so sure that they would never be revived +again? And if they were revived, how should I bear myself; and how would +my Cousin Jermyn, and all those other Catholics of whom London was so +full? + +Of all these things, then, I thought; but my last thoughts, before I +commended myself finally to God and Our Lady, were of my Cousin +Dorothy--that little maid, as I feigned to myself to think of her. Yes; +I would go down to Hare Street in Hertfordshire so soon as I +conveniently could, without neglecting my business. It would be pleasant +to see what place it was that my Cousin Dorothy called her home. + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +It was again a fair evening, five days later, when, in one of my new +suits, with my new silver-handled sword, I set out on foot to Whitehall +to see the King first and the Duke afterwards, as word had been brought +me from the Chamberlain's office; for I had presented my letters on the +morning after I had come to London. + +Those four days had passed busily and merrily enough in company with my +cousins. The first two days I had spent in the shops, and had expended +above forty pounds, with both my cousins to advise me. It would not be +to the purpose to describe all that I bought; but there was a blue suit +I had, that was made very quickly, and that was the one I wore when I +went to see the King, that was very fine. All was of blue; the coat was +square-cut, with deep skirts, and had great laced cuffs that turned up +as high as the elbow, showing the ruffled wristbands of the shirt +beneath; the waistcoat below--in the new fashion--was so hung as to come +down to my knees; and both coat and waistcoat had buttons all the way +down the front, with silver trimming. My stockings--for the brodequins +were out of fashion again now--were of a darker blue, and my shoes of +strong leather, with a great rosette upon each, for buckles were not +usual at this time. Then my cravat was of Flanders lace; and my Cousin +Dorothy showed me how to fasten it so that the ends lay down square in +front; and my hat was round with a blue favour in it upon the left side; +and I wore it with what was called the "Monmouth cock." I carried a long +cane in my hand, with a silver head, and a pair of soft leather gloves, +without cuffs to them. Then, as my own hair was still short, I bought a +couple of dark periwigs of my own colour, and put on, the better to go +to Whitehall in. Besides these things I had three other suits, one very +plain, of grey, and two less plain; a case of pistols, and a second +sword, very plain and strong, in a leather scabbard, with its belt; two +pair of riding-boots, besides other shoes; and two dozen of shirts and +cravats, of which half were plain, without lace. + +While we went to and fro on all those businesses, we saw something both +of the town and of the folks. On our way back from Cheapside one day, we +turned aside to see the Monument, with the lying inscription upon it; +and then to see the Cathedral, which was already of a considerable +height. Of the persons of importance we saw one day the Duke of +Buckingham in his coach, drawn by two white horses, with riders before +and behind, pass along towards Whitehall; and a chair went by us one +evening in which, it was said, was the Duchess of Portsmouth (once +Madame de la Querouaille, or Mrs. Carwell); but it was so closely +guarded that I could not see within. Also, we saw my Lord Shaftesbury, a +sly yet proud looking fellow, I thought him, walking with Mr. Pepys, who +fell later under suspicion of being a Catholic, because his servant was +one. + +On the Saturday evening we went to take the air in St. James' Park, and +walked by Rosamund's pond; and here we but just missed seeing the King +and Queen; for as we came into it from Charing Cross (where I had seen +for the first time in the public street the Punch-show, which I think +must take its origin from Pontius Pilate) their Majesties rode out--hand +in hand, I heard later--through the Park Gate into the Horse-Guards, and +so to Whitehall, with guards in buff and steel following. There was a +great company of gentlemen and ladies who rode behind, of whom we caught +a sight; but they were too far away for us to recognize any of them. (I +saw, too, the cress-carts come in from Tothill fields.) + +On the Sunday morning we went all three together to hear mass sung in +St. James'; and here for the first time I saw Mr. Huddleston, who was of +the congregation, who was in his priest's habit--as my cousin had told +me--for this was allowed to him by Act of Parliament, because he had +saved the King's life after the battle of Worcester. He was a man that +looked like a scholar, but was very brown with the sun, too. We could +not see the Duke, for he was in his closet, with the curtains half +drawn--a tribune, as we should call it in Rome. It was very sweet to me +to hear mass again after my journey; and it was not less sweet to me +that my Cousin Dorothy was beside me; but the crush was so great, of +Protestants who had come to see the ceremonies, as well as of Catholics, +that there was scarcely room even to kneel down at the elevation. On our +way back we saw Prince Rupert, a fat pasty-faced man, driving out in his +coach. He spent all his time in chymical experiments, I was told. As +Sedley said, he had exchanged Naseby for Noseby. + +I had been bidden, on the Monday, to present myself first at Mr. +Chiffinch's lodgings that were near the chapel, between the Privy Stairs +and the Palace Stairs; and, as I was before my time, when I came into +the Court, behind the Banqueting Hall, I turned aside to see the Privy +Garden. A fellow in livery, of whom there were half a dozen in sight, +asked me my business very civilly; and when I told him, let me go +through by the Treasury and the King's laboratory, so that I might see +the garden: and indeed it was very well worth seeing. There were sixteen +great beds, set in the rectangle, with paved walks between; there was a +stone vase on a pedestal, or a statue, in the centre of each bed, and a +great sundial in the midst of them all. There were some ladies walking +at the further end, beneath the two rows of trees; and the sight was a +very pretty one, for the sunlight was still on part of the garden and on +the Bowling-Green beyond the trees; and the flowers and the ladies' +dresses, and the high windows that flashed back the light, all conspired +to make what I looked upon very beautiful. The lodgings that looked on +to the Privy Garden and the Bowling-Green were much coveted, I heard +later; and only such personages as Prince Rupert, my Lord Peterborough, +Sir Philip Killigrew, and such like, could get them there. + +Mr. Chiffinch's lodgings, when I came to them, were not so fine; for +they looked out upon little courts on both sides, and my Lady +Arlington's lodgings blocked his view to the river. I went up the +stairs, and beat upon the door with my cane: and a voice cried to me to +enter. + +Now I had heard enough of Mr. Chiffinch to make me prejudge him; for his +main business, it seemed, was to pander to the King's pleasures; and he +had his rooms so near the river, it was said, that he might more easily +meet those who came by water and take them up to His Majesty's rooms +unobserved: yet when I saw him, I understood that any prejudgement was +unnecessary. For if ever man bore his character in his face it was Mr. +Chiffinch. + +He had risen at my knock, and was standing in the light of the window. +He was dressed in a dark suit, very plain, yet of very rich stuff, and +had laid his periwig aside, so that I could see his features. He was a +dark secret-looking man with his eyes set near together, and with a lip +so short that it seemed as if he sneered; he stooped a little too. Yet I +am bound to say that his manner was perfection itself. + +"Mr. Chiffinch," I said. And at that he bowed. + +"I am Mr. Roger Mallock," I said; "and I was bidden to come here at this +hour." + +"I am honoured to meet you, Mr. Mallock," he said. "I have had His +Majesty's instructions very particular in your regard. I am ashamed that +you should find me so unready; but I will not keep you above five +minutes, if you will sit down for a little." + +He made haste to set me a chair near the window; and with another +apology or two he went out of a second door. The room in which he left +me was like the suit that he wore--in that it was both plain and rich. +There were three or four chairs with arms; a table, with twisted legs, +on which lay a great heap of papers and a pair of candlesticks: and +there was a tall lightly-carved press, with locks, between the windows. +The walls were plain, with a few good engravings hung upon them. I went +up to examine one, and found it to be a new one, by Faithorne. + +Now that I was drawing so near to the King, I found my apprehensions +returning upon me, for half my success, I knew, if not all, turned upon +the manner I first shewed to him. I knew very well that I could bear +myself with sufficient address; but sufficient address was not all that +was needed: I must so act that His Majesty would remember me afterwards, +and with pleasure. Yet how was I to ensure this? + +As I was so thinking to myself, Mr. Chiffinch came in again, having, +with marvellous speed, changed his suit into one of brown velvet, with a +great black periwig, from which his sharp face looked out like a ferret +from a hole. + +"I must ask your pardon, Mr. Mallock," he said, as I stood up to meet +him, "again and again; but I have scarcely an hour to myself day or +night. Duty treads on the heels of duty all day long. But we have still +time: His Majesty does not expect us till half-past five." + +I made the usual compliments and answers, to which he bowed again; and +then, as I thought he would, he began upon what was not his business--at +least I thought not then. + +"You are come from Rome, I hear. I trust that His Holiness was in good +health?" + +"The reports were excellent," I said, determined not to be taken in this +way. + +"You have seen His Holiness lately, no doubt?" + +"It was the French and Spanish ambassadors," I said, "who gave me my +letters. A poor gentleman like myself does not see the Holy Father once +in a twelvemonth." + +He seemed contented with that; and I think he put me down as something +of a well-bred simpleton, which was precisely what I wished him to +think; for his manner changed a little. + +"You have seen His Majesty before, no doubt?" + +"I have not been in England for seven years," I said, smiling. "I saw +His Majesty once when I was a lad, as he went to dinner; and I have seen +him once, on Saturday last; at least, I saw the top of his hat from a +hundred yards off." + +"And the Duke of York?" he asked. + +"I have never seen the Duke of York in my life, to my knowledge," I +said. + +Now I saw well enough what he was after. Without a doubt he had a +suspicion that I was an emissary in some way from the Holy Father, or at +least that I was more than I appeared to be; and being one of those men +who desire to know everything, that they may understand, as the saying +is, which way the cat will jump, and how to jump with her, he was +determined to find out all that he could. On my side, therefore, I +assumed the air of a rather stupid gentleman, to bear out better the +character that I had--that I was a mere gentleman from Rome, recommended +by the Catholic ambassadors; and I think that, for the time at anyrate, +he took me so to be; for his manner became less inquisitive. + +"We must be going to His Majesty, sir," he said presently, rising; and +then he added as if by chance: "You are a Catholic, Mr. Mallock?" + +"Why, yes," I said: for there was no need of any concealment on the +point of my religion. + + * * * * * + +As we went downstairs and along the passage that led by Sir Francis +Clinton's lodgings, he began to speak of how I was to behave myself to +the King, and how kiss his hand and the rest. I knew very well all these +things, but I listened to him as if I did not, and even put a question +or two; and he answered me very graciously. + +"You should be very modest with His Majesty," he said, "if you would +please him. He likes not originals over-much; or, rather, I would +say--(but it must not be repeated)--that he likes to be the only +original of the company." + +And when Mr. Chiffinch said that I knew that he was lying to me; for the +very opposite was the truth; and I understood that he still had his +suspicions of me and wished me to fail with the King. But I nodded +wisely, and thanked him. + +A couple of Yeomen of the Guard--of which body no man was less than six +feet tall--stood at the foot of the little stairs that led up to the +King's lodgings: and these made no motion to hinder the King's page and +his companion. So English were they that they did not even turn their +eyes as we went through, Mr. Chiffinch preceding me with an apology. + +At the door on the landing of the first floor he turned to me again +before he knocked. + +"His Majesty will be within the second room," he said. "Will you wait, +Mr. Mallock, please, in this first anteroom, and I will go through. This +is a private reception by His Majesty. There will be no formalities." + +He tapped upon both the doors that were one inside the other; and then +led me through. The first chamber was very richly furnished, though +barely. There was a long table with chairs about it; and he led me to +one of these. Then with a nod or two he passed on to a second door, +tapped upon it softly and went through, closing it behind him. I heard a +woman's laugh as he went through, suddenly broken off. + +There was, I supposed (and as I learned afterwards to be the case) one +other way at least out of the King's lodgings, through his private +library, where he kept all his clocks and wheels and such-like; for +when, after a minute or two, the door opened again and Mr. Chiffinch +beckoned me in, there was no woman with the King. + +It was a great room--His Majesty's closet as it was called--which he +used for such solitary life as he led; and while I was with him, and +afterwards upon other occasions, I saw little by little how it was +furnished. The table in the midst, at which His Majesty wrote, was all +in disorder; it was piled high with papers and books, for he would do +what writing or reading he cared to do by fits and starts. The walls +were hung with panels of tapestry, and tall curtains of brocade hung at +the windows. Between the panels were pictures hung upon the walls--three +or four flower-pictures by Varelst; three pictures of horses and dogs by +Hondius, and a couple of Dutch pictures by Hoogstraaten. Over the +fireplace was a chimney-breast by Gibbons; and the ceiling was all +a-sprawl with gods and goddesses, I suppose by Verrio. In the windows, +which looked out on two sides, over the river and into a little court, +were little tables covered with curious things, for His Majesty +delighted in such ingenuities--Dutch figures in silver, clockwork, and +the like, and a basket of spaniels lay beneath one of the tables. A +second great table stood against the wall on the further side from that +on which I entered, covered with retorts and instruments, and behind it +a press, and near it sat the King. The floor was carpeted with rush +matting, loosely woven, with rugs upon it. But of all these things I saw +little or nothing at the first, for Mr. Chiffinch was gone out behind +me, and I was alone with His Majesty. One of the spaniels had given a +little yelp as I came in; but disposed himself to sleep again. + +Now I am not one of those who think that those who are noble by birth +must always be noble by character, though I know that it should be so. I +knew, too, very well that Charles was less than noble in a great number +of ways. His women did what they liked with him; he would spend fortunes +on those who pleased him and did him nothing but injury, and would let +his faithful lovers and servants go starve. He lived always, you would +say, only for the flesh and the pride of the eyes; he was careless and +selfish and ungrateful; in short, he was as dissolute as a man could be, +or, rather, as dissolute as a king could be, and that is much more. Yet +for all this, he was a man of an extraordinary power, if he had cared to +use it. It was said of him that "he could, if he would, but that he +would not"; and of his brother that "he would if he could, but that he +could not"; and I know no better epigram on the two than that. James was +all intention without success; and Charles all success without +intention. And so James at the end lived and died as a saint, though he +was far from being one at this time; and Charles lived and died a +sinner, though, thank God, a penitent one. + +Now although I knew all this well enough, and how Charles' private life +stank in the nostrils of God and man, I cannot describe how he affected +me with loyalty and compassion and even a kind of love, in this little +while that I had with him in private, nor how these emotions grew upon +me the more that I knew him. + +He was sitting in his great chair, not yet dressed for supper, for his +wristbands were tumbled and turned back, and his huge dark brown periwig +was ever so little awry. He was in a dark suit, with a lace cravat; and +his rosetted shoes were crossed one over the other as he sat. The light +of the window fell full upon him from one side, shewing his swarthy +face, his thin close moustaches, and his heavy eyes under his arched +brows--shewing above all that air of strange and lovable melancholy that +was so marked a trait in those of the Stuart blood. He smiled a little +at me, but did not move, except to put out his hand. I came across the +floor, kneeled and kissed his hand, then, at a motion from him, stood up +again. + +"So you are Mr. Roger Mallock," he said. "Welcome to England, Mr. Roger +Mallock. You bring good news of His Holiness, I hope." + +"His Holiness does very well, Sir," I said. + +"We should all do as well if we were as holy," said the King. "And you +come to look after my soul, I am informed." + +(He said this with a kind of gravity that can scarcely be believed.) + +"I am no priest, Sir," I said, "if you mean that. I am only a +forerunner, at the best." + +"_Vox clamantis in deserto_," said the King. "I hope I shall be no Herod +to cut off your head. But it is very kind of you to come to this +wilderness. And have you seen my brother yet?" + +"I am to see his Royal Highness immediately," I said. "I waited upon +Your Majesty first." + +"Poor James!" said the King. "He wants looking after, I think. And what +have you come to do in England, Mr. Mallock?" + +Now I felt that I was cutting a poor figure at present; and that I must +say something presently, if I could, to make the King remember me +afterwards. It appeared to me that he was trying me, as he tried all +newcomers, to see whether they would be witty or amusing; but, for the +life of me, I could think of nothing to say. + +"I am come to put myself wholly at Your Majesty's disposal," I said. + +"Come! come! That's better," said Charles. "It is usually the other way +about. _Servus servorum Dei_, you know. And in what manner do you +propose that I should use you?" + +"I will clean Your Majesty's shoes, if you will. Or I will run errands +in my own. Or I will sing psalms, or ditties; or I will row in a boat; +or I will play tennis, or fence. I am what is called an accomplished +young gentleman, Sir." + +Now I think I put in a shade too many clauses, for I was a little +agitated. But the King's face lightened up very pleasantly. + +"But I have plenty of folks who can do all that," he said. "In what are +you distinguished from the rest?" + +Then I determined on a bold stroke; for I knew that the King liked such +things, if they were not too bold. + +"I am a Jesuit at heart, Sir;" I said. "I desire to do these things, if +Your Majesty wills it so, simply that I may serve His Holiness in +serving Your Majesty." + +"Oho!" said Charles; and he gathered his feet under him and looked at me +more closely. I met his eyes fairly and then dropped my own. + +"Oho! That is frank enough, Mr. Mallock. You know all about me, I +suppose. You seem very young for such work. How old are you? +Twenty-five?" + +"I pass as twenty-five, Sir. But I am only twenty-one!" + +"I would that I were!" said Charles earnestly. "And so you are a Jesuit +in disguise--a wolf in sheep's clothing." + +"No, Sir. I am a Jesuit at heart only, in that I would do anything in +God's cause. But I am rather a sheep in wolf's clothing. I was a +Benedictine novice till lately." + +He seemed not to hear me. He had dropped his chin on his hand, and was +looking at me as if he were thinking of something else. + +"So you are come to serve me," he said presently, "in any way that I +will; and you will serve me only that you may serve your master better. +And what wages do you want?" + +"None that Your Majesty can give," I said. + +"Better and better," said Charles. "Nor place, nor position?" + +"Only at Your Majesty's feet." + +"And what if I kick you?" + +"I will look for the halfpence elsewhere, Sir." + +Then the King laughed outright, in the short harsh way he had; and I +knew that I had pleased him. Then he stood up, and I saw that he was +taller than I had thought. He was close upon six feet high. + +"Well, Mr. Mallock," he said, "this seems all very pleasant and +satisfactory. You said you would run errands. I suppose you mean to +Rome?" + +"To Rome and back, Sir," I said. "Or to anywhere else, except Hell." + +"Oh! you draw the line there, do you?" + +"No, Sir. It is God Almighty who has drawn it. I am not responsible." + +"But you observe God His line?" + +"Yes, Sir. At least, I try to." + +"We all do that, I suppose. The pity is that we do not succeed more +consistently ... Well, Mr. Mallock, I have nothing for you at present. I +am a great deal too busy. These ladies, you know, demand so much. I +suppose you heard one of them laugh just now?" + +"I hear nothing but Your Majesty's commands," I said very meekly. + +Charles laughed again and began to walk up and down. + +"Well--and there are all these clockwork businesses, and chymical and +the like. And there is so much to eat and drink and see: and there are +the affairs of the kingdom--I had forgot that. Well; I have no time at +present, Mr. Mallock, as you can see for yourself. But I will not forget +you, if I want you. Where do you lodge?" + +I named my lodgings in Covent Garden. + +"And I have a cousin, Sir," I said, "who has bidden me to his house in +Hare Street. I shall be here or there." + +"His name?" + +"Thomas Jermyn, Sir." + +The King nodded. + +"I will remember that," he said. "Well, it may be a long time before I +have anything more to say to His Holiness. 'He that will not when he +may--' You know all about that, I suppose, Mr. Mallock?" + +"I know that Your Majesty has the reunion of Christendom at heart," I +said discreetly. + +"Yes, yes; I understand," said Charles. "I have received very favourable +accounts of you, sir. And your letters, which are for the public eye, +are perfectly in order. Well; I will remember, Mr. Mallock. Meanwhile +you had best not shew yourself at Court in public too much." (And this +he said very earnestly.) + +He put out his hand to be kissed. + +"And you will give my compliments to my brother James," he said. + + * * * * * + +One of the spaniels snored in his sleep as I went out again. + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +My interview with the Duke was a very different matter. I was informed +at his lodgings that he was not yet come from tennis; and upon asking +how long he would be, or if I might go to the tennis-court, was told +that he might be half an hour yet, and that I might go there if I +wished; so I went up from the river again, with a fellow they sent to +guide me, down through the Stone Gallery, across the Privy Garden, and +so across the street, midway between the gates, and so by the Duke of +Monmouth's lodgings to the tennis-court. Here, as I went across the +street, I caught sight of the sentries changing guard. These were the +Coldstream Guards, in their red coats; for it was these foot-guards who +did duty for the most part in the Palace and round about at the gates. +The other troops about His Majesty were, first the King's Guards proper, +who attended him when he rode out: these were in buff coats and +cuirasses, very well mounted, and very gay with ribbons and velvet and +gold lace and what not: and to each troop of these were attached a +company of grenadiers with their grenades. Besides these were the Blues, +also cavalry; and the dragoons, who were infantry on horseback, and +carried bayonets. Of the foot-soldiers, such as the Buffs, most were +mousquetaires; but some trailed pikes, and every one of them had a +sword. These troops I saw constantly in town; besides the Yeomen who +were closely attached to the person of his Sacred Majesty. + +It was by the Duke of Monmouth's lodgings that I had my first sight of +the Duke of Monmouth himself; for as I came towards the archway, by +which were the lodgings of my Lady Suffolk, he himself came out from his +own. I did not know who he was, until the fellow by me saluted him and +doffed his cap, whereupon I did the same. I think I have never seen a +more handsome lad in all my life (for he looked no more, though he was +near thirty years old). His face was as smooth as a girl's, though not +at all effeminate; he had a high and merry look with him, and bore +himself, with his two friends, like a prince; he had violet eyes and +arched brows over them. It is piteous to me now to think of his end, and +that it was against his uncle by blood (whom I was to see presently) +that he rebelled later, and by his uncle that he was condemned; and it +is yet more piteous to think how he met that end, crying and cringing +for fear of his life, both in the ditch in which he was discovered, and +afterward in prison. He looked very kindly on me as he passed, lifting +his hand to his hat; but I think he would not have so looked if he had +known all about me; for he was as venomous against the Catholics as a +man could be, or at least feigned himself so, for I think he had not a +great deal of religion at any time. But he was to know me better +afterwards. + +When I came up into the gallery of the tennis-court I found it pretty +full; yet not so full but that I could get a sight of the players. The +Duke was in the court of the _dedans_ when I first came in, so I could +see no more of him than his back and his cropped head; but when, after +two _chaces_ he crossed over, I had a good view of him. + +He was more heavily built than Charles; but his features were not unlike +the King's, though he was fairer in complexion, I suppose; and his lip +was shorter, and he wore no hair on his face. He had somewhat of a +heavier look too in his face, without the fire that burned like embers +in his brother's eyes. All this I noticed somewhat of, even from the +gallery, though he was all a-sweat with his exercise. + +I had left word with one of the men below as to my name and my business; +and when the game was ended and the Duke went out, I remained still +upstairs for a little, thinking that perhaps another would be played, +and then perhaps he would send for me. But a servant came up presently +and told me I was to follow to the Stone Gallery, where the Duke would +walk for a while before changing his clothes, as his custom was. This +Stone Gallery, as I had seen, was roofed, with skylights in it, and had +presses of books all along the walls, together with collections of all +kinds. + +When I came to the Gallery he was at the further end, walking with Sir +Robert Murray, as I learned afterwards, who was a very earnest +Protestant, but always at Court; but when he saw me he sent Sir Robert +away and beckoned to me to come. So I went up to him and kissed his +hand, and he bade me walk with him for a little. (He had put on a cloak +and hat to prevent his taking cold.) + +Now his manner was wholly different from His Majesty's. There was a +courtesy always in Charles that was not in James; for the Duke said +nothing as to his receiving me here in his _deshabille_, but began +immediately to talk in a low voice. + +"I am pleased that you are come to England, Mr. Mallock. I have had news +of you from Rome." + +Then he asked very properly of the Holy Father, and of a Cardinal or two +that he knew; and I answered him as well as I could. But I very soon saw +that His Royal Highness wanted nothing like wit from me: he was somewhat +of a solemn man, and had great ideas of his rights, and that all men who +were below his own station should keep their own. He desired deference +and attention above all things. + +He spoke presently of Catholics in England. + +"God hath blest us very highly," he said, "both in numbers and +influence. But we can well do with more of both; for I never heard of +any cause that could not. There is a feeling against us in many +quarters, but it is less considerable every year. You are to attach +yourself to His Majesty, I understand?" + +"But I am to have no place or office, sir," I said. "I am rather to be +at His Majesty's disposal--to fetch and carry, I may say, if he should +need my services." + +His Highness looked at me sidelong and swiftly; and I understood that he +did not wish any originality even in speech. + +"We must all be discreet, however," he said--(though I suppose there was +never any man less discreet than himself, especially when he most needed +to be so). "It is useless to say that we are altogether loved; for we +are not. But you will soon acquaint yourself with all our politics." + +I did not say that I had already done so; but assured him that I would +do my best. + +"As a general guide, I may say," he went on; "where there is Whiggery, +there is disloyalty, however much the Whigs may protest. They say they +desire a king as much as any; but it is not a king that they want, but +his shadow only." + +He talked on in this manner for a little, for we had the Gallery to +ourselves, telling me, what I knew very well already, that the Catholics +and the High Churchmen were, as a whole, staunch Royalists; but that the +rest, especially those of the old Covenanting blood, still were capable +of mischief. He did not tell me outright that it was largely against his +own succession that the disaffection was directed; nor that the Duke of +Monmouth was his rival; but he told me enough to show that my own +information was correct enough, and that in the political matters my +weight, such as it was, must be thrown on to the side of the Tories--as +the other party was nicknamed. I understood, even in that first +conversation with him, why he was so little loved; and I remembered, +with inward mirth, how His Majesty once, upon being remonstrated with by +his brother for walking out so freely without a guard, answered that he +need have no fears; for "they will never kill me," said he, "to set you +upon the throne." + +"You have seen Father Whitbread, no doubt," said the Duke suddenly. + +"No, sir. I waited to pay my homage first to His Majesty and to +yourself." + +He nodded once or twice at that. + +"Yes, yes; but you will see him presently, I take it. You could not have +a better guide. Why--" + +He broke off on a sudden. + +"Why here is the man himself," he said. + +A man in a sober suit was indeed approaching, as His Highness spoke. He +was of about the middle-size, clean-shaven, of grave and kindly face, +and resembled such a man as a lawyer or physician might be. He was +dressed in all points like a layman, though I suppose it was tolerably +well known what he was, if not his name. + +He saluted as he came near, and made as if he would have passed us. + +"Mr. Whitbread! Mr. Whitbread!" cried the Duke. + +The priest turned and bowed again, uncovering as he did so. Then he came +up to the Duke and kissed his hand. + +"I was on my way to see your Royal Highness," he said, "but when I saw +you were in company--" + +"Why, this is Mr. Mallock, come from Rome, who has letters to you. This +will save you a journey, Mallock." + +The priest and I saluted one another; and I found his face and manner +very pleasant. + +"I have heard of you, Mr. Mallock," he said, "but I hope His Highness is +misinformed, and that this will not save you a journey, after all." + +"I was just telling this gentleman," broke in the Duke, as we continued +our walking, "that he must take you for his mentor, Dr. Whitbread, in +these difficult times. Mr. Mallock seems very young for his business, +but I suppose that the Holy Father knows what he is about." + +"The Holy Father, sir," I said, "has committed himself in no sort of way +to me. I am scarcely more than a free-lance who has had his blessing." + +"Well, well; it is all the same thing," said James a little impatiently. +"Free-lance or drilled soldier--they fight for the same cause." + +He continued to talk in the same manner for a little, as if for my +instruction; and I listened with all the meekness I had. He did not tell +me one word which I did not already know; but I had perceived by now +what kind of man he was--well intentioned, no doubt, as courageous as a +lion, and as impatient of opposition, and not a little stupid: at least +he had not a tenth of his brother's wits, as all the world knew. He +solemnly informed me therefore of what all the world knew, and I +listened to him. + +When he dismissed me at last, however, he remembered to ask where I +lodged, and I told him. + +"A very good place too," he said. "I am glad your cousin had the sense +to put you there. Then I will remember you, if I need you for anything." + +"I will go with Mr. Mallock," said the priest, "if Your Royal Highness +will permit. I came but to pay my respects; and it is a little late." + +The Duke nodded; and gave us his hand to kiss. + +As we went out through the Courtyard, Father Whitbread pointed out a few +things to me which be thought might be of interest; and I liked the man +more at every step. He was a complete man of the world, with a certain +gentle irony, yet none the less kindly for it. He did not say one +disparaging word of anyone, nor any hint of criticism at His Royal +Highness; yet he knew, and I knew that he knew, and he knew that again, +that our Catholic champion was a shade disappointing; and that, not in +his vices only--of which my Lady Southesk could have given an +account--but in that which I am forced to call his stupidity. But, after +all, our Saviour uttered a judgment generally as to the children of +light and the children of this world, that must always be our +consolation when our friends are dull or perverse. Father Whitbread only +observed emphatically that the Duke was a man of excellent heart. + +He showed me the windows of a number of lodgings on the way, and the +direction of a great many more: for indeed this Palace of Whitehall was +liker a little town than a house. Father Patricks, he said, had a +lodging near the Pantry, which he shewed me. + +"There be some of us priests who have an affinity, do you not think, Mr. +Mallock? with pantries and butteries and such like--good sound men too, +many of them. I have not a word to say against Mr. Patricks." + +He shewed me too how the Palace was in four quarters, of which two were +divided from two by Whitehall itself and the street between the +gatehouses. That half of it that was nearer to the Park held the +tennis-court and the cock-pit and the lodgings of the Duke of Monmouth +and others nearer Westminster, and the other half the Horse Guards and +the barracks: and that nearer the river held, to the south the Stone +Gallery, the Privy Garden, the Bowling Green and a great number of +lodgings amongst which were those of the King and of his brother and +Prince Rupert, and of the Queen too, as well as of their more immediate +attendants--and this part contained what was left of the old York House; +to the north was another court surrounded by lodgings, the Wood-Yard, +the two courts called Scotland Yard, and the clock-house at the +extremity, nearest Charing Cross. In the very midst of the whole Palace, +looking upon Whitehall itself, was the Banqueting House where His +Majesty dined in state, and from a window of which King Charles the +First, of blessed memory, went out to lose his head. Indeed as we went +by the end of the Banqueting House the trumpets blew for supper; and we +saw a great number of cooks and scullions run past with dishes on their +heads. + + * * * * * + +As we went up Whitehall, Mr. Whitbread began to speak of more intimate +things. + +"You are a stranger in England, Mr. Mallock, I think." + +I told him I had not been in the country for seven years. + +"You will find a great many changes," he said; "and I think we are on +the eve of some more. Certainly His Majesty has wonderfully established +his position; and yet, if you understand me, there is a great and +growing disaffection. It is the Catholic Faith that they fear; and I +cannot help thinking that some victims may be required again presently, +though I do not know what they can allege against us. There is a deal of +feeling, too, against the Queen; she has borne no children--that is +true; but the main part of it arises from her religion: and so with the +Duke of York also. Certainly we are in the fashion in one way: but those +who are on the top of the wave must always look to come down suddenly." + +Here again, Father Whitbread did not tell me anything that I did not +know; yet he put matters together as I had not heard them put before; +and he seemed to me altogether a shrewd kind of man whose judgment I +might very well rely upon; and as we went up the Strand he spoke again +of the Queen. + +"His Majesty hath been urged again and again to divorce her; but he will +not. He said to the Duke himself in my hearing one day that an innocent +woman should never suffer through him--which is good hearing. But Her +Majesty is not very happy, I am afraid." + +When we came to the Maypole, which I had already seen, in the midst of +the Strand, he spoke to me of how it had been carried there and set up +with great rejoicing, after the Restoration. It was a great structure, +hung about by a crown and a vane; and he said that it stood as a kind of +symbol against Puritanism. + +"There are many," he told me, "who would pull it down to-morrow if they +could, as if it were some kind of idol." + +He saw me as far as the door of my lodgings; but he would not come in. +He said that he had no great desire to be known more widely than be was +at present known. + +"But if you have time to come in to-morrow morning about ten o'clock to +Mr. Fenwick's lodgings in Drury Lane--over the baker's shop--I shall be +there, and Mr. Ireland also--all Fathers of our Society; and I will very +gladly make you known to them. My own lodgings are in Weld Street--at +the Ambassador's." + +I thanked him for his kindness, and said I would be there; and so I bade +him good-night. + + * * * * * + +Although I had learned very few things that day which I had not known +already, I felt that evening as I sat at supper, and afterwards, in the +coffee house at 17, Fleet Street (which he recommended to me) that I +knew them in a different manner. For I had spoken with some of the +principal actors, and, above all, with the King himself. My cousin +questioned me delightedly upon my experiences when we were alone with +our pipes at one end of the great room that had been a council-chamber; +and related to me all his own experiences with the King at great +length; and how Charles had made to him some witty remarks which I think +must have lost in the telling, for they were not witty at all when I +heard them. It appeared that my cousin had spoken with the King three or +four times, at City-banquets and such like; and he would know all that +His Majesty had said to me. But much I would not tell him, and some I +could not: I could not that is, even if I would, have conveyed to him +the strange compassion that I felt, and the yet more strange affection, +for this King who might have done so much, and who did so little--except +what he should not; and I would not on any account tell him of what the +King had said as to Rome and his desires and procrastinations. But I +told him how I had met Father Whitbread, and how I was to go and see him +on the morrow. + +"Why, I will come with you myself," he said. "I know Mr. Fenwick's +lodgings very well: and we will ride afterwards as far as Waltham Cross, +and lie there; and so to Hare Street for dinner next day." + +All the way home again, and when my Cousin Dorothy was gone to bed, and +we sat over a couple of tankards of College Ale, he would talk of +nothing but the Jesuits. + +"They are too zealous," he said. "I am as good a Catholic as any man in +England or Rome; but I like not this over-zeal. They are everywhere, +these good fathers; and it will bring trouble on them. They hold their +consults even in London, which I think over-rash; and no man knows what +passes at them. Now I myself--" and so his tongue wagged on, telling of +his own excellence and prudence, and even his own spirituality, while +his eyes watered with the ale that he drank, and his face grew ever more +red. And yet there was no true simplicity in the man; he had that kind +of cunning that is eked out with winks and becks and nods that all the +world could see. He talked of my Cousin Dorothy, too, and her virtues, +and what a great lady she would be some day when these virtues were +known; and he, declared that in spite of this he would never let her go +to Court; and then once more he went back again to his earlier talk of +the corruptions there, and of what my Lady this and Her Grace of that +had said and done and thought. + + * * * * * + +Mr. Fenwick's lodgings in Drury Lane were such as any man might have. +The Jesuit Fathers lived apart in London--Father Whitbread in the City, +Father Ireland in Russell Street, and Father Harcourt, who was called +the "Rector of London," I heard, in Duke Street, near the arch--lest too +much attention should be drawn to them if they were all together. They +were pleasant quiet men, and received me very kindly--for my cousin who +had forgot some matter he had to do before he went into the country, was +gone down into the City to see to it. Mr. Grove, whom I learned later to +be a lay brother of the Society, opened the door to me; and shewed me to +the room where they were all three together. + +They were all three of them just such men as you might meet anywhere, in +coffee-houses or taverns, none of them under forty or over sixty years +old. Father Harcourt was seventy--but he was not there. They were in +sober suits, such as a lawyer might wear, and carried swords. These were +not all the Jesuits thereabouts; for I heard them speak of Father John +Gavan and Father Anthony Turner (who were in the country on that day), +and others. + +As I talked with them, and gave my news and listened to theirs, again +and again I thought of the marvellous misjudgments that were always +passed upon the Society; of how men such as these were always thought to +be plotting and conspiring, and how any charge against a Jesuit was +always taken as proven scarcely before it was stated; and that not by +common men only, but by educated gentlemen too, who should know better. +For their talk was of nothing but of the most harmless and Christian +matters, and of such simplicity that no man who heard them could doubt +their sincerity. It is true that they spoke of such things as the +conversion of England, and of the progress that the Faith was making; +and they told many wonderful stories of the religion of the common +people in country places, and how a priest was received by them as an +angel of God, and of their marvellous goodness and constancy under the +bitterest trials; but so, I take it, would the Apostles themselves have +spoken in Rome and Asia and Jerusalem. But as to the disloyalty that was +afterwards charged against them, still less of any hatred or murderous +designs, there was not one such thought that passed through any of their +minds. + +It was a plain but well-furnished chamber in which we sat. Beneath the +windows folks came and went continually. There were hangings on the +wall; and a press full of books and papers, and two or three tables; but +there was no concealment of anything, nor thought of it. Through the +door I saw Mr. Grove laying for dinner. + +"But you will surely stay for dinner," said Father Fenwick, when I said +that I must be gone presently. + +I told him that I was to ride to Waltham Cross with my cousins, and that +I was to meet them for dinner first at the coffee-house beside the +Maypole in the Strand. + +"And to Hare Street to-morrow, then," said Father Whitbread--or Mr. +White as he was called sometimes. + +I told him, Yes; and that I did not know how long I should be there. + +"The King will be at Windsor next month, I think," he said; "but he will +be back again for August. You had best be within call then, if he should +send for you." (For I had told them all freely what had passed between +myself and His Majesty, and what His Holiness had said to me too.) + +"You can command any of us at any time," he added, "if we can be of +service to you. There are so many folks of all kinds, here, there and +everywhere, that it is near impossible for a stranger to take stock of +them all; and it may be that our experience may be of use to you, to +know whom to trust and of whom to beware. But the most safe rule in +these days is, Trust no man till you know him, and not entirely even +then. There are men in this City who would sell their souls gladly if +any could be found to give them anything for it; how much more then, if +they could turn a penny or two by selling you or me or another in their +stead!" + +I thanked him for his warning; and told him that I would indeed be on +my guard. + +"Least of all," he said, "would I trust those of my own household. I +know your cousin for a Catholic, Mr. Mallock, but you will forgive me +for saying that it is from Catholics that we have to fear the most. I do +not mean by that that Mr. Jermyn is not excellent and sincere; for I +know nothing of him except what you have told me yourself. But zeal +without discretion is a very firebrand; and prudence without zeal may +become something very like cowardice; and either of these two things may +injure the Catholic cause irreparably in the days that are coming. St. +Peter's was the one, and Judas', I take it, was the other; for I hold +Judas to have been by far the greater coward of the two." + + * * * * * + +When I came out into the passage with him, I kneeled down and asked his +blessing; for I knew that this was of a truth a man of God. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +It was a little after noon next day that first we saw the Norman church +upon the hill, and then the roofs of Hare Street. + +I had been astonished at the badness of the roads from London, coming as +I had from Rome, where paved ways go out in every direction. We came out +by Bishopsgate, by the Ware road, and arrived at Waltham Cross a little +before sunset, riding through heavy dust that had hardly been laid at +all by the recent rains. We rode armed, with four servants, besides my +Cousin Dorothy's maid, for fear of the highwaymen who had robbed a coach +only last week between Ware and London. My Cousin Dorothy rode a white +mare named Jenny which mightily became her. We lay at the _Four Swans_ +at Waltham Cross, and went out before supper to see the Cross which was +erected where Queen Eleanor's body had lain--of which the last was at +Charing Cross--and I was astonished that the Puritans had not more +mutilated it. The beds were pretty comfortable, and the ale excellent, +so that once more my Cousin Tom drank too much of it. And so, early in +the morning we took horse again, and rode through Puckeridge, where we +left for the first time the road by which the King went to Newmarket, +when he went through Royston; and we found the track very bad +thenceforward. My Cousin Tom carried with him, though for no purpose +except for show, a map by John Ogilby which shows all the way from +London to King's Lynn, very ingeniously, and which was made after the +Restoration to encourage road traffic again; but it was pleasant for me +to look at it from time to time and see what progress we made towards +Hormead Magna which is the parish in which Hare Street lies. + +Now it was very pleasant for me to ride, as I did a good deal, with my +Cousin Dorothy; for her father, for a great part, rode with the men and +cracked stories with them. For journeying with a person sets up a great +deal of intimacy; and acquaintance progresses at least as swiftly as +the journey itself. She spoke to me very freely of her father, though +never as a daughter should not; and told me how distressed she was +sometimes at the quantity of ale and strong waters that he drank. She +told me also how seldom it was that a Catholic could hear mass at Hare +Street: sometimes, she said, a priest would lie there, and say mass in +the attic; but not very often; and sometimes if a priest were in the +neighbourhood they would ride over and hear mass wherever he happened to +be. The house, she said, lay near upon the road, so that they would hear +a good deal of news in this way. But she told me nothing of another +matter--for indeed she could not--which distressed her; though I +presently guessed it for myself, as will appear in the course of this +tale. + +My horse, Peter (as I had named him after the Apostle when I bought him +at Dover), was pretty weary as we came in sight of the church of Hormead +Parva; for I had given him plenty to do while I was in London; and he +stumbled three or four times. + +"We are nearly home," said my Cousin Dorothy; and pointed with her whip. + +"It is pleasant to hear such a word," I said: "for, as for me, I have +none." + +She said nothing to that; and I was a little ashamed to have said it; +for nothing is easier than to touch a maid's heart by playing Othello to +her Desdemona. + +"I have no business to have said that, cousin," I went on presently: +"for England is all home to me just now." + +"I hope you will find it so, cousin," she said. + +The country was pretty enough through which we rode; though in no ways +wonderful. It was pasture-land for the most part, with woods here and +there; and plenty of hollow ways (all of which were marked upon the map +with great accuracy), by which drovers brought their sheep to the +highway. I saw also a good many fields of corn. The hills were lowish, +and ran in lines, with long valleys between; and there was one such on +the right as we came to Hare Street, through which flowed a little +stream, nearly dry in the summer. + +The house itself was the greatest house in the village, and lay at the +further end of it upon the right; sheltered from the road by limes, in +the midst of which was the gateway, and the house twenty yards within. +My Cousin Tom came up with us as we entered the village, and shewed me +with a great deal of pride his new iron gate just set up, with a twisted +top. + +"It is the finest little gate for ten miles round," he said, "and cost +me near twenty pound." + +We rode past the gate, however, into the yard just beyond; and here +there was a great barking of dogs set up; and two or three men ran out. +I helped my Cousin Dorothy from her horse; and then all three of us went +through a side-door to the front of the house. + +The house without was of timber and plaster, very solidly built, but in +no way pretentious; and the plaster was stamped, in panels, with a kind +of comb-pattern in half circles, peculiar, my cousin told me, to that +part of the country. Within, it was very pleasant. There was a little +passage as we came in, and to right and left lay the Great Chamber (as +it was called), and the dining-room. Beyond the little passage was the +staircase, panelled all the way up, with the instruments of the Passion +and other emblems carved on a row of the panels; and at the foot of the +staircase on the right lay a little parlour, very pretty, with hangings +presenting the knights of the Holy Grail riding upon their Quest. Upon +the left of the staircase, lay a paved hall, with a little pantry under +the stairs, to the left, and the kitchens running out to the back; and +opposite to them, enclosing a little grassed court, the brewhouse and +the bakehouse. Behind all lay the kitchen gardens; and behind the +brewhouse a row of old yews and a part of the lawn, that also ran before +the house. The house was of three stories high, and contained about +twenty rooms with the attics. + +It is strange how some houses, upon a first acquaintance with them, seem +like old friends; and how others, though one may have lived in them +fifty years are never familiar to those who live in them. Now Hare +Street House was one of the first kind. This very day that I first set +eyes on it, it was as if I had lived there as a child. The sunlight +streamed into the Great Chamber, and past the yews into the parlour; and +upon the lawns outside; and the noise of the bees in the limes was as if +an organ played softly; and it was all to me as if I had known it a +hundred years. + +My Cousin Tom carried me upstairs presently to the Guest-chamber--a +great panelled room, with a wide fire-place, above the dining-room--that +I might wash my hands and face before dinner; and my heart smote me a +little for all my thoughts of him, for, when all was said, he had +received me very hospitably, and was now bidding me welcome again, and +that I must live there as long as I would, and think of it as my home. + +"And here," he said, opening a door at the foot of the bed, "is a little +closet where your man can hang your clothes; it looks out upon the yard; +and my room is beyond it, over the kitchen." + +I thanked him again and again for his kindness; and so he left me. + + * * * * * + +We dined below presently, very excellently. The room was hung with +green, with panels of another pattern upon it; and the dishes were put +in through a little hatch from the kitchen passage. My man James waited +with the rest, and acquitted himself very well. Then after dinner, when +the servants were gone away, my Cousin Tom carried me out, with a +mysterious air, to the foot of the stairs. + +"Now look well round you, Cousin Roger," he said, when he had me +standing there; "and see if there be anything that would draw your +attention." + +I looked this way and that but saw nothing; and said so. + +"Have you ever heard of Master Owen," he said, "of glorious memory?" + +"Why, yes," I said, "he was a Jesuit lay-brother, martyred under +Elizabeth: and he made hiding-holes, did he not?" + +"Well; he hath been at work here. Look again, Cousin Roger." + +I turned and saw my Cousin Dorothy smiling--(and it was a very pretty +sight too!)--but there was nothing else to be seen. I beat with my foot; +and it rang a little hollow. + +"No, no; those are the cellars," said my Cousin Tom. + +I beat then upon the walls, here and there; but to no purpose; and then +upon the stairs. + +"That is the sloping roof of the pantry, only," said my Cousin Tom. + +I confessed myself outwitted; and then with great mirth he shewed me +how, over the door into the paved hall, there was a space large enough +to hold three or four men; and how the panels opened on this side, as +well as into the kitchen passage on the other. + +"A priest or suchlike might very well lie here a week or two, might he +not?" asked my Cousin Tom delightedly; "and if the sentry was at the one +side, he might be fed from the other. It is cunningly contrived, is it +not? A man has but to leap up here from a chair; and he is safe." + +I praised it very highly, to please him; and indeed it was very curious +and ingenious. + +"But those days are done," I said. + +"Who can tell that?" he cried--(though a week ago he had told me the +same himself). "Some priest might very well be flying for his life along +this road, and turn in here. Who knows whether it may not be so again?" + +I said no more then on that point; though I did not believe him. + +"And there is one more matter I must shew you in your own chamber; if +you have any private papers and suchlike." + +Then he shewed me in my own room, by the head of the bed that stood +along the wall, how one of the panels slid back from its place, +discovering a little space behind where a man might very well keep his +papers or his money. + +"Not a living soul," he said, "knows of that, besides Dolly and myself. +You are at liberty to use that, Cousin Roger, if you like." + +I thanked him; and said I would do so. + +The rest of that day I spent in going about the house, and acquainting +myself with it all. My Cousin Dorothy shewed me the rooms. Her own was a +little one at the head of the stairs; and she told me, smiling, that a +ghost was said to walk there. + +"But I have never been troubled with it," she said. "It is a tall old, +woman, they say, who comes up the stairs and into the room; but she does +no harm to anyone." + +Next her room, along the front of the house, lay two other greater +rooms, one with a fire-place and one without: then was my chamber, and +then her father's: and upstairs were the attics where the men lay. The +maids lay in two little rooms above the kitchen. + +It was mighty pleasant to me to be with my Cousin Dorothy. She had +changed her riding clothes into others more suitable for a country +maid--with a white starched neckerchief that came down upon her +shoulders, and a grey dress and petticoat below that. Her sleeves were +short, as the custom is in the country, with great linen cuffs folded +back upon them, so as to leave her hands and arms to the elbow free for +her occupations. But most of all I loved her simplicity and her +quietness and her discretion. Her father bade her expressly to shew me +all the house; or she would not have done it, for she was very maidenly +and modest; but as soon as he said that, she did it without affectation. +She shewed me the parlour too, with the hangings upon the walls, and the +chapel of the Grail, with the Grail itself upon an altar within, flanked +by two candlesticks, that was represented over the fire-place. She came +out with me too to shew me the bakehouse where the baking was already +begun, and the brewhouse--both of which too were all built of timber and +plaster; and there my Cousin Tom came upon us, and carried me off to see +his garden and his pasture; for he farmed a few acres about here, and +made a good profit out of it: and it was while I walked with him that +for the first time I understood what his intention was towards me. + +He was speaking, as he very often did, of his daughter Dorothy--which I +had taken to be a father's affection only. (We were walking at the time +up and down in the pasture below the garden; and the house lay visible +among the gardens, very fair and peaceful with the sunlight upon it.) + +"She will be something of an heiress," he said; "and when I say that, I +do not mean that she will have as many acres as yourself. But she will +have near a thousand pound a year so soon as poor Tom Jermyn dies: and I +may die any day, for I am short in the neck, and might very well be +taken with an apoplexy. I wish above all things then, to see her safely +married before I go--to some solid man who will care for her. There is a +plenty of Protestants about here that would have her; for she is a +wonderful housewife, and as pure as Diana too." + +He paused at that; and looked at me in that cunning way of his that I +misliked so much. Yet even now I did not see what he would be at; for +gentlemen do not usually fling their daughters at the head of any man; +and he knew nothing of me but that I was pretty rich and would be more +so one day. But I suppose that that was enough for him. + +"I had thought at one time," he went on, "of sending her to Court. I +could get her in, under the protection of my Lady Arlington. But the +Court is no place for a maiden who knows nothing of the world. What +would you advise, Cousin Roger? I would not have her marry a Protestant, +if I could help it." + +And with that he looked at me again. + +Then, all of a sudden I saw his meaning; and my heart stood still; for +not only did his words reveal him to me, but myself also; and I +understood why he had questioned me so closely in town, as to my +fortune. I cannot say at this time that I loved my Cousin Dolly--for I +had not known that I loved her--but his words were very effective. +Indeed I had not thought to marry, though I was free to do so; for a +novice does not quickly shake off his monkishness. I had thought far +more of the mission I was come to England upon, and what I could +accomplish, with God's blessing, for Christ and His Church. But, as I +say, my heart stood still when my cousin said that to me; for, as in a +vision, I saw myself here as her husband, and her as my wife, in this +house among its gardens. Here we might live a life which even the angels +might envy--harmless, innocent, separate from sinners, as the Apostle +says--not accomplishing, maybe, any great things, but at least +refraining from the hindering of God's Kingdom. The summers would come +and go, and we still be here, with our children growing about us, to +inherit the place and the name, such as it was. And no harm done, no +vows broken, no offence to any. Such thoughts as these did not as yet +shew any very great ardour of love in me; and indeed I had not got this +yet; but she was the first maid I had ever had any acquaintance with, at +least for some while; and this no doubt, had its effect upon me. All +this came upon me of a sudden; and as I lifted my eyes I saw my Cousin +Dolly's sunbonnet going among the herbs of the garden; and saw her in my +mind's eye too as I had seen her just now, cool and innocent and good, +with that touch of hidden fire in her eyes that draws a man's heart. +Neither had she looked unkindly on me: our intimacy had made wonderful +progress, though I had known her scarcely more than a week: she had +spoken to me of her father, too, as one would speak only to a friend. +Yet I could not say one word of this to him; for he had not said +anything explicit to me: and I knew, too, that I must give myself time; +for a man does not, if he is wise, change the course of his life on an +instant's thought. Yet I must not say No outright, and thereby, maybe, +bang the door on my new hopes. + +"I could not advise you at present," I said. "I do not know my cousin +well enough to advise anything. I am one with you so far as concerns the +Court: I cannot think that any Catholic father should send his daughter +into such a den of lions--and worse. And I am one with you as concerns +marrying her to a Protestant. Yet I can say no more at present." + +And at that my Cousin Tom looked at me in such a manner as near to ruin +his own scheme; for his eyes said, if his mouth did not, that now we +understood one another; and were upon the same side, or at least not +opposed; and to think that I was leagued with him against her made my +heart hot with anger. + +"Very well," he said; "we will say no more at present." And he bade me +observe an old ram that was regarding us, with a face not unlike Cousin +Tom's own: but I suppose that he did not know this. + + * * * * * + +In this manner, then, began our life at Hare Street; for I was there six +weeks before I went back again to London in the way I shall relate +presently. The days were passed for the most time, from rising until +dinner, upon the farm, or in hunting; for we rode out now and again with +the neighbours after a stag who had come from the woods. But we did not, +because of the Papistry of the house, see a great deal of the +neighbours, or they of us. The parson of Hormead came to see us now and +again, and behaved very civilly: but during those six weeks we had no +sight of a priest, except once when we rode to Standon to hear mass. +After dinner, I gave myself up to writing; for I thought that I could +best serve His Holiness in this way, making my diary each day in +shorthand (as I had learned from an Italian); and it is from that very +diary that this narrative is composed; and I wrote too a report or two, +apologizing for the poverty of it, which I determined to send to the +Cardinal Secretary as soon as I had an opportunity. I read too a little +Italian or Spanish or French every day; and thus, for the most part kept +to my chamber. But all my papers I put away each afternoon in the little +hiding-place in my chamber; and made excuse for keeping my room on the +score of my practice in languages. + +We supped at five o'clock--which was the country hour; and after that, +to me, came the best part of the day. + +For my Cousin Dorothy, I had learned, was an extraordinary fine +musician. We had, of course, no music such as was possible in town; but +she had taught a maid to play upon a fiddle, and herself played upon the +bass-viol; and the two together would play in the Great Chamber after +supper for an hour or two, when the dishes were washed. In this manner +we had many a corrant and saraband; and I was able to prick down for +them too some Italian music I remembered, which she set for the two +instruments. Sometimes, too, when Cousin Tom was not too drowsy after +his day and his ale, the three would sing and I would listen; for my +Cousin Tom sang a plump bass very well when he was in the mood for it. +As for me, I had but a monk's voice, that is very well when all the +choir is a-cry together, but not of much use under other circumstances. +In this way then I made acquaintance with a number of songs--such as Mr. +Wise's "It is not that I love you less" and his duet "Go, perjured man!" +of which the words are taken from Herrick's "Hesperides," and of which +the music was made by Mr. Wise (who was a gentleman of the Chapel Royal) +at His Majesty's express wish. + + * * * * * + +I have many very pleasant memories of Hare Street, but I think none more +pleasant than of the music in the Great Chamber. I would sit near the +window, and see them in the evening light, with their faces turned to +me; or, when it grew late with the candlelight upon them and their +dresses or sometimes when the evening was fair and warm I would sit out +upon the lawn, and they at the window, and listen to the singing coming +out of the candlelight, and see them move against it. My Cousin Dorothy +would make herself fine in the evening--not, I mean, like a Court lady, +for these dresses of hers were put away in lavender--but with a lace +neckerchief on her throat and shoulders, and lace ruffles at her wrists. + +Yet all this while I made no progress with her or even with myself; for +every time that I was alone with her, or when her father was asleep in +his chair, a remembrance of what he had said came over me with a kind of +sickness, and I could not say one word that might seem to set me on his +side against her; and so I was torn two ways, and the very thing by +which he had hoped to encourage me, (or rather to help himself) had the +contrary effect, and silenced me when I might have spoken. + +For I understood very well by now what was in his mind. He saw no +prospect of marrying Dolly to a Protestant--or I take it, if I know the +man, he would have leapt at it; neither was there any hope of marrying +her to a Catholic; and as for his talk about my Lady Arlington I did not +believe one word of it. Therefore, since I was at hand, and would be a +wealthy man some day, and indeed even now did very well on my French +_rentes_, he had set his heart on this. It was not wholly evil; yet the +cold-bloodedness of it affected me like a stink.... + + * * * * * + +The matter ended, for the time, on the evening of the thirteenth of +August, in the following manner, when my adventures, of which my life, +ever since my audience with our Most Holy Lord the Pope, had been but a +prelude, properly began--those adventures for whose sake I have begun +this transcript from my diary, and this adventure was pre-shadowed, as I +think now, by one or two curious happenings. + +On the morning of the thirteenth of August, two days before the Feast of +the Assumption (on which we had intended to hear mass again at Standon) +my Cousin Dorothy came down a little late, and found us already over our +oatbread and small beer which we were accustomed to take upon +rising--and which was called our "morning." + +"I slept very ill," she said; and no more then. + +Afterwards, however, as I was lighting my pipe in the little court at +the back of the house, she came out and beckoned me in; and I saw that +something was amiss. I went after her into the little hung parlour and +we sat down. + +"I slept very ill, cousin," she said again; and I observed again that +her eyes looked hollow. "And I dare not tell my father my fancies," she +said, "for he is terrified at such things; and has forbade the servants +to speak of such things." + +"The tall old woman, then?" I said; for I had not forgotten what she had +told me before. + +"Yes," she said, smiling a little painfully--"and yet I was not at all +afraid when she came; or when I thought that she did." + +"Tell me the whole tale," I said. + +"I awakened about one o'clock this morning," she said, "and knew that my +sleep was gone from me altogether. Yet I did not feel afraid or +restless; but lay there content enough, expecting something, but what it +would be I did not know. The cocks were crowing as I awakened; and then +were silent; and it appeared to me as if all the world were listening. +After a while--I should say it was ten minutes or thereabouts--I turned +over with my face to the wall; and as I did so, I heard a soft step +coming up the stairs. One of the maids, thought I, late abed or early +rising, for sickness. When the steps came to my door they ceased; and a +hand was laid upon the latch; and at that I made to move; but could not. +Yet it was not fear that held me there, though it was like a gentle +pricking all over me. Then the latch was lifted, and still I could not +move, not even my eyes; and a person came in, and across the floor to my +bed. And even then I could not move nor cry out. Presently the person +spoke; but I do not know what she said, though it was only a word or +two: but the voice came from high up, as almost from the canopy of the +bed, and it was the voice of an old woman, speaking in a kind of +whisper. I said nothing; for I could not: and then again the steps moved +across the floor, and out of the door; and I heard the latch shut again; +and then they passed away down the stairs." + +My Cousin Dorothy was pale as death by this time; and her blue eyes were +set wide open. I made to take her by the hand; but I did not. + +"You were dreaming," I said; "it was the memory of the tale you have +heard." + +She shook her head; but she said nothing. + +"You have never had it before?" I asked. + +"Never," she said. + +"You must lie in another chamber for a week or two, and forget it." + +"I cannot do that," she said. "My father would know of it." And she +spoke so courageously that I was reassured. + +"Well; you must cry out if it comes again. You can have your maid to +sleep with you." + +"I might do that," she said; and then-- + +"Cousin Roger; doth God permit these things to provide us against some +danger?" + +"It may be so," I said, to quiet her; "but be sure that no harm can come +of it." + +At that we heard her father calling her; and she stood up. + +"I have told you as a secret, Cousin Roger; there must be no word to my +father." + +I pledged myself to that; for I could see what a spirit she had; and we +said no more about it then. + +As the day passed on, the sky grew heavy--or rather the air; for the sky +was still blue overhead; only on the horizon to the south the clouds +that are called _cumuli_ began to gather. The air was so hot too that I +could scarcely bear to work, for I had set myself to take some +plant-cuttings in a little glass-house that was in the garden against +the south wall; and by noon the sky was overcast. + +After dinner I went up to my chamber; and a great heaviness fell upon +me, till I looked out of the window and saw that beyond the limes the +clouds spewed a reddish tint that marked the approach of thunder; and at +that grew reassured again; and not only for myself but for my Cousin +Dorothy, whose tale had lain close on my heart through the morning: for +this thought I, is the explanation of it all: the maid was oppressed by +the heat and the approaching storm, and fancied all the rest. + +I fell asleep in my chair, over my Italian; and when I awakened it was +near supper-time, and the heaviness was upon me again, like lead; and my +diary not written. + +After supper and some talk, I made excuse to do my writing; and as it +was growing dark, and I was finishing, I heard music from the Great +Chamber beneath. They were singing together a song I had not heard +before; and I listened, well pleased, promising myself the pleasure too +of going downstairs presently and hearing it. + +Between two of the verses, I heard on a sudden, over the hill-top beyond +the village, the beat of a horse's hoofs, galloping; but I thought no +more of it. At the end of the next verse, even before it was finished, I +heard the hoofs again, through the music; I ran to the window to see who +rode so fast; and was barely in time to see a courier, in a blue coat, +dash past the new iron gate, pulling at his horse as he did so; an +instant later, I heard the horse turn in at the yard gate, and +immediately the singing ceased. + +As I came down the stairs, I saw my Cousin Dolly run out into the inner +lobby, and her face, in the dusk, was as white as paper; and the same +instant there came a hammering at the hall door. + +"What is it? What is it?" cried she; and clung to me as I came down. + +I saw, through the inner door, my Cousin Tom unbolting the outer one; he +had taken down a pistol that hung upon the wall, for the highwaymen +waxed very bold sometimes; then when he opened the door, I heard my +name. + +I went forward, and received from the courier, a sealed letter; and +there, in the twilight I opened and read it. It was from Mr. Chiffinch, +bidding me come to town at once on King's business. + +"I must ride to town," I said. "Cousin Tom, will you order my horse for +me; and another for this man? I do not know when I shall be back again." + +And, as I said these words, I saw my Cousin Dorothy's face looking at me +from the dusk of the inner hall, and knew what was in her mind; and that +it was the matter of the tall old woman in her room. + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +The storm was broken before we could set out, and the ride so far as +Hoddesdon was such as I shall never forget; for the wind was violent +against us; and it was pitchy dark before we came even to Puckeridge; +the thunder was as if great guns were shot off, or bags of marbles +dashed on an oak floor overhead; and the countryside was as light as day +under the flashes, so that we could see the trees and their shadows, +and, I think, sometimes the green colour of them too. We wore, all three +of us--the courier, I and my man James--horse-men's cloaks, but these +were saturated within half an hour. We had no fear of highwaymen, even +had we not been armed, for the artillery of heaven had long ago driven +all other within doors. + +The hardest part of the journey was that I knew, no more than the +dead--indeed not so much--why it was that Mr. Chiffinch had sent for me. +He had said nothing in his letter, save that His Majesty wished my +presence at once; and on the outside of the letter was written the word +"Haste," three times over. I thought of a hundred matters that it might +be, but none of them satisfied me. + +It is near forty miles from Hare Street to Whitehall; but so bad was the +way that, though we changed horses at Waltham Cross--at the _Four +Swans_--we did not come to London until eight o'clock in the morning; +and it was half-past eight before we rode up to Whitehall. The last part +of the journey was pretty pleasant, for the rain held off; and it was +strange to see the white hard light of the clouded dawn upon the fields +and the trees. But by the time we came to London it was long ago broad +day--by three or four hours at the least; and all the folks were abroad +in the streets. + +I went straight to Mr. Chiffinch's lodgings, sending my man to the +lodging in Covent Garden, to bestow the horses and to come again to the +guard-house to await my orders. Mr. Chiffinch was not within, for he +had not expected me so early, a servant told me; but he had looked for +my coming about eleven or twelve o'clock, and had given orders that I +was to be taken to a closet to change my clothes if I needed it. This I +did; and then was set down to break my fast; and while I was at it, Mr. +Chiffinch himself came in. + +He told me that I had done very well to come so swiftly; but he smiled a +little as he said it. + +"His Majesty is closeted with one or two more until ten o'clock. I will +send to let him know you are come." + +I did not ask him for what business I had been sent for; since he did +not choose to tell me himself; and he went out again. But he was +presently back once more; and told me that His Majesty would see me at +once. + +My mind was all perturbed as I went with him in the rain across the +passages: I felt as if some great evil threatened, but I could make no +conjecture as to what it was about; or how it could be anything that was +at once so sudden and that demanded my presence. We went straight up the +stairs, and across the same ante-room; and Mr. Chiffinch flung open the +door of the same little closet where I had spoken with the King, +speaking my name as he did so. + +His Majesty was sitting in the very same place where he sat before, with +his chair wheeled about, so that he faced three men. One of them I knew +at once, for my cousin had pointed him out to me in the park--my Lord +Danby, who was Lord Treasurer at this time--and he was sitting at the +end of the great table, nearest to the King: on the other side of the +table, nearer to me as I entered, were two men, upon whom I had never +set eyes before--one of them, a little man in the dress of an apothecary +or attorney; and the other a foolish-looking minister in his cassock and +bands. All four turned their eyes upon me as I came in, and then the two +who were standing, turned them back again towards His Majesty. There was +a heap of papers on the table below my Lord Danby's hand. + +His Majesty made a little inclination of his head to me, but said +nothing, putting out his hand; and when I had kissed it, and stood back +with the other two, he continued speaking as if I were not there. His +face had a look, as if he were a little _ennuye_, and yet a little merry +too. + +"Continue, my Lord," he said. + +"Now, doctor," said my Lord, in a patient kind of voice as if he +encouraged the other, "you tell us that all these papers were thrust +under your door. By whom were they thrust, do you think?" + +"My Lord, I have my suspicions," said the minister; "but I do not know." + +"Can you verify these suspicions of yours, do you think?" + +"My Lord, I can try." + +"And under how many heads are they ranged?" asked the King, drawling a +little in his speech. + +"Sir; they are under forty-three heads." + +The King rolled his eyes, as if in a droll kind of despair; but he said +nothing. + +"And you tell me--" began my Lord; but His Majesty broke in: + +"_Mon Dieu_!" he said; "and here is good Mr. Mallock, come here +hot-foot, and knows not a word of the proceedings. Mr. Mallock, these +good gentlemen--Doctor Tonge, a very worthy divine and a physician of +the soul, and Mr. Kirby, a very worthy chymist, and a physician of the +body--are come to tell me of a plot against my life on the part of some +of my faithful lieges, whereby they would thrust me swiftly down to +hell--body and soul together. So that, I take it is why God Almighty +hath raised up these physicians to save me. I wish you to hear their +evidence. That is why I sent for you. Continue, my Lord." + +My Lord looked a little displeased, pursing up his mouth, at the manner +in which the King told the tale; but he said nothing on that point. + +"Grove and Pickering, then, it appears, were to shoot His Majesty; and +Wakeman to poison him--" + +("They will take no risks you see, Mr. Mallock," put in the King.) + +"Yes, my Lord," said Tonge. "They were to have screwed pistols, with +silver bullets, champed, that the wounds may not heal." + +("Prudent! prudent!" cried the King.) + +Then my Lord Danby lost his patience; and pushed the papers together +with a sweep of his arm. + +"Sir," he said, "I think we may let these worthy gentlemen go for the +present, until the papers are examined." + +"With all my heart," said the King. "But not Mr. Mallock. I wish to +speak privately with Mr. Mallock." + +So the two were dismissed; but I noticed that the King did not give them +his hand to kiss. They appeared to me a pair of silly folks, rather than +wicked as others thought them afterwards, who themselves partly +believed, at any rate, the foolish tale that they told. Mr. Kirby was a +little man, as I have said, with a sparrow-like kind of air; and Doctor +Tonge had no great distinction of any kind, except his look of +foolishness. + +When they were gone, my Lord Danby turned to the King, with a kind of +indignation. + +"Your Majesty may be pleased to make a mock of it all; but your loving +subjects cannot. I have permission then to examine these papers, and +report to Your Majesty?" + +"Why, yes," said the King, "so you do not inflict the forty-three heads +upon me. I have one of my own which I must care for." + +My Lord said no more; he gathered his papers without a word, saluted the +King at a distance, still without speaking, and went out, giving me a +sharp glance as he went. + +"Now, Mr. Mallock," said His Majesty, "sit you down and listen to me." + +I sat down; but I was all bewildered as to why I had been sent for. What +had I to do with such affairs as these? + +"Do you know of a man called Grove?" the King asked me suddenly. + +Now the name had meant nothing to me when I had heard it just now; but +when it was put to me in this way I remembered. I was about to speak, +when he spoke again. + +"Or Pickering?" he said. + +"Sir; a man called Grove is known to me; but no Pickering." + +"Ha! then there is a man called Grove--if it be the same. He is a +Papist?" + +"Sir, he is a lay-brother of the Society of Jesus, and dwells--" + +The King held up his hand. + +"I wish to know nothing more than I am obliged. Pickering is some sort +of Religious, too, they tell me. And what kind of a man is Grove?" + +"He is a modest kind of man, Sir. He opened the door to me, and I saw +him a-laying of the table for dinner. I know no more of him than that." + +Then the King drew himself up in his chair suddenly, as I had seen him +do before, and his mocking manner left him. It was as if another man sat +there. + +"Mr. Mallock," he said, shaking his finger at me with great solemnity, +"listen to me. I had thought for a long time that an attempt would be +made against the Catholics. There is a great deal of feeling in the +country, now that my brother is one of them, and I myself am known not +to be disinclined towards them. And I make no doubt at all that this is +such an attempt. They have begun with the Jesuits; for that will be the +most popular cry; and they have added in Sir George Wakeman's name, Her +Majesty's physician, to give colour to it all. By and by they will add +other names; (you will see if it be not so), until not a Jesuit, and +scarce a Catholic is left who is not embroiled in it. I do not know who +is behind this matter; it may be my Lord Danby himself, or Shaftesbury, +or a score of others. Or it may be some discontented fellow who will +make his fortune over it; for all know that such a cry as this will be a +popular one. But this I know for a verity--that there is not one word of +truth in the tale from beginning to end; and it will appear so +presently, no doubt. Yet meanwhile a great deal of mischief may be done; +and my brother, may be, and even Her Majesty, may suffer for it, if we +are not very prudent. Now, Mr. Mallock, I sent for you, for I did not +know who else to send for. You are not known in England, or scarcely: +you come commended to me by the Holy Father himself; you are neither +priest nor Jesuit. What, then, you must do for me is this. First, you +must speak not one word of the matter to any living soul--not even your +confessor; for if we can quash the whole matter privately, so much the +better. I had you in just now, that Danby and the others might see that +you had my confidence; but I said nothing of who you were nor where you +came from; and, if they inquire, they will know nothing but that you +come commended by the ambassadors. Very well then; you must go about +freely amongst the Jesuits, and rake together any evidence that you can +that may be of use to them if the affair should ever be made public; and +yet they must know nothing of the reason--I lay that upon you. And you +must mix freely in taverns and coffee-houses, especially among the +smaller gentry, and hear what you can--as to whether the plot hath yet +leaked out--(for it is no less)--and what they think of it; and if not, +what it is that they say of the Catholics. You understand me, Mr. +Mallock?" + +I said, Yes: but my heart had grown sick during the King's speech to me; +for all that I had ever thought in Rome, of England, seemed on the point +of fulfilment. His Majesty too had spoken with an extraordinary +vehemence, that was like a fire for heat. But I must have commanded my +countenance well; for he commended me on my behaviour. + +"Your manner is excellent, Mr. Mallock," he said, "both just now and a +few minutes ago. You take it very well. And I have your word upon it +that you will observe secrecy?" + +"My word on it, Sir," I said. + +Then His Majesty leaned back again and relaxed a little. + +"That is very well," he said; "and I think I have chosen my man well. +You need not fear, Mr. Mallock, that any harm will come to the good +Fathers, or to Grove or Pickering either. They cannot lay a finger upon +them without my consent; and that they shall never have. It is to +prevent rather the scandal of the whole matter that I am anxious; and +to save the Queen and my brother from any trouble. You do not know yet, +I think, all the feeling that there is upon the Catholics." + +I said nothing: it was my business to listen rather, and indeed what His +Majesty said next was worth hearing. + +"There be three kinds of religion in my realm," he said. "The +Presbyterian and Independent and that kind--for I count those all one; +and that is no religion for a gentleman. And there is the Church of +England, of which I am the head, which numbers many gentlemen, but is no +religion for a Christian; and there is the Catholic, which is the only +religion (so far as I am acquainted with any), suited for both gentlemen +and Christians. That is my view of the matter, Mr. Mallock." + +The merry look was back in his eyes, melancholy though they always were, +as he said this. For myself, it was on the tip of my tongue to ask His +Majesty why, if he thought so, he did not act upon it. But I did not, +thinking it too bold on so short an acquaintance; and I think I was +right in that; for he put it immediately into words himself. + +"I know what you are thinking, Mr. Mallock. Well; I am not yet a good +enough Christian for that." + +I knew very well what His Majesty meant when he said that: he was +thinking of his women to whom as yet he could not say good-bye; and the +compassion surged up in me again at the thought that a man so noble as +this, and who knew so much (as his speeches had shewed me), could be so +ignoble too--so tied and bound by his sins; and it affected me so +much--here in his presence that had so strange a fascination in it--that +it was as if a hand had squeezed my throat, so that I could not speak, +even if I would. + +"Well, sir," he said, "I must thank you for coming so quickly when I +sent for you. Mr. Chiffinch knows why you are come; but no one else; and +even to him you must not say one word. You will do well and discreetly; +of that I am sure. I will send for you again presently; and you may come +to me when you will." + +He gave me his hand to kiss; and I went out, promising that no pains +should be spared. + + * * * * * + +It was indeed a difficult task that His Majesty had laid upon me. I was +to speak freely to the priests, yet not freely; and how to collect the +evidence that was required I knew not; since I knew nothing at all of +when the conspiring was said to be done, nor what would be of avail to +protect them; and all the way to my lodgings with my man James, I was +thinking of what was best to do. My man had ordered that all things +should be ready for my entertainment, and I found the rooms prepared, +and the beds laid; and the first thing I did after dinner was to go to +bed, after I had written to my Cousin Tom at Hare Street, and sleep +until the evening. + + * * * * * + +When I was dressed and had had supper in the coffee-house, listening as +well as I could to the talk, but hearing nothing pertinent, I went back +again to Drury Lane, to Mr. Fenwick's lodging, to lay the foundation of +my plan. For I had determined, between sleeping and waking, that the +best thing to be done, was to shew myself as forward and friendly as I +could, so that I might mix with the Fathers freely, in the hope that I +might light on something; and it so fell out, that although my small +adventures that evening had no use in them in the event, yet they were +strangely relevant to what took place afterwards. + +The first small adventure was as follows: + +I was walking swiftly up Drury Lane, scanning the houses, for it was +falling dark, and the oil-lights that burned, one before every tenth +house, cast but a poor illumination, when just beyond one of the lights +I knocked against a fellow who was coming out suddenly from a little +passage at the side, just, as it chanced, opposite to Mr. Fenwick's +house. I turned, to beg his pardon, for it was more my fault than his, +that we had come together; and I set my eyes upon the most strange and +villainous face that I have ever seen. The fellow was dressed in a dark +suit, and wore a crowned hat, and carried a club in his hand, and he +appeared to be one of the vagrom-men as they are called, who are at the +bottom of all riots and such like things. He was a smallish man in his +height, but his face was the strangest thing about him; and in the light +from the lamp I thought at first that he had some kind of deformity in +it. For his mouth was, as it were in the very midst of his face; there +was a little forehead above, with eyes set close beneath it, and a +little nose, and then his mouth, turned up at the corners as if he +smiled, and beneath that a vast chin, as large as the rest of his face. + +He cried out "Lard!" as I ran against him; by which I understood him to +say "Lord!" + +I asked his pardon. + +"O Lard!" he said again, "'tis nothing, sir. My apologies to you, sir." + +I bowed to him civilly again, and passed on; but as I knocked upon Mr. +Fenwick's door, I saw that he was staring after me, from the entrance to +that same passage from which he had come. + + * * * * * + +My second adventure was that, upon coming upstairs, I found that in the +chamber with Mr. Fenwick were the mother and sister of Mr. Ireland, +waiting for him to come and take them back to their lodging. They were +quiet folks enough--a little shy, it appeared to me, of strange company. +But I did my best to be civil, and they grew more talkative. Mrs. +Ireland would be near sixty years old, I would take it, dressed in a +brown sac, such as had been fashionable ten years back, and her +daughter, I should think about thirty years old. They told me that they +had been to supper, and to the play in the Duke's Playhouse, where Mr. +Shirley's tragi-comedy _The Young Admiral_ had been done; and that Mr. +Ireland was to come for them here, as presently he did, for it was +scarce safe for ladies to be abroad at such an hour in the streets +without an escort, so wild were the pranks played (and worse than +pranks), by even the King's gentlemen themselves, as well as by the +riff-raff. + +We sat and talked a good while; and Mr. Grove brought chocolate up for +the ladies. But for myself, I had such a variety of thoughts, as I +talked with them all, knowing what I did, and they knowing nothing, that +I could scarce command my voice and manner sometimes. For here were +these innocent folk--with Mr. Grove smiling upon them with the +chocolate--talking of the play and what-not, and of which of the actors +pleased them and which did not--and I noticed that the ladies, as +always, were very severe upon the women--and the good fathers, too, +pleased that they were pleased, and rallying them upon their +gaiety--(for it appeared that these ladies did not go often into +company); and here sat I, with my secret upon my heart, knowing--or +guessing at least--that a plot was afoot to ruin them all and turn their +merriment into mourning. + +But I think that I acquitted myself pretty well; and that none guessed +that anything was amiss with me; for I spoke of the plays I had seen in +Rome, before that I was a novice, and of the singers that I heard there; +and I listened, too, to their own speeches, gathering this and that, of +what they did and where they went, if by chance I might gather something +to their own advantage thereafter. + +It was pretty to see, too, how courteous and gallant Mr. Ireland was +with his mother and sister; and how he put their cloaks about them at +the door, and feigned that he was a constable to carry them off to +prison--(at which my heart failed me again)--for frequenting the company +of suspected persons; and how he gave an arm to each of them, as they +set off into the dark. + + * * * * * + +That night too, as I lay abed, I thought much of all this again. I had +established a great friendliness with the Fathers by now, telling them I +was come up again to London, as Mr. Whitbread had recommended me, until +the Court should go again to Windsor, and that perhaps I should go with +it thither. They had told me at that, that one of their Fathers was +there, named Mr. Bedingfeld (who was of the Oxburgh family, I think), +and that he was confessor to the Duke of York, and that they would +recommend me to him if I should go. But all through my anxiety I +comforted myself with the assurance the King had given to me, that, +whatever else might ensue, not a hair of their heads should be touched, +for I had great confidence in His Majesty's word, given so solemnly. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +Now begins in earnest that chapter of horrors that will be with me till +I die; and the learning of that lesson that I might have learned long +before from one that was himself a Prince, and knew what he was talking +of--I mean King David, who bids us in his psalm to "put no trust in +princes nor in any child of man." + +For several days all passed peacefully enough. I waited upon Mr. +Chiffinch, and asked whether the King had spoken of me again, and was +told he had not; so I went about my business, which was to haunt the +taverns and to frequent the company of the Jesuits. + +I made an acquaintance or two in the taverns at this time, which served +me later, though not in the particular manner that I had wished; but for +the most part matters seemed quiet enough. Men did not speak a great +deal of the Catholics; and I always fenced off questions by beginning, +in every company that I found myself in, by speaking of some Church of +England divine with a great deal of admiration, soon earning for myself, +I fear, the name of a pious and grave fellow, but at the same time, of a +safe man in matters of Church and State. + +One of these acquaintances was a Mr. Rumbald, a maltster (which was all +I thought him then), who frequented the Mitre tavern, without Aldgate, +where I went one day, dressed in one of my sober country suits, wearing +my hat at a somewhat rakish cock, that I might seem to be a simple +fellow that aped town-ways. + +The tavern was full when I came to it, and called for dinner; but I made +such a to-do that the maid went to an inner room, and presently +returning, told me I might have my dinner there. It was a little parlour +she spewed me to, with old steel caps upon the wall, and strewed rushes +under foot; and there were three or four men there who had just done +dinner, all but one. This one was a ruddy man, with red hair going +grey, dressed very plain, but well, with a hard kind of look about him; +and he had had as much to drink as a man should have, and was in the +merry stage of his drink. Here, thought I, is the very man for me. He is +of both country and town; here is a chamber of which he seems lord--for +he ordered the maid about royally, and cursed her once or twice--and it +is a chamber apart from the rest. So I thought this a very proper place +to hear some talk in, and a very proper fellow to hear it from. For a +while I thought he had something of the look of an old soldier about +him; but then I thought no more of it. + +When the others were gone out, and there was a little delay, I too--(God +forgive me!)--cursed the poor maid for a slut once or twice, and bade +her make haste with my dinner; and my manner had its effect, for the +fellow warmed to me presently and told me that he was Mr. Rumbald, and I +said on my part that my name was Mallock; and we shook hands upon it, +for that was the mood of the ale that was in him. (But he had other +moods, too, I learned later, when he was very repentant for his drink.) + +I began then, to speak of Hare Street, and said that I lodged there +sometimes; and then began to speak of the parson there, and of what a +Churchman he was. + +"Of Hare Street, eh?" said he. "Why I am not far from there myself. I am +of Hoddesdon, or near to it. Where have you lodged in Hare Street, and +what is your business?" + +I was in a quandary at that, for it seemed to me then (though it was not +in reality), a piece of bad fortune that he should come from +thereabouts. + +"I am Jack-of-all-trades," I said. "I did some garden work there for Mr. +Jermyn, the Papist." + +"The Papist, eh?" cried Mr. Rumbald. + +"I would work for the Devil," said I, "if he would pay me enough." + +The words appeared to Mr. Rumbald very witty, though God knows why: I +suppose it was the ale in him: for he laughed aloud and beat on his leg. + +"I'll be bound you would," he said. + +And it was these words of mine which (under God's Providence, as I think +now) established my reputation with Mr. Rumbald as a dare-devil kind of +fellow that would do anything for money. He began, too, at that (which +pleased me better at the time), to speak of precisely those matters of +which I wished to hear. It was not treasonable talk, for the ale had not +driven all the sense out of him; but it was as near treasonable as might +be; and it was above all against the Catholics that he raged. I would +not defile this page by writing down all that he said; but neither Her +Majesty nor the Duke of York escaped his venom; there appeared nothing +too bad to be said of them; and he spoke of other names, too, of the +Duchess of Portsmouth whom he called by vile names (yet not viler than +she had rightfully earned) and the Duchess of Cleveland; and he began +upon the King, but stopped himself. + +"But you are a Church of England man?" he said. "Well, so am I now, at +least I call myself so, though I should be a Presbyterian; but--" And he +stopped again. + +Now all this was mighty interesting to me; for it was worse than +anything I had heard before; and yet he said it all as if it was common +talk among his kind, where he came from; and it was very consonant with +what the King had set me to do, which was to hear what the common people +had to say. My gorge rose at the man again and again; but I was a +tolerable actor in those days, and restrained myself very well. When he +went at last he clapped me on the back, as if it were I who had done all +the bragging. + +"You are the right kind of fellow," he said, "and, by God, I wish there +were more of us. You will remember my name--Mr. Rumbald the maltster--I +am to be heard of here at any time, for I come up on my business every +week--though I was not always a maltster." + +I promised I would remember him: and indeed after a while all England +has remembered him ever since. + + * * * * * + +It was that same evening, I think (for my diary is confused at this +time, and no wonder), that when I came back to my lodgings about +supper-time, I found that a man had been from Mr. Chiffinch to bid me +come to Whitehall as soon as I returned; but the messenger had not +seemed greatly perturbed, James told me; so I changed my clothes and had +my supper and set out. + +It would be about half-past seven o'clock when I came to Mr. +Chiffinch's; and when I tapped I had no answer. I tapped again; and then +a servant of Mr. Chiffinch's came running up the stairs (who had left +his post, I suspect) and asked me what I wanted there. When I told him +he seemed surprised, and he said that Mr. Chiffinch had company in his +inner closet; but that he would speak with him. So he left me standing +there; and went through, and I heard a door shut within. Presently he +came out again in something of a hurry, and bade me come in; and, to my +astonishment we went through the first room that was empty, and out +again beyond and down a dark passage. I heard voices as I went, talking +rapidly somewhere, but there was no one to be seen. Then he knocked +softly upon a door at the end of the passage; a voice cried to us to +come in; and I entered; and, to my astonishment, not only was the little +closet half full of persons, but these persons were somewhat +exceptional. + +At the end of the table that was opposite me, sat His Majesty, tilting +his chair back a little as if he were weary of the talk; but his face +was flushed as if with anger. Upon his right sat the Duke, with his +periwig pushed a little back, and his face more flushed even than the +King's. Opposite to the Duke sat two men, whom I took to be priests by +their faces--one fair, the other dark--(and I presently proved to be +right)--and beside him Mr. Chiffinch, very eager-looking, and lean, +talking at a great speed, with his hands clasped upon the table. +Finally, my Lord Danby sat next to the Duke, opposite to Mr. Chiffinch, +with a sullen look upon his face. There was a great heap of papers, +again, upon the table, between the five men. All these persons turned +their eyes upon me as I came in and bowed low to the company; and then +Mr. Chiffinch jerked back a chair that was beside him, and beckoned to +me to sit down in it. The room appeared to me a secret kind of place, +with curtains pulled across the windows, where a man might be very +private if he wished. Mr. Chiffinch ended speaking as I came in, and all +sat silent. + +His Majesty broke the silence. + +"You are very late, Mr. Mallock," he said--no more than that; but I felt +the reproof very keenly. "Tell him, Chiffinch." + +Then Mr. Chiffinch related to me an extraordinary story; and he told it +very well, balancing the two sides of it, so that I could not tell what +he thought. + +It appeared that a day or two ago, Doctor Tonge had come to my Lord +Danby, in pursuance of the tale he had told before, saying that he had +received further information, from the very man whom he had suspected, +and now had certified, to be the writer of the first information under +forty-three heads, to the effect that a packet of letters was on its way +to Windsor, to that very Mr. Bedingfeld (of whom Mr. Whitbread had +spoken to me), on the matter of the plot to murder the King, and the +Duke too unless he would consent to the affair. My Lord Danby posted +immediately to Windsor that he might intercept these letters and examine +them for himself; but found that not only had Mr. Bedingfeld received +them, but had taken them to the Duke, saying that he did not understand +one word that was written in them. Those letters purported to have been +written from a number of Jesuits, and others--amongst whom were a Mr. +Coleman, an agent of the Duke's, and Mr. Langhorn, a lawyer; and related +to a supposed plot, not only to murder the King, and his brother, too, +perhaps, but to re-establish the Popish domination, to burn Westminster, +as they had already burned the City; and that the new positions in the +State had already been designed to certain persons, whose names were all +mentioned in the letters, by the Holy Father himself. The matter that +was now being discussed in this little chamber was, What was best to be +done? + +Mr. Chiffinch told me this, as shortly almost as I have written it +down, glancing at His Majesty once or twice, and at the Duke, as if he +wished to know whether he were telling it properly; and as soon as he +ended His Majesty began: + +"That is where we stand now, Mr. Mallock. As for me, I do not believe +one word of the tale, as I have said before: and I say that it is best +to destroy the letters, to tell Doctor Tonge that he is a damned fool, +if not worse, so to be cozened, and to say no more of it. I would not +have this made public for a thousand pounds. It is as I said before: I +knew that the matter would grow." + +"And I say, Sir," put in the Duke savagely, "that Your Majesty forgets +who it is who are implicated--that it is these good Jesuit Fathers, and +my own confessor, too"--(he bowed slightly to the fair man, who returned +it)--"and that if the matter be not probed to the bottom, the names of +all will suffer, in the long run." + +"Brother, brother," said Charles, "I entreat you not to speak so +violently. We all know how good the Fathers are, and do not suspect any +one of them. It is to save their name--" + +"And I tell you," burst in James again, "that mine is the only way to do +it! Do you think, Sir, that these folks who are behind it all will let +the matter rest? It will grow and grow, as Your Majesty said; and we +shall have half the kingdom involved." + +Here was a very pretty dispute, with sense on both sides, and yet there +appeared to me that there was more on His Majesty's than on the other. +If even then Dr. Tonge had been sent for and soundly rated, and made to +produce his informant, and the matter sifted, I believe we should have +heard no more of it. But it was not ordained so. They all spoke a good +deal, appealing to the two priests--Mr. Bedingfeld and Mr. Young--and +they both gave their opinions. + +Presently Charles was silent; letting his chair come forward again on to +its four legs, and putting his head in his hands over the table. I had +never seen him so perturbed before. Then I ventured on a question. + +"Sir, may I ask who is Doctor Tonge's informant?" + +His Majesty glanced up at me as if he saw me for the first time. + +"Tell him, Chiffinch," he said. + +"His name is Doctor Oates," said the page. "He was a Papist once, and is +turned informer, he says. He still feigns secretly to be friends with +one or two of the Jesuits, he says." + +"But every word you hear here is _sub sigillo_, Mr. Mallock," added the +King. + +I knew no such name; and said no more. I had never heard of the man. + +"Have you anything to say, Mr. Mallock?" asked the King presently. + +"I have some reports to hand in, Sir," I said, "but they do not bear +directly upon this matter." + +The King lifted his heavy eyes and let them fall again. He appeared +weary and dispirited. + + * * * * * + +When we broke up at last, nothing was decided. On the one hand the +letters were not destroyed, and the Duke was still unforbidden to pursue +his researches; and, on the other there was no permission for a public +inquiry to be held. The counsels, in short, were divided; and that is +the worst state of all. The Duke said nothing to me, either at the table +or before he went out with Mr. Bedingfeld--or Mr. Mumford as he was +usually called: he appeared to consider me too young to be of any +importance, and to tolerate me only because the King wished it. I handed +to Mr. Chiffinch the reports of what folks had said to me in taverns and +elsewhere: and went away. + +The days went by; and nothing of any importance appeared further. I +still frequented the company of the Jesuit Fathers, and the taverns as +before; but no more was heard, until a few days before the end of +September. On that day I was passing through the Court of Whitehall to +see if there were anything for me at Mr. Chiffinch's--for the King was +at Windsor again--when I saw Father Whitbread and Father Ireland, coming +swiftly out from the way that led to the Duke's lodgings--for he stayed +here a good deal during these days. They were talking together, and did +not see me till I was close upon them. When I greeted them, they stopped +all of a sudden. + +"The very man!" said Mr. Whitbread. + +Then he asked me whether I would come with them to the lodgings of Mr. +Fenwick, for they had something to say to me; and I went with them very +willingly, for it appeared to me that perhaps they had heard of the +matter which I had found so hard to keep from them. We said nothing at +all on the way; and when we got within, Mr. Whitbread told Mr. Grove to +stand at the foot of the stairs that no one might come up without his +knowledge. They bolted the door also, when we were within the chamber. +Then we all sat down. + +"Now, Mr. Mallock," said Father Whitbread, "we know all that you know; +and why you have been with us so much; and we thank you for your +trouble." + +I said nothing; but I bowed to them a little. But I knew that I had been +of little service as yet. + +"It is all out," said the priest, "or will be in a day or two. Mr. Oates +hath been to Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey, the Westminster magistrate, with +the whole of his pretended information--his forty-three heads to which +he hath added now thirty-eight more, and he will be had before the +Council to-morrow. Sir Edmund hath told Mr. Coleman his friend, and the +Duke's agent, all that hath been sworn to before him; Mr. Coleman hath +told the Duke and hath fled from town to-night; and the Duke has +prevailed with the King to have the whole affair before the Council. I +think that His Majesty's way with it would have been the better; but it +is too late for that now. Now the matter must all come out; and Sir +Edmund hath said sufficient to shew us that it will largely turn upon a +consult that our Fathers held here in London, last April, at the White +Horse Tavern; for Oates hath mingled truth and falsehood in a very +ingenious fashion. He was at St. Omer's, you know, as a student; and was +expelled for an unspeakable crime, as he was expelled from our other +college at Valladolid also, for the same cause: so he knows a good deal +of our ways. He feigns, too, to be a Doctor of Divinity in Salamanca +University; but that is another of his lies, as I know for a truth. What +we wish to know, however, is how he knows so much of our movements +during these last months; for not one of us has seen him. You have been +to and fro to our lodgings a great deal, Mr. Mallock. Have you ever +seen, hanging about the streets outside any of them, a fellow with a +deformed kind of face--so that his mouth--" + +And at that I broke in: for I had never forgotten the man's face, +against whom I had knocked one night in Drury Lane. + +"I have seen the very man," I cried. "He is of middle stature; with a +little forehead and nose and a great chin." + +"That is the man," said Mr. Whitbread. "When did you see him?" + +I told them that it was on the night that I found Mrs. Ireland and her +daughter come from the play. + +"He was standing in the mouth of the passage opposite," I said, "and +watched me as I went in." + +"He will have been watching many nights, I think," said Mr. Whitbread, +"here, and in Duke Street, and at my own lodgings too." + +I asked what he would do that for, if he had his tale already. + +"That he may have more truth to stir up with his lies," said Mr. +Whitbread. "He will say who he has seen go in and out; and we shall not +be able to deny it." + +He said this very quietly, without any sign of perturbation; and Mr. +Ireland was the same. They seemed a little thoughtful only. + +"But no harm can come to you," I cried. "His Majesty hath promised it." + +"Yes: His Majesty hath promised it," said Mr. Whitbread in such a manner +that my heart turned cold; but I said no more on the point. + +"Now, Mr. Mallock," said the priest, "we must consider what is best to +be done. When the case comes on, as it surely will, the question for us +is what you must do. I doubt not that you could give evidence that you +have found us harmless folk"--(he smiled as he said this)--"but I do not +know that you will be able to add much to what other of our witnesses +will be able to say. I am not at all sure but that it may not be best +for you to keep away from the case at first at any rate. You have the +King's ear, which is worth more to us than any testimony you could +give." + +"Why do you not fly the country?" I cried. + +He smiled again. + +"Because that," he said, "would be as much as to say that we were +guilty; and so the whole Society would be thought guilty, and the Church +too. No, Mr. Mallock, we must see the matter out, and trust to what +justice we can get. But I do not think we shall get a great deal." + +So it was decided then, that I would not give testimony unless there was +some call for it; and I took my leave, marvelling at the constancy of +these men, who preferred to imperil life itself, sooner than reputation. + + * * * * * + +Well; all went forward as Mr. Whitbread had said it would. On the +twenty-eighth day of September Dr. Oates appeared before the Council to +give his testimony; and it was to the same effect as was that which I +had heard Mr. Chiffinch relate before, as to the Jesuit plot to murder +the King, and if need be, the Duke too, and to establish Catholic +domination in England. + +I went into a gallery in the Council room for a little, to confirm with +my own eyes whether it were Dr. Titus Oates himself against whom I had +knocked in Drury Lane; and it was the man without doubt, though he +looked very different in his minister's dress. It was not a very great +room, and only those were admitted who had permission. His Majesty +himself was there upon the second day; and sat in the midst of the +table, at the upper end, with the Duke beside him, and the great +officers round about; amongst whom I marked my Lord Shaftesbury, who I +was beginning to think knew more of the plot than had appeared; Dr. +Oates stood in a little pew at one side, so that when he turned to speak +I could see his face. Dr. Tonge and Mr. Kirby and others sat on a seat +behind him. + +He was dressed as a minister--for he had been one, before his pretended +reconciliation to the Catholic Church--in gown and bands and wore a +great periwig; and not his face only--which no man could forget who had +once set eyes on it--but the strange accent with which he spoke, +confirmed me that it was the man I had seen. + +My Lord Danby, I think it was, questioned him a good deal, as well as +others: and he repeated the same tale with great fluency, with many +gibes and aphorisms such as that the Jesuits had laid a wager that if +Carolus Rex would not become R.C.--which is Roman Catholic--he should +not much longer remain C.R. He said too that he had been reconciled to +the Church on Ash Wednesday of last year; but that "he took God and His +holy angels to witness that he had never changed the religion in his +heart," but that it was all a pretence to spy out Papistical plots. + +His Royal Highness broke out, when he had done, declaring the whole +matter a bundle of lies; and when one or two asked Oates for any +writings or letters that he had--since he had been so long amongst the +Jesuits, and was so much trusted by them--he said that he had none; but +could get them easily enough if warrants and officers were given him. I +suppose the truth was that he had not wit enough to write them as yet, +but had thought the Windsor letters (as I may call them) would be +enough. (These questions had also been put to him on the day before, but +were repeated now for the King's benefit.) + +His Majesty himself, I think, proved the shrewdest examiner of them all. + +"You said that you met Don Juan, the Spaniard, in your travels, Doctor +Oates. Pray, what is he like in face and figure?" + +"My Lard--Your Majesty," said Oates, "he is a tall black thin faylow, +with swatthy features"--(for so he pronounced his words.) + +"Eh?" asked the King. + +Dr. Oates repeated his words; and the King turned, nodding and smiling, +to His Royal Highness; for the Spanish bastard is far more Austrian than +Spanish, and is fair and fat and of small stature. + +"Excellent, Doctor Oates," said the King. "And now there is another +small matter. You told these gentlemen yesterday that you saw--with your +own eyes--the bribe of ten thousand pound paid down by the French King's +confessor. Pray, where was this money paid?" + +"In the Jesuits' house in Paris, your Majesty," said the man. + +"And where is that?" + +"That--Your Majesty--that house is--is near the King's own house." (But +he spoke hesitatingly.) + +Then the King broke out in indignation; and beat his hand on the table. + +"Man!" he cried. "The Jesuits have no house within one mile of the +Louvre!" + +It pleased me to hear the King say that; for I was a little uneasy at +Father Whitbread's manner when he had spoken of the King's promise; but +I was less pleased a day or two afterwards to hear that His Majesty was +gone to Newmarket, to the races, and had left the Council to do as best +it could; and that the Jesuits had been taken that same +night--Michaelmas eve--after Oates had been had before the Council. +There had been a great to-do at the taking of Father Whitbread, for the +Spanish soldiers had been called out to save the Ambassador's house, so +great was the mob that went to see him taken. + + * * * * * + +The next public event in the whole affair was the last and worst of all +the links that were being forged so swiftly: and the news of it came to +me as follows. + +I had gone to sup in Aldgate, where I had listened to a good deal of +talk from some small gentry, as to the Papist plot; and had been happy +to hear three or four of them declare that they believed there was +nothing in it, and even the rest of them were far from positive on the +matter; and I had stayed late over my pipe with them, so that it was +long after my usual time when I returned towards my lodgings, walking +alone, for I said good-bye to the last of my companions in the City. + +As I came up into the Strand, I saw before me what appeared to be the +tail of a great concourse of people, and heard the murmur of their +voices; and, mending my pace a little, I soon came up with them. I went +along for a little, trying to hear what they were saying upon the +affair, and to learn what the matter was; for by now the street was one +pack of folk all moving together. Little by little, then, I began to +hear that someone had been strangled, and that "he was found with his +neck broken," and then that "his own sword was run through his heart," +and words of that kind. + +Now I had heard talk before that Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey was run away +with a woman, and to avoid the payment of his debts, which, if it were +true, were certainly a very strange happening at such a time, since he +was the magistrate before whom Oates had laid his information; but six +days were gone by, and I had not thought very much of it, for his +running away could not now in any way affect the information that had +been laid. He was a very gentle man, though melancholy; and, though a +good Protestant, troubled no man that was of another religion than +himself--neither Papist nor Independent. + +But when I heard the people about me speaking in this manner, the name +of Sir Edmund came to my mind; and I asked a fellow that was tramping +near me, who it was that was strangled and where the body was. But he +turned on me with such a burst of oaths, that I thought it best to draw +no more attention to myself, and presently slipped away. Then I thought +myself of a little rising ground, a good bit in advance, whence, perhaps +I might be able to see something of what was passing; and I made my way +across the street, to a lane that led round on the north. As I came +across, in the fringes of the crowd, I saw a minister walking, in his +cassock; so I saluted him courteously, and asked what the matter was. + +He looked at me with an agitated face, and said nothing: his lips +worked, and he was very pale, yet it seemed to me with anger: so I asked +him again; and this time he answered. + +"Sir, I do not know who you are," he said. "But it is Sir Edmund Berry +Godfrey who has been foully murdered by the Papists. He hath been found +on Primrose Hill, and we are taking him to his house. I do not know, +sir--" + +But I was gone; and up the lane as fast as I could run. All that I had +heard, all that I had feared, all even that I had dreamed, was being +fulfilled. The links were forging swiftly. I do not know, even now as I +write, how it was that Sir Edmund met his end, whether he had killed +himself, as I think--for he was of a melancholiac disposition, as was +his father and his grandfather before him--or whether, as indeed I think +possible, he was murdered by the very man who swore so many Catholic +lives away, by way of giving colour to his own designs--for if a man +will swear away twenty lives, what should hinder him from taking one? +One thing only I know, that no Catholic, whether old or young, Jesuit or +not, saint or sinner, had any act or part in it; and on that I would lay +down my own life. + +By the time that I arrived at the rising mound--for a force mightier +than prudence drove me to see the end--the head of the great concourse +was beginning to arrive. Across the street from side to side stretched +the company, all tramping together and murmuring like the sound of the +sea. It was as if all London town was gone mad: for I do not believe +there were above twenty men in that great mob, who were not persuaded +that here was the corroboration of all that had been said upon the +matter of the plot; and that the guilt of the Papists was made plain. +Some roared, as they came, threats and curses upon the Pope, the +Jesuits, and every Catholic that drew breath; but the most part marched +silently, and more terribly, as it appeared to me. The street was +becoming as light as day, for torches were being kindled as they came; +and, at the last, came the great coach, swaying upon its swings, in +which the body was borne. + +I craned my head this way and that to see; and, as the coach passed +beneath me, I saw into its interior, and how there lay there, supported +by two men, the figure of another man whose face was covered with a +white cloth. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +It would occupy too much space, were I to set down in detail all that +passed between the finding of Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey's body, and the +being brought to trial of the Jesuit Fathers. But a brief summary must +be given. + +The funeral of Sir Edmund was held three or four days later in St. +Martin's, and the sermon was preached by Dr. Lloyd, his friend, who +spoke from a pulpit guarded by two other thumping divines, lest he +should be murdered by the Papists as he did it. There was a concourse of +people that cannot be imagined; and seventy-two ministers walked in +canonicals at the head of the procession. Dr. Lloyd spoke of the dead +man as a martyr to the Protestant religion. + +By the strangest stroke of ill-fortune Parliament met ten days before +the funeral, which happened on the thirty-first of October; so that the +excitement of the people--greatly increased by the exhibition of the +dead body of Sir Godfrey--was ratified by their rulers--I say their +rulers, since His Majesty, it appeared, could do nothing to stem the +tide. It was my Lord Danby who opened the matter in the House of Peers +that he might get what popularity he could to protect him against the +disgrace that he foresaw would come upon him presently for the French +business; and every violent word that he spoke was applauded to the +echo. The House of Commons took up the cry; a solemn fast was appointed +for the appeasing of God Almighty's wrath; guards were set in all the +streets, and chains drawn across them, to prevent any sudden rising of +the Papists; and all Catholic householders were bidden to withdraw ten +miles from London. (This I did not comply with; for I was no +householder.) Besides all this, both men and women went armed +continually--the men with the "Protestants' flails," and ladies with +little pistols hidden in their muffs. Workmen, too, were set to search +and dig everywhere for "Tewkesbury mustard-balls," as they were +called--or fire-balls, with which it was thought that the Catholics +would set London a-fire, as Oates had said they would--or vast treasures +which the Jesuits were thought to have buried in the Savoy and other +places. Folks took alarm at the leastest matters; once my Lord Treasurer +himself rode into London crying that the French army was already landed, +when all that he had seen were some horses in the mist; once it was +thought, from the noise of digging that some fat-head heard, that the +Papists were mining to blow up Westminster. The King, whom I dared not +go to see in all this uproar, and who did not send for me, went to and +fro even in Whitehall, guarded everywhere--in private, as I heard, +pouring scorn upon the plot, yet in public concealing his opinion; and +upon the ninth of November he made a speech in the House of Lords, +confirming all my fears, thanking his subjects for their devotion, and +urging them to deal effectually with the Popish recusants that were such +a danger to the kingdom! In October, too, five Catholic Lords--the Earl +of Powis, Viscount Stafford, my Lord Petre, my Lord Arundell of Wardour, +and my Lord Bellasis were committed to the Tower on a charge of treason. + +I saw Dr. Oates more than once during these days, coming out of +Whitehall with the guards that were given to protect him, carrying +himself very high, in his minister's dress; and no wonder, for the man +was the darling of the nation and was called its "Saviour," and had had +a great pension voted to him of twelve hundred pounds a year. He did not +think then, I warrant, of the day when he would be whipped from Newgate +to Tyburn at a cart's tail; and again, laid upon a sled and whipped +again through the City, for that he could not stand by reason of his +first punishment. Another fellow too had come forward, named Bedloe, +once a stable-boy to my Lord Bellasis, who had given himself up at +Bristol, with "information," as he called it, as to Sir Edmund's murder, +which he said had been done in Somerset House itself, by the priests and +others, saying that the wax that was found upon the dead man's breeches +came from the candles of the altar that the priests had held over him +while they did it! Presently too, at the trial and even before it, +Bedloe made his evidence to concur with Oates', though at the first +there was no sign of it. Even before the trial, however, the audacity of +the two villains waxed so great, as even to seek to embroil Her Majesty +herself in the matter, and to make her privy to the whole plot; and this +Oates did, at the bar of the House of Commons. But the King was so wrath +at this, that little more was heard of it. + +The Duke of York, during these proceedings, saved himself very well. +When the Bill for the disabling of Papists from the holding of office or +of sitting in either House of Parliament, had passed through the +Commons, he made a speech upon it in the House of Lords, speaking so +well that others as well as he were moved to tears by it. He said that +his religion should be a matter between his soul and God only; and +should never affect his public conduct; and this with so much weight +that the decision was given in his favour, since he was the King's +brother. I should never have thought that he could have done so well. + +Mr. Coleman was the first to be brought to trial, at the beginning of +December, for he came back and gave himself up the day after he had at +first fled. He was already pre-judged; for so violent was the feeling +against the Papists that my Lord Lucas said in the House of Lords that +if he could have his way, he "would not have even a Popish cat to mew +and purr about the King." Coleman, I say, was the first of those who had +before been accused; but a Mr. Stayley, a Catholic banker (who had his +house not far from me in Covent Garden), was even before him judged and +executed, on account of some words that a lying Scotsman had said he had +heard him use in the tavern in the same place. + +I did not go to the trial of Mr. Coleman; for that I had nothing to say +for him; and indeed Mr. Coleman's own letters--written three or four +years ago--were the severest witnesses against him, in which he had +written to Father La Chaise--(whom Oates at first called Father Le +Shee)--the French King's confessor, and others, that if he could lay +hands on a good sum of money, he could accomplish a great project he +had for the restoration of the Catholic religion in England. (These +letters were found in a drawer he had forgotten, when he had burned all +the rest; and proved very unfortunate for him.) He meant by this, I have +no doubt, the bribing of many Parliament-men to win toleration, and to +get His Royal Highness restored as Lord High Admiral. He said this was +his meaning; and I see no reason to doubt it, for he was a pragmatical +kind of man, full of great affairs; but Chief Justice Scroggs waved it +all away; and it was made to appear exactly consonant with all that +Oates and Bedloe had said as to the project of killing the King. So +great was the excitement, not of the common people only, but of those +who should have known better, and so shrewd were these who took +advantage of it, that my Lord Shaftesbury, who was waxing very hot upon +the supposed Plot, for his own ends, was heard to say that any man that +threw doubt on the plot must be treated as an enemy. Mr. Coleman was +executed at Tyburn on the third day of December. + + * * * * * + +The trial of Father Ireland, Mr. Grove and Mr. Pickering--who was a +Benedictine lay-brother--was opened on the seventeenth day of December, +in the Sessions House at Justice Hall in the Old Bailey. + +I was in the Court early, before the trial began, carrying a letter with +me which Mr. Chiffinch got for me from my Lord Peterborough, that I +might have a good place; and I had a very good one; for it was in a +little gallery that looked down into the well of the court, so that I +could see all that I wished, and the faces of all the prisoners, judges +and witnesses, and yet by leaning back could avoid observation--for I +had no wish, for others' sake, if not for my own, to be recognized by +any of the witnesses. The seats for my Lords were on the left, under a +state, with their desks before them; the place for the prisoners on the +right, facing the judges; and for the witnesses opposite to me. The jury +was beneath; and the counsels in front of them with their backs to me. + +When the Court was full to bursting, my Lords came in, with the Chief +Justice--that is Sir William Scroggs--in the midst. I had never seen him +before, though I knew how hot he was against Catholics, and I looked to +see what he was like. It was a dark morning, and the candles were +lighted on my Lords' desks; and I could see his face pretty well in +their light. He was in scarlet, and wore his great wig; and he talked +behind his hand, with what seemed a great deal of merriment to Mr. +Justice Bertue, who sat on one side of him, and the Recorder Jeffreys +who sat upon the other. He had very heavy brows; his face was +clean-shaven, and his mouth was like a trap when he shut it, and looked +grave, as he did so soon as the clerk had done his formalities. He was a +strong man, I thought, who would brook no opposition, and would have his +way--as indeed he did; and the rest of my Lords had little or no say in +the proceedings; and least of all had the jury, except to do what the +Lord Chief Justice bid them. + +The three prisoners--for Mr. Whitbread and Mr. Fenwick were presently +withdrawn to be tried later, since they could not get two false +witnesses against them at that time--were Mr. Ireland, Mr. Grove and Mr. +Pickering, and I looked upon them with infinite compassion, to see how +they would bear themselves. Mr. Pickering I had never seen before; so I +could not tell whether or no he bore himself as usual. But the two +others I had seen again and again; yet, with respect to them both I +remembered principally that occasion when Mr. Ireland had entertained +his mother and sister in Mr. Fenwick's lodging on that one night he was +in town, and gone off with them into the dark so merrily; and Mr. Grove +had brought up the chocolate in white cups, and we had all been merry +together. Now they stood here in the dock together, and answered to +their names cheerfully and courageously; and I could see that neither +anguish of heart nor the fear of death had availed to change their +countenances in the leastest degree. They stood there, scarcely moving, +except once or twice to whisper to one another, while Dr. Oates told his +lying tale. + +It was now for the first time that I understood how shrewdly, and yet +how clumsily now and then, the man had weaved together his information. +He spoke with an abundance of detail that astonished me; he spoke of +names and places with the greatest precision; he related how himself had +been sent from St. Omer's with fifty pounds promised him, to kill Dr. +Tonge who had lately translated a book from the French named "The +Jesuits' Morals"; he spoke of a chapel in Mrs. Sanders' house, at +Wild-House, where he had been present, he said, at a piece of +conspiring; and so forth continually, interlarding his tale with bursts +of adjuration and piety and indignation, so evidently feigned--though +with something of the Puritan manner in it--that I marvelled that any +man could be deceived who did not wish to be; and all with his vile +accent. He spoke much also, as Mr. Whitbread had told me that he would, +of the consult of the Fathers--of all that is, who had the _jus +suffragii_ in England--that had been held at the White Horse Tavern in +the Strand, in April; pretending that at this the murder of the King was +again decided upon, and designed too, in all particulars; how Mr. +Pickering and Mr. Grove had been deputed to do the killing in St. James' +Park with screwed pistols, as His Majesty walked there, or if not there, +at Newmarket or Windsor; and how commissions had been given to various +persons (whom he named), which they were to hold in the army that was to +be raised, when His Majesty had been murdered, and the French King Louis +let in with his troops. Worst of all, however, was the assertion which +he made again and again that no Catholic's oath, even in Court, could be +taken to be worth anything, since the Pope gave them all dispensations +to swear falsely; for such an assertion as this deprives an accused man +of all favour with the jury and destroys the testimonies of all Catholic +witnesses. And, what amazed me most of all was that Chief Justice +Scroggs supported him in this, and repeated it to the jury again and +again. He said so first to Mr. Whitbread, before he was withdrawn. + +"If you have a religion," he said, "that can give a dispensation for +oaths, sacraments, protestations and falsehoods, how can you expect that +we should believe you?" + +"I know no such thing," said Mr. Whitbread very tranquilly. + +Bedloe, too, told the same tale as he had told before, but with many +embellishments; and was treated by my Lords with as much respect, very +nearly, as Oates himself; and they were both given refreshment by the +Chief Justice's order. + + * * * * * + +I could have found it in my heart to kill that man--Oates, I mean--as he +stood there in his gown and bands and periwig, with his guards behind +him, swearing away those good men's lives; now standing upright, now +leaning on the rail before him, and now reposing himself on a stool that +was brought for him. His monstrous countenance was as the face of a +devil; he feigned now to weep, now to be merry. But most of all I hated +the man, when the piteous sight was seen of the entrance of Mrs. Ireland +and her daughter, who came to testify that Mr. Ireland was not in London +at all on those days in August when Oates had sworn that he had spoken +with him there. They stood there, as gallant women as might be, turning +their eyes now and again upon the priest who was all the world to them +by ties both of nature and grace; but all their testimony went for +nothing, since, first my Lord had told the jury that a Catholic's oath +was worth nothing, and next the prisoners had had no opportunity to know +what charges precisely they were that were to be brought against them, +and had had therefore no time to get their witnesses together. They +complained very sharply of this; but my Lord puffed it all away, and +would scarcely allow them to finish one sentence without interruption. + +Mr. Ireland said upon one occasion that though he had no witnesses, for +he had had no time to get them, yet he could get witnesses that there +were witnesses. + +"I know," said the Chief Justice, "what your way of arguing is; that is +very pretty. You have witnesses that can prove you have witnesses, and +those witnesses can prove that you have more witnesses, and so _in +infinitum_. And thus you argue in everything you do." + +It was growing dark when the evidence (for so it was called) was done; +and the end was drawing near; and the candles which had been put out +long ago were lighted again by an usher, who came in with a taper when +the Lord Chief Justice called for lights. But the candles burned very +badly, by reason of the closeness of the Court in which so many persons +had been gathered for so long; and shed but a poor illumination. My eyes +were weary too with staring upon the people--now upon the monstrous face +of Oates, that was like a nightmare for terror, now upon the prisoners +so patient in the dock, and now upon my Lords on their high seats +beneath the state, and especially upon that hard and bitter face of +Chief Justice Scroggs who, if ever a man murdered innocent folk, was +murdering to-day the three men before him, by the direction which he +gave to the jury, and the manner he conducted the case. I could, by now, +see the faces only one by one, as each leant into the light of the +candles; and it appeared to me, again and again, that these were mocking +demons and not men, and Oates the lord of them all and of hell itself +from which they all came, and to which they must return. I closed my +eyes sometimes, both to rest them, and that I might pray for bare +justice to be done; but my prayers were to me like the lifting of +weights too great for my strength. One hope only remained to me, and +that lay in His Majesty; for, although he had permitted the deaths of +Coleman and of Stayley, these might indeed have appeared guilty to one +who knew nothing of them; but I could not find it in my heart to believe +that he would suffer these Jesuits to die, of whom he had sworn to me +that not a hair of their heads should be injured. I had determined, too, +to go to His Majesty, so soon as the trial was done, and the verdict +given as I knew it would be, and hear from his own lips that he would +keep his word, at whatever cost to himself. + +It was dark then, by the time that all the evidence had been given, and +the Chief Justice had done his directing of the jury. The Court, crowded +though it was with the people, was as still as death, so soon as the +jury came back after a very short recess. I could hear only the +breathing of the folks on all hands. A woman sat beside me, who had +been as early as myself that morning; but she had roared and clapped +with the rest, at the earlier stages, when the Chief Justice had +silenced the prisoners or thrown doubt upon what they said. She was +quiet now, however, and I wondered how the evidence had affected her. + +When the jury were ready to give their verdict, the talking that had +broken out a little, grew silent again; but when the verdict of Guilty +was given, it broke out once more into a storm of shouting; so that the +rafters rang with it. The woman beside me--for I sat at the end of a +bench and had nothing but the wall beyond me--appeared to awaken at the +tumult and join her voice to it, beating with her hand at the edge of +the gallery in front of her. As for me I looked at the prisoners. They +were all upright in their places, Mr. Ireland in the midst of the three; +and were as still as if nothing were the matter. They were looking at +the Lord Chief Justice, at whom I too turned my eyes, and saw he was +grinning and talking behind his hand to the Recorder. It was a very +travesty of justice that I was looking at, and no true trial at all. +There were a thousand points of dissonance that I had remarked +myself--as to how it was, for instance, that one fellow had been +promised twenty guineas for killing the King and another fifteen hundred +pounds; as to how it was that Oates, who professed himself so loyal, had +permitted four ruffians to go to Windsor (as he said), with intent to +murder the King, and that he had said nothing of it at the time. But all +was passed over in this lust for the Jesuits' blood. + +I knew that my Lord would make a great speech on the affair, before he +would make an end and give sentence; for this was a great opportunity +for him to curry favour not only with the people, but with men like my +Lord Shaftesbury who was behind him in all the matter; and as I had no +wish to hear what he would have to say (for I knew it all by heart +already) and, still less to hear the terrible words of the sentence for +High Treason passed upon these three good men in the dock, I rose up +quietly from my place, and slipped out of the door by which I had come +in. As I was about to close the door behind me I heard silence made, and +my Lord Justice Scroggs beginning his speech--and these were the words +which first he addressed to the jury. + +"Gentlemen," he said, "you have done like very good subjects and very +good Christians; that is to say like very good Protestants; and now much +good may their thirty thousand masses do them!" When he said this, he +was referring to a piece of Dr. Oates' lying evidence as to a part of +the reward that they should get for killing the King. But I closed the +door; for I could bear to hear no more. But afterwards I heard that they +then adjourned for an hour or two, and that it was the Recorder--Sir +George Jeffreys--that gave sentence. + +When I presented myself, half an hour later, at Mr. Chiffinch's +lodgings, I had very nearly persuaded myself that all would yet be well. +For I thought it impossible that any man to whom the report of the trial +should be brought, could ever think that justice had been done; least of +all the King who is the fount of it, under God. I knew very well that +His Majesty would have to bear the brunt of some unpopularity if he +refused to sign the warrants for their death; but he appeared to me to +care not very much for popularity--since he outraged it often enough in +worse ways than in maintaining the right. He had said to me, too, so +expressly that no harm should come to the Fathers or to Mr. Grove and +Mr. Pickering either; and he had said so, I was informed, even more +forcibly to the Duke and those that were with him--saying that his right +hand should rot off if ever he took the pen into his hand for such a +purpose. I remembered these things, even while the plaudits of the crowd +still rang in my ears, and the bitter cruelty of my Lord Chief Justice's +words to the jury. His Majesty, I said to myself, is above all these +lesser folk, and will see that no wrong is done. And, besides all this, +he is half a Catholic himself and he knows against what kind of men +these charges have been made. + +I was pretty reassured then, when I knocked upon the door of Mr. +Chiffinch's lodgings, and told the man who opened to me that I must see +his master. + +He took me through immediately into the little passage I had been in +before, and himself tapped upon the door of the inner parlour; then he +opened it, and let me through: for Mr. Chiffinch was accustomed by now +to receive me at any hour. + +He rose civilly enough, and asked me what I wished with him, so soon as +the door was shut. + +"The verdict is given," I said. "I must see His Majesty." + +He screwed up his lips in a way he had. + +"It is Guilty, I suppose," he said. + +I told him Yes; + +"And I have never seen," I said, "such a travesty of justice." + +He looked down upon the table, considering, drumming his fingers upon +it. + +"That is as may be," he said. "But as for His Majesty--" + +I broke out on him at that: for I was fiercely excited. + +"Man," I cried, "there is no question about that. I must see His Majesty +instantly." + +He looked at me again, as if considering. + +"Well," he said. "What must be, must. I will see His Majesty. He is not +yet gone to supper." + +At the door he turned again. + +"The verdict was Guilty?" he said. "You were there and heard it?" + +I told him Yes; for I was all impatient. + +"And how was that verdict received in court?" + +"It was applauded," I said shortly. + +He still waited an instant. Then he went out. + + * * * * * + +I was all in a fever till he came back; for his manner and his +hesitation had renewed my terrors. Yet still I would not let myself +doubt. I went up and down the room, and looked at the pictures in it. +There was a little one by Lely, not finished, of my Lady Castlemaine, +done before she was made Duchess, which I suppose the King had given to +him; but I remembered afterwards nothing else that I saw at that time. + +In about half an hour he came back again; but he shut the door behind +him before he spoke. + +"His Majesty will see you in a few minutes," he said, "but he goes to +supper presently; and must not be detained. And there is something else +that I must ask you first." + +I was all impatient to be gone; but impatience would not help me at all. + +"Mr. Mallock," he said, sitting down, "did you see any man following you +from the Court? Or at the doors of the Palace?" + +My heart stood still when he said that; for though I had done my best at +all times for the last month or two to pass unnoticed so far as I could, +I had known well enough that having been so much with the Jesuits as I +had, it was not impossible that I had been marked by some spy or other, +or even by Oates himself, since he had seen me go into Mr. Fenwick's +lodgings. But I had fancied of late that I must have escaped notice, and +had been more bold lately, as in going to the Court to-day. + +"Followed?" I said. "What do you mean, Mr. Chiffinch?" + +"You saw no fellow after you, or loitering near, at the gates, as you +came in?" + +"I saw no one," I said. + +"The gates were barred, as usual?" + +"Yes," I said. "And the guard fetched a lieutenant before he would let +me in." + +(For ever since the late alarms extraordinary precautions had been taken +in keeping the great gates of the Palace always guarded.) + +"And you saw no one after you?" + +"No one," I said. + +"Well," said Mr. Chiffinch, "a fellow was after you. For when you were +gone in he came up to the guard and asked who you were, and by what +right you had entered. The lieutenant sent a mail to tell me so, and I +met him in the passage as I went out." + +"Who was the fellow?" + +"Oh! a man called Dangerfield. The lieutenant very prudently detained +him; and I went across and questioned him before I went to His Majesty. +I know nothing of the man, except that he hath been convicted, for I saw +the branding in his hand when we examined him. We let him go again +immediately." + +"He knows my name?" + +Mr. Chiffinch smiled. + +"We are not so foolish as that, Mr. Mallock. He thinks you have some +place at Court; but we did not satisfy him as to your name." + +I said nothing; for there was nothing to say. + +"You had best be very careful, Mr. Mallock," went on the page, standing +up again. "You have been mixing a great deal with unpopular folks. You +will be of no service to His Majesty at all if you fall under suspicion. +You had best go back by water to the Temple Stairs." + +He spoke a little coldly; and I perceived that he thought I had been +indiscreet. + +"Well," he said, "we had best be going to His Majesty's lodgings." + +I had flattered myself, up to the present, that I knew His Majesty's +capacities tolerably well. I thought him to be an easily read man, with +both virtues and vices uppermost, wearing his heart on his sleeve, as +the saying is--indolent, witty, lacking all self-control--yet not, as I +might say, a deep man. I was to learn the truth, or rather begin to +learn it, on this very night. + + * * * * * + +When I entered his private closet he was sitting not where I had seen +him before, but at the great table in the midst of the floor, with his +papers about him, and an appearance of great industry. He did not do +more than look up for an instant, and then down again; and I stood +there before him, after I had bowed and been taken no notice of, as it +were a scholar waiting to be whipped. + +He was all ready for supper, in his lace, with his hat on his head; and +he was writing a letter, with a pair of candles burning before him in +silver candlesticks. His face wore a very heavy and preoccupied look; +and I was astonished that he paid me no attention. + +He finished at last, threw sand on the paper from the pounce-box, and +pushed it aside. Then he leaned his cheeks in his hands, and his elbows +on the table, and looked at me. But he did not speak unkindly. + +"Here you are then," he said. "And I hear you bring news from the Old +Bailey?" + +"I came from there half an hour ago, Sir." + +"Ah! And the verdict was Guilty, Mr. Chiffinch tells me?" + +"Yes, Sir." + +"How did the people take it?" + +"They applauded a great deal, Sir." + +"They applauded, you say. At the end only, or all the while?" + +"They applauded, Sir, whenever any of my Lords made a hit against the +Catholics." + +"Were there any who did otherwise?" + +"Not one, Sir, that I could hear." + +"The Chief Justice. What did he say?" + +"He made many protestations of devotion to your Majesty, Sir, and to the +Protestant Religion. He beat down the Catholics at every point. He +permitted none of their witnesses to speak freely." + +The King was silent a moment. Then he went on again. + +"And the prisoners. How did they bear themselves?" + +"They bore themselves like gallant gentlemen, Sir. They fought every +point, so far as the Chief Justice would permit them." + +"Did they shew any fear when the verdict was brought in?" + +"None, Sir. They relied upon your Majesty's protection, no doubt." + +Again His Majesty was silent. I still stood on the other side of the +table from him, waiting to say what I had to say. The King shewed no +sign of having heard what I had last said. + +Then, to my astonishment he turned on me again very sharply. + +"Mr. Mallock," he said, "I have a fault to find with you. Mr. Chiffinch +tells me that you were followed from the Court, and that a fellow was +asking after you at the gate. You say that you wish to serve me. Well, +those who serve me must be very discreet and very shrewd. Plainly, you +have not been so in this instance. You are a very young man; and I do +not wish to be severe. But you must remember, Mr. Mallock, that such a +thing as this must not happen any more." + +My mouth was gone suddenly dry at this attack of His Majesty upon me. I +licked my lips with my tongue in readiness to answer; but before I could +speak, the King went on again. + +"Now I had a little business to entrust to you; but I am not sure if it +be not best to give it to another hand." + +He took up from the table before him a newly sealed little packet that I +had not noticed before; and sat weighing it in his hand, as if +considering, while his eyes searched my face. + +"Sir--" I began. + +"Yes, Mr. Mallock, I know what you would say. That is all very well; but +my servants must not make mistakes such as you have made. It was the +height of madness for you to go to the Court at all to-day. I have no +doubt that you were seen there, and followed; and you could have been of +no service to your friends there, in any case. Mr. Chiffinch tells me he +will provide a wherry for you immediately, that you may go back without +observation. You must do this. The question before my mind is as to +whether you shall take this packet with you, or not. What do you say, +Mr. Mallock?" + +All the while he had been speaking, I had been in a torment of misery. +As yet I had done little or nothing for His Majesty, after all my +commissioning from Rome; and now that the first piece of work was on +hand, it was doubtful whether I had not forfeited it by my clumsiness. +For the moment I forgot what I had come for. I was all set on acquitting +myself well. I was but twenty-one years old! + +"Sir," I cried, "if your Majesty will entrust that to me, you shall +never repent it." + +He smiled; but his face went back again to its heaviness. "It is a very +difficult commission," he said. "And, what is of more importance than +all else is that the packet should fall into no hand other than the one +that should have it. For this reason, there is no name written upon it. +But I have sealed it with a private signet of my own, both within and +without; and you must bear the packet with you until you can deliver +it." + +"I understand, Sir." + +"I can send no courier with it, for the reasons of which I have spoken. +No man, Mr. Mallock, but you and I must know of its very existence. +Neither can I tell you now to whom the packet must be given. You must +bear it with you, sir, until you have a message from me, signed with the +same seal as that which it bears, telling you where you must take it, +and to whom. You understand?" + +"I understand, Sir." + +"You must leave London immediately until your face is forgotten, and +until this storm is over. You have a cousin in the country?" + +"Yes, Sir; Mr. Jermyn at Hare Street." + +"You had best lie there for the present; and I can send to you there, so +soon as I have an opportunity. Meanwhile you must have this always at +hand, and be ready to set out with it, so soon as you hear where you +must go with it. That is all plain, Mr. Mallock?" + +"I understand, Sir." + +The King rose abruptly, pushing back his chair; and as he rose I heard +the trumpets for supper, in the Court outside. + +"Then you had best be gone. Take it, Mr. Mallock." + +I came round and received the packet; and I kissed the King's hand +which he had not given to me as I had come in. My heart was overjoyed at +the confidence which he shewed me; and I slipped the packet immediately +within my waistcoat. It was square and flat and lay there easily in a +little pocket which the tailor had contrived there. Then, as I stood up +again, the memory of what I had come for flashed back on me again. + +"Sir," I said, "there is one other matter." + +His Majesty was already turning away; but he stopped and looked over his +shoulder. + +"Eh?" he said. + +"Sir, it is with regard to the Jesuits who were condemned to-day." + +He jerked his hand impatiently in a way he had. + +"I have no time for that," he said, "no time." + +Then he was gone out at the other door, and I heard him going +downstairs. + +Now as I came downstairs again the further way, and heard the trumpets +go, to shew that the King was come out, I had no suspicion of anything +but my own foolishness in not speaking of what I had come about. But, by +the time that I was at the Temple Stairs, I wondered whether or no the +King had not had that very design, to put me off from which I wished to +say. And at the present time I am certain of it--that His Majesty wished +to hear from me at once of the proceedings at the trial, and then spoke +immediately of that other matter of the packet, and of my being followed +to the Palace Gates, with the express purpose of hindering me from +saying anything; for I am sure that at this time he had not yet made up +his mind as to what he would do when the warrants were brought to him, +and did not wish to speak of it. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +The first thing that I did when I got home was to call for my man James, +and bid him shut the door. (My man was about forty years old, and he had +been got for me in Rome, having fallen ill there in the service of my +Lord Stafford--being himself a Catholic, and a very good one, for he +went to the sacraments three or four times in the year, wherever he was. +He was a clean-shaven fellow, and very sturdy and quick, and a good hand +at cut and thrust and the quarter-staff, as I had seen for myself at +Hare Street on the summer evenings. I had found him always discreet and +silent, though I had not as yet given him any great confidence.) + +"James," I said to him with great solemnity, "I have something to say to +you which must go no further." + +He stood waiting on my word. + +"A fellow hath been after me to-day--named Dangerfield--a very brown +man, with no hair on his face" (for so Mr. Chiffinch had told me). "He +hath been branded on the hand for some conviction. I tell you this that +you may know him if you see him again. I take him to be a Protestant +spy: but I do not know for certain." + +He still stood waiting. He knew very well, I think, that I was on some +business, and that therefore I was in some danger too at such a time; +though I had never spoken to him of it. + +"And another thing that I have to say to you is that we must ride for +Hare Street to-morrow, and arrive there by to-morrow night--without +lying anywhere on the road. You must have the horses here, and all +ready, by seven o'clock in the morning. And you must tell no one where +we are going to, to hinder any from following us, if we can help it. We +must lie at Hare Street a good while. + +"And the third thing I have to say is this; that you must watch out very +shrewdly for any signs that we are known or suspected of anything. I +tell you plainly that both you and I may be in some danger for a while; +so if you have no taste for that, you had best begone. You will keep +quiet, I know very well." + +"Sir, I will stay with you, if you please," said James, as the last word +was out of my mouth. + +I gave him a look of pleasure; but no more; and he understood me very +well. + +"Then that is all that I have to say. You may bring supper in as soon as +you like." + +Before I lay down that night I had transferred His Majesty's packet to a +belt that I put next to my skin; and so I went to bed. + + * * * * * + +It was still pretty dark when we came out upon the Ware road upon the +next morning. I did not call James up to ride with me; for I had a great +number of things to think about; and first amongst them was the +commission which His Majesty had given me. What then could such a +business be?--a packet that I must carry with me, and deliver to a man +whose name should be given me afterwards! Why, then, was it entrusted to +me so soon? And why could not the name be given to me immediately? But +to such riddles there was no answer; and I left it presently alone. + +The second thing that I had to think of was the matter of the men whom I +had seen condemned yesterday; and even of that I did not know much more +than of the packet. His Majesty had not spoken of them, except to ask +questions at the beginning; and this seemed as a bad omen to me. Yet I +had the King's word on it that they should not suffer; and, when I +considered, there was no obligation or even any reason at all that he +should talk out the matter with myself. Yet, though I presently put this +affair too from my mind, since I had no certain knowledge of what would +happen, it came back to me again and again--that memory of Mr. Ireland +and Mr. Grove in the lodgings in Drury Lane, so harmless and so merry, +and again as I had seen them yesterday in the dock, with Mr. Pickering, +so helpless and yet so courageous in face of the injustice that was +being done on them. + +The third thing that I had to think upon was Hare Street to which I was +going as fast as I could, and of those who would greet me there, and +most of all, I need not say, of my Cousin Dolly. Her father had written +to me two or three times during the four months that I had been away; +and his last had been the letter of a very much frightened man, what +with the news that had come to him of the proceedings in London and the +feeling against the Catholics. But I had written back to him that +nothing was to be feared if he would but stay still and hold his tongue; +and that I myself would be with him presently, I hoped, and would +reassure him; for in spite of the hot feeling in London the country +Catholics suffered from it little or not at all, so long as they minded +their own business. But it was principally of my Cousin Dolly that I +thought; for the memory of her had been with me a great deal during the +four months I had lived in London; but I was determined to do nothing in +a hurry, since the remembrance of her father's words to me, and, even +more, of his manner and look in speaking, stuck in my throat and +hindered me from seeing clearly. I knew very well, however, that my +principal reason why I urged Peter on over the bad roads, was that I +might see her the more quickly. + +Nothing of any importance happened to us on the way. At Hoddesdon the +memory of Mr. Rumbald came back to my mind, and I wondered where it was +in Hoddesdon or near it that he had his malt-houses; and before that we +stayed again for dinner at the _Four Swans_ in Waltham Cross, where the +host knew me again and asked how matters were in London; and we came at +last in sight of the old church at Hormead Parva, just as the sun was +going down upon our left. Peter, my horse, knew where he was then, and +needed no more urging, for he knew that his stable was not far away. + +They knew of course nothing of my coming; and when I dismounted in the +yard there was not a man to be seen. I left my horse with James; and +went along the flagged path that led to the door, and beat upon the +door. The house seemed all dark and deserted; and it was not till I had +beaten once more at the door that I saw a light shewing beneath it. +Presently a very unsteady voice cried out to know who was there; and I +knew it for my Cousin Tom's; so I roared at him that it was myself. +There followed a great to-do of unlocking and unbarring--for they had +the house--as I found presently--fortified as it were a castle; and when +the door was undone there was my Cousin Tom with a great blunderbuss and +two men with swords behind him. + +"Why, whatever is forward?" I said sharply; for I was impatient with the +long waiting and the cold, for a frost was beginning as the sun set. + +"Why, Cousin Roger, we knew nothing of your coming," said my Cousin Tom, +looking a little foolish, I thought. "We did not know who was at the +door." + +"I only knew myself of my coming yesterday," I said. "And whatever is +the house fortified for?" + +My cousin was putting up the bolts again as I spoke; (the two men were +gone away into the back of the house);--and, as soon as he had done, he +said: + +"Why, there are dangerous folks about, Cousin Roger. And it is a +Catholic house, you see." + +I smiled at that; but said no more; for at that moment my Cousin Dolly +came through from the back of the house where she had been sent by her +father for safety; and at that sight I thought no more of the door. + +I saluted her as a cousin should; and she me. She looked mighty pretty +to me, in her dark dress, with her lace on, for supper was just on the +table; and I cannot but think she was pleased to see me, for she was all +smiling and flushed. + +"So it is you, Cousin Roger," she said. "I thought it might very well +be. We looked for you before Christmas." + + * * * * * + +At supper, and afterwards, I learned in what a panic poor Cousin Tom had +lived since the news of the plot, and, above all, of Sir Edmund Berry +Godfrey's death; and what he said to me made me determine to speak to +him of my own small peril, for he had the right to know, and to forbid +me his house, if he wished. But I hoped that he would not. It appeared +that when the news of Sir Edmund's death had come, there had been +something of a to-do in the village, of no great signification; for it +was no more than a few young men who marched up and down shouting +together--as such yokels will, upon the smallest excuse; and one of them +had cried out at the gate of Hare Street House. At Barkway there had +been more of a business; for there they had burnt an effigy of the Pope +in the churchyard; and the parson--who was a stout Churchman--had made a +speech upon it. However, this had played upon Cousin Tom's fears, and he +had fortified the house with bolts, and slept with a pistol by his bed. + +I told him that same night--not indeed all that happened to me; but +enough of it to satisfy him. I said that I had been a good deal at the +Jesuits' lodgings; and at the trial of the three; and that a fellow had +attempted to follow me home; but that I had thrown him off. + +Cousin Tom had the pipe from his mouth and was holding it in his hand, +by the time I had done. + +"Now, Cousin," I said, "if you think I am anything of a danger to the +house, you have but to say the word, and I will be off. On the other +hand, I and my man might be of some small service to you if it came to a +brawl." + +"You threw him off?" asked Cousin Tom. + +"It was at Whitehall--" I began; and then I stopped: for I had not +intended to speak of the King. + +"Oho!" said Cousin Tom. "Then you have been at Whitehall again?" + +"Why, yes," I said, trying to pass it off. "I have been there and +everywhere." + +Cousin Tom put the pipe back again into his mouth. + +"And there is another matter," I said (for Hare Street suited me very +well as a lodging, and I had named it as such to His Majesty). "It is +not right, Cousin Tom, that you should keep me here for nothing. Let me +pay something each month--" (And I named a suitable sum.) + +That determined Cousin Tom altogether. My speaking of Whitehall had +greatly reassured him; and now this offer of mine made up his mind; for +he was something of a skinflint in some respects. (For all that I did +for him when I was here, in the fields and at the farm, more than repaid +him for the expense of my living there.) He protested a little, and said +that between kinsfolk no such question should enter in; but he protested +with a very poor grace; and so the matter was settled, and we both +satisfied. + + * * * * * + +So, once more, the time began to pass very agreeably for me. Here was I, +safe from all the embroilments of town, in the same house with my Cousin +Dorothy, and with plenty of leisure for my languages again. Yet my +satisfaction was greatly broken up when I heard, on the last day of +January that all that I had feared was come about, and that of the three +men whom I had seen condemned at the Old Bailey, two--Mr. Ireland and +Mr. Grove--had been executed seven days before: (Mr. Pickering was kept +back on some excuse, and not put to death until May). The way I heard of +it was in this manner. + +I was in Puckeridge one day, on a matter which I do not now remember, +and was going to the stable of the _White Hart_ inn to get my horse to +ride back again, when I ran into Mr. Rumbald who was there on the same +errand. I was in my country suit, and very much splashed; and it was +going on for evening, so he noticed nothing of me but my face. + +"Why, Mallock," he cried--"It is Mr. Mallock, is it not?" + +I told him yes. + +He exchanged a few words with me, for he was one of those fellows who +when they have once made up their minds to a thing, do not easily change +it, and he was persuaded that I was of his kind and something of a +daredevil too, which was what he liked. Then at the end he said +something which made me question him as to what he meant. + +"Have you not heard?" he cried. "Why the Popish dogs were hanged a week +ago--Ireland and Grove, I mean. And there be three or four more +men--accused by Bedloe of Godfrey's murder, and will be tried +presently." + +I need not say what a horror it was to me to hear that; for I had had +more hope in my heart than I had thought. But I was collected enough to +say something that satisfied him; and, as again he had been drinking, he +was not very quick. + +"And those three or four?" I asked. "Are they Jesuits too?" + +"No," said Rumbald, "but there will be another batch presently, I make +no doubt." + +I got rid of him at last; and rode homewards; but it was with a very +heavy heart. Not once yet had the King exercised his prerogative of +mercy; and if he yielded at the first, and that against the Jesuits whom +he had sworn to protect, was there anything in which he would resist? + +My Cousin Dorothy saw in my face as I came in that something was the +matter; so I told her the truth. + +"May they rest in peace," she said; and blessed herself. + + * * * * * + +From time to time news reached us in this kind of manner. Though we were +not a great distance from London we were in a very solitary place, away +from the high-road that ran to Cambridge; and few came our way. Even in +Puckeridge it was not known, I think, who I was, nor that I was cousin +to Mr. Jermyn; so I had no fear of Mr. Rumbald suspecting me. Green, +Berry, and Hill were all convicted of Sir Edmund's murder, through the +testimony of Bedloe, who said that he had himself seen the body at +Somerset House, and that Sir Edmund had been strangled there by priests +and others and conveyed later to the ditch in Primrose Hill where he was +found. Another fellow, too, named Miles Prance, a silversmith in Princes +Street (out of Drury Lane), who was said by Bedloe to have been privy to +the murder, in the fear of his life, and after inhuman treatment in +prison, did corroborate the story and add to it, under promise of +pardon, which he got. Green, Berry, and Hill, then, were hanged on the +tenth day of February, on the testimonies of these two; and were as +innocent as unborn babes. It was remarked how strangely their names +went with the name of the murdered man and of the place he was found in. + +For a while after that, matters were more quiet. A man named Samuel +Atkins was tried presently, but was acquitted; and then a Nathaniel +Reading was tried for suppressing evidence, and was punished for it. But +our minds, rather, were fixed upon the approaching trial of the "Five +Jesuits" as they were called, who still awaited it in prison--Whitbread, +Fenwick, Harcourt, Gavan and Turner--all priests. But I had not a great +deal of hope for these, when I thought of what had happened to the rest; +and, indeed, at the end of May, Mr. Pickering himself was executed. At +the beginning of May too, we heard of the bloody murder of Dr. Sharpe, +the Protestant Archbishop in Scotland, by the old Covenanters, driven +mad by the persecution this man had put them to; but this did not +greatly affect our fortunes either way. One of the most bitter thoughts +of all was that a secular priest named Serjeant, who, with another named +Morris, was of Gallican views, had given evidence in public court +against the Jesuits' casuistry. + +Meanwhile, in other matters, we were quiet enough. Still I hesitated in +pushing my suit with my Cousin Dolly, until I could see whether she was +being forced to it or not. But my Cousin Tom had more wits than I had +thought; for he said no more to me on the point, nor I to him; and I +think I should have spoken to her that summer, had not an interruption +come to my plans that set all aside for the present. During those months +of spring and early summer we had no religious consolation at all; for +we were too near London, and at the same time too solitary for any +priest to come to us. + +The interruption came in this manner. + +I had sent my man over to Waltham Cross on an affair of a horse that was +to be sold there on the nineteenth day of June (as I very well remember, +from what happened afterwards); and when he came back he asked if he +might speak with me privately. When I had him alone in my room he told +me he had news from a Catholic ostler at the _Four Swans_, with whom he +had spoken, that a party had been asking after me there that very +morning. + +"I said to him, sir, What kind of a party was it? And he told me that +there were four men; and that they went in to drink first and to dine, +for they came there about noon. I asked him then if any of them had any +mark by which he could be known; and he laughed at that; and said that +one of them was branded in the hand, for he was pulling his glove on +when he came into the yard afterwards, so that it was seen." + +I said nothing for a moment, when James said that, for I was considering +whether so small a business of so many months ago was worth thinking of. + +"And what then?" I said. + +"Well, sir; as I was riding back I kept my eyes about me; and especially +in the villages where it might be easy to miss them; and in Puckeridge, +as I came by the inn I looked into the yard, and saw there four horses +all tied up together." + +"Did you ask after them?" I said. + +"No, sir; I thought it best not. But I pushed on as quickly as I could." + +"Did the ostler at Waltham Cross tell you what answer was given to the +inquiries?" + +"No, sir--he heard your name only from the parlour window as he went +through the yard." + +Now here was I in a quandary. On the one hand this was a very small +affair, and not much evidence either way, and I did not wish to alarm my +Cousin Tom if I need not; and, on the other if they were after me I had +best be gone as soon as I could. It was six months since the fellow +Dangerfield had asked after me at Whitehall, and no harm had followed. +Yet here was the tale of the branded hand--and, although there were many +branded hands in England, the consonance of this with what had happened, +misliked me a little. + +"And was there any more news?" I asked. + +"Why, yes, sir; I had forgot. The man told me too that the five Jesuits +were cast six days ago, and Mr. Langhorn a day later, and that they were +all sentenced together." (Mr. Langhorn was a lawyer, a very hot and +devout Catholic; but his wife was as hot a Protestant.) + +Now on hearing that I was a little more perturbed. Here were Mr. +Whitbread and Mr. Fenwick, in whose company I had often been seen in +public before the late troubles, condemned and awaiting sentence; and +here was a fellow with a branded hand asking after me in Waltham Cross. +Oates and Bedloe and Tonge and Kirby and a score of others were evidence +that any man who sought his fortune might very well do so in Popish +plots and accusations; and it was quite believable that Dangerfield was +one more of them, and that after these new events he was after me. Yet, +still, I did not wish to alarm my Cousin Tom; for he was a man who could +not hide his feelings, I thought. + +It was growing dark now; for it was after nine o'clock, and cloudy, with +no moon to rise; and all would soon be gone to bed; so what I did I must +do at once. I sat still in my chair, thinking that if I were hunted out +of Hare Street I had nowhere to go; and then on a sudden I remembered +the King's packet which he had given me, and which I still carried, as +always, wrapped in oil-cloth next to my skin, since no word had come +from him as to what I was to do with it. And at that remembrance I +determined that I must undergo no risks. + +"James," I said, "I think that we must be ready to go away if we are +threatened in any way. Go down to the stables and saddle a fresh horse +for you, and my own. Then come up here again and pack a pair of valises. +I do not know as yet whether we must go or not; but we must be ready for +it. Then take the valises and the horses down to the meadow, through the +garden, and tie all up there, under the shadow of the trees from where +you can see the house. And you must remain there yourself till twelve +o'clock to-night. At twelve o'clock, as near as I can tell it, if all is +quiet I will show a light three times from the garret window; and when +you see that you can come back again and go to bed. If they are after us +at all they will come when they think we are all asleep; and it will be +before twelve o'clock. Do you understand it all?" + +(I was very glib in all this; for I had thought it out all beforehand, +if ever there should be an alarm of this kind.) + +My man said that he understood very well, and went away, and I down to +the Great Chamber where I had left my cousins. + +As I came in at the door, my Cousin Tom woke up with a great snuffle; +and stared at me as if amazed, as folks do when suddenly awakened. + +"Well; to bed," he said. "I am half there already." + +My Cousin Dorothy looked up from her sewing; and I think she knew that +something was forward; for she continued to look at me. + +"Not to bed yet, Cousin Tom," I said. "There is a matter I must speak of +first." + +Well; I sat down and told him as gently as I could--all the affair, +except of the King's packet; and by the time I was done he was no longer +at all drowsy. I told him too of the design I had formed, and that James +was gone to carry it out. + +"Had you not best be gone at once?" he said; and I saw the terror in his +eyes, lest he too should be embroiled. But my Cousin Dorothy looked at +me, unafraid; only there was a spot of colour on either cheek. + +"Well," I said, "I can ride out into the fields and wait there, if you +wish it, until morning: if you will send for me then if all be quiet." + +But I explained to him again that I was in two minds as to whether I +should go at all, so very small was the evidence of danger. + +He looked foolish at that; but I could see that he wanted me gone: so I +stood up. + +"Well, Cousin," I said, "I see that you will be easier if I go. I will +begone first and see whether James has the horses out; and you had best +meanwhile go to my chamber and put away all that can incriminate you--in +one of your hiding-holes." + +I was half-way to the kitchen when I heard my Cousin Dorothy come after +me; and I could see that she was in a great way. + +"Cousin," she said, "I am ashamed that my father should speak like that. +If I were mistress--" + +"My dear Cousin," I said lightly, "if you were mistress, I should not be +here at all." + +"It is a shame," she said again, paying no attention, as her way was +when she liked. "It is a shame that you should spend all night in the +fields for nothing." + +As she was speaking I heard James come downstairs with the valises. As +he went past he told me he already had the horses tied under the trees. +I nodded to him, and bade him go on, and he went out into the yard and +so through the stables. + +"I had best go help your father put the things away," I said. "They will +not be here, at any rate, until the lights of the house are all out." + +We went upstairs together and found my Cousin Tom already busy: he had +my clothes all in a great heap, ready to carry down to the hiding-hole +above the door; my papers he already had put away into the little recess +behind the bed, and the books, most of which had not my name in them, he +designed to carry to his own chamber. + +We worked hard at all this--my Cousin Tom in a kind of fever, rolling +his eyes at every sound; and, at the last, we had all put away, and were +about to close the door of the hiding-hole. Then my Cousin Dorothy held +up her hand. + +"Hush!" she said; and then, "There was a step on the paved walk." + + + + +CHAPTER IX + + +When my Cousin Dorothy said that, we all became upon the instant as +still as mice; and I saw my Cousin Tom's mouth suddenly hang open and +his eyes to become fixed. For myself, I cannot say precisely what I +felt; but it would be foolish to say that I was not at all frightened. +For to be crept upon in the dark, when all is quiet, in a solitary +country place; and to know, as I did, that behind all the silence there +is the roar of a mob--(as it is called)--for blood, and the Lord Chief +Justice's face of iron and his bitter murderous tongue, and the scaffold +and the knife--this is daunting to any man. I made no mistake upon the +matter. If this were Dangerfield himself, my life was ended; he would +not have come here, so far, and with such caution; he would not have +been at the pains to smell me out at all, unless he were sure of his +end; and, indeed, my companying so much with the Jesuits and my +encounter with Oates, and my seeking service with the King, and for no +pay too--all this, in such days, was evidence enough to hang an angel +from heaven. + +This passed through my mind like a picture; and then I remembered that +it was no more than a step on a paved path. + +"If it is they," I whispered, "they will be round the house by now. We +had best look from a dark window." + +But my Cousin Tom seized me suddenly by the arm in so fierce a grip that +I winced and all but cried out; and so we stood. + +"If you have brought ruin on me--" he began presently in a horrid kind +of whisper; and then he gripped me again; for again, so that no man +could mistake it, came a single step on the paved path; and in my mind I +saw how two men had crossed from lawn to lawn, to get all round the +house, each stepping once upon the stones. They must have entered from +the yard. + +In those moments there came to me too a knowledge, of the truth of +which I neither had nor have any doubt at all, that my Cousin Tom was +considering whether he might save himself or no by handing me forthwith +to the searchers. But I suppose he thought not; for presently his hand +relaxed. + +"In with you," he whispered; and made a back for me to climb up into the +hiding-hole. I looked at my Cousin Dolly, and she nodded at me ever so +gently; so I set my foot on my Cousin Tom's broad back, and my hands to +the ledge, and raised myself up. It was a pretty wide space within, +sufficient to hold three or four men, though my clothes and a few books +covered most of the floor; but the only light I had was from the candle +that my Cousin Dolly carried in her hand. As I turned to the door again, +I caught a sight of her face, very pretty and very pale, looking up at +me: I remember even now the shadow on her eyes and beneath her hair; and +then the door was put to quickly, and I was all in the dark. + + * * * * * + +It was a very strange experience to lie there and to hear all that went +on in the house, scarcely a hand's-breadth away. + +I lay there, I should think, ten minutes or a quarter of an hour before +the assault was made; and during that time too I could tell pretty well +all that went on. There remained for a minute or thereabouts, a line of +light upon the roof of my little chamber from the candle that my Cousin +Dolly carried; (and that line of light was as a star to me); then I +heard a little whispering; the light went out; and I heard soft steps +going upstairs. Then I heard first the door of my Cousin Dolly's chamber +close, and then another door which was my Cousin Tom's. Then followed +complete silence; and I knew that the two would go to bed, and be found +there, as if ignorant of everything. + +The assault was made on two doors at once, at front and back. They had +another man or two, I have no doubt, in the stable-yard; and more +beneath the windows everywhere, so that I could not escape any way. +There came on a sudden loud hammerings and voices shouting altogether; +but I could not tell what it was that they cried; but I suppose it must +have been, "Open in the King's name!" + +Then the house awakened, all, that is, that were asleep; and the rest +feigned to do so. I heard steps run down the stairs, and voices +everywhere; as the maids over the kitchen awakened and screamed as maids +will, and the men awakened and ran down from the garret. Then, overhead, +across the lobby I heard my Cousin Tom's footsteps, and I nearly laughed +to myself at the thought of the part that he must play, and of how ill +he would play it. And all the while the beating on the doors went on; +and I heard voices through the lath and plaster from the back-hall; and +then the sound of unbolting, and the knocking ceased on that side, +though it still went on upon the, other. + +My hiding-hole, as I have said, was in the very centre of the house; one +side faced upon the back-hall; and the opposite down the front passage; +and, of the other two, one upon the stairs and one upon the kitchen +passage, and these two had the doors in them. Above me was the lobby; +and beneath me, first the little way into the back-hall, and beneath +that the cellars. It was strange how prominent the place was, and yet +how well concealed. One might live ten years in the house without +suspecting its presence. + +Presently the whole house was full of talking; and the front door was +opened; and I heard a gentleman's voice speaking. He was Mr. Harris, I +learned afterwards, a Justice of the Peace from Puckeridge, whom +Dangerfield had brought with him. + +Much of what was said I could not hear; but I heard enough to understand +why I was being looked for, and what would be the charges against me. +Now the voices came muffled; and now clear; so that I would hear half a +sentence and no more, as the speaker moved on. + +"I tell you he left for Rome to-night," I heard my Cousin Tom say (which +was an adroit lie indeed, as no one could tell whether I had or no), +"and he hath taken his man with him." + +"That is very well--" began the gentleman's voice; and then no more. + +Presently I heard one of the men of the house, named Dick--a good friend +of mine, ask what they were after me for; and some fellow, as he went +by, answered: + +"--Consorting with the Jesuits, and conspiring--" and no more. + +So, then, I lay and listened. Much that I heard had no relevance at all, +for it was the protesting of maids and such-like. The footsteps went +continually up and down; sometimes voices rose in anger; sometimes it +was only a whisper that went by. I heard presses open and shut; and once +or twice the noise of hammering overhead; and then silence again; but no +silence was for long. + +Here again I find it very hard to say all that I felt during that +search. My thoughts came and went like pictures upon the dark. Now my +heart would so beat that it sickened me, of sheer terror that I should +be found; and this especially when a man would stay for a while talking +on the stairs within an arm's length of where I lay: now it was as I +might say, more of the intellect; and I pondered on what I heard my +Cousin Tom say, and marvelled at his shrewdness; for fear, if it does +not drive away wits, sharpens them wonderfully. He had, of course, put +me in greater peril, by saying that I was gone to Rome; but he had saved +himself very adroitly, for no witness in the house could tell that I had +not done so; for here was my chamber empty, and I and my man and my +clothes and my books and my horses all vanished away. At one time, then, +I was all eyes and ears in the muffled dark, hearing my heart thump as +it had been another's; at another time I would be looking within and +contemplating my own fear. + +Again and again, however, I thought of my Cousin Dorothy and wondered +where she was and what she was at. I had not heard her voice all that +time; and, on a sudden, after the men had been in the house near an hour +I should say, I heard her sob suddenly, close to me, in a terrified kind +of voice. + +"Keep them, Nancy, keep them here as long as you can. It will give +him--" + +"Eh?" said a man's voice suddenly beneath. "What was that?" + +"I said nothing," stammered my Cousin Dolly's voice. + +Well; there was a to-do. The fellow beneath called out to Mr. Harris, +who was upstairs; and I heard him come down. My Cousin Dolly was sobbing +and crying out, and so was the maid Nancy to whom she had spoken. At +first I could make nothing of it, nor why she had said what she had; and +then, as I heard them all go into the parlour together, I understood +that if my Cousin Tom had been shrewd, his daughter had been shrewder; +and had said what she had, knowing that a man was within earshot. + +But there was nothing for me to do but to lie there still; for I could +hear nothing from the parlour but a confused sound of voices, now three +or four speaking at once, now a man's voice (which I took to be the +magistrate's), and now, I thought my Cousin Dolly's. I heard, too, above +me, my Cousin Tom speaking very angrily, and understood that he was kept +from his daughter--which was the best thing in the world for me, since +he might very well have spoiled the whole design. At last I heard Dolly +cry out very loud; then I heard the parlour-door open and three or four +men came tumbling out, who ran beneath my hiding-hole and out through +the kitchen passage to the stable. I was all a-tremble now, especially +at my cousin's cry; but I gave her credit for being as shrewd still as I +had heard her to be on the stairs; and I proved right in the event; for +almost immediately after that my Cousin Tom was let come downstairs, and +I heard every word, of the colloquy. + +"Well, Mr. Jermyn," said the gentleman's voice, immediately without my +little door, "I am sorry indeed to have troubled you in this way; but I +am the King's justice of the peace and I must do my duty. Which way did +you say Mr. Mallock was gone?" + +"By...by Puckeridge," stammered poor Tom. + +"Ah! indeed," said the other voice, with something of a sneer in it. +"Why Mistress Dorothy here says it was by Barkway and so to Harwich; and +of the two versions I prefer the lady's. For, first, we should have seen +him if he had come by Puckeridge, since we have been lying there since +three o'clock this afternoon; and second, no such man in his senses +would go to Rome by London. I am sorry I cannot commend your +truthfulness, Mr. Jermyn, as much as your professions of loyalty." + +"I tell you--" began my Cousin Tom, angrily enough. + +"I need no telling, Mr. Jermyn. Your cousin is gone by Barkway; and my +men are gone to get the horses out to follow him. We shall catch him +before Newmarket, I make no doubt." + +Then I heard Dolly's sobbing as she clung to her father. + +"Oh! father! father!" she mourned. "The gentleman forced it out of me. I +could not help it. I could not help it!" + +(As for me, I smiled near from ear to ear in the dark, to hear how well +she feigned grief; and I think I loved my Cousin Dolly then as never +before. It would have made a cat laugh, too, to hear the gentleman's +chivalry in return.) + +"Mistress Dorothy," he said, "I grieve to have troubled you like this. +But you have done your duty as an English maid should; and set your +loyalty to His Majesty before all else." + +Mistress Dorothy sobbed so admirably in return that my own eyes filled +with tears to hear her; and I was a little sorry for the poor gentleman +too. He was so stupid, and yet so well mannered too now that he had got +all that he wanted, or thought he had. + +"Well, mistress, and Mr. Jermyn, I must not delay any longer. The horses +will be ready." + +They moved away still talking, all except my Cousin Dolly who sank upon +the stairs still sobbing. She cried out after Mr. Harris to have mercy; +and then fell a-crying again. When the door of the kitchen passage +shut--for they were all gone out by now--her crying ceased mighty soon; +and then I heard her laugh very softly to herself, and break off again, +as if she had put her hand over her mouth. But I dared not speak to her +yet. + +I listened very carefully--for all the house was still now--for the +sound of the horses' feet; and presently I heard them, and reckoned that +a dozen at least must have come after me; and I heard the voices of the +men too as they rode away, grow faint and cease. Then I heard my Cousin +Dolly slip through the door beneath me, and she gave me one little rap +to the floor of my hiding-hole as she went beneath it. + +I did not hear her come back; for Cousin Tom's footsteps were loud in +the kitchen passage; and the men too were tramping in and upstairs, +while the maids went back to bed through the kitchen; and then, when all +was quiet again I heard her voice speak suddenly in a whisper. + +"You can open now, Cousin Roger, they be all gone away." I unbolted and +pushed open the little door quickly enough then; and though I was dazed +with the candlelight the first thing that I saw was Dolly's face, her +eyes as bright as stars with merriment and laughter, and her cheeks +flushed to rose, looking up at me. + + + + +CHAPTER X + + +That ride of mine all night to London was such as I shall never forget, +not from any outward incident that happened, but for the thoughts that +went continually through my heart and brain; and I do not suppose that I +spoke twenty words to James all night, until we saw about seven o'clock +the smoke and spires of London against the morning sky. + + * * * * * + +So soon as the coast was clear, and the last sound of the horses was +died away on the hill beyond the Castle Inn--for the men rode fast and +hard to catch me--I was out and away in the opposite direction, to +Puckeridge; but first we brought the horses back as softly as we could, +with James (who, like a good servant had not stirred an inch from his +orders through all the tumult which he had heard plainly enough from the +meadow), round to the head of the little lane that leads from Hormead +Magna into Hare Street. There we waited, I say, all four of us in +silence, until we heard the hoofs no more; and then James and I mounted +on our horses. + +I had said scarcely a word to Dorothy, nor she to me; for we both felt, +I think, that there was no great need of words after such an adventure, +and that it had knit us closer together than any words could do; and, +besides, that was no place to talk. Yet it was not all pure joy; for +here was the knowledge which we both had, that I must go away, and that +God only knew when I should get back again; and, whatever that knowledge +was to Dorothy, it was as a sword for pain to me. As for my Cousin Tom, +he was no better than a dummy; for he was still terrified at all that +had happened, and at the magistrate's words to him. I told them both, +while we were still in the house, that I must go to London, partly for +that that was the last place in the world that any would look for me in, +and partly--(but this I told neither of them)--for that I must return +the packet to His Majesty: and I said that from London I would go to +France for a little, until it seemed safe for me to get back again. But +there, waiting in the dark, I said nothing at all; but before I mounted +I kissed Dorothy on the cheek; and her cheek was wet, but whether with +the feigned tears she had shed in the house, or with tears even dearer +to me than those, I do not know. But I dared not delay any longer, for +fear that when Mr. Harris came to Barkway, which was five miles away, he +might learn that no one that could be James and I had passed that way, +and so return to search again. + + * * * * * + +The clouds had rolled away by now; and it was a clear night of stars +until they began to pale about two o'clock in the morning; and I think +that for a lover who desires to be alone with his thoughts, there is no +light of sun or moon or candle so sweet as the light of stars; and by +that time we were beyond Ware and coming out of the valley. + +It was solemn to me to watch that dawn coming up, for it was, I thought, +the last dawn that I should see in England for a while, since I was +determined but to see the King in London, and push straight on to Dover +and take the packet there: and it was a solemn dawn too, in another way, +for it was the first I had seen since I had been certain not only that I +loved my Cousin Dolly as I had my own heart, but that she loved me also; +and that is a great day for a lover. + +To see the King then, and to push on to Dover, was all that I had +rehearsed to myself; but Providence had one more adventure for me first, +that was one of the saddest I have ever had in all my life, and yet not +all sad. + + * * * * * + +My road took me in through the City and down Gracechurch Street; but +here I took a fancy to turn to the right up Leadenhall and Cornhill, +which were all crowded with folks, though at first I did not think why, +that I might go by Newgate where the Jesuits lay, and see at least the +walls that enclosed those saints of God; for I was pretty bold here, +knowing that Mr. Dangerfield who was my chief peril, was off to Harwich +to find me; and even if they found that I was not gone through Barkway, +I did not think that they could catch me, for their horses were tired +and ours fresh; and you do not easily get a change of a dozen horses, or +anywhere near it, in Hertfordshire villages. So I went very boldly, and +made no pretence not to look folks in the face. + +After we had passed up Cheapside it appeared to me that the streets were +strangely full, and that all the folk were going the same way; and so +astonished was I at this--for no suspicion of the truth came to me--that +I bid my man ask someone what the matter was. When he came up with me +again I could see that something was the matter indeed; and so it was. + +"Sir," he said in a low voice, so that none else could hear, "they are +taking the prisoners to execution this morning." + +Then there came upon me a kind of madness--for, although by God's +blessing it brought no harm to me--yet it was nothing else; and I +determined to go to Newgate as I had intended, and at least see them +brought out. For here was to be a martyrdom indeed--five men, all +priests, all Religious--suffering, in God's eyes at least, for nothing +in the world but the Catholic religion; yes, and in men's too, if they +had known all, for I remembered how Mr. Whitbread had refused to escape, +while he had yet a whole day for it, for fear of seeming to confess his +guilt and so bringing scandal upon the Church and his order. From such a +martyrdom, then, so near to me, how could I turn away? and I determined, +if I could, to speak with Father Whitbread, and get his blessing. + +When I got near Newgate the press grew greater every instant; but as we +were on horseback and the greater number of the folks on foot, we got +through them at last, and so came to the foot of the stairs by the +chapel, where the sleds were laid ready with a pair of horses to each. I +had never before seen an execution done in England, so I observed very +carefully everything that was to be seen. The sleds were three in +number, and were each made flat of strong wood with runners about an +inch high; and there was a pair of horses harnessed to each, with a man +to guide them. I got close to these, next behind the line of yellow +trainbandmen who kept the way open, as well as the stairs. We were in +the shadow here, in a little court of which the gates were set open, but +the people were all crowded in behind the trainbandmen as well as in the +street outside, and from them rose a great murmuring of talk, of which I +did not hear a word spoken in sympathy, for I suppose that the Catholics +there held their tongues. + +We had not very long to wait; for, by the appointment of God, I was come +just to time; and very soon the door at the head of the stairs was +opened and men began to come out. I saw Mr. Sheriff How among them, who +was to see execution done; but I did not observe these very closely, +since I was looking for the Jesuits. + +Mr. Harcourt came first into the sunlight that was at the head of the +steps; and at the sight of him I was moved very deeply; for he was an +old man with short white hair, very thick, and walked with a stick with +his other hand in some fellow's arm. A great rustle of talk began when +he appeared, and swelled into a roar, but he paid no attention to it, +and came down, smiling and looking to his steps. Next came Mr. +Whitbread; and at the sight of him I was as much affected as by the old +man; for I had spoken with him so often. He too walked cheerfully, first +looking about him resolutely as he came out at all the faces turned up +to his; and at him too was even a greater roaring, for the people +thought him to be at the head of all the conspiracy. He was pinioned +loosely with cords, but not so that he could not lift his hands (and so +were the other three that followed), and a fellow held the other end of +the cord in his hand. Mr. Turner and Mr. Gavan, who came next, I had +never seen before--(Mr. Gavan was he that was taken in the stables of +the Imperial Ambassador--Count Wallinstein)--they came one behind the +other, and paid no more attention than the others to the noise that +greeted them; and last of all came Mr. Fenwick who had entertained me so +often in Drury Lane, looking pinched, I thought, with his imprisonment, +yet as courageous as any. Behind him came a minister and then the tail +of the guard. + +As I saw Mr. Fenwick come out I put into execution a design I had formed +just now; and slipping from my horse I got out a guinea and begged in a +low voice the fellow before me--for I was just by the sled on which Mr. +Harcourt and Mr. Whitbread would be bound--to let me through enough to +speak a word with him; and at the same time I pressed the guinea into +his hand: so he stood aside a little and let me through, on my knees, +enough to speak to Mr. Whitbread. Mr. Harcourt was already laid down on +the sled, on the further side from me, and Mr. Whitbread was getting to +his knees for the same end. As he turned and sat himself on the sled he +saw me, and frowned ever so little. Then he smiled as I made the sign of +the cross on myself and he made it too at me, and I saw his lips move as +he blessed me. He was not an arm's length from me. That was enough for +me; and I stepped back again and mounted my horse once more. The fellow +who had let me through looked at me over his shoulder once or twice, but +said nothing; for he had my guinea; and, as for myself I sat content, +though my eyes pricked with tears, for I had had the last blessing (or +very nearly) which that martyr of God would ever give in this world. + + * * * * * + +When they were all ready, and the five were bound on the sleds, with +their beads to the horses' heels, I looked to see how I could best +follow; and it appeared to me that it was best for me to keep close at +the tail, rather than to attempt to go before. When the word was given, +the whips cracked, and the sled nearest me, with Mr. Whitbread and Mr. +Harcourt upon it, began to move. Then came Mr. Turner and Mr. Gavan, and +last Mr. Fenwick all by himself. The minister whose name was Samuel +Smith, as I learned later, and who was the Ordinary of Newgate, followed +on foot, and behind him came the guards to close them all in. + +My fellow in front, whom I had bribed, seemed to understand what I +wanted; for in the confusion he let me through, and my man James forced +his way after me; so that we found ourselves with three or four other +gentlemen, riding immediately behind the guards, as we came out of the +court into the street outside; and so we followed, all the way to +Tyburn. + +That adventure of mine was I think the most observable I have ever had, +and, too, the greatest privilege to my soul: for here was I, if ever any +man did, following the Cross of Christ in the passion of His +servants--such a _Via Crucis_ as I have never made in any church--for +here was the very road along which so many hundreds of the Catholic +martyrs had passed before; and at the end was waiting the very death by +which they had died. I know that the martyrdom of these five was not so +evident an one as that of others before them, since those died for the +Faith directly, and these for an alleged conspiracy; yet before God, I +think, they died no less for Religion, since it was in virtue of their +Religion that they were accused. So, then, I followed them. + +All the way along Holborn we went, and High Holborn and St. Giles, and +at last out into the Oxford Road that ran then between fields and +gardens; and all the way we went the crowds went with us, booing and +roaring from time to time, and others, too, from the windows of the +houses, joined in the din that was made. At first the way was nasty +enough, with the pails that folks had emptied out of doors into the +gutter; but by the time we reached the Oxford Road the way was dusty +only; so that the five on the sleds were first nastied, and then the +dust fell on them from the horses' heels. I could see only Mr. Fenwick's +face from time to time; he kept his eyes closed the most of the way, and +was praying, I think. Of the rest I could see nothing. + +It was a terrible sight to me when we came out at last and saw the +gallows--the "Deadly Nevergreen" as it was called--the three posts with +the beams connecting them--against the western sky. The ropes were in +place all in one line; and a cart was there beneath them. A cauldron, +too, sent up its smoke a little distance away beside the brook. All this +space was kept clear again by guards; and there were some of the new +grenadiers among them, in their piebald livery, with furred caps; and +without the guards there was a great crowd of people. Here, then, was +the place of the Passion. + +The confusion was so great as the sleds went within the line of guards, +and the people surged this way and that, that I was forced, somewhat, +out of the place I had hoped to get, and found myself at last a good way +off, with a press of people between me and the gallows; so that I could +see nothing of the unbinding; and, when they spoke later could not hear +all that they said. + +It was not long before they were all in the cart together, with the +ropes about their necks, and the hangman down again upon the ground; and +as soon as that was done, a great silence fell everywhere. I had seen +Mr. Gavan say something to the hangman, and he answered again; but I +could not hear what it was. + +Then, when the silence fell, I heard Mr. Whitbread begin; and the first +sentence was clear enough, though his voice sounded thin at that +distance. + +"I suppose," he said, "it is expected I should speak something to the +matter I am condemned for, and brought hither to suffer." + +Then he went on to say how he was wholly guiltless of any plot against +His Majesty, and that in saying so he renounced and repudiated any +pretended pardons or dispensations that were thought to have been given +him to swear falsely. He prayed God to bless His Majesty, and denied +that it was any part of Catholic teaching that a king might be killed as +it was said had been designed by the alleged plot; and he ended by +recommending his soul into the hands of his blessed Redeemer by whose +only merits and passion he hoped for salvation. He spoke very clearly, +with a kind of coldness. + +Father Harcourt's voice was not so clear, as he was an old man; but I +heard Mr. Sheriff How presently interrupt him. (He was upon horseback +close beside the gallows.) + +"Or of Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey's death?" he asked. + +"Did you not write that letter concerning the dispatch of Sir Edmund +Berry Godfrey?" + +"No, sir," cried the old man very loud. "These are the words of a dying +man. I would not do it for a thousand worlds." + +He went on to affirm his innocence of all laid to his charge; and he +ended by begging the prayers of all in the communion of the Roman Church +in which he himself died. + +When Mr. Anthony Turner had spoke a while, again Sheriff How interrupted +him. + +"You do only justify yourselves here," he said. "We will not believe a +word that you say. Spend your time in prayer, and we will not think your +time too long." + +But Mr. Turner went on as before, affirming his entire innocence; and, +at the end he prayed aloud, and I heard every word of it. + +"O my dear Saviour and Redeemer," he cried, lifting up his eyes, and his +hands too as well as he could for the cords, "I return Thee immortal +thanks for all Thou hast pleased to do for me in the whole course of my +life, and now in the hour of my death, with a firm belief of all things +Thou hast revealed, and a stedfast hope of obtaining everlasting bliss. +I cheerfully cast myself into the arms of Thy mercy, whose arms were +stretched on the Cross for my redemption. Sweet Jesus, receive my +spirit." + +Then Mr. Gavan spoke to the same effect as the rest, but he argued a +little more, and theologically too, being a young man; and spoke of +Mariana the Jesuit who had seemed to teach a king-killing doctrine; but +this sense on his words he repudiated altogether. He too, at the end, +commended his soul into the hands of God, and said that he was ready to +die for Jesus as Jesus had died for him. + +Mr. Fenwick had scarcely begun before Mr. Sheriff How broke in on him, +and argued with him concerning the murder of Sir Edmund. + +"As for Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey," cried Mr. Fenwick, "I protest before +God that I never saw the man in my life." + +"For my part," said the Sheriff, "I am of opinion that you had a hand +in it." + +"Now that I am a dying man," said the priest, "do you think that I would +go and damn my soul?" + +"I wish you all the good that I can," said Mr. How, "but I assure you I +believe never a word you say." + +Well; he let him alone after that; and Mr. Fenwick finished, once more +denying and renouncing the part that had been assigned to him, and +maintaining his innocence. + +There followed after that a very long silence, of half an hour, I should +think. The five men stood in the cart together, with their eyes cast +down; and each, I think, absolved his neighbour. The crowd about kept +pretty quiet, only murmuring together; and cried no more insults at +them. I, too, did my best to pray with them and for them; but my horse +was restless, and I had some ado to keep him quiet. After a good while, +Mr. Sheriff How spoke to them again. + +"Pray aloud, gentlemen, that we may join with you. We shall do you no +hurt if we do you no good." + +They said nothing to that; and he spoke again, with some sharpness. + +"Are you ashamed of your prayers?" + +Still they did not speak; and he turned on Father Gavan. + +"Why, Mr. Gavan," he said, "it is reported that you did preach in the +Quakers' meeting-house." + +The priest opened his eyes. + +"No, sir," he said, "I never did preach there in all my life." + +It was very solemn and dreadful to wait there while they prayed; for +they were at it again for twenty minutes, I should judge, and no more +interruptions from Mr. How, who, I think, was a shade uneasy. It was a +clear June day, beginning to be hot; and the birds were chirping in the +trees about the place--for at times the silence was so great that one +could hear a pin fall, as they say. Now I felt on the brink of hell--at +the thought of the pains that were waiting for my friends, at the memory +of that great effusion of blood that had been poured out and of the +more that was to follow. There was something shocking in the quietness +and the glory of the day--such a day as many that I had spent in the +meadows of Hare Street, or in the high woods--faced as it was with this +dreadful thing against the blue sky, and the five figures beneath it, +like figures in a frieze, and the smoke of the cauldron that drifted up +continually or brought a reek of tar to my nostrils. And, again, all +this would pass; and I would feel that it was not hell but heaven that +waited; and that all was but as a thin veil, a little shadow of death, +that hung between me and the unimaginable glories; and that at a word +all would dissolve away and Christ come and this world be ended. So, +then, the minutes passed for me: I said my _Paternoster_ and _Ave_ and +_Credo_ and _De Profundis_, over and over again; praying that the +passage of those men might be easy, and that their deaths might be as +sacrifices both for themselves and for the country. I was beyond fearing +for myself now; I was in a kind of madness of pity and longing. And, at +the last I saw Mr. Whitbread raise his head and look at the Sheriff. + +There rose then, as he made a sign, a great murmur from all the crowd. I +had thought that they would have been impatient, but they were not; and +had kept silence very well; and I think that this spectacle of the five +men praying had touched many hearts there. Now, however, when the end +approached, they seemed to awaken again, and to look for it; and they +began to move their heads about to see what was done, so that the crowd +was like a field of wheat when the wind goes over it. + +Then fell a horrible thing. + +There broke out suddenly a cry, that was like a trumpet suddenly +sounding after drums--of a different kind altogether from the murmuring +that was before. I turned my head whence it came, and saw a great +confusion break out in the outskirts of the crowd. Then I saw a horse's +head, and a man's bare head behind it, whisk out from the trees in the +direction of the park, and come like a streak across the open ground. +As the galloper came nearer, I could see that he was spurring as if for +life. Then once more a great roar broke out everywhere-- + +"A pardon! a pardon!" And so it was. + +The crowd opened out to let the man through; and immediately he was at +the gallows, and handing the paper to the sheriff. A roar was going up +now on all sides; but as in dumb play I could see that Mr. How was +speaking to the priests who still stood as before. Mr. Whitbread shook +his head in answer and so did the others. Then I saw Mr. How make a +sign; the hangman came forward again (for he had stepped back just now); +and the roar died suddenly to silence. + +Then I understood that the pardon was offered only on conditions which +these men could not accept--and indeed they turned out afterwards to be +that they should confess their guilt--and my anger at that bitter +mockery swelled up so that I could scarcely hold myself in. But I did +so. + +Then the hangman climbed once more into the cart, and, one by one with +each, he adjusted the rope, and then pulled down the caps over their +faces, beginning with Father Whitbread and ending with Father Fenwick. +Then he got down from the cart again; and the murmur rose once more to a +roar. + +I kept my eyes fixed upon the five, caring for nothing else; and even in +that horrible instant my lips moved in the _De Profundis_ for their +souls' easy passage. Then I saw old Father Harcourt suddenly stagger, +and then the rest staggered; and I saw that the cart was being pulled +away. And then all five of them were in the air together, beginning to +twist to and fro; and I shut my eyes, for I could bear no more. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + + +It was not till we were coming down St. Martin's Lane on the way to +Whitehall, that my thoughts ran clear again, and I could think upon the +designs I had formed. Until then, it seemed to me that I rode as in a +dream, seeing my thoughts before me, but having no power to look within +or consider myself. One thing too moved before me whenever I closed my +eyes; and that was the slow twisting frieze of the five figures against +the blue sky. + + * * * * * + +I spoke suddenly to James as we went. + +"You will leave me," I said, "at the Whitehall gate; and go back to my +lodgings. Procure a pair of good horses at the Covent Garden inn; and +say we will leave them at any place they name on the Dover Road." + +He answered that he would do so, and it was the first word he had spoken +since we had left Tyburn. At the palace-doors I found no difficulty in +admittance, for it was the hour for changing guard, and a lieutenant +that was known to me let me in at once; so I went straight in and across +the court, just as I was, in my dusty clothes and boots, carrying +nothing but my riding-whip. My mind now seethed with bitter thoughts and +words, now fell into a stupor, and I rehearsed nothing of what I should +say to His Majesty, except that I was done with his service and was then +going to France for a little, unless it pleased him to have me arrested +and hanged too for nothing. Then I would give him back his papers and +begone. + + * * * * * + +I came up the stairs to Mr. Chiffinch's lodgings, just as himself came +out; and he fell back a step when he saw me. + +"Why, where do you come from?" he asked. + +"They are after me," I said briefly. "But that is not all." + +"Why, what else?" said he, staring at me. + +"I am come from seeing the martyrdoms," I said. + +"For God's sake!--" he cried; and caught me by the arm and drew me in. + +"Now have you dined?" he said, when he had me in a chair. + +"Not yet." + +He looked at me, fingering his lip. + +"I suppose you have come to see His Majesty?" he said. + +I told him, Yes: no more. + +"And what if His Majesty will not see you?" he asked, trying me. + +"His Majesty will see me," I said. "I have something for him." + +Again he hesitated. I think for a minute or two he thought it might be a +pistol or a knife that I had for the King. + +"If I bring you to him," he said, "will you give me your word to remain +here till I come for you?" + +"Yes; I will do that," I said. "But I must see him immediately." + +"Well--" said Mr. Chiffinch. And then without a word he wheeled and went +out of the room. + +I do not know how long I sat there; but it may have been half an hour. I +sat like a dazed man; for I had had no sleep, and what I had seen drove +away all desire for it. I sat there, staring, and pondering round and +round in circles, like a wheel turning. Now it was of Dorothy; now of +the Jesuits; now of His Majesty and Mr. Chiffinch; now again, of the +road to Dover, and of what I should do in France. + +There came at last a step on the stairs, and Mr. Chiffinch came in. At +the door he turned, and took from a man in the passage, as I suppose, a +covered dish, with a spoon in it. Then he shut the door with his heel, +and came forward and set the dish down. + +"Dinner first--" he said. + +"I must see His Majesty," I repeated. + +"Why you are an obstinate fellow, Mr. Mallock," he said, smiling. "Have +I not given you my word you shall see him?" + +"Directly?" + +He leaned his hands on the table and looked at me. + +"Mr. Mallock; His Majesty will be here in ten minutes' time. I told him +you must eat something first; and he said he would wait till then." + + * * * * * + +The stew he had brought me was very savoury: and I ate it all up; for I +had had nothing to eat since supper last night; and, by the time I had +done, and had told him very briefly what had passed at Hare Street, I +felt some of my bewilderment was gone. It is marvellous how food can +change the moods of the immortal soul herself; but I was none the less +determined, I thought, to leave the King's service; for I could not +serve any man, I thought, whose hands were as red as his in the blood of +innocents. + +I had hardly done, and was blessing myself, when Mr. Chiffinch went out +suddenly, and had returned before I had stood up, to hold the door open +for the King. + +He came in, that great Prince,--(for in spite of all I still count him +to be that, _in posse_ if not _in esse_)--as airy and as easy as if +nothing in the world was the matter. He was but just come from dinner, +and his face was flushed a little under its brown, with wine; and his +melancholy eyes were alight. He was in one of his fine suits too, for +to-day was Saturday; and as it was hot weather his suit was all of thin +silk, puce-coloured, with yellow lace; and he carried a long cane in his +ringed hand. He might not have had a care in the world, to all +appearances; and he smiled at me, as if I were but just come back from a +day in the country. + +"Well, Mr. Mallock"--he said; and put out his hand to be kissed. + +Now I had determined not to kiss his hand--whatever the consequences +might be; but when I saw him like that I could do no otherwise; for my +love and my pity for him--(if I may use such a word of a subject towards +his Sovereign)--surged up again, which I thought were dead for ever; so +I was on my knees in an instant, and I kissed his brown hand and smelled +the faint violet essence which he used. Then, before I could say +anything, he had me down in a chair, and himself in another, and was +beginning to talk. (Mr. Chiffinch was gone out; but I had not seen him +go.) + +"It is a bloody business," he said sorrowfully--"a very bloody business. +But what else could be done? If I had not consented, I would be no +longer King; but off on my travels again; and all England in confusion. +However; that is as it may be. What do you want to see me for, Mr. +Mallock?" + +He spoke so kindly to me, and with such feeling too, and his +condescension seemed to me so infinite in his coming here to wait upon +me--(though this was very often his custom, I think, when he wished to +see a man or a woman in private)--that I determined to put off my +announcement to him that I could no longer be in his service. So first I +drew out from my waistcoat the packet I had taken from under my shirt, +and put there, while Mr. Chiffinch was away. + +"Sir;" I said, "I have brought your packet back again. I have had no +word from you as to its delivery; and as I must go abroad to-day I dare +keep it no longer. Your Majesty, I fear, must find another messenger." + +His face darkened for an instant as if he could not remember something; +but it lightened again as he took the packet from me, and turned it +over. + +"Why; I remember," he said. "It was sealed within and without, was it +not?" + +That seemed to me a strangely irrelevant thing to say but I told him, +Yes it was. + +"And you were to deliver to--eh? what was his name?" + +"Your Majesty told me that the name would be sent to me." + +"Why, so I did," said the King, smiling. "Well; let us open the packet +and see what is within." + +He took up a little ivory knife that was on the table by his elbow, and +slipped it beneath the folds of the paper, so as to burst open the +seals; and when he had done that, there was another wrapper, also +sealed. This seal he also scrutinized, still smiling a little; and then +he burst that; and when he had taken off that covering, a folded piece +of paper fell out. This he unfolded, and spread flat with his fingers; +and there was nothing written on that side; then he turned it over, and +shewed me how there was nothing written on that either. So the message I +had borne about me, was nothing in the world but a piece of blank paper. + +I drew a long breath when I saw that; for my anger surged up at the way +I had been fooled; but before I could think of anything to say, the King +spoke. + +"Mr. Mallock," he said, "you have done very well. You understand it now, +eh?" + +"No, Sir; I do not," I said. + +"Why; it is a very old trick;" went on His Majesty, "to see if a +messenger will be faithful. Your folks did it first, I think, in Queen +Bess her reign; so as to risk nothing. And you have kept it all this +while!" + +"I obeyed Your Majesty's commands," I said. + +"Well; and you have delivered it to the right person." (He tossed the +papers altogether upon the table and turned to me again.) "Now, sir; I +had no real doubt of you; but others were not so sure; and I consented +to this to please them; so now that all has been done, I can use you +more freely, if you will: I have more than one mission which must be +done for me; and if you like it, Mr. Mallock, you may have the first." + +"Sir; I must go to France immediately. The hunt is up, after me, too." + +"What do you mean by that?" he said sharply. "The hunt! What is that?" + +"I would not weary Your Majesty with it all; but the truth is that the +fellow Dangerfield, who came after me here, came yesterday with a +magistrate and near a dozen men, to Hare Street to take me. I eluded +them, and came to London." + +"You eluded them! How was that?" + +Well; I told him as shortly as I could; and he laughed outright when I +came to my Cousin Dolly's part in it. + +"Why: that was very wittily done!" he said. "The minx!" + +I did not much like that; but I could not find fault with the King. + +"And I was at Tyburn this morning, Sir." + +"What! At Tyburn!" + +"At Tyburn, Sir; and I was so sick at heart at what I saw there--five of +Your Majesty's most faithful servants murdered in the name of justice, +that I would not have cared greatly if I had been hanged with them." + +His face darkened a little; but not with anger at me. + +"It is a bloody business, as I have said," he said gently. "But +come!--it is to France that you go." + +"There is as good as any other place," I said, "so I be out of the +kingdom. I have estates there, too." + +"But to France will suit very well," said the King. "For it is to France +that I designed to send you. I have plenty of couriers who can take +written messages, and I have plenty of men who can talk--some think, too +much; but I have no one at hand at this moment whom I can send to Court, +and who will acquit himself well there, and that can take a message +too--none, that is, that is not occupied. What do you say, Mr. Mallock? +Would a couple of months there please you?" + +Here then was the time for my announcement; for I knew that if I did not +make it then I should make it never. + +I stood up; and my heart beat thickly. + +"Sir," I said. "Six months ago I would have run anywhere to serve you. +But in six months many things have happened; and I cannot serve a Prince +any more who cannot keep his word even to save the innocent. I had best +be gone again to Rome, I think, and see what they can give me there. I +am sick of England, which I once loved so much." + +It was those very words--or others very like them that I said. I do not +know where I got the courage to say them, for my life lay altogether in +the King's hand: a word from him, or even silence, and I should have +kicked my heels that night in Newgate, and a week or two later in the +air, on a charge of being in with the Jesuits in their plot. Yet I said +them; for I could say nothing else. + +His Majesty's face turned black as thunder as I began; and when I was +done it was all stiff with pride. + +"That is your mind, Mr. Mallock, then?" he said. + +"That is my mind, Sir," I answered him. + +And then a change went over his face once more. God knows why he +relented; I think it may have been that he had somewhat of a fancy for +me, and remembered how I had pleased him and tried to serve him. And +when he spoke, it was very gently indeed. + +"Mr. Mallock," he said, "those are very brave words. But I think they +are not worthy of a man of your parts. For consider; were you not sent +here by the Holy Father to help a poor sinner who had need of it? And is +it Catholic charity to leave the sinner because of his sins?" + +I said nothing to that; for I was all confounded at his mildness. I +suppose I had braced myself for something very different. + +"It is true I am not a Catholic; but were you not sent here, in answer +to my entreaty, that you might help to make it easy for me to become +one? Is it apostolic, then, to run away so soon--" + +"If Your Majesty," I burst out, "would but shew some signs--" + +He lifted his eyebrows at that. + +"Signs! In these days?" he said. "Why, I should hang, myself, in a +week's time! Are these the days, think you, to shew Catholicism? Why; do +you not think that my own heart is not near broken with all I have had +to do?" + +He spoke with extraordinary passion; for that was his way when he was +very deeply moved (which, to tell the truth, however, was not very +often). But I have never known a man so careless and indolent on the +surface, who had a softer heart than His Sacred Majesty, if it could but +be touched. + +"The blood of God's priests," he cried, holding the arms of his chair so +that it shook--"their blood cries from the ground against me! Do you +think I do not know that? Yet what can I do? I am tied and bound by +circumstance. I could not save them; and in the attempt I could only +lose my own life or throne as well. The people are mad for their blood! +Why Scroggs himself said in public at one of the trials, that even the +King's Mercy could not come between them and death. And it is at this +moment, then, that the servants to whom I had looked to help me, leave +me! Go if you will, Mr. Mallock, and save your own soul. You shall have +a safe passage to France; but never again speak to me of Catholic +charity." + +Every word that he said rang true in my heart. It was true indeed, as he +said, that no effort of his could have saved the men, and he could only +have perished himself. There were scores of men, even among his own +guards, I have no doubt, who would have killed him if he had shewn at +this time the least mercy, or the least inclination towards Catholicism. +His back was to the wall; he fought not for himself only, but for +Monarchy itself in England. There would have been an end of all, and we +back again under the tyranny of the Commonwealth if he had acted +otherwise; or as I had thought that he would. + +He had scarcely finished when I was on my knees before him. + +"Sir," I cried, "I am heartily ashamed of myself. I ask pardon for all +that I have said. I will go to France or to anywhere else; and will +think myself honoured by it, and by the forgiveness of Your Majesty. +Sir; let me be your servant once more." + +The passion was gone from his face as he looked down on me there; and he +was, as before, the great Prince, with his easy manner and his +unimaginable charm. + +"Why that is very well said," he answered me. "And I shall be glad to +have your services, Mr. Mallock. Mr. Chiffinch will give you all +instructions." + + * * * * * + +"That was a very bold speech," said Mr. Chiffinch presently, when the +King was gone away again--"which you made to His Majesty." + +"Why, did you hear it?" I cried. + +He smiled at me. + +"Why, yes," he said. "I was behind the open door just within the further +chamber. I was not sure of you, Mr. Mallock, neither was the King for +that matter." + +"Sure of me?" + +"I thought perhaps we might have a real threatener of the King's life, +at last," he said. "You had a very wild look when you came in, Mr. +Mallock." + +"Yet His Majesty came; and unarmed!" I cried: "and as happy as--as a +King!" + +"Why, what else?" asked Mr. Chiffinch. + +Our eyes met; and for the first time I understood how even a man like +this, with his pandering to the King's pleasures, and his own evil life, +could have as much love and admiration for such a man, as I myself had. + + + + +PART II + + + + +CHAPTER I + + +I do not mean to set down in this volume all that befell me during the +years that I was in the King's service, partly because that would make +too large a book, but chiefly because there were committed to me affairs +of which this French one was the first, of which I took my oath never to +speak without leave. Up to the present in England nothing had been said +to me which would be private twenty years afterwards; I take no shame at +all at revealing what little I was able to do for the King personally in +England--(except perhaps in one or two points which must not be spoken +of)--nor of my adventures and my endeavours to be of service to those +who were one with me in religion; but of the rest, the least said the +soonest mended. So the best plan which I can think of is to leave out on +every occasion all that passed, or very nearly all, when I was out of my +country, both in France and Rome, for I went away--on what I may call +secret service--three times altogether between my first coming and the +King's death. It is enough to say that this time I was in Paris about +three months, and in Normandy one; and that I had acquitted myself, so +far, to His Majesty's satisfaction.[A] + +[Footnote A: Plainly this business of Mr. Mallock had some connection +with Charles' perpetual intrigues with France, for Louis' support of +him. At this time Charles' intrigues were a little unsuccessful; so it +may be supposed that without Mr. Mallock they would have been even +worse.] + +I returned to London then on the night of the sixteenth of November, of +the same year; and I brought with me a letter to the King from a certain +personage in France. + +Now to one living in a Catholic country the rumours that come from +others not so happy, are either greatly swollen and exaggerated in his +mind, or thought nothing of. It was the latter case with me. I was in +high favour on both sides of the Channel; and this, I suppose made me +think little of the troubles in my own country: so when I and James +reached London late in the evening, after riding up from Kent, I went +straight to Whitehall, as bold as brass to demand to see Mr. Chiffinch. +We had ridden fast, and had talked with but very few folks, and these +ignorant; so that I knew nothing of what impended, and was astonished +that the sentinels at the gate eyed me so suspiciously. + +"Yes, sir," said the younger, to whom I had addressed myself, "and what +might your business with Mr. Chiffinch be?" + +I had learned by now not to quack gossip or to parley with underlings; +so I answered him very shortly. + +"Then fetch the lieutenant," I said; and sat back on my horse like a +great person. + +When the lieutenant came he was one I had never seen before, nor he me; +and he too asked me what I wanted with Mr. Chiffinch. + +"Lord, man!" I cried, for I was weary with my journey, and a little +impatient. "Do you think I shall blurt out private business for all the +world to hear? Send me under guard if you will--a man on each side--so +you send me." + +He did not do that (for I think he thought that I might be some +important personage from my way with him), but he would not let James +come in too; and he said a man must go with me to show me the way. + +"Or I, him," I said. "However; let it be so;" and I told James to ride +on to the lodgings, and make all ready for me there. + +Now I had heard in France of the events in the kingdom; but as they had +not greatly affected Catholics, and, if anything, had even helped them, +I was in no great state of mind. Within a week of my getting to Paris +the news came of how the Duke of Monmouth had been sent with an army to +Scotland and had trounced the Highlanders (who prayed and preached when +they should have fought) at Bothwell Bridge on the river Clyde; and of +the punishment he inflicted on them afterwards; though this was nothing +to what Dr. Sharpe (who had been killed by them in May) or Lauderdale +would have done to them. Of Catholic fortunes there was not a great +deal of bad news, and some good: Sir George Wakeman, with three +Benedictines, was acquitted of any design to murder the King; and Mr. +Kerne, a priest, had been acquitted at Hereford of the charge under 27 +Elizabeth--that famous statute, still in force, that forbade any priest +that had received Orders beyond the seas, to reside in England. On the +other hand, in the provinces, a few had suffered; of whom I remember, on +the Feast of the Assumption a Franciscan named Johnson, a man of family, +had been condemned at Worcester; and Mr. Will Plessington at Chester: +and these were executed. Since then, no deaths that I had heard of, had +taken place in England for such causes: and affairs seemed pretty quiet. + +I was all unprepared then for the news I had from Mr. Chiffinch, as soon +as he had greeted me, and paid me compliments on the way I had done my +French business. + +"You are come just in time," he said ruefully. "We are to have a great +to-do to-morrow, I hear." + +I asked him what that might be, lolling in my chair, for I was stiff +with riding. + +"Why it is your old friend Dangerfield, I hear, who is the thorn in our +pillow now. He hath first feigned to discover a Covenanting plot against +His Majesty; and then turned it into a Popish one. There has been much +foolish talk about a meal-tub, and papers hidden in it, and such-like: +and now there is to be a great procession of malcontents to-morrow, to +burn the Pope and the Devil and Sir George Jeffreys, and God knows who, +at Temple Bar. But that is not all." + +"Why, what else?" I asked. "And why is not the procession forbidden?" + +"Who do you think is behind it all?" he said. "Why; no one less than my +Lord Shaftesbury himself. Dangerfield is but one of his tools. And that +is not all." + +"Lord!" said I. "What a troublous country!" (I spoke lightly, for I did +not understand the weight of all these events.) "What else is the +matter?" + +"It is the Duke of Monmouth," he said, "who is the pawn in +Shaftesbury's game. My Lord would give the world to have the Duke +declared legitimate, and so oust James. His Grace of Monmouth is +something of a popular hero now, after his doings in Scotland, and most +of all since he stands for the Protestant Religion. He hath dared to +strike out the bar sinister from his arms too; and goeth about the +country as if he were truly royal. So His Royal Highness is gone back to +Scotland again in a great fury; and His Majesty is once again in a +strait betwixt two, as the Scriptures say. There is his Catholic brother +on the one side; and there is this young spark of a Protestant bastard +on the other. We shall know better to-morrow how the feeling runs. His +Majesty was taken very ill in August; and I am not surprised at it." + + * * * * * + +This was all very heavy news for me. I had hoped in France that most at +least of the Catholic troubles were over, and now, here again they were, +in a new form. I sighed aloud. + +"Heigho!" I said. "But this is all beyond me, Mr. Chiffinch. I had best +be gone into the country." + +"I think you had," he said very seriously. "You can do nothing in this +place." + +I was very glad when I heard him say that; for I had thought a great +deal of Hare Street, and of my Cousin Dolly there; and it was good news +to me to hear that I might soon see her again. + +"But I must see the sight to-morrow," I said; and soon after that I took +my leave. + + * * * * * + +It was a marvellous sight indeed, the next evening. I went to see a Mr. +Martin in the morning, that lived in the Strand, a Catholic bookseller, +and got leave from him to sit in his window from dinner onwards, that I +might see the show. + +It was about five o'clock that the affair began; and the day was pretty +dark by then. A great number of people began to assemble little by +little, up Fleet Street on the one side, the Strand on the other, and +down Chancery Lane in the midst; for it was announced everywhere, and +even by criers in some parts, that the procession would take place and +would end at Temple Bar. My Lord Shaftesbury, who had lately lost the +presidency of the Council, had rendered himself irreconcilable with the +Duke of York, and his only hope (as well as of others with him) lay in +ruining His Highness. All this, therefore, was designed to rouse popular +feeling against the Duke and the Catholic cause. So this was my welcome +home again! + +It was strange to watch the folks assembling, and the gradual kindling +of the flambeaux. In the windows on either side of the street were set +candles; and a line of coaches was drawn up against the gutter on the +further side. But still more strange and disconcerting were the +preparations already made to receive the procession. An open space was +kept by fellows with torches to the east of the City Gate; and here, +looking towards the City, with her back to the Gate, close beside the +Pillory, stood Queen Bess in effigy, upon a pedestal, as it were a +Protestant saint in her shrine; for the day had been chosen on account +of its being the day of her accession and of Queen Mary's death. She was +set about with gilded laurel-wreaths, and bore a gilded sceptre; and +beneath her, like some sacrificial fire, blazed a great bonfire, roaring +up to heaven with its sparks and smoke. Half a dozen masked fellows, in +fantastic dresses, tended the bonfire and replenished the flambeaux that +burned about the effigy. Indeed it was strangely like some pagan +religious spectacle--the goddess at the entrance of her temple (for the +gate looked like that); and the resemblance became more marked as the +ceremonies were performed which ended the show. A Catholic might well be +pardoned for retorting "Idolatry," and saying that he preferred Mary +Queen of Heaven to Bess Queen of England. + +It was from Moorfields that the procession came, and it took a good +while to come. But I was entertained enough by the sight of all the +people, to pass the time away. A number of gentlefolks opposite to my +window sat on platforms, all wrapped up in furs, and some of them +masked, with a few ministers among them; and I make no doubt that Dr. +Tonge was there, though I did not see him. But I did see a merry face +which I thought was Mistress Nell Gwyn's; and whether it was she or not +that I saw, I heard afterwards that she had been there, to His Majesty's +great displeasure. + +And in the same group I saw Mr. Killigrew's face--that had been page to +Charles the First, and came back to be page to his son--for his +grotesque and yet fine face was unmistakable; the profligate fop Sir +George Etheredge, gambler and lampooner, with drink and the devil all +over him; solemn Thomas Thynne, murdered two years afterwards, for a +woman's sake, by Count Conigsmark, who was hanged for it and lay in +great state in a satin coffin; and last, my Lord Dover, with his great +head and little legs, looking at the people through a tortoiseshell +glass. The Court, or at least, some of it, enjoyed itself here, in spite +of the character of the demonstration. Meanwhile out of sight a great +voice shouted jests and catchwords resonantly from time to time, to +amuse the people; and the crowd, that was by now packed everywhere +against the houses, upon the roofs and even up Chancery Lane, answered +his hits with roaring cheers. I heard the name of the Duke of Monmouth +several times; and each time it was received with acclamation. Once the +Duke of York's was called out; and the booing and murring at it were +great enough to have daunted even him. (But he was in Scotland now--too +far away to hear it--and seemed like to remain there.) And once Mrs. +Gwyn's name was shouted, and something else after it; and there was a +stir on the platform where I thought I had seen her; and then a great +burst of cheering; for she was popular enough, in spite of her life, for +her Protestantism. (It was not works, they hated, thought I to myself, +but Faith!) + +The first that I knew of the coming of the procession was the sound of +fifes up Fleet Street; and a great jostling and roaring that followed it +by those who strove to see better. I was distracted for an instant by a +dog that ran out suddenly, tail down, into the open space and +disappeared again yelping. When I turned again the head of the +procession was in sight, coming into view round the house that was next +to Mr. Martin's. + +First, between the torches that lined the procession through all its +length, came a band of fifers, very fine, in scarlet tunics and stiff +beaver-hats; shrilling a dirge as they walked; and immediately behind +them a funeral herald in black, walking very upright and stiff, with a +bell in one hand which he rang, while he cried out in a great mournful +bellowing voice: + +"Remember Justice Godfrey! Remember Justice Godfrey;" and then pealed +upon his bell again. (It was pretty plain from that that we Catholics +were to bear the brunt of all, as usual!) + +Behind him came a terrible set of three. In the midst, led by a groom, +was a great white horse, with bells on his bridle sounding as he came; +and on his back an effigy, dressed in riding costume, with boots, and +with white riding gloves and cravat all spattered over with blood. His +head lolled on his shoulders, as if the neck were broken, turning a pale +bloody face from side to side, with fallen jaw and great rolling +melancholy eyes; for this was of Justice Godfrey. Beside him walked a +man in black, that held him fast with one hand, and had a dripping +dagger in the other--to represent a Jesuit. This was perhaps the worst +of all; but there was plenty more to come. + +There followed, after Justice Godfrey, a pardoner, dressed as a priest, +in a black cope sown all over with death's heads, waving papers in his +hands, and proclaiming indulgences to all Protestant-killers, so loud +that he might be heard at Charing Cross; and next behind him a fellow +carrying a silver cross, that shone very fine in the red light of the +bonfire and the flambeaux, and drew attention to what came after. For +behind him came eight Religious, Carmelites and Franciscans, in the +habits of their Orders, going two by two with clasped hands and bowed +heads as if they prayed; and after them that which was, in intention, +the centre of all--for this was a set of six Jesuits in black, with lean +painted faces, each bearing a dagger which he waved, gnashing his teeth +and grinning on the folks. + +There had been enough roaring and cheering before; but at this sight +the people went near mad; and I had thought for an instant that the very +actors would be torn in pieces for the sake of the parts they played. + +Mr. Martin and his wife were close beside me in the window; and I turned +to them. + +"We are fortunate not to be Jesuits," I said, "and known to be such. Our +lives would not be worth a pin." + +He nodded at me very gravely: and I saw how white was his wife's face. + +When I looked again a very brilliant group was come into view--four +bishops in rochets and violet, with large pectoral crosses. These walked +very proud and prelatical, looking disdainfully at the people who roared +at the burlesque; and behind them, again, four more in gilded mitres. (I +do not know what this generation knew of Catholic bishops; for not one +in a thousand of them had ever set eyes on one.) + +After a little space followed six cardinals in scarlet, very gorgeous, +with caps and trains of the same colour. These swept along, looking to +neither right nor left, followed by a lean man in a black silk suit and +gown, skulking and bending, bearing a glass retort in one hand, and a +phial, with a label flying from it, in the other. On this was written, I +heard afterwards, the words "Jesuit-Powder"; but I could not read it +from where I was. + +Then at last the tail of the procession began to come into view. + +Two priests, in great white copes, bore aloft each a tall cross; and +behind them I could see through the flare and reek of the torches, a +vast scarlet chair advancing above the heads of the people. It was borne +on a platform, and was embroidered all over with gold and silver +bullion. Upon the platform itself were four boys, two and two, on either +side of the throne, in red skull-caps and cassocks and short white +surplices, each with a tall red cross held in the inner hand, and a +bloodstained dagger in the other, which they waved now and again. Upon +the throne itself sat a huge effigy. It was dressed in a scarlet robe, +embroidered like the throne; its feet in gold embroidered slippers were +thrust forward on a cushion; its hands in rich gloves were clasped to +the arms of the chair; and its grinning waxen face, very pale, was +surmounted by a vast tiara on which were three crowns, one above the +other. Round the neck hung a gold cross and chain; and a pair of great +keys hung down on one side. A devil in tight fitting black, with a +masked face, and long sprouting nails, with a tail hung behind him, and +two tall horns on his head, rolled his eyes from side to side, and +whispered continually into the ear of the effigy from behind the throne. +A great mob of people and torches and guards came shouting on behind. +And when I saw that, a kind of despair came upon me. If that, thought I, +is what my countrymen think of Catholics and the Holy Father, what use +to strive any more for their conversion? + + * * * * * + +By the time that the tail had come up, the rest of the procession was +disposed round the bonfire, leaving a broad space in the midst where the +throne and effigy might be set down. + +And now there appeared on the Pillory beside the Queen's image, one of +the six cardinals that had come up a little while before, and began a +sort of rhyming dialogue with a choir that was set on another platform +over against him. I could not hear all that was said, although the +people kept pretty quiet to hear it too; but I heard enough. The +cardinal was proclaiming the Catholic Religion as the only means of +salvation and threatened both temporal and eternal punishment to all +that would not have it; and the choir answered, roaring out the glories +of England and Protestantism. The fifes screamed for the cardinal's +words, as if accompanying them; and trumpets answered him for England; +and at the end, shaking his fist at the Queen and with another gesture +as of despair he came down from the Pillory. + +Then came the end. + +The devil, behind the throne, slipped altogether behind it and stood +tossing his hands with delight; while meantime the effigy, contrived in +some way I could not understand, rose stiffly from the seat and stood +upright. First he lifted his hands as if in entreaty towards the +Queen's image; then he shook them as if threatening, meanwhile rolling +his head with its tiara from side to side as if seeking supporters. Two +men then sprang upon the platform, as if in answer, dressed like English +apprentices, bare-armed and with leather aprons; and these seized each +an arm of the effigy; and at that the devil, after one more fit of +laughter, holding his sides, and shouting aloud as if in glee, leapt +down behind the platform, dragging the chair after him. The four boys +stood an instant as if in terror, and then followed him, with clumsy +gestures of horror. + +The three figures that remained now began to wrestle together, stamping +to and fro, up to the very edge, then reeling back again, and so on--the +two apprentices against the great red dummy. At that the shouting of the +crowd grew louder and louder, and the torches tossed up and down: it was +like hell itself, for noise and terror, there in the red flare of the +bonfire: and, at the last, all roaring together, with the trumpets and +drums sounding, and the fifes too, the effigy was got to the edge of the +platform, where it yet swayed for an instant or two, and then toppled +down into the fire beneath. + + * * * * * + +It was a great spectacle, I cannot but confess it, and admirably +designed; and I took my leave of Mr. Martin and his lady, and went home +to supper through the crowded streets, more in tune, perhaps, with my +country's state than I had been when I lolled last night in Mr. +Chiffinch's closet. + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +With Dangerfield's demonstration in my mind I was not greatly inclined +to embroil myself in other matters; and I kept my intention to ride down +to Hare Street three days after, when I had done my business in London +and kissed the King's hand; and this I had done by the evening of the +second day. I saw His Majesty on that second day; but he was much +pressed for time, and he did no more than thank me for what I had done: +and so was gone. On that evening, however, a new little adventure befell +me. + +The taverns in town were rare places for making new acquaintances; and +since I, for the most part, dined and supped in them, I met a good +number of gentlemen. From these I would conceal, usually, most of my +circumstances, and sometimes even my name, though that would not have +told them much. Above all I was very careful to conceal my dealings with +His Majesty, and as, following the directions he had first given me, I +presented myself seldom or never at Court, and did my business through +Mr. Chiffinch, and in his lodgings, usually, I do not suppose that there +were five men in town, if so many, who knew that I had any private +knowledge of him at all. In this manner then, I heard a deal of +treasonable talk of which I did not think much, and only reported +generally to Mr. Chiffinch when he asked me what was the feeling in town +with regard to Court affairs. It was through this, and helped, I +daresay, by what I have been told was the easy pleasantness which I +affected in company, that I stumbled over my next adventure; and one +that was like, before the end of it, to have cost me dear. + +I went to supper, by chance, on the second day after my coming to +London, to an inn I had never been to before--the _Red Bull_ in +Cheapside--a very large inn, in those days, with a great garden at the +back, where gentlemen would dine in summer, and a great parlour running +out into it from the back of the house, of but one story high. The +rooms beneath seemed pretty full, for it was a cold night; and as there +appeared no one to attend to me I went upstairs, and knocked on the door +of one of the rooms. The talking within ceased as I knocked, and none +answered; so I opened the door and put my head in. There was a number of +persons seated round the table who all looked at me. + +"This is a private room, sir," said one of them at the head. + +"I beg your pardon, gentlemen," I said. "I was but looking for someone +to serve me." And I was about to withdraw when a voice hailed me aloud. + +"Why it is Mr. Mallock!" the voice cried; and turning again to see who +it was I beheld my old friend Mr. Rumbald, seated next the one that +presided. + +I greeted him. + +"But I had best be gone," I said. "It is a private room, the gentleman +told me." + +"No, no," cried the maltster. "Come in, Mr. Mallock." And he said +something to the gentleman he sat by, who was dressed very finely. + +I could see that something was in the wind; and as I was out for +adventure, it seemed to me that here was one ready-made, however +harmless it might turn out in the end. So I closed the door behind me; +there was a shifting along the benches, and I stepped over into a place +next my friend. + +"How goes the world with you, sir?" demanded Mr. Rumbald of me, looking +at my suit, which indeed was pretty fine. + +"Very hungrily at present," I said. "Where the devil are the maids got +to?" + +He called out to the man that sat nearest the door, and he got up and +bawled something down the passage. + +"But it has treated me better lately," I said. "I have been in France on +my affairs." (I said this with an important air, for there is no +disguise so great as the truth, if it is put on a little awry.) + +"Oho!" said Rumbald, who again, in spite of his old Presbyterianism, had +had a cup too many. And he winked on the company. I had not an idea of +what he meant by that; but I think he was but shewing off his friend as +a travelled gentleman. + +"And we have been speaking of England," he went on, "and of them that +govern it, and of the Ten Commandments, in special the sixth." + +I observed signs of consternation among one or two of the company when +he said this, and remembering of what political complexion Mr. Rumbald +had been on our previous meeting, I saw in general, at least, what they +had been after. But what he meant of the Sixth Commandment which is that +of killing, according to the Protestant arrangement of it, I understood +nothing. + +"And of who shall govern England hereafter," I said in a low voice, but +very deliberate. + +There fell a silence when I said that; and I was wondering what in God's +name I should say next, when the maid came in, and I fell to abusing of +her with an oath or two. When she was gone away again to get me my +supper, the gentleman in the fine dress at the head of the table leaned +forward a little. + +"That, Mr. Mallock," he said, "is of what we were speaking. How did you +know that?" + +"I know my friend Mr. Rumbald," I said. + +This appeared to give the greatest pleasure to the maltster. He laughed +aloud, and beat me on the back; but his eyes were fierce for all his +merriment. I felt that this would be no easy enemy to have. + +"Mr. Mallock knows me," he said, "and I know Mr. Mallock. I assure you, +gentlemen, you can speak freely before Mr. Mallock." And he poured a +quantity of his college-ale into a tankard that stood before me. + +It appeared, however, that several of the company had sudden affairs +elsewhere; and, before we even smelled of treason, three or four of them +made their excuses and went away. This confirmed me in my thought that I +was stumbled upon one of those little gatherings of malcontents, of whom +the town was full, who talked largely over their cups of the Protestant +succession and the like, but did very little. But I was not quite right +in my surmise, as will appear presently. + +By the time that my supper came up--(I cursed the maid again for her +delay, though, poor wench, she was near run off her legs)--there were +left but four of us in the room; the gentleman at the head of the table, +a lean quiet man with a cast in his eye who sat opposite me, Mr. Rumbald +and myself. + +There was, however, a shade of caution yet left in my friend that the +ale had not yet driven out; and before proceeding any further, he +observed again that my fortunes had improved. + +"Why, they have improved a great deal," I said--for he had caught me +with my silver-hilted sword and my lace, and I saw him looking at +them--"I live in Covent Garden now, where you must come and see me, Mr. +Rumbald." + +"And your politics with them?" he asked. + +"My politics are what they ever were," I said; and that was true enough. + +"You were at Temple Bar?" he asked. + +"Why I only came from France the day before; but you may depend upon it +I was there. It warmed my heart." + +"You know who was behind it all?" asked the gentleman at the head of the +table, suddenly. + +I knew well enough that such men as these despise ignorance above all +things, and that a shrewd fellow--or a man that they think to be one is +worth a thousand simpletons in their eyes; so I made no pretence of not +knowing what he meant. + +"Why of course I do!" I said contemptuously. "It was my Lord +Shaftesbury." + +Now the truth of this was not known to everyone in London at this time, +though it was known a little while later: and I should not have known it +myself if Mr. Chiffinch had not told me. But these men knew it, it +seemed, well enough; and my knowledge of it blew me sky-high in their +view. + +"My Lord Shaftesbury, God bless him!" said the lean squinting man, +suddenly; and drained his mug. + +"God bless him!" I said too, and put my lips to mine. My hand was +immediately grasped by Mr. Rumbald; and so cordial relations were +confirmed. + + * * * * * + +Well; we settled down then to talk treason. I must not deny that these +persons skewed still some glimmerings of sense; they did not, that is to +say, as yet commit themselves irrevocably to my mercy: they appeared to +me to talk generally, with a view to trying me: but I acquitted myself +to their satisfaction. + +We deposed Charles, we excluded James, we legitimized Monmouth; we armed +the loyal citizens and took away the arms of all others. We appointed +even days of humiliation and thanksgiving; and we grew more enthusiastic +and reckless with every mug. The lean man confided to me with infinite +pride, that he had been one of the cardinals in the procession to Temple +Bar; and I grasped his hand in tearful congratulation. We were near +weeping with loyalty at the end, not to Charles but to Monmouth. The +only man who preserved his self-control completely was the gentleman at +the head of the table, though he too adventured a good deal, throwing it +before me as a bait before a trout; and each time I gulped it down and +asked for more. He was a finely featured man, with a nose set well out +in his face, and had altogether the look and bearing of a gentleman. + +It must have been full half-past nine before we broke up; and that was +at the going of our president. We too rose and saw him to the door; and +the lean man said he would see him downstairs, so Mr. Rumbald and I were +left, he swaying a little and smiling, holding on to the door-post, and +I endeavouring to preserve my dignity. + +I was about to say good-night too and begone, when he plucked me +suddenly by the sleeve. + +"Come back again, Mr. Mallock," he said. "I have something to say to +you." + +We went back again, shutting the door behind us, and sat down. It was a +pleasant little parlour this, decently furnished, and I feigned to be +looking at the hanging that was over the press where they kept the +tankards, as if I had no curiosity in the world. + +"Here, Mr. Mallock," said my friend's voice behind me. "Look at this." + +He had drawn out a little black pocket-book, leather-bound, and with it +three or four loose papers. I sat down by him, and took it from him. + +"It is some kind of an account-book," I said. + +"You are right, sir," said Mr. Rumbald. + +He sat with an air of vast importance, while I examined the book. It had +a great number of entries, concerning such things as accounts for beer +and other refreshments, with others which I could not understand. There +were also the names of inns in London, with marks opposite to them, and +times of day written down besides. I could make nothing of all this; so +I turned to the papers. Here, to my astonishment, on one of them was +written a list of names, some very well known, beginning with my Lord +Shaftesbury's, and on the two others a number of notes in short-hand, +with three or four of the same names as before written long-hand. One of +these slipped to the floor as I held them, and I stooped to pick it up; +when I raised my head again, the pocket-book and the other two papers +had disappeared again into Mr. Rumbald's possession. He did not seem to +have seen the one that fell, so I held it on my knee beneath the table, +thinking to examine it later. + +"Well?" I asked. "What is the matter?" + +The maltster had an air of great mystery upon his face. He regarded me +sternly, though his eyes watered a little. + +"Enough to hang us all," he said; and I saw the fierce light in his eyes +again, through the veil of drink. + +"Why; how is that?" asked I, slipping the paper I held, behind me, and +into the skirt pocket of my coat. + +"Those accounts," he said, "they are all for the procession; for I +provided myself a good deal of the refreshment; and was paid for it by +a man of my Lord's, who has signed the book." + +"And the two papers?" I asked. + +"Ah!" said Mr. Rumbald. "That is another matter altogether." + +I feigned that I was incurious. + +"Well," I said, "every man to his own trade. I would not meddle with +another's, for the world." + +"That is best," said my friend. + +I tried a sentence or two more; but caution seemed to have returned to +him, though a little late; and I presently saw I should get no more out +of him. I congratulated him again on the pleasant evening we had spent; +and five minutes later we went downstairs together, very friendly; and +he winked upon me as I went out, after paying my account, as if there +were some secret understanding between us. + + * * * * * + +I had a cold walk back to Covent Garden, remembering with satisfaction, +as I went, that I had not told Mr. Rumbald more particularly where I +lodged; and thinking over what I had heard. It was not a great deal +after all, I thought. When all was said, I had only heard over again +what was known well enough at Court, that my Lord Shaftesbury was behind +this demonstration, and had his finger in the whole affair of Monmouth; +I had but stumbled upon one of those companies, who were known, well +enough, to be everywhere, who were for Monmouth against His Royal +Highness: and I had but seen, what surely might be guessed to +exist,--the accounts of the refreshments supplied to the actors in the +demonstration--and had been told that my Lord's man had paid the score. +There might, indeed, be more behind; but of that I had no evidence at +all; I had received no confidence that could be of any value: and as for +the paper in my skirt-pocket, I valued it no more than a rush; and +wondered I had taken the trouble to secure it. + +When I reached my lodgings, I took it out and looked at it again. I had +not even the means of reading it. The name of my Lord Shaftesbury, as I +have said, was written in long-hand three or four times; and the Duke +of Monmouth's twice. There also appeared other names of which I did not +know a great deal, and one at least of which I knew nothing, which was +"College"; though this for all I knew was for a college in an +University. Other names were that of my Lord Essex and John Hampden, and +Algernon Sidney. The paper was about a foot in length and six inches +across; and I thought so little of it--thinking that a paper of +importance would scarcely be entrusted to a man like Rumbald, who threw +them about a tavern--that I was very near throwing it into the fire. But +I kept it--though God knows that afterwards I wished I had not done +so--and slipped it into my pocket-book where I kept three or four +others, intending, when I had an opportunity, to give it to some clerk, +learned in short-hand, to read for me. + +And so I went to bed. + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +It was with a very happy heart that the next night, about seven o'clock, +I rode down Hare Street village, and saw the lights of the house shining +through the limes. + +It was a very different coming back from my going. Then we four had +stood together in the dark at the corner of the lane, fearing lest a +window should be thrown up. Now I rode back with James, secure and +content, fearing nothing: for Mr. Chiffinch had told me that all peril +had passed from Dangerfield, even had he met me and known me, which was +not likely. They were after other game now than the old conspirators. + +I had sent a message to Hare Street on the day after I was come to +London, that I would be with them on this day: and so soon as I rode +into the yard the men ran out, and I heard a window open in the house; +so that by the time I came to the door it was open, and my cousins there +to meet me. + + * * * * * + +It was very strange, that evening there, to be so with my Cousin Dolly; +for each of us knew, and that the other knew that too, that matters were +advanced with us, since we had been through peril together. It was +strange how diffident we both were, and how we could not meet one +another's eyes; and yet I was aware that she would have it otherwise if +she could, and strove to be natural. We had music again that night, and +Dolly and her maid sang the setting of "Go, perjured man" which she had +made from Mr. Wise's. For myself, I sat in a corner by the fire and +watched her. She was in grey that night, with lace, and a string of +little fresh-water pearls. + +When she was gone to bed, my Cousin Tom and I had a crack together; and +he seemed to me more sensible than I had thought him at first. We talked +of a great number of things; and he asked me about France and my life +there; and I had a great ado from being indiscreet and telling him too +much. I represented to him that I was gone over to be out of the way of +Dangerfield, as indeed I had; but I said nothing at all to him as to my +business there: and he seemed content. + +He told me also of what he had written to me as to the return of Mr. +Harris, very tired and angry, the next afternoon after his search of the +house. He had ridden near all the way to Newmarket, inquiring for me +everywhere: and had come to the conclusion at last that I had not gone +that way after all. + +"He was very high with me," said my Cousin Tom, "but I was higher yet. I +told him that it was not my business both to make conspirators and to +arrest them; and since he had done me the honour of thinking I had done +the first, I had done him the honour of thinking that he could do the +second: but that it seemed I was wrong in that." + +This seemed a considerable effort of wit for my Cousin Tom; but scarcely +one calculated to soothe Mr. Harris. + +Finally, when I was thinking of bed my Cousin Tom opened out once again +on an old matter that was before my mind continually now: and he spoke, +I think, very sensibly. + +"Cousin Roger," he said: "there is one other affair I must speak to you +of, now that you are come again to Hare Street and seem likely to remain +here for a while; and that is of my daughter. I know you would not have +me say too much; and I will not. But have you considered the advice you +said you would give me a great while ago?" + +I did not answer him for a moment; for I was not sure if he were very +wise or very foolish in opening upon it again. Then I determined to be +open with the man. + +"Cousin Tom," I said, "I am both glad and sorry that you have spoken of +this; and I will tell you the whole truth, which I think perhaps you may +have guessed. The reason why I could not give you advice before was that +I was not sure of my own mind. Well; I am sure of it now; and I wish to +ask my Cousin Dolly, so soon as I see an opportunity to do so, if she +will marry me. But I must say this--that I am going to take no risks. I +shall not ask her so long as I think she will refuse me; and I think, to +tell the truth, that she would not have me if I asked her now." + +My Cousin Tom began to speak: but I prevented him. + +"One moment," I said, "and you shall say what you will. There is one +reason that comes to my mind which perhaps may explain her +unwillingness; and that is that she may think that she is being thrown +at my head. You have been very kind, Cousin, in allowing me to make this +my home in the country; and I know"--(here I lied vehemently)--"I know +that nothing was further from your thoughts than this. Yet it may seem +so, to a foolish maid who knows nothing of the world. I do not know if +you have ever said anything to her--" + +"Why, Cousin--" cried Tom, in such a manner that I knew he was lying +too--"what do you think--" + +"Just so," I said; for I did not wish him to lie more than he need; "I +was sure--" + +"I may have said a word or two, once or twice," pursued Cousin Tom, +intent on his own exposure--"that she must think soon about getting +married, and so forth. But to say that I have thrown her at your head, +Cousin, is not, I think, a kindly thing--" + +"My dear man!" cried I. "I have been saying expressly that I knew you +had done nothing of the sort; but that perhaps Dolly thought so." (This +quieted him a little, for I watched his face.) "So the best way, I +think, is for us all to be quiet for a little and say nothing. You know +now what my own wishes are; and that is enough for you and me. As to +estates, I will make a settlement, if ever the marriage is arranged, +that will satisfy you; but I think we need not trouble about that at +present. I will do my utmost to push my suit; but it must be in my own +way; and that way will be to say nothing at all for a while, but to +establish easy relations with her. She is a little perturbed at present: +I saw that, for I watched her to-night; and unless she can grow quiet +again, all will come to nothing." + +So I spoke, in the folly of my own wisdom that seemed to me so great at +that time. I had dealt with men, but not at all with women, and knew +nothing of them. If I had but followed my heart and spoken to her at +once, while the warmth of my welcome, and the memory of the peril we had +undergone together were still in heart, matters might have been very +different. But I thought otherwise, and that I would be very prudent and +circumspect, knowing nothing at all of a maid's heart and her ways. As +for Cousin Tom, he had to yield to me; for what else could he do? The +prospect that I opened before him was a better one than he could get +anywhere else: he had no opening at Court, in spite of his bragging; and +the Protestants round about were too wise, in their rustic way, to +engage themselves with a Papist at such a time. So there the matter +remained. + + * * * * * + +When I came to my chamber, it had a very pleasant aspect to me. The +curtains were across the windows; a great fire blazed on the hearth--(I +had heard my Cousin Dolly's footsteps pass across the landing, before +she went to bed,--no doubt to put more wood on)--my bed was ready, and +on the round table in the middle was a jug of horn-beam branches with +some winter flowers. It was six months since I had been here; and +matters were considerably better with me now than they had been then. +Then I was being hunted; now I was free from all anxiety on that score: +then I had been going up to London to resign what little position I had; +now I was re-established, owing to what I had done in France, on a +better footing than ever. More than all, I knew now, without any doubt +at all, what my heart told me of my Cousin Dolly; and I was here, with +every liberty to commend my suit to her. + +Before I went to bed I opened the little secret cupboard by my bed, and +put into it three or four private papers I had, and amongst them that +written in cipher that I had had from Mr. Rumbald. Then I went to bed; +and dreamed of Dolly. + +Then began for me a time of great peace and serenity. + +First came Christmas, with its homely joys, and Twelfth night on which +we cut and ate a great cake that Dolly had made; then there was the +winter's work to be done in preparation for the spring; and then spring +itself, with the crocuses sprouting between the joints of the paved walk +round the house; and the daffodils in the long box-bed beneath the +limes. I write these little things down, for it was principally by these +things that I remember those months; and the noise of the world outside +seemed as sounds heard in a dream. I went up to London, now and +again--but not very often; and saw His Majesty in private twice, and he +honoured me by asking my advice again on certain French affairs; but, +for the time, all these things were secondary in my mind to the cows of +Hare Street and to how the pigs did. It is marvellous how men's minds +can come down to such matters, and become absorbed in them, and let the +rest of the world go hang. I thought now and again of my mission from +Rome; yet I do not think I was faithless to it; for there was nothing at +that time which I could do for the King; and he expressly had desired me +not to mix much with the Court and so become known. The truth of the +matter was that at this time he was largely occupied with a certain +woman, whose name had best not be spoken; and when His Majesty ran upon +those lines, he could think of little else. I sent my reports regularly +to Rome; and the Cardinal Secretary seemed satisfied; and so therefore +was I. + +It was, with my Cousin Dolly, precisely as I had thought. She was at +first very shy indeed, going up to her chamber early in the evening, so +that we had little or no music; but relaxing a little as I shewed myself +friendly without being forward. I caught her eyes on me sometimes; and +she seemed to be appraising me, I thought in my stupidity, as to whether +she could trust me not to make love to her; but now, as I think, for a +very different reason; and I would see her sometimes as I went out of +doors, peeping at me for an instant out of a window. It was not, +however, all hide and seek. We would talk frankly and easily enough at +times, and spend an hour or two together, or when her father was asleep, +with the greatest friendliness; and meanwhile I, poor fool, was thinking +how wise and prudent I was; and what mighty progress I was making by +these crooked ways. + +In Easter week we had a great happiness--so great that it near broke me +down in my resolution--and I would to God it had--(at least in certain +moods I wish so). + +I was returning along the Barkway road from a meadow where I had been to +look to the new lambs, in my working dress, when I heard a horse coming +behind me. I stepped aside to let him go by, when I heard myself called. + +"My man," said the voice. "Can you tell me where is Mr. Jermyn's house?" + +"Yes, sir," I said. "I am going there myself." + +He was a grave-looking gentleman, very dark; and as I looked at him I +remembered him; but I could see he did not remember me, and no wonder, +for he had only seen me once, on a very agitating occasion, for a short +while. He was riding a very good horse, which was going lame, but +without any servant, and he had his valise strapped on the crupper. In +appearance he was a country-squire on his way to town. I determined to +give him a surprise as we went along. + +"I hope you are well, Mr. Hamerton," I said. + +He gave a great start at that, and looked at me closely. + +"I do not remember you," he said. "And why do you call me Mr. Hamerton?" + +"I knew that is not the name you were usually known by, father. Would +you be easier if I called you Mr. Young?" + +"I give it up," he said. "Who are you, sir?" + +"Do you remember a young man," I said, "a year and a half ago, who came +into Mr. Chiffinch's inner parlour on a certain occasion? You were +sitting near His Royal Highness; His Majesty was at the end of the +table; and by you was Father Bedingfeld who died in prison in December." + +He smiled at me. + +"I remember everything except the young man," he said. "So you are he. +And what is your name, sir?" + +I told him. + +"I am Mr. Jermyn's cousin," I said. "And I have been looking after his +lambs for him. I would there was some spiritual shepherd who would look +after us. We have not heard mass since Christmas." (For we had ridden +over to Standon on that day.) + +He seemed altogether easier at that. + +"Why, that can be remedied to-morrow," he said. "If you have an altar +stone and linen and vestments. I have all else with me." + +We had these, and I told him so. + +"Then you mean to lie at Hare Street to-night, sir?" I said. + +"I had hoped to do so," he said. "I am come from Lincolnshire; and I was +recommended to Mr. Jermyn's if I could not get so far as Standon; and I +cannot, for my horse is lame." + + * * * * * + +My Cousin Tom received the priest in a surprising medley of emotions +which he exhibited one by one to me who knew him so well. He was at +first plainly terrified at receiving a priest and a Jesuit; but, +presently recovered himself a little and strove to remember that here +was one of God's priests who would bring a blessing on the house--(and +said so); finally all else was swallowed up in pleasure, or very nearly, +when I took occasion on Mr. Hamerton's going upstairs to pull off his +boots, to tell him that I had seen this priest very intimate with His +Royal Highness the Duke of York; and that he had been a near friend of +Mr. Bedingfeld, the Duke's confessor. + +My Cousin Dorothy received him with the reverence that pious maids can +shew so easily towards a priest. She had his chamber ready for him in +ten minutes; with fresh water in the basin and flowers upon the table: +she even set out for his entertainment three or four books of devotion +by his bedside. And all the time at supper she never ceased to give him +attention, drawing the men's eyes to his plate and cup continually. + +Mr. Hamerton was a very quiet gentleman, wonderfully at his ease at +once, and never losing his discretion; he talked generally and +pleasantly at supper, of his road to Hare Street, and told us an +edifying story or two of Catholics at whose houses he had lain on his +way from Lincolnshire. These Jesuits are wonderful folk: he seemed to +know the country all over, and where were the safer districts and where +the dangerous. I have no doubt he could have given me an excellent +road-map with instructions that would take me safe from London to +Edinburgh, if I had wished it. + +"And have you never been troubled with highwaymen?" asked my Cousin Tom. + +"No, Mr. Jermyn," said the priest, "except once, and that was a Catholic +robber. I thought he was by the start he gave when he saw my crucifix as +he was searching me; and taxed him with it. So the end was, he returned +me my valuables, and took a little sermon from my lips instead." + + * * * * * + +When supper was over, and Dorothy had gone upstairs to make all ready +for mass on the next morning, Mr. Hamerton, at our questioning, began to +tell us a little of the state of politics and what he thought would +happen; and every word that he said came true. + +"His Grace of Monmouth will be our trouble," he said. "The King adores +him; and he hath so far prevailed with His Majesty as to get the Duke of +York sent twice to Scotland. I think few folk understand what feeling +there is in the country for the Protestant Duke. It was through my Lord +Shaftesbury, who is behind him, that His Royal Highness was actually +sent away, for Monmouth could do nothing without him; and I have no kind +of doubt that he has further schemes in his mind too." + +(This was all fulfilled a couple of months later, as I remembered when +the time came, by my Lord Shaftesbury's actually presenting James' name +as that of a recusant, before the grand jury of Middlesex; but the +judges dismissed the jury immediately.) + +"And you think, father," asked my Cousin Tom very solemnly, "that these +seditions will lead to trouble?" + +"I have no doubt of it at all," said he. "The country--especially +London--is full of disaffection. Their demonstration last year did a +deal to stir it up. The Duke of York is back now, against my advice; but +I have no doubt he will have to go on his travels again. Were His +majesty to die now--_(quod Deus avertat!)_--I do not know how we should +stand." + + * * * * * + +Mr. Hamerton took occasion to ask me that night, when we were alone for +a minute or two, what I was doing in the country. + +"I remember you perfectly now," said he. "Father Whitbread spoke to me +of you, besides." + +I told him that I had nothing to do in town; and with His Majesty's +consent was lying hid for a little, in order that what little was known +of me might be forgotten again. + +"Well; I suppose you are wise," he said, "and that you will be able to +do more hereafter. But the time will come presently when we shall all be +needed." + +It was on the tip of my tongue to ask him if he could read cipher, and +to shew him my paper--reminded of it, by his talk of disaffection; but +my Cousin Tom came back at that moment; and I put it off; and I +presently forgot it again. + + * * * * * + +The memory of the mass that we heard next morning will never leave me; +for it was the first time that I had heard it in the house. + +We used the long attic, for fear of disturbance, and had a man posted +beneath--for it was still death for a priest to say mass in England. All +the servants that were Catholics were there; and all, I think, went to +the sacraments. Mr. Hamerton heard confessions before the mass began. + +The north end of the attic had been prepared by Dolly and her maid; and +looked very pretty and fine. A couple of men had carried up a great low +press, that had the instruments of the Passion painted upon its panels; +and this served for an altar. Behind it Dolly had put up a hanging from +downstairs, that was of Abraham offering Isaac, and had set upon the +altar a pair of silver candlesticks from the parlour, and a little +standing crucifix, with jugs of country flowers between the candlesticks +and the cross. She had laid too, as a foot-pace, a Turkey rug that came +too from the parlour; and had put a little table to serve as a credence. +Mr. Hamerton had with him little altar-vessels made for travelling, with +a cup that unscrewed from the stem, and every other necessary except +what he asked us to provide. + + * * * * * + +It is the experience of everyone, I think, that mass differs from mass, +as a star (in the apostle's words) differs from another star in glory--I +do not mean in its essential effects, for that is the same always, but +in the devotion which it arouses in those that hear it. This mass then +seemed to me like scarcely any other that I had ever heard, except +perhaps that at which I received my first communion in the country +church in France. Mr. Hamerton said it with great deliberation and +recollection; and, as my Cousin Tom served him, as a host should, I was +not distracted by anything. My Cousin Dolly and I kneeled side by side +in front, and again, side by side, to receive Holy Communion. + +I was in a kind of ecstasy of delight, and not, I think unworthily; for, +though much of my delight came from being there with my cousin, and +receiving our Lord's Body with her, I do not think that is any dishonour +to God whom we must love first of all, to find a great joy in loving Him +in the company of those we love purely and uprightly. So at least it +seems to me. + + * * * * * + +Mr. Hamerton told us he must be riding very early; and not much after +seven o'clock we stood at the gate to bid him farewell. I made my man +James go with him so far as Ware to set him on his road, though the +priest begged me not to trouble myself. + +When I came back to the house I was in a torment of indecision as to +whether this would not be the best occasion I could ever find of telling +my Cousin Dorothy all that was in my heart in her regard; and I even +went into the Great Chamber after her, still undecided. But her manner +prevented me; for I thought I saw in her something of a return of that +same shyness which she had shewed to me when I had come last time back +to Hare Street; and I went out again without saying one word except of +the priest's visit and of what a good man he seemed. + +Even then, I think, if I had spoken, matters might have taken a very +different course; but, whether through God's appointment or my own +diffidence, this was not to be; and again I said nothing to her. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +Our next adventure, not unlike the last exteriorly, was very different +from it interiorly; and led to very strange results in the event. It +came about in this way. + +It was in May that Mr. Hamerton had come to us, for Easter that year +fell in that month; and the weather after that, which had been very +bitter in the winter, with so much snow as I never saw before, but +clearer about Eastertime, fell very wet and stormy again in June. + +It was on a Thursday evening, in the first week in June, that the bad +weather set in with a violent storm of rain and a high wind. We sat in +the Great Chamber after supper, and had some music as usual: and between +the music we listened to the gusts of wind and the rattle of the rain, +which made so great a noise that Dolly said that it was no use for her +to go to bed yet, for that she would not sleep if she went. Her maid +went to bed; and we three sat talking till nearly half-past ten o'clock, +which is very late for the country where men rise at four o'clock. + +The wind made such a noise that we heard nothing of the approach to the +house; and the first that we knew of anyone's coming was a hammering at +the door. + +"Why, who is that;" said I, "that comes so late?" + +I could see that my Cousin Tom did not like it, for his face shewed +it--(I suppose it was the memory of that other time when the hammering +came)--so I said nothing, but went myself to the outer door and unbolted +it. + +A fellow stood there in a great riding-cloak; but I could see he wore +some kind of a livery beneath. + +"Well," I said, "what do you want?" + +He saw that I was a gentleman by my dress; and he answered me very +civilly. + +"My master is benighted, sir," said he; "and he bid me come and ask +whether he might lie here to-night. There is no inn in the place." + +"Why, who is your master?" I asked. + +He did not seem to hear my question, for he went on immediately. + +"There are only five of the party, sir," he said. "Two gentlemen and +three servants." + +I saw that my Cousin Tom was behind me now; and that Dolly was looking +from the door of the Great Chamber. + +"You have not yet told us," I said, "what your master's name is." + +"I think, sir, he had best answer that," said the fellow. + +Now this might very well be a Catholic, and perhaps an important person +who had heard of Mr. Jermyn, but did not wish to advertise who himself +was. I looked at my Cousin Tom; and thought from his look that the same +thought had come to him. + +"Well, Cousin?" I said. + +"They had best come in--" he said shortly. "Dolly, rouse some of the +servants. They will want supper, I suppose." + +He nodded to the man, who went back immediately; and a minute later two +gentlemen came up the flagged path, also in great cloaks that appeared +soaked with the rain. + +"By God, sir!" said the first of them, "we are grateful to you. This is +a wild night." + +My Cousin, Tom said something civil, and when the door was shut, helped +this man off with his cloak, while I helped the other. The former was +explaining all the while how they were on their way to town from +Newmarket; and how they had become bogged a little after Barkway, losing +their road in the darkness. They had intended to push on to Waltham +Cross, he said, or Ware at the least, and lie there. He spoke with a +merry easy air that shewed him for a well-bred and pleasant fellow. My +own man said nothing, but left it all to the other. + +When I turned to see the one who spoke, I was more surprised than ever +in all my life before; for it was no other than the Duke of Monmouth +himself. He looked a shade older than when I had last seen him in the +park above a year ago; but he was the very same and I could not mistake +him. As for me, he would not know me from Adam, for he had never spoken +with me in all his life. I did not know what to do, as to whether I +should make to recognize him or not; but he saved me the trouble; for as +I followed the others into the Great Chamber, he was already speaking. + +"It is very good of you, Mr. Jermyn," he said, "to receive us like this. +My name is Morton, and my friend's here Mr. Atkins. You can put us where +you will--on the floor if you have no other place." + +"We can do better than that, sir," said Tom. "There is only my daughter +here and Mr. Mallock my cousin. My daughter is gone to call the +servants." + +The Duke looked very handsome and princely as he stood on the hearth, +although there was no fire, and surveyed the room. He was in a dark blue +riding-suit, darker than it should be upon the shoulders with the rain +that had soaked through his cloak; but it was of the colour of his eyes +that were very fine and attractive; and he wore his own hair. The other +man looked pretty mean beside him; and yet he was not ill-looking. He +was a fair man, too, with a rosy face; in a buff suit. + +"We can manage two changes of clothes, Mr. Morton," went on my Cousin +Tom, "if you fear to take a cold; or you can sup immediately; as you +will." + +"Why, Mr. Jermyn; I think we will sup first and go to bed afterwards. +The clothes can be dried, no doubt, before morning." + +In spite of all his efforts, he spoke as one born to command and with a +kind of easy condescension too; and certainly this had its effect upon +poor Tom; for he was all eagerness and welcome, who just now had been a +shade surly. He was beginning to say that it was for his guests to +choose, when my Cousin Dolly came in suddenly through the open door. + +"Why here is my little maid, gentlemen--" he said; and Dolly did her +reverence. + +Now I had in my mind no thought of jealousy at all; and yet when I saw +how the Duke bowed to my cousin, I am bound to say that a touch of it +pierced me like a dart--there and gone again, I thought. But it had been +there. I thought how few gentlemen poor Dolly saw down here in Hare +Street: beyond the parson--and he was a man who would go out before the +pudding in a great house, and marry the lady's maid--there was scarce +one who might write Esquire after his name; and the breeding of most of +the squires was mostly rustical. As for her, she did her reverence very +prettily, without a trace of the country in it; and, strange to say, her +manner seemed to change. I mean by that, that she seemed wholly at her +ease in this new kind of company, fully as much as with her maids. + +"You have had a very wet ride, sir," she said, without any sign of +confusion or shyness; "the maids are kindling a fire in the kitchen, to +dry your clothes before morning: and your men shall have beds in the +attic." + +The Duke made a pretty answer, which she took as prettily. + +"And a cold supper shall be in immediately," she said. + +Then my Cousin Tom must needs begin upon the maid, as if she were a +child, or idiotic; and say what a good housekeeper his little maid was +to him, and how she could do so many things; and the Duke took it all +with courtesy, yet did not encourage it, as if he understood her ways +better than her father did--which was, very likely, true enough. + +"And you come up to London, mistress," he said, "no doubt," with a look +at her dress that was not at all insolent, and yet very plain. And it +was indeed a pretty good one; and I remember it very well. It was cut +like a French sac--a fashion that had first come in about ten years +before, and still lasted; and was a little lower at the throat than many +that she wore. It was of a brownish kind of yellow, of which I do not +know the name, and had white lace to it, and silver lace on the bodice. +She was sunburnt again, but not too much, as I had first seen her; and +her blue eyes looked very bright in her face; and she wore a ring on +either hand, as she usually did in the evening, and had her little +pearls round her neck. It was strange to me how I observed all this, so +soon as the Duke had drawn attention to it; whereas I had not observed +it particularly before. + +Wen we went into supper it was the same with the Duke and her. He +behaved to her with the greatest deference, yet not at all exaggerated +so as to be in the least insolent. He treated her, it appeared to me, as +he would have treated one of his own ladies, though there had been every +excuse, especially with Cousin Tom's way of speaking to her, and the +deep country we were in, if he had not noticed her at all. Mr. Atkins, +as he called himself, followed suit; but said very little. Once, when +the dishes had to be taken away, and Dolly rose to do it--before I could +move--(my Cousin Tom, of course, sat there like a dummy)--I observed the +Duke make a little movement with his eyes towards Mr. Atkins, who +immediately rose up and did it for her. + +The effect of all this upon me was to make me do my best in talk; but it +was not very easy without betraying that I knew more of the Court than +might be supposed; but the Duke outdid me every time. He listened with +the greatest courtesy; and then said something a little better. I think +I have never seen a man do better; but it was always so with him. Five +years later he won the hearts of all the drapers in Taunton, in that +terrible enterprise of his, besides ranging on his side some of the +noblest blood in England. Twenty-six young maids in that town gave him a +Bible and a pair of colours worked by their hands; and twenty-six young +maids, it was said, went away after it in love with him. He did not +prove himself very much of a hero in the field; but from his manner in +company one could never have guessed at that. He had all the bearing of +a prince, and all the charm of a boy with it. + +My Cousin Tom said something when supper was ending about Dolly's skill +in music; and how she and her maid sang together. + +"May we not hear it for ourselves?" asked the Duke. + +"But you are wet, sir," said my Cousin Tom. + +The Duke smiled. + +"I shall not think of that, sir," he said, "if Mistress Dorothy will +sing to us." + +Well; so it was settled. The maid was in the kitchen, and was presently +fetched; and she and Dolly sang together once or twice, though it was +now after eleven o'clock. They sang Mr. Wise's "Go, perjured man," I +remember, again; and then M. Grabu's "Song upon Peace." The Duke sat +still in the great chair, shading his eyes from the candlelight, and +watching my Cousin Dolly: and once, when my Cousin Tom broke in upon the +second song with something he had just thought of to say, he put him +aside with a gesture, very royal and commanding, and yet void of +offence, until the song was done. + +"I beg your pardon, Mr. Jermyn," he said a moment afterwards, "but I +have never been so entranced. What was it that you wished to say?" + +As Dolly came towards him he stood up. + +"Mistress Dorothy," he said, "you have given us a great deal of +pleasure." And he said this with so much gravity and feeling that she +flushed. It was the first evident sign she had given that he had pleased +her. + +"And I mean it," he went on, "when I say it is a pity you do not come to +town more often. Such singing as that should have a larger audience than +the two or three you have had to-night." + +Dolly smiled at him. + +"Thank you, sir," she said. "But I know my place better than that." + +This was all a little bitter to me; for by this time a wild kind of +jealousy had risen again in me which I knew to be unreasonable, and yet +could not check. It was true that I myself took the greatest pains never +to forget my manners; but I knew very well that novelty has a +pleasantness all of its own; and the novelty of such company as this, +charged with the peculiar charm of the Duke's manner, must surely, I +thought, have its effect upon her. + +"Well," said he, "I could spend all night in this chamber with such +music; but I must not keep Mistress Dorothy from her sleep another +moment." + +He kissed her fingers with the greatest grace, and then bowed by the +door as she went out. + + * * * * * + +When we had taken them to the great guest-room that was as large, very +nearly, as the Great Chamber, and over it, and bidden them good-night, +my Cousin Tom remembered that we had forgotten to ask Mr. Morton at what +time he must ride in the morning; so I went back again to ask. + +I stayed at the door for one instant after knocking, for it seemed they +had not heard me; and in that little interval I heard the Duke's voice +within, very distinct. + +"A damned pretty wench," he cried. "We must--" + +And at that I opened the door and went in, my jealousy suddenly flaming +up again, so that I lost my wits. + +They stared at me in astonishment. The Duke already was stripped to his +shirt by one of the beds. + +"I beg your pardon, Sir," I said. "But at what hour will Your Grace have +the horses?" + +Mr. Atkins wheeled round full upon me; and the Duke's mouth opened a +little. Then the Duke burst into a fit of laughter. + +"By God, sir!" he said. "You have detected us. How long have you known +it?" + +"From the moment Your Grace took off your hat," I said. + +He laughed again, highly and merrily. + +"Well; no harm is done," he said. "We took other names to make matters +easier for all. You have told Mr. Jermyn?" + +"No, sir," I said. + +"I beg of you not to do so," he said. "It will spoil all. Nor Mistress +Dorothy. It is far easier to do without ceremony now and again." + +I bowed again; but I said nothing. + +"Then you may as well know," said the Duke, "that Mr. Atkins is none +other than my Lord of Essex. We have been at Newmarket together." + +I bowed to my lord, and he to me. + +"Well--the horses," said Monmouth. "At eight o'clock, if you please." + +I said nothing to Tom, for I was very uncertain what to do; and though I +was mad with anger at what I had heard the Duke say as I waited at the +door--(though now I cannot say that there was any great harm in the +words themselves)--I still kept my wits enough to know that I was too +angry to judge fairly. I lay awake a long time that night, turning from +side to side after that I had heard the wet clothes of our guests +carried downstairs to be dried by morning before the fire. It was all a +mighty innocent matter, so far as it had gone; but I would not see that. +I told myself that a man of the Duke's quality should not come to a +little country-house under an _alias_, even if he had been bogged ten +times over; that he should not make pretty speeches to a country maid +and kiss her fingers, and hold open the door for her, even though all +these things or some of them were just what I had done myself. Frankly, +I understand now that no harm was meant; that every word the Duke had +said was true, and that it was but natural for him to try to please all +across whom he came; but I would not see it at the time. + +On the next morning when I came downstairs early it seemed to me that my +Cousin Dorothy was herself downstairs too early for mere good manners. +The guests were not yet stirring; yet the maids were up, and the ale set +out in the dining-room, and the smell of hot oat-cake came from the +kitchen. There were flowers also upon the table; and my cousin was in a +pretty brown dress of hers that she did not wear very often. + +I looked upon her rather harshly; and I think she observed it; for she +said nothing to me as she went about her business. + +I went out into the stable-yard to see the horses; and found my Cousin +Tom there already, admiring them; and indeed they were fine, especially +a great dappled grey that was stamping under the brush of the fellow who +had first knocked at our door last night. + +"That is Mr. Morton's horse, I suppose?" said Tom. + +The man who was grooming him did not speak; and Tom repeated his +question. + +"Yes, sir," said the man, with a queer look which I understood, though +Tom did not, "this is Mr. Morton's." + +"And the chestnut is Mr. Atkins'?" asked my cousin. + +"Just so, sir; Mr. Atkins'," said the man, with the corners of his mouth +twitching. + +The grinning ape--as I thought him--very nearly set me off into saying +that I knew all about it; and that the yellow saddle-cloth was the +colour the Duke of Monmouth used always; but I did not. It appeared to +me then the worst of manners that these personages should come and make +a mock of country-folk, so that even the servants laughed at us. + + * * * * * + +Our guests were downstairs when I came in again, and talking very +merrily to my Cousin Dorothy, who was as much at her ease as last night. +The Duke sneezed once or twice. + +"You have taken a cold, sir," said Dolly. + +"It was in a good cause," he said; and sneezed again. + +"_Salute_," said I. + +He gave me a quick look, astonished, I suppose, that a rustic should +know the Italian ways. + +"_Grazie_," said he, smiling. "You have been in Italy, Mr. Mallock?" + +"Oh! I have been everywhere," I said, with a foolish idea of making him +respect me. + + * * * * * + +When they rode away at last, we all stood at the gate to watch them go. +The storm had cleared away wonderfully; and the air was fresh and +summerlike, and ten thousand jewels sparkled on the limes. They made a +very gallant cavalcade. The horses had recovered from their weariness, +for they were finely bred, all five of them; and the Duke's horse +especially was full of spirit, and curvetted a little, with pleasure and +the strength of our corn, as he went along. The servants' liveries too +were gay and pleasant to the eye:--(they were not the Duke's own +liveries; for when he went about outside town he used a plainer +sort)--and the Duke's dark blue, with his fair curls and his great hat +which he waved as he went, and my Lord Essex's spruce figure in his +buff, all made a very pretty picture as they went up the village street. + +It was this, I think, and my Cousin Dolly's silence as she looked after +them, that determined me; and as we three went back again up the flagged +path to the house, and the servants round again to the yard, I spoke. + +"Cousin Tom," I said. "Do you wish to know who our guests were?" + +He looked at me in astonishment, and my Cousin Dolly too. + +"Mr. Morton is the Duke of Monmouth," I said, "and Mr. Atkins, my Lord +Essex." + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +It was a long time before my Cousin Tom recovered from his astonishment +and his pleasure at having entertained such personages in his house. He +told me, of course, presently, when he had had time to think of it, that +he had guessed it all along, but had understood that His Grace wished to +be _incognito_; and I suppose at last he came to believe it. He would +fall suddenly musing in the evenings; and I would know what he was +thinking of; and it was piteously amusing to see, how one night again, +not long after, he rose and ran to the door when a drunken man knocked +upon it, and what ill words he gave him when he saw who it was. His was +a slow-moving mind; and I think he could not have formed the project, +which he afterwards carried out, while I was with him, or he must have +let it out to me. + + * * * * * + +It was a little piteous, too, to see with what avidity he seized upon +any news of the Duke, and how his natural inclinations and those +consonant with his religion strove with his new-found loyalty to a +bastard. A week or two later we had news of the attempt made by my Lord +Shaftesbury to injure the Duke of York's cause by presenting his name as +that of a recusant, to the Middlesex grand jury. It was a mighty bold +thing to do, and though the attempt failed so far as that the judges +dismissed the jury while they were still deliberating, it shewed how +little my Lord feared the Duke or His Majesty and how much resolved he +was to establish, if he could, the Protestant succession and the Duke of +Monmouth's pretended claim to it. A deal of nonsense, too, was talked at +this time of how the Duke was truly legitimate, and how Mistress Lucy +Walters had been secretly married to the King, before ever poor Queen +Catherine had been heard of; and the proofs of all this, it was +reported, were in a certain Black Box that no one had ever set eyes on; +and the matter became so much a thing of ridicule that once at the play, +I think, when one of the actors carried on a black box, there was a roar +of laughter and jeering from the pit. + +It was wonderful to hear my Cousin Tom hold forth upon the situation. + +One evening in September, two months after our adventure of the Duke's +coming, after a long silence, he made a little discourse upon it all. + +"I should not be surprised," said he, "if there was more in the tale +than most men think. It is not likely that the proofs of the marriage +would be easy to come by, in such a case; for Mistress Walters, whom I +think I once saw at Tunbridge Wells, was not at all of the King's +position even by blood; and it is less likely that His Majesty, who was +but a very young man at that time, would have stood out against her when +she wished marriage. Besides there is no doubt that he knew her long +before there was any prospect of his coming to the throne. Then too +there has always appeared, to my mind at least, something in the Duke's +bearing and carriage that it would be very hard for a bastard to have. +He has a very princely air." + +To such talk as this I would make no answer; but I would watch my Cousin +Dorothy's face; and think that I read there something that I did not +like--an interest that she should not feel: and, after a pause my Cousin +Tom would proceed in his conjectures. + +It was on the day following this particular discourse, which I remember +very well, for my jealousy had so much worked up that I was very near +breaking my resolution and telling my Cousin Dolly all that was in my +heart, that a letter came for me from Mr. Chiffinch, so significant that +I will write down some sentences of it. + +"His Majesty bids me to write to you to come up to town again for a few +days. He thinks that you may perhaps be of some use with His Royal +Highness to urge him to go back to Scotland again, which at present he +vows that he will not do. His Majesty is aware that the Duke scarcely +knows you at all; yet he tells me to say this, and that I will explain +to you when you come how you can be of service. There will be a deal of +trouble this autumn; the Parliament is to meet in October, and will be +in a very ill-humour, it is thought." + +There was a little more of this sort; and then came a sentence or two +that roused my anger. + +"I have heard much here of your entertainment of the Duke of Monmouth, +and of what a pretty girl your cousin is. His Majesty laughed very much +when he heard of it; and swears that he suspects you of going over to +the Protestant side after all. The Duke knows nothing of what you are, +or of anything you have done; but he has talked freely of his +entertainment at Hare Street, thinking it, I suppose, to be a Protestant +house. In public the King has had nothing to say to him; but he loves +him as much as ever, and would not, I think be very sorry, in his heart, +though he never says so, if he were to be declared legitimate." + +This made me angry then, for what the letter said as to the Duke of +Monmouth's talk; and it disconcerted me too, for, if the King himself +were to join the popular party, there would be little hope of the +Catholic succession. The Duchess of Portsmouth, also, I had heard, had +lately become of that side; and I dared say it was she who had talked +His Majesty round. + +Now my Cousin Tom knew that I had had this letter, for he had seen the +courier bring it; but he did not know from whom it came; and, as already +he was a little suspicious, I thought, of what I did in town, I thought +it best to tell him that it was from a friend at Court; and what it said +as to the Duke of Monmouth's talk, hoping that this perhaps might offend +him against the Duke. But it had the very opposite effect, much to my +discomfiture. + +"His Grace says that, does he?" he said, smiling. "I am sure it is very +courteous of him to remember his poor entertainment"; and (Dolly coming +in at this instant) he told her too what the Duke had said. + +"Hear what the Duke of Monmouth hath been saying, my dear! He says you +are a mighty pretty girl." + +And Dolly, greatly to my astonishment, did not seem displeased, as soon +as she had heard the tale; for she laughed and said nothing. + + * * * * * + +As I rode up to London next day in answer to my summons, I was wondering +how in the world I could be of service to the Duke of York. As Mr. +Chiffinch had said, I knew next to nothing of him, nor he of me; but +when I was gone round to the page's rooms the morning after I came, he +told me something of the reasons for which I had been summoned. + +"Such Jesuits as are left," he said, "and the Duke's confessor among +them, seem all of opinion that the Duke had best remain in London and +fight it out. We hear, without a doubt, that my Lord Shaftesbury, who +seems most desperate, will bring in the Exclusion Bill again this +Session; and the priests say that it is best for His Royal Highness to +be here; and to plead again for himself as he did so well two years ago. +His Majesty on the other hand is honestly of opinion--and I would sooner +trust to his foresight than to all the Jesuits in the world--that he +himself can fight better for his brother if that brother be in Scotland; +for out of sight, out of mind. And he desires you, as a Catholic, yet +not a priest, to go and talk to the Duke on that side. He hath sent half +a dozen to him already; and, since he knows that the Duke is aware of +what you have done in France, he thinks that your word may tip the +balance. For the Duke, I think, is in two minds, beneath all his +protestations." + +For myself, I was of His Majesty's opinion; for the sight of the Duke +irritated folk who had not yet forgotten the Oates Plot; and I consented +very willingly to go and see him. + + * * * * * + +I was astonished to find that by now I had really become something of a +personage myself, amongst those few who had heard what I had done in +France; and I was received by His Royal Highness in his lodgings after +supper that evening with a very different air from that which he had +when I had last spoken with him. + +The Duke was pacing up and down his closet when I came in, and turned to +me with a very friendly manner. + +"Mr. Mallock," he said, when I had saluted him and was sat down, "I am +very glad to see you. His Majesty has told me all that you have done, +and has urged me to see you, as you are devoted as I know, to the +Catholic cause, and know the world too; and men's minds. Do you think I +should go or stay?" + +"Sir," I said, "my opinion is that you should go. There is a quantity of +disaffection in town. I have met with a good deal of it myself. If Your +Royal Highness is to be seen continually going about, that disaffection +will be kept alive. Men are astonishingly stupid. They act, largely, +upon that which they see, not on that which they know: and by going to +Scotland you will meet them both ways. They will not see Your Highness +at all; and all that they will know of you is that you are doing the +King's work and helping the whole kingdom in Edinburgh." + +"But they say I torture folks there!" said the Duke. + +"They say so, Sir. They will say anything. But not a reasonable man +believes it." + +(It was true, indeed, that such gossip went about; but the substance of +it was ridiculous. Good fighters do not torture; and no one denied to +the Duke the highest pitch of personal courage. He had fought with the +greatest gallantry against the Dutch.) + +He said nothing to that; but sat brooding. + +His closet was a very magnificent chamber; but not so magnificent as he +who sat in it. He was but just come from supper, and wore his orders on +his coat; but all his dress could not distract those who looked at him +from that kingly Stuart face that he had. He was, perhaps, the heaviest +looking of them all, with not a tithe of Monmouth's brilliant charm, or +the King's melancholy power; yet he too had the air of command and more +than a touch of that strange romance which they all had. Until that +blood is diluted down to nothing, I think that a Stuart will always find +men to love and to die for him. But it was Stuart against Stuart this +time; so who could tell with whom the victory would lie? + +So I was thinking to myself, when suddenly the Duke looked up. + +"Mr. Mallock," he said, "I hear that you have a very persuasive manner +with both men and women. There is an exceedingly difficult commission +which I wish you would execute for me. You have spoken with the Duchess +of Portsmouth?" + +"Never, Sir," I said. "I have seen Her Grace in the park only." + +"Well; she has thrown her weight against me with the King. God knows +why! But I wonder you have not met her?" + +"Sir, I never go to Court, by His Majesty's wish." + +"Yes," he said. "But Her Grace is the King's chief agent in his French +affairs; and you are in them too, I hear. But that is His Majesty's way; +he uses each singly, and never two together if he can help it." (This +was perfectly true, and explained a good deal to me. I had heard much of +the Duchess in France, but nothing at all of her from the King.) + +"Well," continued the Duke, "I wish you would see her for me, Mr. +Mallock; and try to get from her why she is so hot against me. She is a +Catholic, as you are, and she should not be so. But she is all on fire +for Monmouth and the Protestant succession; and she is all powerful with +the King." + +"I shall be happy to do what I can, Sir," said I, "but I do not suppose +Her Grace will confide in me." + +"I know that," he said, "but you may pick up something. You are the +fourth I have sent on that errand, and nothing come of it." + +We talked a while longer on these affairs, myself more and more +astonished at the confidence given me (but I think now that it was +because the Duke had so few that he could trust); and when I took my +leave it was with a letter written and signed and sealed by the Duke, +which I was to present at Her Grace's lodgings immediately. + +The Duchess, at this time, was, I think, the most powerful figure in +England; since her influence over the King was unbounded. She had come +to England ten years ago as Charles' mistress, a good and simple maid in +the beginning, as I believe, and of good Breton parents, who would not +let her go to the French Court, yet were persuaded to let her go to the +English--where, God help her! she soon ceased to be either good or +simple. In the year seventy-two she was created Duchess of Portsmouth +who up to that time had been the Breton woman Madame Keroual (or, as she +was called in England Madam Carwell). Three years later her son had been +made Duke of Richmond. At the time of the Popish Plot she had been +terrified of her life, and it was only at the King's persuasion that she +remained in England. I cannot say that she was popular with the people, +for her coach was cried after pretty often unless she had her guards +with her; and this always threw her into paroxysms of terror. Yet she +remained in England, and was treated as of royal blood both by Charles +who loved her, and James who feared her. + +A couple of days later I received a message to say that Her Grace would +receive me after supper on that same evening: so I put on my finest +suit, and set out in a hired coach. + +The Duchess lived at this time in lodgings at the end of the Great +Gallery in Whitehall; and I think that of all the apartments I had ever +set eyes on--even the royal lodgings themselves--this was the finest; +and no wonder, for they had been pulled down two or three times before +she was satisfied, thus fulfilling the old proverb of Setting a Beggar +on Horseback. I was made to wait awhile in an outer chamber, all as if +she were royal; and I examined the pieces of furniture there, and there +was nothing in the Queen's own lodging to approach to them--so massy was +the plate and so great and exquisitely carved the tables and chairs. +When I was taken through at last by a fellow dressed in a livery like +the King's own, the next room, where I was bidden to sit down, was full +as fine. There was a quantity of tapestry upon the walls, of new French +fabric, so resembling paintings that I had to touch before I was sure +of them--of Versailles, and St. Germain, with hunting pieces and +landscapes and exotic fowls. There were Japan cabinets, screens and +pendule clocks, and a great quantity of plate, all of silver, as well as +were the sconces that held the candles; and the ceilings were painted +all over, as were His Majesty's own, I suppose by Verrio. + +As I sat there, considering what I should say to her, I heard music +continually through one of the doors; and when at last it was flung open +and my Lady came through, she brought, as it were, a gust of music with +her. + +I bowed very low, as I had been instructed, in spite of the character of +the woman, and then I kneeled to kiss her hand. Then she sat down, and +left me standing, like a servant. + +She appeared at that time to be about thirty years old, though I think +she was far beyond this; but she had a wonderfully childish face, very +artfully painted and darkened by the eyes. I cannot deny, however, that +she was very handsome indeed, and well set-off by her jewels and her +silver-lace gown, cut very low so as to shew her dazzling skin. Her +fingers too, when I kissed them, were but one mass of gems. Her first +simplicity was gone, indeed. + +I loathed this work that I was sent on; since it forced me to be civil +to this spoiled creature, instead of, as I should have wished, naming +her for what she was, to her face. However, that had been done pretty +often by the mob; so I doubt if I could have told her anything she did +not know already. Her voice was set very low and was a little rough; yet +it was not ugly at all. She spoke in French; and so did I. + +"Well, Mr. Mallock," she said, "I have company; but I did not wish to +refuse another of His Royal Highness's ambassadors. What is the matter +now, if you please?" + +Now I knew that this kind of personage loved flattery--for it was +nothing but this that had ruined her--and that it could scarcely be too +thick: so I framed my first sentences in that key: for, after all, my +first business was to please her. + +"His Royal Highness is desolated, madam," I said, "because he thinks he +has displeased you." + +"Displeased me!" she cried. "Why, what talk is this of a Prince to a +poor Frenchwoman?" + +She smiled very unpleasantly as she said this; and nearly all the time I +was with her, her eyes were running up and down my figure. I was wearing +a good ring or two also, and my sword-hilt was very prettily set with +diamonds; and she always had an eye for such things. + +"There can be no talk of Prince and subject, madam," I said, "when Her +Grace of Portsmouth is in question." + +She smiled once more; and I saw that she liked this kind of talk. So I +gave her plenty of it. + +"La! la!" she said. "This is very pretty talk. What is your business, +sir, if you please?" + +"It is what I have said, madam; and nothing else upon my honour! His +Royal Highness is seriously discomposed." + +"Then why does he not come to see me, and ask me himself?" snapped my +Lady. "He hath not been these three months back. Why does he send a--a +messenger?" + +(She was on the very point of saying _servant_; and it pleased me that +she had not done so. I noted also in my mind that wounded vanity was one +of the reasons for her behaviour, as it usually is with a woman.) + +"Madam," I said, "His Royal Highness does not come, I am sure, because +he does not know how he would be received. It seems that Your Grace's +favour is given to another, altogether, now." + +"God bless us!" said the Duchess. "Why not say Monmouth and be done with +it?" + +"It is Your Grace who has named him," I said: "but the Duke of Monmouth +is the very man." + +She gave a great flirt to her fan; and I saw by her face what I had +suspected before, that it was not only with music that she was +intoxicated. Then she jerked her pretty head. + +"Sit down, sir," she said; and when I had done so, pleased at the +progress I was making, she told me everything I wanted to know, though +she did not think so herself. + +"See here, Mr. Mallock: You appear an intelligent kind of man. Now ask +yourself a question or two, and you will know all that I know myself. +What kind of a chance, think you, has a Catholic as King of England, as +against a Protestant; and what kind of a chance, think you, has the Duke +of York beside the Duke of Monmouth? I speak freely, because from your +having come on this errand, I suppose you are a man that can be trusted. +I wonder you have not seen it for yourself. His Royal Highness has no +tact--no _aplomb_: he sets all against him by his lordly ways. He could +not make a friend of any man, to save his life: he can never forget his +royalty. He sulks there in his lodgings, and will not even come to see a +poor Frenchwoman. And now, sir, you know all that I know myself." + +The woman's ill-breeding came out very plainly when she spoke; and I +remember even then wondering that His Majesty could make so much of her. +But it is often the way that men of good breeding can never see its lack +in others, especially in women: or will not. However I concealed all +this from Her Grace, and let go more of my courtesy. + +"But, madam," I said, "with all the goodwill in the world it is +Versailles to a china orange that His Royal Highness will succeed in the +event. I do not say that he will make as good a King as the Duke of +Monmouth, nor that his being a Catholic will be anything but a +disadvantage to him; but disadvantages or no, if he is King, it is +surely better to be upon his side, and help, not hinder him." + +I would not have dared to say such a thing to a respectable woman; for +it advised her, almost without disguise, to look to her own advantage +only. + +She gave me a sharp look. + +"That is where we are not agreed," said she. + +I made a little despairing gesture with my hands. + +"Well, madam--if you do not accept facts--" + +"Why do you think the Duke of York is so sure to succeed?" she asked +sharply; and I saw that I had touched her. + +"Madam," I said, "we English are a very curious people. It is true that +we cut off His late Majesty's head; but it is also true that we welcomed +back his son with acclamation. We are not quick and logical as is your +own glorious nation; we have very much more sentimentality; and, among +those matters that we are sentimental about, is that of Royalty. I dare +wager a good deal that if government by Monarchy goes in either of our +countries, it will go in Your Grace's fatherland first. We abuse those +in high places, and we disobey them, and we talk against them; yet we +cling to them. + +"And there is a second reason--" I went on rapidly; for she was at the +point of speaking--"We are a highly respectable nation, with all the +prejudices of respectability; and one of these prejudices concerns His +Grace of Monmouth's parentage"--(I saw her flare scarlet at that; but I +knew what I was doing)--"It is a foolish Pharisaic sort of prejudice, no +doubt, madam; but it is there; and I do not believe--" + +She could bear no more; for her own son had precisely that bar sinister +also; and in her anger she said what I wished to hear. + +"This is intolerable, sir," she flared at me, gripping the arms of her +chair. "I do not wish to hear any more about your stupid English nation. +It is because they are stupid that I do what I do. They can be led by +the nose, like your stupid king: I can do what I will--" + +"Madam," I entreated, and truly my accents were piteous, "I beg of you +not to speak like that. I am a servant of His Majesty's--I cannot hear +such talk--" + +I rose from my chair. + +Now in that Court there was more tittle-tattle, I think, than in any +place on God's earth; and she knew that well enough; and understood that +she had said something which unless she prevented it, would go straight +to Charles' ears. It is true that she ruled him absolutely; but he +kicked under her yoke a little now and then; and if there were one thing +that he would not brook it was to be called stupid. She let go of the +arms of her chair, and went a little white. I think she had no idea +till then that I was in the King's service. + +"I said nothing--" she murmured. + +I stood regarding her; and I think my manner must have been good. + +"I said nothing that should be repeated," she added, a little louder. + +I still kept silence. + +"You will not repeat it, Mr. Mallock?" + +"Madam," I said, "I have only one desire: and that is to serve His +Majesty and His Majesty's lawful heir. My mouth can be sealed +absolutely, if that end is served." + +I said that very slowly and deliberately. + +I saw her breathe a little more freely. It was a piteous sight to see a +woman so depending upon such things as a complexion, and whiffs of +scandal, and servants' gossip. + +"Mr. Mallock," she said, "I cannot veer round all in a moment, even +though I must confess that what you have said to me, has touched me very +closely." + +She looked at me miserably. + +"Madam," I said, for I dared not grasp at more than this, for fear of +losing all, "that has wiped out your words as if they had never been +spoken." + +I kissed her hand and went out. + + * * * * * + +I did not go to the Duke, for I hold that, when a man has to sift +carefully between what he must say and what he must not, it is best to +do it on paper; but I went back to my lodgings and wrote to him that it +was merely for her own advantage that the Duchess had behaved so, and +because she thought that the Protestant succession was certain--her own +advantage, that is to say, mingled with a little woman's vanity. I +begged His Royal Highness therefore to go and see the Duchess, if he +thought well, and, if possible, publicly, when she held her reception, +before he went to Scotland--(for I was diplomat enough to know that the +assuming he would go to Scotland would be the best persuasion to make +him)--; and at the end I told him that I thought my arguments had +prevailed a little with Her Grace, and that though she could not at once +turn weathercock, he might take my word for it that she would not be so +forward as she had been. But I did not tell him what argument I had +chiefly used; for I hold that even to such a woman as that, a man should +keep his word. + +Everything I told the Duke in that letter fell true. The Duchess began +to cool very much in the Protestant cause, though perhaps that was +helped a little by Monmouth's having fallen under the King's +displeasure: and the Duke of York went two or three times to the +Duchess' receptions; and to Scotland on the day before Parliament met. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +It was on Mr. Chiffinch's advice that I remained in London for the +present, determining however to spend Christmas at Hare Street; and +indeed I had plenty to do in making my reports to Rome on the situation. + +There was a storm brewing. From all over the country came in _addresses_ +to the King, as they were called, praying him to assemble Parliament, +and that, not only for defence against Popery, but against despotism as +well; and all these were nourished and inspired by my Lord Shaftesbury. +His Majesty answered this by proclaiming through the magistrates that +such addresses were contrary to the laws that left such things at the +King's discretion; and the court-party against the country-party +presently begun to send addresses beseeching His Majesty to defend that +prerogative of his fearlessly. Names began to be flung about: the +court-party called the other the party of _Whigs_, because of their whey +faces that would turn all sour; and the country-party nicknamed the +others _Tories_, which was the name of the banditti in the wilder parts +of Ireland. So it appeared that whenever Parliament should meet, there +would be, as the saying is, a pretty kettle of fish to fry. + +Parliament met at last on the twenty-first of October, the Duke of York +having set out to Scotland with a fine retinue on the day before; (which +some thought too pointed); and the King himself opened it. + +With all my love for His Majesty I am forced to confess that he +presented a very poor spectacle on that occasion. Not only did he +largely yield to the popular clamour, and profess himself willing, +within reason, to befriend any measures for the repression of Popery; +but he stood at the fire afterwards in the House of Lords, for a great +while, warming his back and laughing with his friends. I was in the +gallery and saw it myself. Laughter is a very good thing, but a seemly +gravity is no less good. As might be expected of curs, they barked all +the louder when there was no one to stand up to them; and within a week, +after numerous insulting proposals made to honour that horde of lying +informers that had done so much mischief already, and of preferring such +men as Dr. Tonge to high positions in the Church, once more that +Exclusion Bill of theirs came forward. + +The Commons passed it, as might be expected, since my Lord Shaftesbury +had packed that House with his own nominees. + +I was in Whitehall on the night that it was debated in the Lords--four +days later--and up to ten o'clock His Majesty had not returned from the +House; for he was present at that debate--a very unusual thing with him. +I went up and down for a little while outside His Majesty's lodgings; +and about half-past ten I saw Mr. Chiffinch coming. + +"His Majesty is not back yet," he said; and presently he proposed that +we should go to the House ourselves. + + * * * * * + +From the little gallery whither he conducted me, I had a very good view +of the House, and, yet more, of one of the strangest sights ever seen +there. + +Upon the carpet that was laid by the fire, for it was a cold night, +stood His Majesty himself with a circle of friends about him. Now and +again there came up to him one of the Peers for whom he had sent; he +talked to him a few minutes; and then let him go; for he was doing +nothing else than solicit each of them for his vote. + +The cry was raised presently to clear the House; and we went away; for +their Lordships were to record their votes; and we had not stood half an +hour in the court outside, before there came a great cheering and +shouting; followed hard by a great booing from the crowds that stood +packed outside. My Lords had thrown out the Exclusion Bill by above +two-thirds of their number--which was ninety-three. Presently His +Majesty came out by his private way, laughing and jesting aloud with two +or three others. + +It was to be expected that the country-party would make some retort to +this; and what that retort was I heard a few days later, from a couple +of gentlemen who came into the parlour at the Covent Garden tavern where +I was taking my supper. They came in very eagerly, talking together, and +when they had sat down, one of them turned to me. + +"You have heard the news, sir?" + +"No, sir. What news?" + +"My Lord Stafford is to be tried for his life." + +I did not know what political complexion these two were of; so I looked +wise and inquired how that was known. + +"A clerk that is in the House of Lords told me, sir. I have always found +his information to be correct." + +This was all very well for the clerk's friend, thought I; but not enough +for me; and so soon as I had finished my supper and bidden them +good-night I was off to Mr. Chiffinch. + +"Why yes," he said. "It is like to be true enough. I had heard talk of +it, but no more. It is he whom they have chosen as the weakest of the +Five in the Tower; and if they can prevail against him they will proceed +against the rest, I suppose. I wonder who the informers will be." + +I inquired how it was that the Peers did not resist. + +"They fear for themselves and their places," said Mr. Chiffinch. "They +will yield up anything but that, if a man or two will but push them hard +enough. And, if they try my Lord, they will certainly condemn him. There +is no question of that. To acquit him would cause a yet greater uproar +than to refuse to hear the case at all." + +"And His Majesty?" + +Mr. Chiffinch eyed me gravely. + +"His Majesty will never prefer his private feelings before the public +utility." + +"And this is to the public utility?" + +"Why yes; or the country-party thinks it is. It is the best answer they +can make to their rebuff on the matter of the Exclusion Bill." + +The rumour proved to be perfectly true. The Five Lords who were still in +the Tower, had been sent there, it may be remembered, above two years +ago, on account of their religion, although the pretended plot professed +by Oates was of course alleged against them. Since that time Parliament +had been busy with other matters; but such an opportunity was now too +good to be lost, of striking against the court-party, and, at the same +time, of feeding the excitement and fanaticism of their own. + +The trial came on pretty quickly, beginning on the last day of November; +and as I had never seen a Peer tried by his fellows, I determined to be +present, and obtained an order to admit me every day; and the first day, +strangely enough, was the birthday of my Lord Stafford himself. + + * * * * * + +Westminster Hall, in which the trial was held, was a very noble sight +when all the folks were in their places. (I sat myself in a high +gallery, in which sat, too, ambassadors and public ministers--at the +upper end, above the King's state.) + +I could not see that which was immediately beneath me, neither of the +box in which sat His Majesty during a good deal of the trial, nor, upon +the left side where the great ladies sat. But I had a very good view of +the long forms on which the Peers sat, before the state (under which was +the throne), the wool-packs for the Judges, and the chair of the Lord +Steward--all which was ranged exactly as in the House of Lords itself. +Behind the Peers' forms rose the stands, scaffolded up to the roof, for +the House of Commons to sit in; so that the Hall resembled the shape of +a V in its section, with a long arena in the midst. The lower end held, +in the middle, the bar for the prisoner to stand at, and a place for him +to retire into: a box for his two daughters, of whom one was the +Marchioness of Winchester; and the proper places for the Lieutenant of +the Tower (whence my Lord was brought by water), the axe-bearer, who had +the edge of his axe turned away from the prisoner, and the guards that +kept him. Upon either hand of the entrance, nearer to the throne, stood, +upon one side a box for the witnesses, and upon the other, those that +were called the Managers--being lawyers and attorneys and the like; but +these were in their cloaks and swords, as were others who were with +them, of the Parliamentary party, since they were here as representing +the Commons, and not as lawyers first of all. + + * * * * * + +The two first days were tedious enough; and I did not stay a great +while; for the articles of impeachment were read, and formalities +discharged. One matter of interest only appeared; and that was the names +of the witnesses, when I learned for the first time that Oates and +Dugdale and Turberville were to be the principal. I think more than I +were astonished to hear that Dr. Oates was in this conspiracy too, as in +so many others; and that he would swear, when the time came, that he had +delivered to my Lord a commission from the Holy Father, to be paymaster +in the famous Catholic army of which we had heard so much. + +I was much occupied too on these days in observing the appearance and +demeanour of the prisoner, whom I could see very well. He was now in his +seventieth year, and looked full his age; but he bore himself with great +dignity and restraint. He had somewhat of a cold look in his face; and +indeed it was true that he was not greatly beloved by anybody, though +respected by all. + +The principal witnesses, even before Oates, were Dugdale and +Turberville. First these gave their general testimony--and afterwards +their particular. Mr. Dugdale related how that the plot, in general, had +been on hand for above fifteen or sixteen years; and he repeated all the +stuff that had so stirred up the people before, as to indulgences and +pardons promised by the Pope to those who would kill the King. I must +confess that I fell asleep once or twice during this testifying, for I +knew it all by heart already. And, in particular, he said that my Lord +had debated with others at my Lord Aston's, how to kill the King: and +that himself was present at such debates. + +A great hum broke out in the Hall, when Dugdale swore that he had heard +with his own ears my Lord Stafford and others who had been present, give +their assent one by one to the King's murder. His Majesty himself, I was +told later by Mr. Chiffinch, retired to the back of his box to laugh, +when he heard that said; for neither then nor ever did he believe a word +of it. + +Next came Mr. Oates; and he too reaffirmed what he had said before, with +an hundred ingenious additions and particularities as to times and +places--and this, I think, as much as anything was the reason why so +many simple folk had believed him in the first event. + +Then Turberville, who said falsely that he had once been a friar, and at +Douay, related how my Lord, as he had said, had attempted to bribe him +to kill the King, and suchlike nonsense. This, he said, had happened in +France. + +My Lord Stafford questioned the prisoners a little; and shewed up many +holes in their story. For instance, he asked Turberville whether he had +ever been in his chamber in Paris; and put this question through the +High Steward. + +"Yes, my Lord, I have," said Turberville. + +"What kind of a room is it?" asked my Lord. + +"I can't remember that," said Turberville, who before had sworn he had +been in it many times. + +"No," said my Lord, "I dare swear you can't." + +"I cannot tell the particulars--what stools and chairs were in the +room." + + * * * * * + +On the third day, which was Thursday, my Lord was bidden to call his +witnesses and make his defence; and I must confess that he did not do +this very well; for, first he made a great pother about this and that +statute, of the 13 Charles II. and 25 Edward--nothing of which served +him at all; and next his witnesses did him harm rather than good; and +Dugdale, whom he examined was so clever and quiet and positive in his +statements that it was mere oath against oath. Third, my Lord Stafford +himself did appear a little confused as to whether he had known Dugdale +or not, not being sure of him, as he said, in his periwig; for when +Dugdale was bailiff to my Lord Aston at Tixall, he wore no such thing. +All that he did, in regard to Dugdale, was to shew by one of his +witnesses that Dugdale, when bailiff at Tixall, had been a mean +dishonest fellow; but then, as the Lord High Sheriff observed, it would +scarcely be an honest man whom one would bribe to kill the King. + +When he dealt with Turberville too, he did not do much better; for he +stood continually upon little points of no importance--such points as a +witness may very well mistake--as to where the windows of his house in +Paris looked out, and whether the Prince of Conde lodged to right or +left--such little points as a lawyer would leave alone, if he could not +prove them positively. + +On the fourth and fifth day I was not present; for I had a great deal to +do in writing my reports for Rome; and on the sixth day--which was +Monday--I was not there above an hour, for I saw that the trial would +not end that day. But on the Tuesday I was there before ten o'clock; and +at eleven o'clock my Lords came back to give judgment. It was a dark +morning, as it had been at the trial of the Jesuits; and the candles +were lighted. + +As soon as all were seated my Lord Stafford was brought in; and I +observed him during all that followed. He stood very quiet at the bar, +with his hands folded; and although, before the voting was over, he must +have known which way it was gone, he flinched never a hair nor went +white at all. (His bringing in while the voting was done was contrary to +the law; but no one observed it; and I knew nothing of it till +afterwards.) + +The Lord High Steward first asked humble leave from my Lords to sit down +as he spoke, as he was ailing a little, and then put the question to +each Lord, beginning with my Lord Butler of Weston. + +"My Lord Butler of Weston," said he, "is William Lord Viscount Stafford +guilty of the treason whereof he stands impeached, or not guilty?" + +And my Lord answered in a loud voice, laying his hand upon his breast: + +"Not guilty, upon my honour." + +There were in all eighty-six lords who voted; and each answered, Guilty, +or Not Guilty, upon his honour, as had done the first, each standing up +in his place. At the first I could not tell on which side lay the most; +but as they went on, there could be no doubt that he was condemned. +Prince Rupert, Duke of Cumberland, voted last, as he was of royal blood, +and gave it against him. + +The Lord High Sheriff, who had marked down each vote upon a paper on his +desk, now added them all up: and there was a great silence while he did +this. (I could see him doing it from where I sat.) Then he spoke in a +loud voice, raising his head. + +"My Lords," said he, "upon telling your votes I find that there are +thirty-one of my Lords that think the prisoner not guilty, and +fifty-five that have found him guilty--Serjeant," said he; and then I +think that he was about to call for the prisoner, when he saw him +already there. Then, before he spoke again, I saw the headsman turn the +edge of the axe towards my Lord Stafford; and a rustle of whispering ran +through the Hall. + +"My Lord Stafford," said the High Steward, "I have but heavy tidings for +you: your Lordship hath been impeached for high treason; you have +pleaded not guilty: my Lords have heard your defence, and have +considered of the evidence; and their Lordships do find you guilty of +the treason whereof you are impeached." + +Then my Lord Stafford, raising his head yet higher, and flinching not at +all, cried out: + +"God's holy name be praised, my Lords, for it!" + +Then the Lord High Steward asked him why judgment of death should not be +given on him; and after saying that he had not expected it, and that he +prayed God to forgive those that had sworn falsely against him, he went +on, as before, upon a legal point--that was wholly without relevance-- +that he had not been forced to hold up his hand at the beginning as he +thought to be a legal form in all trials; and when he had said that, my +Lords went out to consider their judgment. + +It was above an hour before they came back. During that hour my Lord +Stafford was permitted to sit down in the box provided for him; but no +one was admitted to speak with him. He sat very still, leaning his head +upon his hand. + +When all were come back again, he was made to stand up at the bar once +more; and his face was as resolute and quiet as ever. + +Then, when the Lord High Steward had answered his point, saying that in +no way did the holding up of the hand affect the legality of the trial; +he began to give sentence. + +"My part, therefore, which remains," said he, "is a very sad one. For I +never yet gave sentence of death upon any man, and am extremely sorry +that I must begin with your Lordship." + +My Lord Nottingham was silent for an instant when he had said that, +seeking, I think, to command his voice: and then he began his speech, +which I think he had learned by heart; and it was one of the most moving +discourses that I have ever heard, though he committed a great indecency +in it, when he said that henceforth no man could ever doubt again that +it was the Papists who had burned London; and professed himself--(though +this I suppose he was bound to do)--satisfied with the evidence. + +When he came to give sentence, I watched my Lord Stafford's face again +very hard; and he flinched never a hair. It was the same sentence as +that to which the Jesuits too had listened, and many other Catholics. + +"You go to the place," said my Lord Nottingham, "from whence you came; +from thence you must be drawn upon a hurdle to the place of execution: +when you come there you must be hanged up by the neck there, but not +till you are dead; for you must be cut down alive, your bowels ripped up +before your face and thrown into the fire. Then your head must be +severed from your body; and your body divided into four quarters, and +these must be at the disposal of the King. And God Almighty be merciful +to your soul!" + +There was a moment of silence; and then my Lord Stafford answered. + +"My Lords," he said quietly, yet so that every word was heard, "I humbly +beseech you give me leave to speak a few words: I do give your +Lordships hearty thanks for all your favours to me. I do here, in the +presence of God Almighty, declare I have no malice in my heart to them +that have condemned me. I know not who they are, nor desire to know: I +forgive them all, and beseech your Lordships all to pray for me--" (His +voice shook a little, and he was silent. Then he went on again. All else +were as still as death.) + +"My Lords, I have one humble request to make to your Lordships, and that +is, my Lords, that the little short time I have to live a prisoner, I +may not be a close prisoner as I have been of late; but that Mr. +Lieutenant may have an order that my wife and children and friends may +come at me. I do humbly beg this favour of your Lordships, which I hope +you will be pleased to give me." + +His voice grew very low as he ended; and I saw his lips shake a little. + +The Lord High Steward answered him with great feeling. + +"My Lord Stafford," he said--(and that was an unusual thing to say, +for he had said before that since he was to be attainted he could not be +called My Lord again)--"I believe I may, with my Lords' leave, tell you +one thing further; that my Lords, as they proceed with rigour of +justice, so they proceed with all the mercy and compassion that may be; +and therefore my Lords will be humble suitors to the King, that he will +remit all the punishment but the taking off of your head." + +And at that my Lord Stafford broke down altogether, and sobbed upon the +rail; and it is a terrible thing to see an old man weep like that. When +he could command his voice, he said: + +"My Lords, your justice does not make me cry, but your goodness." + +Then my Lord Nottingham stood up, and taking the staff of office that +lay across his desk, he broke it in two halves. When I looked again, the +prisoner was going out between his guards, and the axe before, with its +edge turned towards him in token of death. + + * * * * * + +I was at Mr. Chiffinch's again that night to hear the news; but he was +not there. When he came in at last, he appeared very excited. Then he +told me the news. + +"They are at His Majesty already," he said, "that he cannot remit the +penalty of High Treason. But the King swears that he will, law or no +law, judges or no judges. I have never seen him so determined. He does +not believe one word of the evidence." + +"Yet he will sign the warrant for the beheading?" I asked. + +"Why," said Mr. Chiffinch, "His Majesty does not wish to go upon his +travels again." + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +The night before I went down to Hare Street,--for I went on Christmas +Eve--I was present for the first time at the high supper in Whitehall, +which His Majesty gave to the Spanish Ambassador. I had never been at +such a ceremony before; and went out of curiosity only, being given +admission to one of the stands by the door, whence I might see it all. +It would have appeared very strange to me that the King could be so +merry, as he was that night, when so much innocent blood had been shed +upon his own warrant, and when such a man, as my Lord Stafford was, lay +in the Tower, expecting his death six days later;--had I not known the +nature of His Majesty pretty well by now. For, beneath all the +merriment, I think he was not very happy, though he never shewed a sign +of it. + +I stood, as I said, upon a little scaffold to the right of the entrance; +and I was glad of it; for there was a great pack of people crowded in, +as the custom was, also to see the spectacle; and they were all about me +and in front, as well as in the gallery where the music was. + +The Banqueting Hall had its walls all hung over with very rich tapestry, +representing all kinds of merry scenes of hunting and fighting and the +like, and there were great presses along the walls, piled with plate of +gold and silver. The music was all on the balusters above--wind-music, +trumpets and kettledrums, that played as Their Majesties came in, after +the heralds and Black Rod. I had not had before an opportunity of seeing +the Queen so well as I saw her now; and I watched her closely, for I was +sorry for the poor woman. She was very gloriously dressed in a pale +brocade, with quantities of Flanders lace upon her shoulders and at her +elbows, that set off her little figure very well. She was very handsome, +I thought, though so little; and her complexion and her face were both +very good, except that her teeth shewed too much as she smiled. She +had, however, nothing of that witty or brilliant air about her that +pleased the King so much in women; and she sat very quietly throughout +supper, beside the King, not speaking a great deal. But I thought I saw +in her at first a very piteous desire to please him; and he listened, +smiling, as a man might listen to a dull child; and, indeed, I think +that that was all that he thought of her. His Majesty himself appeared +very noble and gallant, in His Order of the Garter, and with the Golden +Fleece too, over his rich suit. Both Their Majesties wore a good number +of jewels. + +Their Majesties sat at a little high table, under a state, with their +gentlemen and ladies standing behind them; and the Spaniards, with the +King's other guests at a table that ran down the middle of the hall, yet +close enough at the upper end for the Ambassador and the King to speak +together. My Lord Shaftesbury was there; and it was strange to see him, +I knowing how much he was privately under His Majesty's displeasure, and +Prince Rupert, very fat and pale and stupid; and Sir Thomas Killigrew +and a score of others. His Majesty was served by the Lords and +pensioners; and the rest by pages and the like, and gentlemen. About the +middle of the dinner toasts were drunk--and first of all His Majesty's, +and the trumpets sounded and the music played, all standing, and when +they were sat down again I heard the guns shot off at the Tower; and I +thought of him who lay there, and how he heard them near at hand, and +how he might have been here, supping with the Spaniards, had he not +fallen under the popular displeasure on account of his religion. It was +a wonderful thing to see the toast drunk, all that company standing upon +its feet, and shouting. + +When the banquet came in, and the French wines, a very curious scene of +disorder presently began--these gentlemen flinging the dessert about +and at one another, for they were beginning to be a little drunk: and I +saw Killigrew fling a bunch of raisins at one of the Spaniards, in +sport. His Majesty sat smiling throughout, not at all displeased; but +not drunk at all himself; and indeed he seldom or never drank to excess +nor gamed to excess, though he loved to see others do so. + +At the end, when all was finished, a choir under the direction of the +King's Master of Music sang a piece very sweetly from the gallery, with +the wind music sounding softly; but no one paid the least attention; and +then we all stood up again, such as had seats on the scaffolds, to see +Their Majesties go out. But such a scene as it all was, when the fruit +and sweetmeats were flung about would not have been tolerated in Rome, +nor, I think in any Court in Europe. + +The next morning, very early, James and I set out for Hare Street. + + * * * * * + +Now the determination had been forming in my mind for some weeks past, +that I would delay no longer in that which lay nearer to my heart by +now, I think, than all politics or missions or anything else; and that +was to ask my Cousin Dolly if she would have me or no; and all the way +down to Hare Street I was considering this and rehearsing what I should +say. I still had some hesitation upon the point, for I remembered how +strange and shy she had been when I had last been there, and had thought +it to be because perhaps she believed that she was being flung at me by +her father. But the memory of my jealousy had worked upon me very much +--that jealousy, I mean, that I had had when His Grace of Monmouth had +come and made his pretty speeches; and I was all but resolved to put all +to the test, one way or the other. I had thought of her continually: in +all that I had seen--in even the sorrowful affair in Westminster Hall +and the merry business a fortnight after at the supper--I had seen it, +so to say, all through her eyes and wondered how she would judge of it +all, and wished her there. The sting of my jealousy indeed was gone: I +reproached myself for having thought ill of her even for a moment; yet +the warmth was still there; and so it was in this mood that I came at +last to the house, at supper-time. + +It was extraordinary merry and pretty within. Neither was below stairs +when I came; for my Cousin Tom was in the cellar, and my Cousin Dolly in +the kitchen; and when I went into the Great Chamber it was all +untenanted. But the walls were hung all over with wreaths and holly: and +there were wax candles in the sconces all ready for lighting the next +day. But the parlour, where were the hangings of the Knights of the +Grail was even more pretty; for there were hung streamers across the +ceiling, from corner to corner, and a great bunch of mistletoe united +them at the centre. + +As I was looking at this my Cousin Dolly ran in, her hands all over +flour; and as I saw her--"Here," I said to myself, "is the place where +it shall be done." + +She could not touch me or kiss me, because of the flour; but she +permitted me to kiss her, my cold lips against her warm cheek; and her +eyes were as stars for merriment. There is something very strange and +mystical about Christmas, to me--(which I think is why the Puritans were +so savage against it)--for I suppose that the time in which our Lord was +born as a little Child, makes children of us all, that we may understand +Him better. + +"Well, you are come then!" said Dolly to me--"and we not ready for you." + +"I am ready enough for home," said I. And she smiled very friendly at me +for that word. + +"I am glad you call it that," said she. + + * * * * * + +There was but a little dried fish and rice for supper that night, as it +was a fast day; but the supper of Christmas Eve is always a kind of +sacramental for me, when midnight mass is to follow. There was no +midnight mass for us that Christmas, nor any mass at all; though I +suppose it was celebrated as usual in the Ambassadors' chapels, and the +Queen's: yet the supper had yet that air of mystery and expectancy about +it. + +"We are all to dance to-morrow night," said Dolly. + +"So that is why the floor is cleared in the Great Chamber," I said. + +She nodded at me. She looked more of a child than I had ever seen her. + +"Will you dance with me, Dolly?" I asked. + +"Yes," she said, "but my first is with my father." + +I told them presently, though it was but a melancholy tale for Christmas +Eve, of my Lord Stafford's trial, and all that I had seen there; and of +the supper last night in Whitehall. + +"My Lord is to be beheaded in five days," I said. "We must pray for his +soul. He will die as bravely as he has lived; I make no doubt." + +"And you have no doubt of his innocence?" asked Cousin Tom. + +I stared on him. + +"Why no," I said, "nor any man, except those paid to believe his guilt." + +He pressed me to tell him more of what I had seen in London; and whether +I had seen the Duke of Monmouth again. + +"He is in Holland," I said, "under His Majesty's displeasure. But I saw +Her Grace of Portsmouth." + +"Why, that is his friend, is it not?" asked Tom. + +"Yes," I said, "and a poor friend to his father and the Duke of York." + + * * * * * + +The next night was a very merry one. + +We had dined at noon as usual: and that was pretty merry too; for all +the servants dined with us, and the men from the farm and their wives. +It was sad to have had no mass at all; and all that we had instead of it +was the sound of the bells from Hormead, from the church that had been +our own a hundred and fifty years ago--which was worse than nothing. At +dinner we observed the usual ceremonial, with the drinking of healths +and the burning of candles; and Dolly and her father and her maid sang a +grace at the beginning and end--with a carol or two afterwards that was +a surprise to me. It was very homely and friendly and Christian; and I +saw my man James with his arm around one of the dairymaids--which is +pretty Christian too, I think. We kept it up till it was near time to +get supper ready, telling of stories all the while about the fire in the +old way. Some of them were poor enough; but some were good. Dick, the +cow-man, whom we had long suspected of poaching, exposed himself very +sadly, when the ale was in him, by relating a number of poaching tricks +I had never heard before. One was of how to catch stares, or shepsters, +when they fly up and down, as they do before lodging in a thicket. Then +you must turn out, said Dick, a quick stare with a limed thread of three +yards long, when she will fly straight to the rest, and, flocking among +them, will infallibly bring down at least one or two, and perhaps five +or six, all entangled in her thread. And another was how to take wild +ducks. Go into the water, said he, up to the neck, with a pumpkin put +over your head, and whilst the ducks come up to eat the seeds, you may +take them by the legs and pull them under quietly, one by one, till they +be drowned. But I would not like to do that in cold weather; and indeed +it seems to me altogether like that other method by which you take larks +by a-putting of salt upon their tails. I asked Dick, very serious, +whether he had tried that plan; and he said he had not, but that a +friend had told him of it; and the company became very merry. + +There were other tales too, more grave than these, of sacrilege, and +suchlike. One, which my man James told, was of a man who took an altar +stone from an old church, to press cheeses with; but the cheeses ran +blood; so they took it from that and put it in the laundry to bat the +linen on. But at night, such a sound of batting was heard continually +from the laundry--and no one there--that the man took it back again to +the church, and buried it in the churchyard. And another was of two men +who had thrown down a village-cross upon a bowling-green; and when one +of them next day tried to move it from there, for the playing--he being +a very strong man, and lifting it on end--it fell upon him, backwards, +and crushed his breast, so that he never spoke again. And there were +many tales told of church-lands; and how my Lord Strafford, that was +beheaded, before his death told his son to get rid of them all, for that +they brought a curse always upon them that held them. And there was +another story told at the end by a man from the farm who had been in +London at the time, and had seen it for himself--how my Lords +Castlehaven and Arran, in St. James' Park, did, for a wager, kill a +strong buck in His Majesty's presence, by running on foot, and each with +a knife only. They took nearly three hours to do it in, but the wager +was for six, so they won that. They killed him at last in Rosamund's +Pond, having driven him in there with stones. I could well believe this +latter tale, and that the thing had been done in the king's presence, +having seen what I had at supper two nights before. + + * * * * * + +When we came into the Great Chamber after supper all was ready for the +dancing; and Mr. Thompson, who was the Hormead schoolmaster, and a +concealed Catholic--though he went to the church with the children and +did teach them their religion, for his living--was at the spinet to +which we were to dance. There was a fellow also to play the fiddle, and +another for a horn. + +The dancing was very pretty to see; and we did a great number, beginning +as the custom is, with country dances; and it was in the first of these +that my Cousin Dolly did dance with her father, and I with Dolly's maid. +We were all dressed too, not indeed in our best, but in our second +best--with silk stockings, and the farm men and the maids were in +their Sunday clothes. But each one had put on something for the +occasion; one had a pair of buckled shoes of a hundred years old, and +another an old ring. My Cousin Tom and I wore our own hair, and no +periwigs. My Cousin Dolly was very pretty in her grey sarcenet, with her +little pearls, and her hair dressed in a new fashion. + +It was all very sweet to me, for it was so natural and without +affectation; and it all might have been a hundred years ago before the +old customs went out and the new came in from France, in which men pay +dancers to dance, instead of doing it for themselves. The room was very +well decked, and the candles lighted all round the walls; and when some +of the greenery fell down and was trodden underfoot, the smell of it was +very pleasant. A little fire was on the hearth--not great, lest we +should be too hot. + +We danced country dances first, as I have said; and then my Cousin Dolly +shewed us one or two town dances, and I danced a sarabande in her +company; but then as the rest of the folk liked the country dances the +best, we went back to these. + +Presently I saw my Cousin Dolly go out, and went after her to ask if she +needed anything. + +"No," said she, "only to get cool again." + +"Come into the parlour," said I; and made her come with me. This too had +a couple of candles burning over the hearth, and a little fire, for any +who wished to come in; but it was empty, for even my Cousin Tom was +disporting himself next door in a round dance that had but just begun. + +Then it was that all my resolution came to a point; for all +circumstances looked that way--my determination to speak, the blessed +time of Christmas, the extraordinary kindness of Dolly to me all day, +and the very place empty, yet lighted and waiting, as if by design. + +For a moment after she had sat down on one side of the hearth, and I on +the other, I could not speak; for I seemed to myself all shaking, and +again she looked such a child, with her pale cheeks flushed with the +exercise, and her eyes alight with merriment. All went before me in that +moment--my old thought that I was to be a monk, my leaving the +novitiate, my mission from Rome, such as it was, and the work I had been +able to do for the King. To all this I must say good-bye; and yet this +price I should pay seemed to me scarcely to be considered as weighed +against this little maid. So it went by me like a picture, and was gone, +and I looked up. + +There was that in my air, I suppose, and the way I looked at her, that +told her what my meaning was; for before I had spoken even a syllable +she was on her feet again, and the flush was stricken from her face. + +"Oh! no! Cousin Roger," she cried. "No, no, Cousin Roger! + +"It is Yes, Yes, Cousin Dolly," said I. "Or at least I hope so." (I said +this with more assurance than I shewed, for if I was sure of anything it +was that she loved me in return. And I stood up and leaned on the +chimney-breast.) + +She stood there, staring on me; and the flush crept back. + +"What have I said?" she whispered. + +"You need say nothing more, my dear, except what I bid you. My dear +love, you have guessed just what it was that I had to say. Sit down +again, if you please, Cousin, while I tell you." + +As I looked at her, a very curious change came across her face. I saw it +at once, but I did not think upon it till afterwards. She had been a +very child just now, in her terror that I should speak--just that +terror, I should suppose, that every maid must have when a man first +speaks to her of love. Yet, as I looked, that terror went from her face, +and her wide eyes narrowed a little as she brought down her brows, and +her parted lips closed. It was, I thought, just that she had conquered +herself, and set herself to hear what I had to say, before answering me +as I wished. She moved very slowly back to her chair, and sat down, +crossing her hands on her lap. That was all that I thought it was, so +little did I know women's hearts, and least of all hers. + +I remained yet a moment longer, leaning my forehead on my hand, and my +hand flat upon the tapestry, staring into the red logs, and considering +how to say what I had to say with the least alarm to her. I felt--though +I am ashamed to say it--as it were something of condescension towards +her. I knew that it was a good match for her, for had not her father +drilled that into me by a hundred looks and hints? I knew that I was +something considerable, and like to be more so, and that I was +sacrificing a good deal for her sake. And then a kind of tenderness +came over me as I thought how courageous she was, and good and simple, +and I put these other thoughts away, and turned to her where she sat +with the firelight on her chin and brows and hair, very rigid and still. + +"Dolly, my dear," I said, "I think you know what I have to say to you. +It is that I love you very dearly, as you must have seen--" + +She made a little quick movement as if to speak. + +"Wait, cousin," I said, "till I have done. I tell you that I love you +very dearly, and honor you, and can never forget what you did for me. +And I am a man of a very considerable estate and a Catholic; so there is +nothing to think of in that respect. And your father too will be +pleased, I know; and we are--" + +Again she made that little quick movement; and I stopped. + +"Well, my dear?" + +She looked up at me very quietly. + +"Well, Cousin Roger; and what then?" + +That confused me a little; for I had thought that she had understood. +And then I thought that perhaps she too was confused. + +"Why, my dear," I said very patiently as I thought, as one would speak +to a child, "I am asking you if you will be my wife." + +I turned away from the fire altogether, and faced her, thinking I should +have her in my arms. But at first she said nothing at all, but sat +immovable, scrutinizing me, I thought, as if to read all that was in my +head and heart. But it was all new to me, for what did I know of love +except that it was very strange and sweet? So I waited for her answer. +That answer came. + +"Cousin Roger," she said in a very low voice, "I am very sorry you have +spoken as you have--" + +I straightened myself suddenly and looked at her more closely. She had +not moved at all, except her face. A kind of roaring murmur began to +fill my ears. + +"Because," said she--and every word of hers now was pain to +me--"because there is but one answer that I can give, which is No." + +"Why--" cried I. + +"You have spoken very kindly and generously. But--" and at this her +voice began to ring a little--"but I am not what you think me--a maid to +be flung at the head of any man who will choose to take her." + +"Cousin!" cried I; and then she was on her feet too, her face all +ablaze. + +"Yes, Cousin!" cried she; "and never any more than that. You have acted +very well, Cousin Roger; and I thank you for that compliment--that you +thought it worth while to play the part--and for your great kindness to +a poor country maid. I had thought it to be all over long ago--before +you went away; or I would not have behaved as I have. But since you have +considered it again carefully, and chosen to--to insult me after all; I +have no answer at all to give, except No, a thousand times over." + +"Why, Cousin--" I began again. + +She stamped her foot. I could not have imagined she could be so angry. + +"Wait till I have done," she said--"I do not know what my father thinks +of me; but I suppose that you and he have designed all this; and led me +on to make a fool of myself--Oh! Let me go! let me go!" + +Oh! the triple fool that I was! Yet who had ever taught me the ways of +love, or what women mean, or what their hearts are like? If I had been +one half the man that I thought myself, I would have seized her there, +and forced back her foolishness with kisses, and vowed that, conspirator +or not, she must have me; that we knew one another too well to play +false coin like this. Or I should have blazed at her in return; and told +her that she lied in thinking I was as base as that. Why, I should have +just borne myself like a lover to whom love is all, and dignity and +wounded pride nothing; for what else is there but love, sacred or +profane, in the whole world that God has made? If I had done that! If +only I had done that then! But I suppose that I was no lover then. + +So I drew back, smarting and wounded; and let her go by; and a minute +later I heard the door of her chamber slam behind her, and the key turn. + + * * * * * + +For myself I went out very slowly, five minutes after, and upstairs to +my own chamber, and began to consider what things I must take with me on +the morrow; for I would not stay another day in the house where I had +been so insulted and denied. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +Pride is a very good salve, when one has no humility; and it was Pride +that I applied to myself to heal the wounds I had. + +I came down again to the Great Chamber, half an hour later, very cold +and dignified, and danced again, like the solemn fool that I was, first +with one and then with another; and all the while I told myself, like +the prophet that "I did well to be angry"; and that I would shew her +that no man, of my ability, could depend upon any mere woman for his +content. Yet the pain at my heart was miserable. + +It is very near incredible to me now how I, who truly knew something of +the world, and of men and of affairs, could be so childish and ignorant +in a matter of this sort. In truth this was what I was; I knew nothing +of true love at all; how therefore should I be a proper lover? I saw my +Cousin Tom, who mopped himself a great deal, eyeing me now and again; +and he presently came up and asked me where Dolly was. + +"In her chamber, I think," said I, with my nose in the air; and with +such a manner that he said no more. + +It was enough to break my heart to continue dancing; but it was the task +I had set myself upstairs; and till near ten o'clock we continued to +dance--but no Dolly to help us. I had even determined how I should bear +myself if she came--and how superb should be my dignity; but she did not +come to see it. We ended with singing "Here's a health unto His +Majesty"; and I took care that my voice should be loud so that she +should hear it. (I had even, poor fool that I was! walked heavily past +her chamber-door just now, that she might hear me go.) + +When all were gone away at last, I waited for my Cousin Tom, and then +went with him into the parlour; where I told him very briefly all that +had passed, with the same dignity that I had set myself to preserve. I +even spoke in a high sort of voice, to shew my self-command and +detachment. My Cousin Tom appeared as if thunderstruck. + +"Good God!" said he. "The minx! to behave like that!" + +"It is no longer any concern of mine," I said. "For myself I shall go +back to town to-morrow." + +"But--" began he. + +"My dear Cousin," I said, "it is the only thing that I can do--to set to +work again. Mistress Dorothy must recover herself alone. I could not +expect her to tolerate such a personage as I must appear in her eyes." + +"But you will came back again," said Tom. "And I'll talk to the chit as +she deserves." + +I preserved my lofty attitude. + +"That again," said I, "is no concern of mine. And as for coming back, +when Mistress Dorothy has found her a husband whom she can respect--we +may perhaps consider it." + +He sat very silent for a while after that; and I know now, though I did +not know then, what was the design he was considering--at least I +suppose it was then that he saw it clear before him. At the time I +thought he was giving his attention to myself; and I wondered a little +that he did not press me again to stay, though I would not have done so. + +It was a very desolate morning when I awakened next day, and knew what +had happened, and that I must go away again from the house I had learned +so much to love; but there was no help for it; and, as I put on my +clothes, I put on my pride with them; and came down very cold and +haughty to get my "morning" as we called it, in the dining-room before +riding; and there in the dining-room was my Cousin Dolly, whom I had +thought to be in her chamber, as the door was shut when I came past it. + +We bade one another good morning very courteously indeed; but we gave no +other salute to one another. She knew last night that I was going, as my +Cousin Tom had told her maid to tell her; and I was surprised that she +was there. Presently I had an explanation of it. + +"Cousin Roger," said she, "I was very angry last night; and I wished to +tell you I was sorry for that, and for the hard words I used, before you +went away." + +I bowed my head very dignifiedly. + +"And I, too," I said, "must ask your pardon for so taking you by +surprise. I thought--" and then I ceased. + +She had looked a little white and tired, I thought; but she flushed +again with anger when I said that. + +"You thought it would be no surprise," she said. + +"I did not say so, Cousin," said I. "You have no right to interpret--" + +"But you thought it." + +I drank my ale. + +"Oh! what you must think of me!" she cried in a sudden passion; and ran +out of the room. + + * * * * * + +I think that was the most disconsolate journey I have ever taken. It was +a cold morning, with a fine rain falling: my man James was disconsolate +too (and I remembered the dairy-maid, when I saw it), and I was leaving +the one place I had begun to think of as my home, and her who had so +much made it home to me. I had not even seen her again before I went; +and our last words had been of anger; and of that chopping kind of +argument that satisfies no one. + +I tried to distract myself with other thoughts--of what I was going +to; for I had determined to go straight to Whitehall and ask for some +employment; yet back and back again came the memories, and little scenes +of the house, and the appearance of the Great Chamber when it was all +lit up, and of the figure of that little maid who had so angered me, and +the way she carried her head, and the turns of her hand--and how happy +we all were yesterday about this time. However, I need not enlarge upon +that. Those that have ever so suffered will know what I thought, without +more words; and those who have not suffered would not understand, though +I used ten thousand. And every step of all the way to London, which we +reached about six o'clock, spoke to me of her with whom I had once +ridden along it. As we came up into Covent Garden I turned to my man +James and gave him more confidence than I had ever given to him +before--for I think that he knew what had happened. + +"James," said I, "this is a very poor home-coming; but it is not my +fault." + + * * * * * + +Though fortune so far had been against me, I must confess that it +favoured me a little better afterwards, for when I went in to Mr. +Chiffinch's on the next morning, he gave me the very news that I wished +to hear. + +"Mr. Mallock," he said, "you are the very man I most wished to see. +There is a great pother in France again. I do not know all the ins and +outs of the affair; but His Majesty is very anxious. He spoke of you +only this morning, Mr. Mallock." + +My heart quickened a little. In spite of my pain it was a pleasure to +hear that His Majesty had spoken of me; for I think my love to him was +very much more deep, in one way, though not in another, than even to +Dolly herself. + +"Mr. Chiffinch," said I, "I will be very plain with you. I have had a +disappointment; and I came back to town--" + +He whistled, with a witty look. + +"The pretty cousin?" he said. + +I could not afford to quarrel with him, but I could keep my dignity. + +"That is my affair, Mr. Chiffinch. However--there is the fact. I am come +to town for this very purpose--to beg for something to do. Will His +Majesty see me?" + +He looked at me for an instant; then he thought better, I think, of any +further rallying. + +"Why I am sure he will. But it will not be for a few days, yet. There is +a hundred businesses at Christmas. Can you employ yourself till then?" + +"I can kick my heels, I suppose," said I, "as well as any man." + +"That will do very well," said Mr. Chiffinch. "But I warn you, that I +think it will be a long affair. His Majesty hath entangled himself +terribly, and Monsieur Barillon is furious." + +"The longer the better," said I. + +On the twenty-ninth I went down to see my Lord Stafford die. I was in so +distracted a mood that I must see something, or go mad; for I had heard +that it would not be until the evening of that day that His Majesty +would see me, and that I must be ready to ride for Dover on the next +morning. Mr. Chiffinch had told me enough to shew that the business +would be yet more subtle and delicate than the last; and that I might +expect some very considerable recognition if I carried it through +rightly. I longed to be at it. One half of my longing came from the +desire to occupy my mind with something better than my poor bungled +love-affairs; and the other half from a frantic kind of determination to +shew my Mistress Dolly that I was better than she thought me; and that I +was man enough to attend to my affairs and carry them out competently, +even if I were not man enough to marry her. It must be understood that I +shewed no signs of this to anyone, and scarcely allowed it even to +myself; but speaking with that honesty which I have endeavoured to +preserve throughout all these memoirs, I am bound to say that my mind +was in very much that condition of childish anger and resentment. I had +a name as a strong man: God only knew how weak I was; for I did not even +know it myself. + + * * * * * + +There was a great crowd on Tower Hill to see my Lord Stafford's +execution; for not only was he well known, although, as I have said, not +greatly beloved; but the rumours were got about--and that they were true +enough I knew from Mr. Chiffinch--that he had said very strange things +about my Lord Shaftesbury, and how he could save his own life if he +willed, not by confessing anything of which he himself had been accused, +but by relating certain matters in which my Lord Shaftesbury was +concerned. However, he did not; yet the tale had gone about that perhaps +he would; and that a reprieve might come even upon the scaffold itself. + +When I came to Tower Hill on horseback, about nine o'clock, the crowd +covered the most of it; but I drove my horse through a little, so that +I could have a fair sight both of the scaffold, and of the way, kept +clear by soldiers, along which the prisoner must come. + +I had not been there above a few minutes, when a company went by, and in +the midst the two sheriffs, on horseback, whose business it was to carry +through the execution; and they drew up outside the gate, to preserve +the liberties of the Tower. While they were waiting, I watched those +that were upon the scaffold--two writers to take down all that was said; +and the headsman with his axe in a cloth--but this he presently +uncovered--and the block which he laid down upon the black baize put +ready for it, and for the prisoner to lie down upon. Then the coffin was +put up behind, with but the two letters W.S. as I heard afterwards: and +the year 1680. + +Then, as a murmur broke out in the crowd, I turned; and there was my +Lord coming along, walking with a staff, between his guards, with the +sheriffs--of whom Mr. Cornish was one and Mr. Bethell the other--and the +rest following after. + +When my Lord was come up on the scaffold, the headsman had gone again; +but he asked for him and gave him some money at which the man seemed +very discontented, whereupon he gave him some more. It is a very curious +custom this--but I think it is that the headsman may strike straight, +and not make a botch of it. + +When my Lord turned again I could see his face very plainly. He wore a +peruke, and his hat upon that. He was in a dark suit, plain but rich; +and had rings upon his fingers, which I could see as he spoke. He was +wonderfully upright for a man of his age; and his face shewed no +perturbation at all, though it was more fallen than I had thought. + +He read all his speech, very clearly, from a paper he took out of his +pocket; but as he delivered copies of it to the Sheriffs and the +writers--(and it was put in print, too, on the very same day by two +o'clock)--I need not give it here. He declared his innocence most +emphatically; calling God to witness; and he thanked God that his death +was come on him in such a way that he could prepare himself well for +eternity; but he did not thank the King for remitting the penalties of +treason, as he might have done. He made no great references, as was +expected that he would, to disclosures that he might have made; but only +in general terms. He denied most strongly that it was any part of the +Catholic Religion to give or receive indulgences for murder or for any +other sin; and he ended by committing his soul into the hands of Jesus +Christ, by whose merits and passion he hoped to be saved. His voice was +thin, but very clear for so old a man; and the crowd listened to him +with respect and attention. I think all those Catholic deaths and the +speeches that the prisoners make will by and by begin to affect public +opinion, and lead men to reflect that those who stand in the immediate +presence of God, are not likely, one after another, to go before Him +with lies upon their lips. + +When he was done he distributed the copies of his speech, and then +presently kneeled down, and read a prayer or two. They were in Latin, +but I could not hear the words distinctly. + +When he rose up again, all observing him, he went to the rail and spoke +aloud. + +"God bless you, gentlemen!" he said. "God preserve His Majesty; he is as +good a prince as ever governed you; obey him as faithfully as I have +done, and God bless you all, gentlemen!" + +It was very affecting to hear him speak so, for he did it very +emphatically; but even then one of their ministers that was on the +scaffold would not let him be. + +"Sir," he asked, speaking loud all across the scaffold, "do you disown +the indulgences of the Romish Church?" + +My Lord turned round suddenly in a great passion. + +"Sir!" he cried. "What have you to do with my religion? However, I do +say that the Church of Rome allows no indulgences for murder, lying and +the like; and whatever I have said is true." + +"What!" cried the minister. "Have you received no absolution?" + +"I have received none at all," said my Lord, more quietly; meaning of +the kind that the minister meant, for I have no doubt at all that he +made his confession in the Tower. + +"You said that you never saw those witnesses?" asked the minister, who, +I think, must have been a little uneasy. + +"I never saw any of them," said my Lord, "but Dugdale; and that was at a +time when I spoke to him about a foot-boy." (This was at Tixall, when +Dugdale was bailiff there to my Lord Aston.) + +They let him alone after that; and he immediately began to prepare +himself for death. First he took off his watch and his rings, and gave +them to two or three of his friends who were on the scaffold with him. +Then he took his staff which was against the rail, and gave that too; +and last his crucifix, which he took, with its chain, from around his +neck. + +His man then came up to him, and very respectfully helped him off with +his peruke first, and then his coat, laying them one on the other in a +corner. My Lord's head looked very thin and shrunken when that was done, +as it were a bird's head. Then his man came up again with a black silk +cap to put his hair under, which was rather long and very grey and thin; +and he did it. And then his man disposed his waistcoat and shirt, +pulling them down and turning them back a little. + +Then my Lord looked this way and that for an instant; and then went +forward to the black baize, and kneeled on it, with his man's help, and +then laid himself down flat, putting his chin over the block which was +not above five or six inches high. + +Yet no one moved--and the headsman stood waiting in a corner, with his +axe. One of the sheriffs--Mr. Cornish, I think it was--said something to +the headsman; but I could not hear what it was; and then I saw my Lord +kneel upright again, and then stand up. I think he was a little deaf, +and had not heard what was said. + +"Why, what do you want?" he said. + +"What sign will you give?" asked Mr. Cornish. + +"No sign at all. Take your own time. God's will be done," said my Lord; +and again applied himself to the block, his man helping him as before, +and then standing back. + +"I hope you forgive me," said the headsman, before he was down. + +"I do," said my Lord; and that was the last word that he spoke; for the +headsman immediately stepped up, so soon as he was down, and with one +blow cut his head all off, except a bit of skin, which he cut through +with his knife. + +Then he lifted up the head, and carried it to the four sides of the +scaffold by the hair, crying: + +"Here is the head of a traitor," as the custom was. My Lord's face +looked very peaceful. + + * * * * * + +I rode home again alone, thinking of what I had seen, and the innocent +blood that was being shed, and wondering whether this might not be the +last shed for that miserable falsehood. But even after that sight, the +thought of my Cousin Dorothy was never very far away; and before I was +home again I was once more thinking of her more than of that from which +I was just come, or of that to which I was going, for I was to see His +Majesty that evening and so to France next day. + + + + +PART III + + + + +CHAPTER I + + +It was on a very stormy evening, ten months later, that I rode again +into London, on my way from Rome and Paris. + + * * * * * + +Now, here again, I must omit altogether, except on one or two very +general points, all that had passed since I had gone away on the day +after my Lord Stafford's execution on Tower Hill. It is enough to say +that I had done my business in Paris very much to His Majesty's +satisfaction, as well as to that of others; and that M. Barillon himself +had urged me to stay there altogether, saying that I could make a career +for myself there (as the Romans say), such as I could never make in +England. But I would not, though I must confess that I was very much +tempted to it; and I know now, though I did not know it altogether then, +that there were just two things that prevented me--and these were that +His Majesty and my Cousin Dorothy were in England and not France. + +Of my Cousin Dorothy I had heard scarcely anything at all; for the last +letter I had had from Hare Street was at Eastertide; and Tom said not +very much about his daughter, except that she was pretty well; and that +he thought of taking her to town in the summer for a little. The rest of +his letter was, two-thirds of it all about Hare Street and the lambs and +how the fruit promised; and one-third of the affairs of the kingdom. + +These affairs, of which I learned from other sources besides my Cousin +Tom, were, in brief, as follows. + +His Majesty, for the first time, since he had come to the throne, had +shewn an extraordinary open courage in dealing with the country-party. +(I must confess that my success in France was not wholly without +connection with this. He was so much strengthened in French affairs that +he felt, I suppose, that he could act more strongly at home.) + +First, in January, he had dissolved the Parliament that had threatened +the exclusion of the Duke of York, and that would vote him no money till +he would yield. First he prorogued it, though there was a great clamour +in his very presence; and then he dissolved it, coming in so early in +the morning that none suspected his design. + +Then he summoned a new Parliament to meet at Oxford: for at Oxford he +knew he would have the support of the city, whereas at London he had +not. That Parliament at Oxford will never be forgotten, I think; for it +was more like an armed camp than a Parliament. Both parties went armed. +My Lord Shaftesbury, in order to rouse the feeling on his side, went +there in a borrowed coach without his liveries, as if he feared arrest +or even death. But His Majesty answered that by himself going with all +his guards about him, as if for the same reason. There were continual +brawls in the city, and duels too. The parties went about like companies +of cats and dogs, snarling and spitting at one another continually; and +so fierce was the feeling that nothing could be done. My Lord +Shaftesbury's creatures were still strong enough to hold their own; and +at last His Majesty did the bravest thing he had ever done. He caused a +sedan-chair to be brought privately to his lodgings, and his crown and +robes to be put in there. Then he went in himself, and away to where the +House of Lords was sitting, and before anyone could utter a word, he +dissolved the Parliament once more, and altogether, and never again +summoned another. + +But that was not all. + +First, it appeared as if even His Majesty himself was frightened at what +he had done, for he allowed my Lord Archbishop of Armagh, Dr. Oliver +Plunket, to be convicted and executed in London, clean contrary to all +evidence or right or justice--just because he was a Papist, and the +popular cry had been raised against him that he was conspiring to bring +the French over to Ireland, whereas he was a good and kindly old man, +who lived in the greatest simplicity and neither did nor designed harm +to any living creature. (I do not know whether it was the name _France_ +that frightened the King; but certainly at that time I was engaged on +his behalf in some transactions with that country which would have +ruined him had they ever been known.) But then he recovered himself, +after the sacrifice of one more Catholic, and did what he should have +done a great while ago, and caused my Lord Shaftesbury to be arrested +and sent to the Tower on a charge of fomenting insurrection, which was +precisely what my Lord had been doing for the last two years at least. + +But His Majesty's scheme fell through; for the sheriffs, who were Whigs, +and on my Lord's side, therefore, packed the grand jury of the City and +acquitted him. + +Then there was another affair of which I, in my business in France, saw +something of the other side. My negotiations were coming to a successful +end, when news came over to Paris that the Prince William of Orange was +in England, and made much of by His Majesty. This last was a lie; but I +wrote across to His Majesty of what a bad impression such a rumour made; +and urged him to make amends--which he did very handsomely. The Duke of +Monmouth too was back again in London, and so was the Duke of York; so +the chess-pieces were all again for the present on the squares on which +the game had begun. It was also a little satisfaction to me to hear that +Her Grace of Portsmouth had urged the Duke of York's return; for I +thought myself not a little responsible for her change of face. Once +again, however, the Duke returned to finish affairs in Scotland, and +then came back to Court; and it was on his journey there that the +_Gloucester_ was wrecked, and His Royal Highness so nearly drowned. + +The Duke of Monmouth however saw that affairs were moving against him; +so he determined on a very bold stroke; and, after returning to England +once more without His Majesty's leave, went through all the country as +if on a royal progress; and it was astonishing how well he was received. +It was then that Mr. Chiffinch wrote to me at length, telling me of the +spies he had sent to follow the Duke everywhere, and asking whether I +would not come over myself to help in it. But I was just considering +whether I would not go to Rome; and, indeed, before I could make up my +mind, another letter came saying that the Duke was to be arrested, and +then let out on bail, and that he could do no more harm for the present. +So I went to Rome, and there I stayed a good while, reporting myself and +all that I had done, and being received very graciously by those who had +sent me. + +Since then, not very much of public import had happened, until in the +first week in November I received in Paris a very urgent letter from Mr. +Chiffinch telling me to return at once; but no more in it than that. + + * * * * * + +It was a very stormy night, as I have said, when I rode in over London +Bridge to where the lights of the City shone over the water. + +I was very content at my coming; for in spite of all my resolutions, it +was a terrible kind of happiness to me to be in the same country (and so +near to her, too) as was my Cousin Dorothy. I had striven to put her out +of my head, I had occupied myself with that which is the greatest of all +sports--and that is the game that Kings play in secret--I had become +something of a personage, and rode now with four servants, instead of +one. Yet never could I forget her. But I was resolved to play no more +with such nonsense; to live altogether in London, and to send my men in +a day or two to get my things from Hare Street. It often appears to me +very strange, when I see some great man go by whose name is in all men's +mouths for some office he holds or for his great wealth or power, to +reflect that he has his secret interests as much as any, and is moved by +them far more deeply than by those public matters for which men think +that he cares. I was not yet a great personage, though I meant to be so; +and my name was in no men's mouths, for it was of the very essence of +what I did that it should not be; yet I was held in high consideration +by two kings. But for all that, as I turned westwards from London +Bridge, I looked northwards up Gracechurch Street, and longed to be +riding to Hare Street, rather than to Whitehall. + + * * * * * + +It was strange, and yet very familiar too, to go up those stairs again, +all alone--(for I had sent my men on to Covent Garden, where I had taken +two sets of lodgings now, instead of one)--to tell the servant that Mr. +Chiffinch looked for me, and to be conducted by him straight through to +the private closet where he awaited me over his papers. I was in my +boots, all splashed, and very weary indeed. Yet I had learned, ever +since the day when His Majesty had found fault with me so long ago, +never to delay even by five minutes, when kings call. + +"Well?" I said; as I came in. + +"Well!" said he; and took me by the hands. + +Now it may seem surprising that I could tolerate such a man as was Mr. +Chiffinch, still more that I should have become on such terms with him. +The truth is, that I regarded him as two men, and not one. On the one +side he was the spy, the servant, the panderer to the King's more +disgraceful secrets; on the other he was a man of an extraordinary +shrewdness, utterly devoted to His Majesty, and very competent indeed in +very considerable affairs. If ever the secret memoirs of Charles II. see +the light of day, Mr. Chiffinch will be honoured and admired, as well as +contemned. + +"First sup;" he said. "I have all ready: and not one word till you are +done." + +He took me through into a little dining-room that was opposite the +closet; and here was all that a hungry man might desire of cold meats +and wine. He had had it set out, he told me ever since five o'clock (for +I had sent to tell him I would be there that night). + +While I ate he would say nothing at all of the business on hand; but +talked only of France and what I had done there. He told me the King was +very greatly pleased; and there were rewards if I wished them--or even a +title, though he was not sure of what kind, for I was a very young man. + +"He vows you have done a thousand times more than the Duchess of +Portsmouth in all her time. But I would recommend you to take nothing. +It will not be forgotten, you may be sure. If you took anything now, it +would make you known, and ruin half your work. If you will take my +advice, Mr. Mallock, you will tell the King, Bye and bye; and have a +peerage when the time comes." + +Now of course these thoughts had crossed my mind too: but it was more to +hear them from a man like this. I nodded at him but said nothing, +feigning that my mouth was full; for indeed I did not quite know what to +say. I need not say that the thought of my Cousin Dorothy came to me +again very forcibly. At least I should have shewn her what I could do. + +When I was quite done, Mr. Chiffinch carried me back to the parlour; and +there, having locked the door, he told me what was wanted of me. + +When he had done, I looked at him in astonishment. "You are as sure as +that?" I said. + +"We are sure, beyond the very leastest doubt, that at last there is a +plot to kill the King. There are rumours and rumours. Well, these are of +the right kind. And we are convinced that my Lord Shaftesbury is behind +it, and my Lord Essex, and Mr. Sidney; and who else we do not know. My +men whom I sent to spy out how Monmouth was received in the country, +tell me the same. But the trouble is that we have no proof at all; and +cannot lay a finger on them. And there is only that way, that I told you +of, to find it out." + +"That I should mix with them--feign to be one of them!" said I. + +The man threw out his hands. + +"Mr. Mallock," he said, "I told the King you were too nice for it. He +said on the contrary that he was sure you would do it; that it was not a +matter of niceness, but of plot against counterplot." + +"A pretty simile!" I said with some irony; for I confess I did not like +the idea; though I was far from sure I would not do it in the end. + +"'If one army is besieging a castle or town,' said he, 'and mines +beneath the ground after nightfall secretly, is it underhand action to +do the same, and to countermine them?' But I said I was not sure what +you would think of it. You see, Mr. Mallock, I scarcely know a single +person who unites the qualities that you do. We must have a gentleman, +or he would never be accepted by them; and he must be a shrewd man too. +Well, I will not say we have no shrewd gentlemen: but what shrewd +gentlemen have we, think you, who are not perfectly known--and their +politics?" + +"The Duchess of Portsmouth knows me," said I, beginning to hesitate. + +"But she does not know one word of this affair; nor will they tell her. +She is far too loyal for that." + +"But she will have told others what I am." + +"It is not likely, Mr. Mallock. We must take our chance of it. Truly I +see no one for it but yourself. I would not have sent for you, if I had, +for you were very useful in France. But the difficulty is, you see, that +we can take no observable precautions. We have doubled the guards inside +the palace at night; but we dare not in the day; for if that were known, +they would suspect that we knew all, and would be on their guard. As it +is, they have no idea that we know anything." + +"How do they mean to do it?" + +"That again we do not know. If they can find a fanatic--and there are +plenty of the old Covenanting blood left--they might shoot His Majesty +as he sits at supper. Or they may drag him out of his coach one day, as +they did with Archbishop Sharpe. Or they might poison him. I have the +cook always to taste the dishes before they come into Hall; but who can +guard against so many avenues?" + + * * * * * + +I sat considering; but I was so weary that I knew I could decide nothing +rightly. On the one side the thing appealed to me; for there was danger +in it, and what does a young man love like that? And there was a great +compliment in it for me--that I should be the one man they had for the +affair. Yet it did not sound to me very like work for a gentleman--to +feign to be a conspirator--to win confidence and then to betray it, in +however a good cause. + +What astonished me most however was the thought that the country-party +had waxed as desperate as this. Certainly their tide was going down--as +I had heard in France; but I did not know it was gone so low as this. +And that they who had lied and perjured themselves over the Oates +falsehoods, and had used them, and had kept the people's suspicions +alive, and had professed such loyalty, and had been the cause of so much +bloodshedding--that these men should now, upon their side, enter upon +the very design that they had accused the Catholics of--this was very +nearly enough to decide me. + +"Well," said I, "you must give me twenty-four hours to determine in. I +am drawn two ways. I do not know what to do." + +"I can assure you," said the page eagerly, "that His Majesty would give +you almost anything you asked for--if you did this, and were +successful." + +I pursed my lips up. + +"Perhaps he would," I said. "But I do not know that I want very much." + +"Then he would give you all the more." + +I stood up to take my leave. + +"Well, sir," I said, "I must go home again and to bed. I am tired out. I +will be with you again to-morrow at the same time." + +He rose to take me to the outer door. + +"You will not want to go to Hare Street this time," he said, smiling. + +"To Hare Street!" I said. "Why should I go there?" + +"Well--the pretty cousin!" said he. + +I set my teeth. I did not like Mr. Chiffinch's familiarities. + +"Well, then, why should I not go?" I asked. + +"Why: she is here! Did you not know?" + +"Here!--in London." + +"Aye: in Whitehall. I saw her only yesterday." + +"In Whitehall! What do you mean, Mr. Chiffinch?" + +I suppose my face went white. I knew that my heart beat like a hammer. + +"Why, what I say!" said he. "Why do you look like that, Mr. Mallock?" + +"Tell me!" I cried. "Tell me this instant!" + +"Why: she is Maid of Honour to Her Majesty. The Duchess of Portsmouth is +protecting her." + +"Where is she?" + +"Why--" + +"_Where is she?_" + +"She is with the rest, I suppose.... Mr. Mallock! Mr. Mallock! Where are +you going?" + +But I was gone. + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +When I was out in the air I stopped short; and then remembering that Mr. +Chiffinch would be after me perhaps, and would try to prevent me, I went +on as quick as I could, turned a corner or two in that maze of passages, +and stopped again. As yet I had no idea as to what to do; my brain +burned with horror and fury; and I stood there in the dark, clenching my +hands again and again, with my whip in one of them. It was enough for me +that my Cousin Dolly was in that den of tigers and serpents that was +called the Court, and under the protection of the woman once called +Carwell. There was not one thought in my brain but this--all others were +gone, or were but as phantoms--the King, the Duke, Monmouth, the +Queen--they would be so many wicked ghosts, and no more--before me--and +I would go through them as through smoke, to tear her out of it. + +I suppose that some species of sanity returned to me after a while, for +I found myself presently pacing up and down the terrace by the river, +and considering that this was a strange hour--eight o'clock at night, to +be searching out one of Her Majesty's ladies; and, after that, little by +little, persons and matters began to take their right proportions on +them again. I could not, I perceived, merely demand where Mistress +Jermyn lodged, beat down her door and carry her away with me safe to +Hare Street. Their Majesties of England still stood for something in +Whitehall, and so did reason and commonsense, and Dolly's own good name. +I began to perceive that matters were not so simple. + +I do not think I reasoned at all as to her dangers there; but I was as +one who sees a flower on a dunghill. One does not argue about the +matter, or question whether it be smirched or not, nor how it got there. +Neither did I consider at all how my cousin came to be at Court, nor +whether any evil had yet come to her. I did not even consider that I did +not know whether she were but just come, or had been there a great +while. I considered only that she must be got out of it--and how to set +about it. + +I might have stood and paced there till midnight, had not one of the +sentinels at the water-gate--placed there I suppose, as Mr. Chiffinch +had told me just now, as an additional security, after nightfall--stepped +out from his place and challenged me. I had had the word, of course, as I +came in; and I gave it him, and he was contented. But I was not. Here, +thought I, is my opportunity. + +"Here," said I, "can you tell me where Mistress Dorothy Jermyn is +lodged?" + +He was a young fellow, plainly from the country, as I saw, by his look +in the light of the lantern he had. + +"No, sir," he said. + +"Think again," I said. "She is under the protection of Her Grace of +Portsmouth. She is one of the Queen's ladies." + +"Is she a little lady, sir--from the country--that came last month?" + +"Yes," I said, feigning that I knew all about it, and trying to control +my voice. "That is she." + +"Why, she is with the others, sir," he said. + +"She is not with the Duchess then?" + +"No, sir; I know she is not. There is no lady with the Duchess beside +her own. I was on my duty there last week." + +This was something of a relief. At least she was not with that woman. + +Now I knew where the Queen's Maids lodged. It was not an hundred yards +away, divided by a little passage-way from Her Majesty's apartment, and +adjoining the King's, with a wall between. There were five of these; +besides those who lodged with their families--but they changed so +continually that I could not be sure whether I knew any of them or not. +I had had a word or two once with Mademoiselle de la Garde; but she was +the only one I had ever spoken with; and besides, she might no longer be +there; and she was a great busybody too; and beyond her I knew only that +there was an old lady, whose name I had forgot, that was called +Governess to them all and played the part of duenna, except when she +could be bribed by green oysters and Spanish wine, not to play it. Such +fragments of gossip as that was all that I could remember; as well as +certain other gossip too, as to the life of these ladies, which I strove +to forget. + +However, I could do nothing at that instant, but bid the man good-night, +and go up into the palace again with a brisk assured air, as if I knew +what I was about. A bell beat eight from the clock-tower, as I went. +Then when I had turned the corner to the left, I stopped again to reckon +up what I knew. + +This did not come to very much. Her Majesty, I knew, was attended always +by two Maids of Honour at the least; and at this hour would be, very +likely, at cards with them, if there were no reception or entertainment. +If there were, then all would be there, and Dolly with them; and even in +that humour I did not think of forcing my way into Her Majesty's +presence and demanding my cousin. These receptions or parties or some +such thing, were at least twice or three times a week, if Her Majesty +were well. The reasonable thing to do, I confess, was to go home to +Covent Garden, quietly; and come again the next day and find out a +little; but there was very little reason in me. I was set but upon one +thing; and that was to see Dolly that night with my own eyes; and assure +myself that matters were, so far, well with her. + +At the last I set out bravely, my legs carrying me along--as it appears +to me now--of their own accord: for I cannot say that I had formed any +design at all of what I should do; and there I found myself after a +minute or two of walking in the rain, at the door of the lodgings where +all the ladies that had not their families at Court lived together. +There were three steps up to the heavy oaken door that was studded over +with nails; and in the little window by the door a light was burning. I +had come by the sentinel that stood before the way up to the King's +lodgings, and had given him the word; but I saw that he was watching me, +and that I must shew no hesitation. I went therefore up the steps, as +bold as a lion, and knocked upon the oaken door. + +I waited a full minute; but there was no answer; so I knocked again, +louder; and presently heard movements within, and the sound of the bolts +being drawn. Then the door opened, but only a little; and I saw an old +woman's face looking at me. + +She said something; but I could not hear what it was. + +"Is Mistress Jermyn within doors?" I asked. + +The old face mumbled at me; but I could not hear a word. "Is Mistress +Jermyn within?" I asked again. + +Once again the face mumbled at me; and then the door began to close. + +This would never do; so I set my foot against it, suddenly all overcome +with impatience--(for I was in no mood to chop words)--and with the same +kind of fury that had seized me in Mr. Chiffinch's rooms. I saw red, as +the saying is; and it was not likely that a deaf old woman would stop +me. She fluttered the door passionately; and then, as I pushed on it, +she cried out. There was a great rattle of footsteps, and as I came into +the little paved entrance, a heavy bald fellow ran out of the room where +I had seen the light--(which was the porter's parlour)--in his +shirt-sleeves, very angry and hot-looking. + +He looked at me, like a bull, with lowered head; and I saw that he +carried some weapon in his hand. + +"Is Mistress Jermyn within doors?" I asked, putting on a high kind of +air. + +"Who the devil are you?" said he. + +I was not going to argue that point, for it was the weakest spot in my +assault. So I sat down on the stairs that rose straight up to the first +floor. (It was a little oak-panelled entrance that I was in, with a +single lamp burning in a socket on the wall.) + +"You will first answer my question," I said. "Is Mistress Jermyn within +doors?" + +Then he came at me, thinking, I suppose that my sitting down gave him +an advantage, and he lifted his weapon as he came. I had no time to draw +my own sword--which was besides, somewhere between my legs; but I rose +up, and, as I rose, struck out at his chin with all my force, with my +whole weight behind. + +He staggered back against the doorway he had come out by; and the same +moment two things happened. The old woman screamed aloud; and Dolly +sprang suddenly out on to the head of the stairs, from a door that +opened there, full into the light of the lamp. + +"Why-" cried she. + +"Oh! there you are," I said bitterly. "Then Mistress Jermyn is within +doors." + +Then I turned and went straight upstairs after her; and, as I went heard +the ring of running footsteps in the paved passage out of doors, and +knew that the guard was coming up. The fellow still leaned, dazed, +against the doorpost; and the old woman was pouring out scream after +scream. + +I went after Dolly straight into the room from which she had come. It +was a little parlour, very richly furnished, with candles burning, and +curtains across the windows. It looked out towards the river, I suppose. +Dolly was standing, as pale as paper; but I could not tell--nor did I +greatly care--whether it were anger or terror. I think I must have +looked pretty frightening--(but then, she had spirit enough for +anything!)--for I was still in my splashed boots and disordered dress, +and as angry as I have ever been in my life. I could see she was not +dressed for Her Majesty; so I supposed--(and I proved to be right)--that +she was not in attendance this evening. It was better fortune than I +deserved, to find her so. + +"Now," said I, "what are you doing here?" + +(I spoke sharply and fiercely, as to a bad child. I was far too angry to +do otherwise. As I spoke, I heard the guard come in below; and a clamour +of voices break out. I knew that they would be up directly.) + +"Now," I said again, "you have your choice! Will you give me up to the +guard; or will you hear what I have to say? You can send them away if +you will. You can say I am your cousin?" + +She looked at me; but said nothing. + +"Oh! I am not drunk," I said. "Now, you can--" + +Then came a thunder of footsteps on the stairs; and I stopped. I knew I +had broken every law of the Court; I had behaved unpardonably. It would +mean the end of everything for me. But I would not, even now, have asked +pardon from God Almighty for what I had done. + +Then Dolly, with a gesture, waved me aside; and confronted the serjeant +on the threshold. + +"You can go," she said. "This is my cousin. I will arrange with them +below." + +The man hesitated. Over his shoulder I could see a couple more faces, +glaring in at me. + +Dolly stamped her foot. + +"I tell you to go. Do you not hear me?" + +"Mistress--" began the man. + +"How dare you disobey me!" cried Dolly, all aflame with some emotion. +"This is my own parlour, is it not?" + +He still looked doubtfully; and his eyes wandered from her to me, and +back again. He was yet just without the room. Then Dolly slammed to the +door, in a passion, in his very face. + +Then she wheeled on me, like lightning. (I heard the men's footsteps +begin to go downstairs.) + +"Now you will explain, if you please--" she began, with a furious kind +of bitterness. + +"My maid," said I, "that kind of talk will not do with me"--(for at +her tone my anger blazed up higher even than hers). "It is I who have to +ask Why and How?" + +"How dare you--" she began. + +I went up without more ado, and took her by the shoulders. Never in all +the time I had known her, had the thought ever come to me, that one day +I might treat her so. She struggled violently, and seemed on the point +of crying out. Then she bit her lip; but there was no yielding in me; +and I compelled her backwards to a chair. + +"You will sit there," I said. "And I shall stand. I will have no +nonsense at all." + +She looked at me, I thought, with more hate than I had ever seen in +human eyes; glaring up at me with scorn and anger and resentment all +mingled. + +"Yes--you can bully maids finely--" she said. "You can come and +cringe for their protection first--" + +I laughed, very short and harsh. + +"That manner is of no good at all--" I said. "You will answer my +questions. How did you come here? How long have you been here?" + +She said nothing; but continued to look at me. Then again my anger rose +like a wave. + +"Do you think to stare me down?" I said. "If you will not answer me, +I'll begone to those who will." + +"You dare not!" + +"Dare not! Do you think to frighten me?--Dolly, my dear, I am not in +the mood to argue. Will you tell me how you came here, and how long ago? +I must have an answer before I go." + +For an instant she was silent. + +"Will you go straight home again if I tell you?" + +"Yes--I will promise that," said I--for now that I had seen her with +my own eyes most of what I desired was done. The rest could wait twelve +hours. + +"Well, then," she said, "I have been here a month; and my father put me +here." + +"Your father!" + +"Yes, my father. Have you anything to say against him?" + +"No: I will say it to him." + +I wheeled about to go to the door. + +"You have done enough mischief then, you think!" sneered Dolly. + +I turned about again. + +"Mischief!" + +"Why, you have ruined my name," said Dolly, with the savage look in her +eyes still there. "But you did not think of that! You thought only of +yourself. The whole palace will know to-morrow that you beat down the +porter to force your way in. And it will not lose in the telling." + +I had nothing to say to that. It was true enough, and the very kind of +talk with which the Court continually diverted itself. But I would not +show my dismay. Indeed the very thought of any trouble to her had no +more occurred to my mind than the consequences to a charging bull. + +"We will see about that," I said, "when I speak with His Majesty." + +Dolly laughed again, but without merriment. + +"Oh! you will do this and that, no doubt," she said. "And when shall you +see His Majesty?" + +I took out my watch. + +"It is nearly nine," I said. "I shall see His Majesty in thirteen hours. +You had best be packing your valises. We shall ride at noon." + +I waited no more to hear her laugh, as she did again; but went out and +down the staircase. The porter's chamber had its door half open: I +pushed the door and went in. The fellow started up. + +"Here is a guinea," said I, throwing one upon the table; "and my +apologies. But 'twas you that began it!" + +Then I turned and went out. + +As I came down the steps into the little lamplit way, a man was coming +swiftly up it from the direction of the court, with one of the guards +behind him. I stopped short, thinking I was to be arrested. But it was +the page. + +"Good God!" he said. "You have done finely indeed!" + +I was still all shaking; and I simulated anger without any difficulty. + +"And whose fault is that?" said I, as if in a fury. "Do you think--" + +"And His Majesty may come by at any instant!" he said. + +"Why; that is what I wish. In any case I must see him at ten o'clock +to-morrow." + +"You are mad!" he said. "You had best begone to the country before dawn: +and even that will not save you." He looked over his shoulder at the +young man who had fetched him, and who now stood waiting. + +"Save me! What have I done? I have but been to visit my cousin." (I said +this very loud, that the guard might hear.) + +Again Mr. Chiffinch looked over his shoulder, and back again. I could +see the shine of lanterns where others waited behind. We were just +outside the King's lodging. + +"Well, sir," he said. "But you will go now, will you not?" + +"Why, yes," I said. "And I will be with you at half-past nine +to-morrow." + +He beckoned the young soldier up. + +"See this gentleman to the gate," he said. "He will find his way home, +after that." + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +I spent a very heavy evening before I went to bed; and when I was there +I could not sleep; for it appeared to me that I had made a great fool of +myself, having injured my own prospects and done no good to anyone. I +understood perfectly that I had acted in an unpardonable manner; for Her +Majesty's Maids of Honour were kept, or were supposed to be kept, in +very great seclusion at home, as if they were Vestal virgins--which was +indeed a very great supposition. Tale after tale came back to my mind of +those Maids in the past--of Mademoiselle de la Garde herself, of Miss +Stewart, Miss Hyde, Miss Hamilton, and others like them--some of whom +were indeed good, but had the greatest difficulty in remaining so; for +the Court of Charles was a terrible place for virtue. It was astonishing +to me that the horror of the place had not before this affected me; but +it is always so. We are very philosophical, always, over the wrongs that +do not touch ourselves. + +As to how my Cousin Dolly came to be in such a place, I began to think +that I understood. It must all have dated from that unhappy visit of the +Duke of Monmouth to Hare Street; my Cousin Tom must have followed up +that strange introduction, and the affair must have been worked through +Her Grace of Portsmouth. I think I could have taken my Cousin Tom by the +throat, and choked him, as I thought of this. + +Meantime I had no idea as to what I should do the next day--except, +indeed, see His Majesty, and say, perhaps, one tenth of what I felt. I +had told Dolly we should ride at noon next day; I was beginning to +wonder whether this prediction would be fulfilled. Yet, though I had +begun to consider myself more than in the first flush, I still felt my +anger rise in me like a tide whenever I regarded the bare facts. But +mere anger would never do; and I set myself to drive it down. Besides, +it would be there, I knew, and ready, if I should need it on the next +day. + + * * * * * + +When I arrived at Mr. Chiffinch's the next morning, I found him in a +very grave mood. He did not rise as I came in, but nodded to me, only. + +"Sit down, Mr. Mallock," said he. "This is a very serious affair." + +"So I think," I said. + +He waved that away. + +"His Majesty hath heard every word of it, with embellishments. He is +very angry indeed. Nothing but what you have done for him lately could +have saved you; and even now I do not know--" + +"Man," I said, "do not let us leave such talk as this. It is not I who +am in question--" + +"I think you will find that it is," he answered me, with a quick look. + +I strove to be patient, and, even more, to appear so. + +"Well," I said, "what have I done? I am come back from France: I hear my +cousin is here; I go to see her; a fellow at the door is impertinent, +and I chastise him for it. Then I go upstairs to my cousin's parlour--" + +"That is the point," he interrupted. "It is not your cousin's. It is the +lodging of the Maids of Honour." + +Yes: he had me there. That was my weak point. But I would not let him +see that. + +"How was I to understand that distinction? I knocked at the door as +peaceably as any man could." + +"And after that," he said, smiling a little grimly, "after that, your +cousinly affection blinded you." + +"Well, that will do," I said. + +He smiled again. + +"Well; that is your case," he observed. "We will see how His Majesty +regards it. For I must tell you, Mr. Mallock, that for five minutes last +night it was touch and go whether you were not to be arrested. And I +will tell you this too, that if you had not come this morning, you +would have been brought." + +"As bad as that?" I said, laughing. (But I must confess that his gravity +dismayed me a little.) + +"As bad as that," he said. "You must go to His Majesty at ten." + +"As I arranged," I said. + +"As His Majesty arranged," said Mr. Chiffinch, rising: "and it is close +upon the time." + +And then he added, with the utmost gravity. + +"If there is one thing His Sacred Majesty is touchy upon, it is the +reputation of the ladies of the Court. I would remember that, sir, if I +were you." + +I observed a while ago that Pride is a good weapon if one has not +Humility. So is Anger a good weapon, if one has not Patience; and I do +not mean simulated Anger, but the passion itself, held in a leash, like +a dog, and loosed when the time comes. Now, so great was my feeling for +His Majesty, and that not only of an honest loyalty, but of a real kind +of respect that I had for his person and his parts--a real fear of +the very great strength of will that lay beneath his weakness--that I +understood that, unless my anger was fairly near the surface, I should +be beaten down when I came into his presence. So, as we went together +towards his lodgings, I looked to see that my anger was there, patted it +on the head so to say, and called it Good Dog: and was relieved to hear +it growl softly in answer. + +Plainly we were expected; because the two guards at the door stood aside +as soon as they saw us, and one of them called out something to a man +above. There were two more at the door itself; and we went in. + +As we came in at the door of the private closet, having had no answer to +our knock, His Majesty came in at the other with two dogs at his heels. +He paid no attention to me at all, and barely nodded at my companion. +Then he sat down to his table, and began to write; leaving us standing +there like a pair of schoolboys. + +Again I stroked the head of my anger. I could see the King was very +seriously displeased; and that unless I could keep myself determined, he +would have the best of the interview; and that I was resolved he should +not have. + +Suddenly he spoke, still writing. + +"You can go, Chiffinch," said he. "Come back in half an hour." + +He looked up for a flash and nodded; and I thought, God knows why, that +he had in mind the guards outside, and that they should be within call. +I knew precisely what my legal offence would be--that of brawling within +the precincts of the palace; and the penalties of this I did not care to +think about; for I was not sure enough what they were. + +When the door closed behind Mr. Chiffinch I felt more alone than ever. I +regarded the King's dark face, turned down upon his paper; his dusky +ringed hand with the lace turned back; the blue-gemmed quill that he +used, his great plumed hat. I looked now and again, discreetly, round +the room, at the gorgeous carvings, the tall presses, the innumerable +clocks, the brightly polished windows with the river flowing beneath. I +felt very little and lonely. Then, in a flash, the memory came back that +not fifty yards away was Dolly's little parlour, and Dolly herself; and +my determination surged up once more. + +Suddenly His Majesty threw down his pen. + +"Mr. Mallock," he said very sternly, "there is only one excuse for +you--that you were drunk last night. Do you plead that?" + +He was looking straight at me with savage melancholy eyes. I dropped my +own. + +"No, Sir." + +"You dare to say you were not drunk?" + +"Yes, Sir." + +His Majesty caught up an ivory knife and sat drawing it through his +fingers, still looking at me, I perceived; though I kept my eyes down. I +could see that he was violently impatient. + +"Mr. Mallock," said he, "this is intolerable. You come back from France +where you have done me good service--I will never deny that--and you +win my gratitude; and then you fling it all away by a piece of +unpardonable behaviour. Are you aware of the penalties for such +behaviour as yours?--brawling in the Palace itself, knocking my men +down, forcing your way into the lodgings of Her Majesty's Ladies? Have +you anything to say as to why you should not go before the Green Cloth?" + +A great surge of contradiction and defiance rose within me; but I choked +it down again. It was there if I should need it. The effort held me +steady and balanced. + +"Do you hear me, sir?" + +"Yes, Sir," said I. + +"Well--what have you to say?" + +He glanced past me towards the door; and I thought again that the guards +were in his mind. + +"Sir; I have a very great deal to say. But I fear I should offend Your +Majesty." + +The King jerked his head impatiently. + +"It is of the nature of a defence?" + +"Certainly, Sir." + +"Say it then. You need one." + +I raised my eyes and looked him in the face. He was frowning; and his +lips were moving. Evidently he was very angry; and yet he was perplexed, +too. + +"Sir, this is precisely what took place. I returned from France last +night, where, as Your Majesty was good enough to remark, I was able to +be of some little service. Upon my return I heard from Mr. Chiffinch +that my 'pretty cousin' as he was kind enough to call her, was in +Whitehall, as one of Her Majesty's ladies. I went to see my cousin, +perhaps a little precipitately, but I went peaceably, first inquiring of +one of Your Majesty's guards where her lodgings were. I knocked, +peaceably, upon the door. An old woman opened to me, and would give me +no intelligible answer to my--peaceable--inquiry as to whether my +cousin were there. I prevented her closing the door in my face, but +peaceably; then a fellow ran out, and asked me who the devil I was. +Again, peaceably, I inquired for my cousin. I even sat down upon the +stairs. Then he made at me; and in self-defence I struck him once, with +my hand. My cousin looked out of a door, and I went up into what I +understood was her parlour. When the guard came, she sent them away, +telling them I was her cousin. The serjeant was impertinent to her; and +she shut the door in his face. I remained five minutes, or six, with my +cousin, and then went peaceably away, and to my lodgings. That is the +entire truth, Sir, from beginning to end." + +The King laughed, very short and harsh. + +"You put it admirably," he said. "You are a diplomat, indeed." + +"That is my defence to Your Majesty; and it is perfectly true--neither +less nor more than the truth. But I am not only a diplomat." + +He did not fully understand me, I think, for he looked at me sharply. + +"Well?" he said. "What else?" + +"I have another defence for the public--Sir--not so courteous to Your +Majesty." + +He remained rigid an instant. + +"Then for the public," he said, "you do not think the truth enough?" + +"No, Sir; it is for Your Majesty that I think the truth too much." + +"I will have it!" cried the King. "This moment!" + +Interiorly I licked my lips, as a dog when he sees a bone. His Majesty +should have the truth now, with a vengeance. All was falling out exactly +as I had designed. He should not have kept me waiting so long; or I +might not have thought of it. + +"Well, Sir," said I, "you will remember I should not have dared to say +it to Your Majesty, had I not been commanded." + +He said nothing. Then, once more, I ruffled my growling dog's ears, so +that he snarled. + +"First, Sir; to the public I should say: If this is counted brawling, +what of other scenes in Whitehall on which no charge was made? What of +the sun-dial, smashed all to fragments one night, in the Privy Garden, +by certain of the King's Gentlemen whom I could name? What of the broken +door-knockers--not only in the City, but upon certain doors in Whitehall +itself--broken, again by certain of the King's Gentlemen whom I could +name? What of a scene I viewed myself in the Banqueting Hall last +Christmastide in Your Majesty's presence, when a Spanish gentleman +received full in his face a bunch of raisins, from--" + +"Ah!" snarled the King. "And you would say that to the public?" + +"Sir--that is only the exordium "--(my voice was raised a little, I +think, for indeed I was raging again by now). "Next, I would observe +that Mistress Jermyn is my own cousin, and that the hour was eight +o'clock in the evening--not nine, if I may so far correct Your Majesty; +whereas very different hours are kept by some members of the Court, and +the ladies are not their cousins at all." + +I had never seen the King so angry. He was unable to speak for fury. His +face paled to parchment-colour under his sallow skin, and his eyes +burned like coals. This time I lashed my anger, deliberately, instead of +tickling it merely. + +"Sir; that is not nearly all; but I will miss out a few points, and come +to my peroration. My peroration would be after this fashion. Such, I +would say, is the charge against one who has been of service to His +Majesty; and such is the Court (as I have described) of that same King. +There is not a Court in Europe that has a Prince so noble as our own can +be, of better parts, or of higher ambitions, or of so pure a blood. And +there is no Prince who is served so poorly; no Court that so stinks in +the nostrils of God and man, as does his. He is capable," I cried (for +by now I was lost to all consideration for myself; my loyalty and love +for him had come to the aid of my anger; and I saw that never again +should I have such an opportunity of speaking my mind), "He is capable +of as great achievements, as any Prince that has gone before him; for he +has already won back the throne which his fathers lost. Would it be of +service, I would say, to such a Prince as this, to punish a man who +would lay down his life for him to give him even a moment's pleasure; +and to let go scot-free men and women who have never done anything but +injure him?" + +I ceased; breathless, yet triumphing; for I knew that I had held His +Majesty with my words. How he would take it, when he recovered, I did +not know: nor did I greatly care. I had spoken my mind to him at last; +and what I had said was no more than my conviction. That blessed gift of +anger had done the rest: and, having done its work, retired again to +chaos; and left me clear-headed and master of myself. + +When I looked at him he was motionless. He was still very pale, but the +terrible brightness of his eyes was gone. + +Then he roused himself to sneer; but I did not care for that; for there +was no other way for him just then, consonant with his own dignity. + +"Very admirably preached!" said he; "even if a trifle treasonous." + +"I am pleased Your Majesty is satisfied," I said, with a little bow. + +Then he broke down altogether, in the only way that he could; he gave a +great spirt of laughter; then he leaned back and laughed till the tears +ran down. Presently he was quieter. + +"Oddsfish!" he cried, "this is a turning of tables indeed! I sent for +you, Mr. Mallock--" + +The door opened softly behind me; and a man put his head in. + +"Go away! go away!" cried the King. "Cannot you see I am being preached +to?" + +The door closed again. + +"I sent for you, Mr. Mallock, to reprimand you very severely. And +instead of that it is you who have held the whip. Little Ken is nothing +to it: you should have been a Bishop, Mr. Mallock." + +Again he spirted with laughter. Then he drew himself up in his chair a +little; and became more grave. + +"This is all very well," he said. "But I think I must get in my +reprimand, for all that. You will not be sent to the guard-room, or the +Green Cloth--(or whatever it is that would meet your case)--this time, +Mr. Mallock; I will deal with you myself. But it is a very serious +business, and your distinctions would not serve you in law. A sundial is +not so important as a Christian lady; and a bunch of raisins is not, +legally, a blow in the face. Still less are all the sundials and +Spaniards in the world, equal to one of Her Majesty's Maids of Honour. +You understand that?" + +I bowed again; reminding myself that I was not done with him, even yet. + +"Yes, Sir." + +"Consider yourself reprimanded severely, Mr. Mallock." + +I bowed; but I stood still. + +"You have my leave--Oh! by the way, Mr. Mallock; there are just ten +words I must have with you on the French affairs." + +He motioned to a seat. + +"I may kiss the hand that has beaten me?" said I. + +He laughed again. He was a very merry prince when he was in the mood. + +"It should be the other way about, I should think," he said. But he gave +me his hand; and I sat down. + + * * * * * + +All the while we were talking, still, with one-half of my mind I was +considering what was to be done next. It was a part, only, of my +business that had been done; yet how to accomplish the rest without +spoiling all? Presently His Majesty himself repeated that which Mr. +Chiffinch had already said to me; and spoke of some kind of recognition +that was due to me. That gave me my cue. + +"Your Majesty is exceedingly kind," I said. "But I trust I am not to be +dismissed from the King's service? Mr. Chiffinch appeared to think--" + +"Why, no," said he; "not even after all your crimes. Besides we have +something for you. Did he not tell you?" + +"Any public recognition, Sir," I said, "would effectually do so. The +very small value that my services may have would wholly be lost, if they +were known in any way." + +"Chiffinch said the same," observed the King meditatively. "But--" + +"Sir," I said, "might I not have some private recognition instead? There +is a very particular favour I have in mind, which would be private +altogether; and which I would take as a complete discharge of that which +Your Majesty has been good enough to call a debt of the King's." + +"Not money, man! Surely!" exclaimed the King in alarm. + +"Not in the least, Sir; it will not cost the exchequer a farthing." + +"Well, you shall have it then. You may be sure of that." + +"Well, Sir," said I, "it is a serious matter. Your Majesty will dislike +it exceedingly." + +He pursed his lips and looked at me sharply. + +"Wait!" he said. "It will not affect my honour or--or my religion in +any way?" + +I assumed an air of slight offence. + +"Sir; I should not be likely to ask it, if it affected Your Majesty's +honour. And as for religion--" I stopped: for one more opening +presented itself which I dared not neglect. From both his manner and his +words I saw that religion was not very far from his thoughts. + +"Well--sir," he said. "And what of religion?" + +"Sir, I pray every day for Your Majesty's conversion--" + +"Conversion, eh?" + +"Conversion to the Holy Catholic Church, Sir. I would give my life for +that, ten times over." + +"There! there! have done," said His Majesty, with a touch of uneasiness. + +"But I would not ask a pledge, blindfold, Sir; even to save all those +ten lives of mine." + +"One more than a cat, eh? Do you know, Mr. Mallock, you remind me +sometimes of a cat. You are so demure, and yet you can pounce and +scratch when the occasion comes." + +"I would sooner it had been a little dog, Sir," I said, glancing at the +spaniels that were curled up together before the fire. + +"Well--well; we are wandering," smiled the King. "Now what is this +favour?" + +I supposed I must have looked very grave and serious; for before I could +speak he leaned forward. + +"It is to count as a complete discharge, I understood you to say, Mr. +Mallock, for all obligations on my part. And there is no money in it?" + +"Yes, Sir," said I. "And there is no money in it." + +He must have seen I was serious. + +"Well; I take you at your word, sir. I will grant it. Tell me what it +is." + +He leaned back, looking at me curiously. + +"Sir," I said, "it is now about half-past ten o'clock. What I ask is +that my cousin, Mistress Dorothy Jermyn, receives an immediate dismissal +from Her Majesty's service; and is ordered to leave London with me, for +her father's house, at noon." + +His Majesty looked at me amazed. I think he did not know whether to be +angry, or to laugh. + +"Well, sir," he said at last. "That is the maddest request I have ever +had. You mean what you say?" + +"Certainly, Sir." + +"Well: you must have it then. It is the queerest kindness I have ever +done. Why do you ask it? Eh?" + +"Sir; you do not want my peroration over again!" + +His face darkened. + +"That is very like impudence, Mr. Mallock." + +"I do not mean it for such, Sir. It is the naked truth." + +"You think this is not a fitting place for her?" + +"I am sure it is not, Sir," I said very earnestly, "nor for any +country-maid. Would Your Majesty think--" + +He jerked his head impatiently. + +"What my Majesty thinks is one thing; what I, Charles Stuart, do, is +another. Well: you must have it. There is no more to be said." + +I think he expected me to stand up and take my leave. But I remained +still in my chair. + +"Well; what else, sir?" he asked. + +"Sir; it is near a quarter to eleven. I have not the order, yet." + +"Bah! well--am I to write it then?" + +"If Your Majesty will condescend." + +"And what shall I say to the Queen? It is not very courteous to dismiss +a lady of hers so abruptly." + +"Sir; tell Her Majesty it is a debt of honour." + +He wheeled back to his table, took up a sheet and began to write. When +he had done he scattered the sand on it, and held it out to me, his +mouth twitching a little. + +"Will that serve?" he said. + +I have that paper still. It is written with five lines only, and a +signature. It runs as follows: + + "This is to command Mistress Dorothy Jermyn, late Maid + of Honour to Her Majesty, now dismissed by the King, + though through no fault of her own, to leave the Court at + Whitehall at noon to-day, in company with her cousin Mr. + Roger Mallock, and never to return thither without his consent. + +"CHARLES R." + +Then followed the date. + +I had a criticism or two; but I dared not make them. + +"That is more than I could have asked, Sir. I am under an eternal +obligation to Your Majesty." + +"I daresay: but all mine are discharged to you, until you earn some +more. It might have meant a peerage, Mr. Mallock." + +"I do not regret it, Sir," I said. + +As I rose after kissing his hand, he said one more word to me. + +"You are either a very wise man, or a fool, Mr. Mallock. And by God I +do not know which. But I do know you are a very brave one." + +"I was a very angry one, Sir," said I. + +"But you are appeased?" + +"A thousand times, Sir." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +I knew I could never carry the matter through alone; so, upon leaving +the King's presence, I sought out Mr. Chiffinch immediately and told him +what had passed. + +He whistled, loud. + +"You are pretty fortunate," he said. "Many a man--" + +"I have no time for compliments," said I. "You must come with me to my +cousin at once. We must ride at noon; and it is close upon eleven." + +"You want me to plead for you, eh?" + +"Not at all," said I. "There will be no pleading. It is to certify only +that this is the King's writing, and that he means what he says." + +"Well, well," said Mr. Chiffinch. "And what of the matter I spoke to you +of last night? Have you decided? There is not much time to lose." + +"You must give me a day or two," I said. + + * * * * * + +It was he who knocked this time; and it was not until the old woman had +opened, and was curtseying to the King's page, that he called me up. + +"Come, Mr. Mallock. Your cousin is within." + +We went straight upstairs after the old lady; and upon her knock being +answered, she threw the door open. + +My Cousin Dolly was sitting over her needle, all alone. She looked, I +thought, unusually pale; but she flushed scarlet, and sprang up, so soon +as she saw me. + +"Good-day, Mistress Jermyn," said the page very courteously. "We are +come on a very sad errand--sad, that is, to those whom you will leave +behind." + +"What do you mean, sir?" asked Dolly, very fiercely. She did not give me +one look, after the first. + +He held out the paper to her. She took it, with fingers that shook a +little, and read it through at least twice. + +"Is this an insult, sir; or a very poor pleasantry?" (Her face was gone +pale again.) + +"It is neither, mistress. It is a very sober fact." + +"This is the King's hand?" she snapped. + +"It is," said Mr. Chiffinch. + +"Dolly," said I, "I told you to be ready by noon; but you would not +believe me. I suppose your packing is not done?" + +She paid me no more attention than if I had been a chair. + +"Mr. Chiffinch," said she, "you tell me, upon your honour, that this is +the King's hand, and that he means what is written here?" + +"I give you my honour, mistress," he said. + +She tossed the paper upon the table; she went swiftly across to the +further door, and opened it. + +"Anne!" she said. + +A voice answered her from within. + +"Put out my riding-dress. Pack all that you can, that I shall need in +the country. We have to ride at noon." She shut the door again, and +turned on us--or rather, upon Mr. Chiffinch. + +"Sir," she said, "you have done your errand. Perhaps you will now +relieve me of your company. I shall be awaiting my cousin, Mr. Roger +Mallock, as the King requires, at noon." + +"Dolly--" said I. + +She continued, looking through me, as through glass. + +"At noon: and I trust he will not keep me waiting." + +There was no more to be done. We turned and went out. + +"Lord! what a termagant is your pretty cousin, Mr. Mallock!" said my +companion when we were out of doors again. "You could have trusted her +well enough, I think." + +I was not in the mood to discuss her with him; I had other things to +think of. + +"Mr. Chiffinch," I said, "I am very much obliged to you; but I must be +off for my own packing." And I bade him good-day. + + * * * * * + +When I rode into the court, five minutes before noon, a very piteous +little group awaited me by the inner gate. Dolly, very white and angry, +stood by the mounting-block, striving to preserve her dignity. Her maid +was behind her, arguing how the bags should be disposed on the +pack-horse, with the fellow who was to lead it. Dolly's own horse was +not yet come; but as I rode up to salute her, he came out of an archway +led by a groom. + +I leapt off, and stood by the mounting-block to help her. Again it was +as if I were not there. She jerked her head to the man. + +"Help me," she said. + +He was in a quandary, for he could not leave the horse's head. + +"I am very sorry, Dolly," said I, "but you will have to put up for me +for once. Come." + +She gave a look of despair round about; but there was no help. + +"It is on the stroke of noon," I said. + +She submitted; but it was with the worst grace I have ever seen. She +accepted my ministrations; but it was as if I were a machine: not one +word did she speak, good or bad. + +By the time that she was mounted, her maid was up too, and the bags +disposed. + +"Come," I said again; and mounted my own horse. + +As we rode out through the great gate, the Clock Tower beat the hour of +noon. + + * * * * * + +I am weary of saying that my journeys were strange; but, certainly, this +was another of them. + + * * * * * + +Through the narrow streets I made no attempt to ride beside her. In the +van went three of my men; then rode I; then, about ten yards behind, +came Dolly and her maid. Then came two pack-horses, led by a fellow who +controlled them both; and my fourth man closed the dismal cavalcade. So +we went through the streets--all the way down the Strand and into the +City, wheeled to the left, and so out by Bishopsgate. It was a clear +kind of day, without rain: but the clouds hung low, and I thought it +would rain before nightfall. I intended to do the whole journey in a +day; so as to be at Hare Street before midnight at least. A night on the +way, and Dolly's company at supper, all alone with me, or even with her +maid, appeared to me too formidable to face. + +When we were out in the country, I reined my horse in. I saw a change +pass over Dolly's face; then it became like stone. + +"We have a long ride, for one day," said I. + +She made no answer. My anger rose a little. + +"My Cousin," I said, "I had the honour to speak to you." + +"I do not wish to have the dishonour of answering you," said Dolly. + +It was a weakness on her part to answer at all; but I suppose she could +not resist the repartee. + +"A very neat hit," I said. "Must all our conversation run upon these +lines?" + +She made no answer at all. + +"Anne," I said, "rein your horse back ten yards." + +"Anne," said Dolly, "ride precisely where you are." + +"Very good," said I. "I have no objection to your maid hearing what I +have to say. I thought it would be you that would object." + +"Anne," said Dolly, "did you pack the sarcenet?" + +"Yes, mistress." + +"Then tell me again the tale that you were--" + +I broke in with such fury that even Dolly ceased. + +"My Cousin," I said, "I have a louder voice than either of you; and I +shall use it, if you do not listen, so that the whole countryside shall +hear. I have to say this--that some time or another to-day I have to +have a private conversation with you. It is for you to choose the time +and place. If you give me no opportunity now, I shall make it myself, +later. Will you hear what I have to say now?" + +There was a very short silence. + +"Anne," said Dolly, "now that we can hear ourselves speak, will you tell +me again the tale that you began last night?" + +She said it, not at all lightly, but with a coldness and a distilled +kind of anger that gave me no choice. I lifted my hat a little; shook my +reins; and once more took up my position ten yards ahead. There was a +low murmur of voices behind; and then silence. It appeared that the tale +was not to be told after all. + + * * * * * + +We dined, very late, at a little inn, called the _Cross-Keys_, between +Edmonton and Ware. I remember nothing at all, either of the inn or the +host or the food--nothing but the name of the inn, for the name struck +me, with a dreary kind of wit, as reflective of the cross-purposes which +we were at. We three dined together, in profound silence, except when +Dolly addressed a word or two to her maid. As for me, she took the food +which I carved, all as if I were a servant, without even such a +thank-you as a man gives to a servant. + +We took the road again, about three o'clock; and even then the day was +beginning to draw in a little, very bleak and dismal; and that, too, I +took as a symbol of my heart within, and of my circumstances and +prospects. Certainly I had gained my desire in one way; I had got Dolly +away from Court; yet that was the single point I had to congratulate +myself upon. All else, it appeared, was ruined. I had lost all the +advantage, or very nearly all, that I had ever won from the King--(for I +knew, that although he had been merry at the end of the time, he would +not forget how I had worsted him)--and as for Dolly, I supposed she +would never speak to me again. It had been bad enough when I had left +Hare Street nearly a twelvemonth ago: my return to it now was a hundred +times worse. + +Although Dolly, however, would not speak to me, I was entirely +determined to speak to Dolly. I proposed to rehearse to her what I had +done, and why; and when that was over, I would leave it in her hands +whether I remained at Hare Street a day or two, or left again next +morning. More than a day or two, I did not even hope for. I had insulted +her--it seemed--beyond forgiveness. Yet, besides my miserableness, there +was something very like pleasure as well, though of a grim sort. I had +spoken my mind to her, pretty well, and would do so more explicitly; +and I was to speak my mind very well indeed to her father. There was a +real satisfaction to me in that prospect. Then, once more, I would shut +the door for ever on Hare Street, and go back again to town, and begin +all over again at the beginning, and try to retrieve a little of what I +had lost. Such then were my thoughts. + +We supped, at Ware--at the _Saracen's Head_, and the same wretched +performance was gone through as at the _Cross-Keys_. Night was fallen +completely; and we had candles that guttered not a little. Dolly was +silent, however, this time, even to her maid. She did not give me one +look, all through supper. + +When I came out afterwards to the horses, the yard was all in a mist: I +could see no more than a spot of light where the lamp should be by the +stable-door. The host came with me. + +"It has fallen very foggy, sir," he said. "Would it not be best to stay +the night?" + +I was considering the point before answering; but my cousin answered for +me, from behind. + +"Nonsense," said she. "I know every step of the way. Where are the +horses?" + +(Even that, I observed, she said to the host and not to me.) + +"The lady is impatient to get home," I said. "Is the fog likely to +spread far?" + +"It may be from here to Cambridge, sir," he said--"at this time of the +year." + +"Where are the horses?" said Dolly again. + +There was no help for it. Once more we mounted; Dolly, again, assisted +by the host, and not by me: but Anne was gracious enough to accept my +ministrations. + +For a few miles all went well: but the roads hereabouts were very soft +and boggy; it was next to impossible sometimes to know whether we were +right or not; and after a while one of my men waited for me--he that +carried the lantern to guide the rest of us. The first I saw of him was +his horse's ears, very black, like a pair of horns, against the lighted +mist. "Sir," he said, "I do not know the road. I can see not five yards, +light or no light." + +I called out to James. + +"James," said I, "do you know where we are?" + +"No, sir," said he, "at least not very well." + +"Cousin," I said--(for Dolly had reined up her horse close behind, not +knowing, I suppose, that I was so near). "Cousin, I am sorry to trouble +you; but unless you can lead us--" + +"Give me the lantern," she said sharply to my man. + +She took it from him, and pushed forwards. I wheeled my horse after her +and followed. The rest fell in behind somewhere. I did not say one word, +good or bad; for a certain thought had come to me of what might happen. +She thought, I suppose, that Anne was behind her. + +So impatient was my Cousin Dolly, that, certain of her road, as she +supposed, she urged her horse presently into a kind of amble. I urged +mine to the same; and so, for perhaps ten minutes, we rode in silence. I +could hear the horses behind--or rather the sucking noise of their +feet,--fall behind a little, and then a little more. The men were +talking, too; and so was Anne, to them--for she liked men's company, and +did not get very much of it in Dolly's service--and this I suppose was +the reason why they did not notice how the distance grew between us. +After about ten minutes I heard a man shout; but the fog deadened his +voice, so that it sounded a great way off; and Dolly, I suppose, thought +he was not of our party at all; for she never turned her head; and +besides, she was intent on hating me, and that, I think, absorbed her +more than she knew. I said nothing; I rode on in silence, seeing her +like an outline only in the dark, now and again--and, more commonly +nothing but a kind of lighted mist, now and then obscured. It appeared +to me that we were very far away to the right; but then I never +professed to know the way; and it was no business of mine. Truly the +very courses of nature fought against my cousin and her passionate ways. +Presently I turned at a sound; and there was James' mare at my heels. I +knew her even in the dark, by the white blaze on her forehead. I had +been listening for the voices; and had not noticed he was there. I +reined up, instantly; and as he came level I plucked his sleeve. + +"James," I whispered in Italian, lest Dolly should catch even a phrase +of what I said--"not a word. Go back and find the others. Leave us. We +will find our way." + +James was an exceedingly discreet and sensible fellow--as I knew. He +reined back upon the instant, and was gone in the black mist; and I +could hear his horse's footsteps passing into the distance. What he +thought, God and he alone knew; for he never told me. + +The soft sound of the hoofs was scarcely died away, before I too had to +pull in suddenly; for there were the haunches of Dolly's horse before +the very nose of my poor grey. She had halted; and was listening. I held +my breath. + +"Anne," she said suddenly. "Anne, where are you?" + +As in the Scripture--there was no voice nor any that answered. There was +no sound at all but the creaking of the harness, and the soft breathing +of the horses, for we had been coming over heavy ground. The world was +as if buried in wool. + +"Anne," she said again; and I caught a note of fear in her voice. + +"Cousin," said I softly, "I fear Anne is lost, and so are the rest. You +see you would not speak to me; and it was none of my business--" + +"Who is that?" said she sharply. But she knew well enough. + +I resolved to spare her nothing; for I was beginning to understand her a +little better. + +"It is Cousin Roger," I said. "You see you said you knew the road, and +so--" + +Then she lashed her horse suddenly; and I heard him plunge. But he could +not go fast, from the heaviness of the ground; and he was very weary +too, as were we all. Besides, she forgot that she carried the lantern, I +think; and I was able to follow her easily enough; as the light moved up +and down. Then the light halted once more; and I saw a great whiteness +beyond it which I could not at first understand. + +I came up quietly; and spoke again. + +"Dolly, my dear; we had best have a little truce--an armed truce, if you +will--but a truce. You can be angry with me again afterwards." + +"You coward!" she said, with a sob in her voice, "to lead me away like +this--" + +"My dear, it was you who did the leading. Do me bare justice. I have +followed very humbly." + +She made no answer. + +"Cousin; be reasonable," I said. "Let us find the way out of this; and +when we are clear you can say what you will--or say nothing once more." + +She took me at my word, and preserved her deadly silence. + +I slipped off my horse; she was within an arm's length, and, not +trusting her, I passed my arm with scarcely a noticeable movement +through her bridle. It was well that I did so; for an instant after she +tore at the bridle, not knowing I had hold of it, and lashed her horse +again, thinking to escape whilst I was on the ground. I was very near +knocked down by the horse's shoulder, but I slipped up my hand and +caught him close to the bit--holding my own with my other hand. + +"You termagant!" I said, as soon as I had them both quiet; for I was +very angry indeed to be treated so after all my gentleness. "No more +trust for me. It would serve you right if I left you here." + +"Leave me," she wailed, "leave me, you coward!" + +I set my teeth. + +"I shall not," I said. "I shall punish you by remaining. I know you hate +my company. Well, you will submit to it, then, because I choose so. Now +then, let us see--" + +Then she burst out suddenly into a passion of weeping. I set my teeth +harder than ever. There was only one way, after all, to get the better +of Dolly; and I had pitched on it. + +"Yes: it is very well to cry," I said. "You nearly had me killed just +now. Well: you will have to listen to me presently, whether you like it +or not. Give me the lantern." + +She made no movement. She had fought down the tears a little; but I +could hear her breath still sobbing. I reached up and took the lantern +from her right hand. + +"Now; where in God's name are we?" said I. + +We had ridden into some kind of blind alley, I presently saw; and that +was why Dolly's horse had halted. Even that I had not owed to her +goodwill. For we had ridden, I saw presently, lifting the lantern up and +down, into a great chalk pit; and must have turned off along the track +that led to it, from one of those sunken ways that drovers use to bring +their flocks up to the high road. That we were to the right of the high +road I was certain, of my own observation. _Ergo_; if we could get back +into the sunken way and turn to the right, we might find ourselves on +familiar ground again. However, I said nothing of this to Dolly. I was +resolved that she should suffer a little more first. I took the bridles +of the two horses more securely, slipping my hand with the lantern +through the bridle of my own, turned their heads round and walked +between them, looking very closely on this side and that, and turning my +lantern every way. After twenty yards I saw that I was right. The bank +on my left proved to be no bank, but the cliff-edge of the chalk pit +only, by which the sunken way passed very near. I led the horses round +to the right; and there were we, in the very situation I had surmised. +Still holding Dolly's bridle, I mounted my own horse; and when I had +done so, to secure myself and her the better, I pulled the reins +suddenly over her horse's head, and brought them into my left hand. + +"That is safer," I observed. "Now we can pretend to be friends again; +and hold that conversation of which I spoke after we left London." + +There was no answer, as we set out along the way. It was a little +clearer by now; and I could see the bank on my right. I glanced at her; +and in the light of the lantern I could see that she was sitting very +upright and motionless like a shadow. I lowered the lantern to the right +side, so that she was altogether in the dark and the bank illuminated. I +felt a little compassion for her indeed; but I dared not shew it. + +"Now, Cousin," I said, "I preached to His Majesty yesterday; and he +told me I should be a Bishop at least. Now it is you that must hear a +sermon." + +Again she said nothing. + +I had rehearsed pretty well by now all that I meant to say to her; and +it was good for me that I had, else I might have fallen weak again when +I saw her so unhappy. As it was I kept back some of the biting sentences +I had prepared. My address was somewhat as follows. We jogged forward +very gingerly as I spoke. + +"Cousin," I began, "you have treated me very ill. The first of your +offences to me was that, though I had earned, I think, the right to call +myself your friend, neither you nor your father gave me any hint +whatever of your going to Court. I know very well why you did not; and I +shall have a little discourse to make to your father upon the matter, at +the proper time. But for all that I had a right to be told. If you were +to go, I might at least have got you better protection in the beginning +than that of the--the--well--of Her Grace of Portsmouth. + +"Now all that was the cause of the very small offence that I committed +against you myself--that of forcing my way into your lodgings. For that +I offer my apologies--not for the fact, but for the manner of it. And +even that apology is not very deep: I shall presently tell you why. + +"The next of your offences to me was that open defiance which you +shewed, and some of the words you addressed to me, both then and +afterwards. You have told me I was a coward, several times, under +various phrases, and twice, I think, _sans phrase_. Cousin; I am a great +many things I should not be; but I do not think I am a coward; at least +I have never been a coward in your presence. Again, you have told me +that I was very good at bullying. For that I thank God, and gladly plead +guilty. If a maid is bent on her own destruction, if nothing else will +serve she must be bullied out of it. Again, I thank God that I was there +to do it." + +I looked at her out of the tail of my eye. Her head seemed to me to be a +little hung down; but she said nothing at all. + +"The third offence of yours is the intolerable discourtesy you have +shewn to me all to-day--and before servants, too. I put myself to great +pains to get you out of that stinking hole called Whitehall; I risked +His Majesty's displeasure for the same purpose: I have been at your +disposal ever since noon; and you have treated me like a dog. You will +continue to treat me so, no doubt, until we get to Hare Street; and you +will do your best no doubt to provoke a quarrel between your father and +myself. Well; I have no great objection to that; but I have not deserved +that you should behave so. I have done nothing, ever since I have known +you, but try to serve you--" (my voice rose a little; for I was truly +moved, and far more than my words shewed)--"You first treated me like a +friend; then, when you would not have me as a lover, I went away, and I +stayed away. Then, when you would not have me as a lover, and I would +not have you as my friend, I became, I think I may fairly say, your +defender; and all that you do in return--" + +Then, without any mistake at all, I caught the sound of a sob; and all +my pompous eloquence dropped from me like a cloak. My anger was long +since gone, though I had feigned it had not. To be alone with her there, +enclosed in the darkness as in a little room--her horse and mine nodding +their heads together, and myself holding her bridle--all this, and the +silence round us, and my own heart, very near bursting, broke me down. + +"Oh! Dolly," I cried. "Why are you so bitter with me? You know that I +have never thought ill of you for an instant. You know I have done +nothing but try to serve you--I have bullied you? Yes: I have; and I +would do the same a thousand times again in the same cause. You are +wilful and obstinate; but I thank God I am more wilful and obstinate +than you. I am sick of this fencing and diplomacy and irony. You know +what I am--I am not at all the fine gentleman that leaned his head on +the chimney-breast--that was make-believe and foolishness. I am a bully +and a brute--you have told me so--" + +"Oh!" wailed Dolly suddenly--no longer pretending; and I caught the +note in her voice for which I had been waiting. I dropped the lantern; +the horses plunged violently at the flare and the crash; but I cared +nothing for that. I dragged furiously on the bridle; and as the horses +swung together, I caught her round the shoulders, and kissed her +fiercely on the cheek. She clung to me, weeping. + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +Well; I had beaten her at last; and in the only way in which she would +yield. Weakness was of no use with her, nor gentleness, nor even that +lofty patronage which, poor fool! I had shewn her in the parlour at Hare +Street. She must be man's mate--which is certainly a rather savage +relation at bottom--not merely his pretty and grateful wife. This I +learned from her, as we rode onwards and up into the high road--(where, +I may say in passing, there was no sign of our party)--though she did +not know she was telling it me. + +"Oh! Roger," she said. "And I thought you were a--a pussy-cat." + +"That is the second time I have been told so in two days," I said. + +"Who told you so?" + +"His Majesty." + +"I thought His Majesty was wiser," said she. + +"He has been pretty wise, though," I said. "If it were not for him, we +should not be riding here together." + +"I suppose you made him do that too," she said. + + * * * * * + +But it was not only of Dolly that I had learned my lessons; it was of +myself also. I was astonished how inevitable it appeared to me now that +we should be riding together on such terms; and I understood that never, +for one instant, all through this miserable year away from her, had I +ever, interiorly, loosed my hold upon her. Beneath all my resolutions +and wilful distractions the intention had persevered. All the while I +was saying to myself in my own mind that I should never see Dolly again, +something that was not my mind--(I suppose my heart)--was telling me the +precise opposite. Well; the heart had been right, after all. + + * * * * * + +She asked me presently what I should say to her father. + +"I shall forgive him a great deal now, that I thought I never should," +I said with wonderful magnanimity. "A few sharp words only, and no more. +You see, my dear, it was through his sending you to Court--" + +"Yes: yes," she said. + +"He has behaved abominably, however," I said, "and I shall tell him so. +Dolly, my love." + +"Yes," said she. + +"I must go back very soon to town. I have been offered a piece of work; +and even if I do not accept it, I must speak of it to them." + +"Them?" + +"Yes, my dear. I must say no more than that. It is _secretum commissum_ +as we say in Rome." + +"And to think that you were a Benedictine novice!" exclaimed Dolly. + +We talked awhile of that then; she asked me a number of questions that +may be imagined under such circumstances: and my answers also can be +imagined; and we spoke of a great number of things, she and I riding +side by side in the dark, our very horses friendly one with another--she +telling me all of how she went to Court, and why she went, and I telling +her my side of the affair--until at last in Puckeridge a man ran out +from the inn yard to say that our party was within and waiting for us. +They had met, it appeared, a rustic fellow who had set them right, soon +after they had lost us. + +I do not know what they thought at first; but I know what they thought +in the end; for I rated them very soundly for not keeping nearer to us; +and bade James ride ahead with the lantern with all the rest between, +and Dolly and I in the rear to keep them from straying again. In this +manner then did she and I contrive to have a great deal more +conversation before we came a little before midnight to Hare Street. + +The village was all dark as we came through it; and all dark was the +House when we pushed open the yard gates and rode in. We went through +and beat upon the door, and presently heard a window thrown up. + +"Who is there?" cried my Cousin Tom's voice. + +I bade Dolly's maid answer. (She was all perplexed, poor wench, at the +change of relations between her mistress and me.) + +"It is Mistress Jermyn, sir," she said. + +"Yes, father; I have come back," cried Dolly. + +There was an exclamation from poor Tom; and in two or three minutes we +saw a light beneath the door, and heard him drawing the bolts. I pushed +Dolly and her maid forward as the door opened, and then myself strode +suddenly forward into the light. + +"Why--God bless--" cried Tom; who was in his coat and shoes. I could see +how his face fell when he saw me. I looked at him very grimly: but I +said nothing to him at once (for I was sorely tempted to laugh at his +apparition), but turned to James and bade him see to the rest and find +beds somewhere. Then I went after Dolly and her father into the Great +Chamber, still with my hat on my head and looking very stern. He was +talking very swiftly in a low voice to Dolly; but he stopped when I came +in. + +"Yes, Cousin Tom," I said, "I am come back again--all unlooked for, as I +see." + +"But, good God!" he cried. "What is the matter; and why is Dolly here? I +was but just asking--" + +I pulled out the King's paper which I had all ready, and thrust it down +before the lantern that he had put on the table: and I waited till he +had read it through. + +"There, Cousin!" I said when he was staring on me again, "that is enough +warrant for both you and me, I think. Have you anything to say?" + +He began to bluster. + +"Cousin," I said, "if I have any patience it is because Dolly has given +it back to me. You had best not say too much. You have done all the harm +you could; and it is only by God's mercy that it has not been greater." + +He said that he was Dolly's father and could do as he pleased. Besides, +she herself had consented. + +"I know that," I said, "because she has told me so; and that it was in +despair that she went, because we two fools bungled our business. Well, +you may be her father; but the Scripture tells us that a woman must +leave her father and cleave to her husband; and that is what I am to be +to her." + +Well; when I said that, there was the Devil to pay--we three standing +there in the cold chamber, with the draughts playing upon poor Tom's +legs. He looked a very piteous object, very much fallen from that fine +figure that he had presented when I had first set eyes on him; but he +strove to compensate by emphasis what he lacked in dignity. He said that +he had changed his mind; that even third cousins once removed should not +marry; that he had now other designs for his daughter; that I had no +right to dictate to him in his own house. He waxed wonderfully warm; but +even then, in the first flush of his resistance I thought I saw a kind +of wavering. I sat with one leg across the corner of the great table +until he was done; while Dolly sat in a chair, turning her merry eyes +from the one to the other of us. For myself, I felt no lack of +confidence. I had beaten the daughter; now I was to beat the father. + +When he had finished, and drew breath, I stood up. + +"Very bravely said, Cousin, bare legs and all," I said. "We will speak +of it all again to-morrow. But now for a bite; we have been riding since +noon." + +It was very strange to go upstairs again after a mouthful or two, and a +glass of warm ale, and see my chamber again from which I had departed in +such unhappiness near a twelvemonth ago. James had made a little fire +for me, before which I drew off my boots and undressed myself. For it +was from this very chamber that I had gone forth in such despair, when +Dolly had said that she would not have me: and now, here I was in it +again, all glowing with my ride and my drink and my great content, +having kissed Dolly just now in her father's presence as a symbol of +our troth. And so I went to bed and dreamed and woke and dreamed again. + +We had our talk out next morning, Tom pacing up and down the Great +Chamber, until I entreated him for God's sake to sit down and save my +stiff neck. He was very high at first; but I was astonished how quickly +he came down. + +"That is very well," I said, "to speak now of better prospects for +Dolly. But you will do me the honour of remembering, my dear Cousin, +that in this very room once you spoke to me very differently. If you +have changed your mind, you might at least have told me so; for I have +not changed mine at all; and Dolly, it seems, is come round to my way of +thinking at last." + +"But how did you do it?" asked he, stopping in his walk. + +"I lost my temper altogether," said I; "and that is a very good way if +you have tried all the rest." + +"But the King, man, the King! How did you get that paper out of him? Why +His Majesty himself, I am told, took particular notice--" + +"Eh?" said I. + +"That is no matter now," he said. "What were you going to say?" + +"I must have that first," said I. + +Tom began to pace the floor again. + +"It is nothing at all, Cousin. It is that His Majesty spoke very kindly +to my daughter upon her first coming to Court." + +"I am glad I did not know that," I said, "or I might have said more to +him." + +"Well; but what did you say?" + +Now I was in half a dozen minds as to what I should tell him. He knew +for certain nothing at all of my comings and goings and of what I did +for the King; yet I thought that he must have guessed a good deal. I +judged it safer, therefore, to tell him a little, to stop his month; but +not too much. + +"Why," I said very carefully, "I have been of a little service to the +King; and His Majesty was good enough to ask me if there were any +little favour he could do me. So that is what I asked him." + +Tom stopped in his pacing again: and it was then that I entreated him to +sit down and talk like a Christian. He did so, without a word. + +"In France, I suppose?" he said immediately after. + +"Why, yes." + +Tom looked at me again. + +"And you travel with four men now, instead of one." + +"I find it more convenient," I said. + +"And more expensive too," he observed. + +"Why, yes: a little more expensive, too," I answered. But I was a shade +uneasy; because this increase of servants was at His Majesty's desire +and cost. I made haste to turn the conversation back once more. I did +not wish Tom to think that I was of any importance at all. + +"Well; but what of Dolly?" I said. + +It was then that my Cousin suddenly came down from his loftiness. He +seemed to awake out of a little reverie. + +"You come into the enjoyment of your property," he said, "in four years +from now?" + +"In less than that," I said. "It is three years and a half. My birthday +is in June." + +He asked me one or two more questions then as to its amount, and what +arrangements I would make in the event of my marriage. When I had +satisfied him upon these matters, he fell again into a reverie. + +"Well?" said I, a little sharply. + +"Cousin," he said, "I do not wish to stand in your way. But there must +be no talk of marriage till '85. Will that content you?" + +It did not in the least; but it was what I had expected. I was scarcely +rich enough yet to support a wife, and knew that, well enough; for if I +married and left the King's service there would be no more travelling +expenses for me. Dolly and I last night had agreed upon that as the +least that we could consent to. + +"Four years is a long time," said I. + +"You said three and a half just now," he observed a little bitterly. + +"Well: three and a half. I suppose I must take that, if I can get +nothing better." + + * * * * * + +Now I was secretly a little astonished that my Cousin Tom had consented +so quickly, after his recent ambitions. Plainly he had aimed higher than +at my poor standard during those months; for when a maid went to Court +as one of the Queen's ladies the least that was expected of her was that +she would marry a pretty rich man. But the reason of it all was +unpleasantly evident to me. He must have gathered from what I had said +and done that my favour was increasing with the King; and therefore he +must have argued too that I must be serving His Majesty in some very +particular way--which was the very last thing I desired him to know, as +he was such a gossip. But I dared say no more then. We grasped one +another's hands very heartily: and then I went to find Dolly. + + * * * * * + +The days that followed were very happy ones--though, as I shall +presently relate, they were to be interrupted once more. I had in my +mind, during them all, that I must soon go up to London again to tell +Mr. Chiffinch my final decision that I could not undertake the work that +he had proposed to me; for I had spoken of it at some length with Dolly, +giving her a confidence that I dared not give to her father. But I did +not think that I should have to go so soon. + +It was in the hour before supper one evening that I told her of it, as +we sat in the tapestried parlour, looking into the fire from the settle +where we sat together. + +"My dear," said I, "I wish to ask your advice. But it is a very private +matter indeed." + +"Tell me," said Dolly contentedly. (Her hand was in mine, and she looked +extraordinary pretty in the firelight.) + +"I am asked whether I will undertake a little work. In itself it is +excellent. It concerns the protection of His Majesty; but it is the +means that I am doubtful about." + +Then I told her that of the details--of the how and the when and the +where--I knew no more than she: but that, if all went well, I might find +myself trusted by a traitor: and that I was considering whether in such +a cause as this it was a work to which I could put my hand, to betray +that trust, if I got it. But before I was done speaking I knew that I +could not--so wonderfully does speaking to another clear one's mind--and +that though I could not condemn outright a man who thought fit to do so, +any more than I would condemn a scavenger for cleaning the gutter, it +was not work for a gentleman to seek out a confidence that he might +betray it again. + +"Now that I have put it into words," I said, "I see that it cannot be +done. Certainly it would advance me very much with His Majesty; (and +that is one reason why I spoke to you of it)--but such advance would be +too dearly bought. Do you not think so too, my dear?" + +She nodded slowly and very emphatically three or four times, without +speaking, as her manner was. + +"Then that is decided," said I, "and in a day or two I will go to town +and tell them so." + +So we put the matter away then; and spoke of matters far more dear to +both of us, until Tom came in and exclaimed at our sitting in the dark +as he called it. + + * * * * * + +The interruption came that very night. + +We were at supper, and speaking of Christmas, and of how we would have +again the dancing as last year, when we heard a man ride past the house, +pulling up his horse as he came. Such interruptions came pretty +often;--it was so that I had been first sent for by Mr. Chiffinch: and +it was so again that the Duke of Monmouth had come, and others--but we +had plenty too of others who came, seeing the house at the end of the +village, to ask their way, or what not; so we paid no attention to it. +Presently, however, we heard a man's steps come along the paved walk, +and then a knocking at the door. James went out to see who was there; +and came back immediately saying that it was a courier with a letter for +me. My conscience smote me a little, for I had delayed more than a week +now from answering Mr. Chiffinch: and, sure enough, when I went out, +the man was come from him. I took the letter he gave me into the Great +Chamber to read it, and was astonished at its contents. There were but +four lines in it. + +"Mr. Mallock," it ran, "come immediately--that is to-morrow. The Lord +hath delivered them into our hands. Ride by Amwell; and go through the +place slowly between eleven and twelve with no servant near." And it was +signed with his initials only. + +I went back again into the dining-room immediately, and shut the door +behind me. + +"I must go to town, to-morrow," I said, all short. + +Dolly looked up at me, gone a little white. I shook my head and smiled +at her, but secretly; so that Tom did not see. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +I do not think that I have yet related how great was the work that Mr. +Chiffinch had done in the matter of the spies that he had everywhere +during those later years of His Majesty Charles the Second. That which +he had done during Monmouth's progress in the north--his receiving of +reports day by day, and even hour by hour--this was only one instance of +his activity. The secret-looking men, or even the bold-looking +gentlemen, whom I had met on his stairs so continually, or for whose +sake I was kept waiting sometimes when I went to see him--these were his +tools and messengers. This company of spies was of all grades; and it +was to serve in that company that he had sent for me from France, and +that I was determined to decline. + +Though, however, I was so determined, I did not dare to disobey the +directions that his letter gave me; for I could not be sure that it was +for this work in particular that he had summoned me; though I guessed +that it was. I would go, thought I, and do in everything as he had said; +I would ride through Amwell, with my servants behind at a good distance: +I would see what befell me there--for that something would, was certain +from the letter; then I would proceed on to London, and if the affair +were against my honour, as I was sure it would be, I would refuse any +further part in it. My one hardship was that I could do no more than +tell Dolly in private that I would hold to my resolution. I dared not +tell her anything of the contents of the letter which I had immediately +destroyed. I promised her that I would be back for Christmas at the +latest. She came out to the yard-gate to wish me good-bye: my servants +were gone in front; and my Cousin Tom had the sense to be out of the +way; so our good-byes were all that such miserable things ever can be. I +waved to her at the corner, and she waved back. + +When we came about two miles to the north of Amwell--which we did about +eleven o'clock, as I had been bid, I bade my servants stay behind, and +not come after me till half an hour later; further I bade them, if, when +they came, they found me in any man's company, neither to salute me nor +to make any sign of recognition; but to pass straight on to Hoddesdon +and wait for me there, not at the inn where I was known, but at another +little one--the _King's Arms_--at the further end of the village, and +there they were to dine. Even then, when I came, if I did, they were not +to salute me until I had spoken with them. All this I did, interpreting +as well as I could, what Mr. Chiffinch had said; and they, since they +were well-trained in that kind of service, understood me perfectly. + +It was near half-past eleven when I came, riding very slowly, into the +village street, looking this way and that so as to shew my face, but as +if I were just looking about me. I noticed a couple of servants, in a +very plain livery which I thought I had seen before, in the yard of the +_Mitre_, but they paid no attention to me. So I passed up the street to +the end, and no one spoke with me or shewed any sign. Now I knew that +there was something forward, and that unless I fell in with it the +arrangement would have failed; so I turned again and rode back, as if I +were looking for an inn. Again no one spoke with me; so I rode, as if +discontented, into the yard of the _Mitre_, and demanded of an ostler +whether there was any food fit to eat there. + +He looked at me in a kind of hesitation. + +"Yes, sir," he said; "but--but the parlour is full. A party is there, +from London." + +Then I knew that I had been right to come; because at the same moment I +remembered where I had seen those liveries before. They were those worn +by the men who had come with Monmouth to Hare Street. + +I said nothing to the ostler; but slipped off my horse, as he took the +bridle, and went indoors. The fellow called out after me; but I made as +if I did not hear. (I have found, more than once, that a little deafness +is a very good thing.) There were voices I heard talking beyond a door +at the end of the passage; I went up to this, and without knocking, +lifted the latch and went in. + +The room, that looked out, with one window only, into a small enclosed +garden, was full of men. There were eight of them, as I counted +presently; all round a table on which stood a couple of tall jugs and +tankards. I raised my hand to my hat. + +"I beg pardon, gentlemen. Is there room--" + +"Why--it is Mr.--" I heard a voice say, suddenly stifled. + +Beyond that, for a moment, there was silence. Then a man stood up +suddenly, with a kind of eagerness. + +"Mr. Mallock," he said, "Mr. Mallock! Do you not remember me?" + +"Your back is to the light, sir--" I began; and then: "Why it is Mr. +Rumbald." + +"The same, sir; the same. There is a friend of yours, here, sir--Come in +and sit down, sir. There is plenty of room for another friend." + +There was a very curious kind of eagerness in the maltster's voice, +which puzzled me not a little; and there was a change of manner too in +him, that puzzled me no less. He spoke as if he had almost expected me, +or was peculiarly astonished to see me there; and there was none of that +hail-fellow air about him any more. He spoke to me as to a gentleman--as +indeed I shewed I was by my dress--but yet manifested no surprise at +seeing me so. However, I had neither time nor thought to consider this +at the moment, for the friend of mine of whom he spoke, and who was now +standing up to greet me, was no other than my Lord Essex--he who had +been riding with Monmouth from Newmarket; and he whose name Mr. +Chiffinch had expressly spoken of to me. Yet how did Mr. Rumbald know +that we knew one another? + +I made haste to salute him; for he too, I thought, had an air of +eagerness. + +"Come in and sit down, Mr. Mallock," he said. "We have dined early; and +are presently off to town again. Are you riding our way?" + +"Why, yes," I said, "I am going up to my lodgings for a little." + +(As I spoke a thousand questions beseiged me. Why was there this air of +expectation in them at all? How did Mr. Chiffinch know that they would +be here at this time? Why had he arranged that I should meet them? Why +had he not spoken of their names to me; since he had told me so freely +of them before? Well; I must wait, thought I, and meantime go very +gingerly. I was not going to put my hand to this kind of work; but I did +not wish to spoil Mr. Chiffinch's design if I could help it.) + +"Why," said my Lord, "if you are going to town, may I not ride with you? +Some of these gentlemen are in a hurry; but I am sure I am not. Have you +no servants, Mr. Mallock?" + +"I have sent mine on before," I said, marvelling more than ever at the +man's friendliness, "but I shall be very happy to ride with your +Lordship, if you can wait till I have dined." + +My Lord said a word to a man who sat near the door, who slipped out: and +I heard his voice ordering dinner for me. Meantime I observed the +company. + +There were eight, as I have said; but I knew for certain two only--the +maltster and my Lord Essex. The rest puzzled me not a little. They +seemed well-bred fellows enough; but they were dressed very plainly, and +appeared no more than country squires or lawyers or suchlike. They were +talking of the most indifferent things in the world, with silences, as +if they wondered what next to speak of; they hardly looked at me at all +after a minute or two; and presently one by one began to stand up and +take their leave, saluting my Lord by name, and bowing only to me. By +the time that my dinner came there were left only my Lord, who was very +attentive to me, and Mr. Rumbald; and before I was well set-to, even Mr. +Rumbald stood up to say good-bye. + +Again I was puzzled by the man; for again he appeared very friendly with +me, and again shewed no sign of astonishment at my acquaintance with my +Lord and at my appearance as a gentleman. + +"I am very glad, sir," he said, shaking my hand with great warmth, +"that you will have so pleasant a ride to town with your friend. And you +will remember my house too, will you not, over the river, if ever you +are by that way." + +I told him that I would: and thanked him for his courtesy; and he went +out, after shaking hands too with my Lord, taking care to exchange no +glances with him, though it would be evident, even to a child, that +there was some secret between them. + +When he was gone, my Lord turned to me. + +"A very good fellow, Rumbald--a very good fellow indeed." + +I assented, heartily. + +"Honest as the day," said my Lord. + +"There is no doubt of it," said I, with my mouth full. + +"And a good patriot too. It is what we want, Mr. Mallock." + +Again I assented; and my Lord presently changed the conversation. + + * * * * * + +During the rest of dinner he said nothing that was significant of any of +the things I suspected. I knew now, beyond a doubt, both from what Mr. +Chiffinch had said and from the strangely mixed company, and the +circumstances under which I found them, that something was forward; but +as to what it was all about I knew no more than the dead. Neither did I +as yet see a single glimmer of light on the questions that had puzzled +me just now. So I determined that when we were safe out on the lonely +road I would throw a bait or two; though my resolution still held that I +would do no dirty work, even for His Majesty himself. + +I dined very tolerably, and lit a pipe afterwards: (my Lord told me that +he used no tobacco); and presently in a kind of impatience--for indeed +the position I found myself in was a little disconcerting--I observed +that it was past noon. + +"You are quite right," said my Lord, "quite right. I will tell them to +have the horses ready. Your servants are gone on before, I think you +said, Mr. Mallock?" + +I told him Yes; but I wondered why he did not shout for the maid, +instead of going out himself; but I understood the reason when I found +presently, when we took the road, that his own men kept a full hundred +yards in the rear. Evidently he had gone out to tell them to do so. + + * * * * * + +So soon as we were clear of Amwell, I began. There was a little wind, +and the weather was moist and thick, so there was no danger of our being +overheard. + +"My Lord," I said, "I am very much puzzled by what I have seen." + +"Eh?" said he. + +"It was a very mixed company just now, in Amwell." + +He frowned a little. + +"Very excellent gentlemen, all of them--" I hastened to add. "But I was +wondering what it was that drew them all together. I can only think of +two things." + +"What are they, Mr. Mallock?" asked my Lord a little eagerly. + +"Religion or politics, my Lord," I said. "And I am sure that it is not +the first." + +He appeared to reflect; but he was not a very good actor; and I could +see that it was feigned. + +"Why you are very sharp, sir," he said. "You have put your finger on the +very place--the very place." (And he continued with far too short a +pause): "On which side are you, Mr. Mallock? For the country or for the +Court?" + +"That is a dangerous question to answer, my Lord," I said, very short. + +"It is only dangerous for one side," said he. + +I nodded, in a grave and philosophical manner. Then I sighed. + +"You are quite right, my Lord." + +I could see that he was glancing at me continually. Yet no explanation +of his behaviour yet crossed my mind. + +"Mr. Mallock," said he after a silence, "it is no good fencing about the +question. I can see that you are disaffected." + +"That is a very safe way to put it," I said. "Who is not--on one side +or the other?" + +"Yes," said he, "but you are sharp enough to know what I mean." + +Again I nodded; but my mind was working like a mill; for a new thought +had come to me that seemed to illumine all the rest; and yet I could not +understand. The thought was this. Plainly my Lord Essex knew a good deal +about me: he knew enough, that is, to begin a conversation of this kind +with one whom he had only met once before--a mad proceeding altogether, +if that were all he knew. _Ergo_, thought I, he must know more than +that; and if he knew more he must know that I was in the service of His +Majesty and presumably devoted to that service; probably, too, from the +understanding between himself and Rumbald, he knew that I had chosen on +previous occasions to masquerade as if I were not a gentleman. Was he +quite mad then? For to talk like this to one in the confidence of His +Majesty was surely a crazed proceeding! Yet my Lord Essex was not a +fool. + +Looking back upon the matter as I write, it is hard for me to understand +why I did not see through his design, since I saw so much of it. Yet it +was not until London was in sight, or rather its lights against the sky, +that all fell into its place; and I wondered at the simplicity of it. I +think that it was the way he talked to me--the manner in which he +skirted continually on the fringe of treason, yet said nothing that I +could lay hold upon, and, above all, mentioned no names--that gave me +the clue. I fear I fell a little silent as I perceived how point after +point ratified the conclusion to which I had come; but I do not think he +noticed it; and, even if he did, it would only encourage him the more. +And when I saw the whole, as plain as a map, my scruples left me +altogether. I would not have betrayed the true confidence of this man, +or of any other; that resolution still held firm; but this was another +matter altogether. + +By the time that we reached Covent Garden--for he rode with me as far as +that--I think he was satisfied that he had caught me in the way that he +wished; for he had given me the names of one or two places where I +could communicate with him if I desired; and was nearer actual treason +in his talk than ever before--though he did not go much beyond deploring +the Popish succession, and feigning that he did not know that I was a +Catholic; and, on my side, I had feigned to be greatly interested in all +that he had said, and had let him see, though not too evidently, that it +was feigning on my side too. We parted, outwardly, the best of friends; +inwardly we were at one another's throats. + +So soon as I had dismounted--he having left me in the Strand--and gone +indoors, I came out again, not fearing, indeed rather hoping, that he +would be watching for me, and, in my boots just as I was, set out for +Whitehall. + + * * * * * + +Mr. Chiffinch was within, expecting me. Even he looked a little excited; +and no wonder. But first I made him answer my questions before I would +say a word beyond telling him that his design had prospered. + +"Mr. Chiffinch," said I over my supper which he had brought for me to +his parlour. "Before I say one more word, you must tell me three or four +things. The first is this. How did you know that it was in me that my +Lord Essex would confide?" + +"That is easily answered," said he. "My men told me that my Lord was +after you everywhere--both in your lodgings and here." + +"Ah!" I said, "and was there a fellow called Rumbald, with him?" + +"You are right," he said. "How did you know that?" + +"Wait," I said. "The next is, If you could tell me so much in your +letter, why did you not tell me the names of the persons?" + +He smiled. + +"Mr. Mallock," he said, "from your hesitation I knew that you would +refuse to do such work as this. So I intended to catch you unawares, and +to entangle you in it. I knew that you would not refuse to go to Amwell, +and behave there as I directed, if I said no more than I did." + +"Well; you would have failed," I said. + +"What!" said he. "You are still going to refuse?" + +"No," said I, "I accept the work: but it is not what you think it is." + +"Why--what is it then?" + +"Wait," I said. "The next is, How did you know that they would be at +Amwell at that time?" + +"Oh! that is easy enough; one of my fellows got that out of one of +Rumbald's maids--that a party of six would lie at the Ryehouse last +night; and that they would meet two more at dinner in Amwell at eleven +o'clock to-day. Rumbald has been known to us a long while. But it is the +others we are waiting for." + +I was silent. There were no more questions I wished to ask at present; +though there might be others later. + +"Well," said the page, a little eagerly; and his narrow face looked very +like a fox's, as he spoke. "Well; and what is your news?" + +I finished my stew, and laid down the spoon. + +"Mr. Chiffinch," said I, "let me first ask one more question. Why do you +think that my Lord Essex was after me at all? How did he know of me?" + +"Plainly from Rumbald," said he. + +"And why did he want me?" + +He smiled. + +"Why, Rumbald thinks you disaffected towards the King; and yet knows you +are in his service. You would be a very great helper to them, if you +cared." + +It was my turn to smile. + +"My Lord Essex is not a fool," I said. "If they know so much of me, +would they not know more?" + +"Plainly they do not," he said. "Or they would not have tried to get you +on their side." + +I laughed softly. + +"Sir," I said, "you are very sharp: but you are not sharp enough." + +Then I related to him the behaviour of them all in the inn; and how +Rumbald had shewn no surprise in seeing that I was a gentleman after +all; and how my Lord Essex had talked in what would have been the +maddest manner, if his intention had been as Chiffinch had thought it to +be; and with every word that I said the page's face grew longer. + +"Well," he cried, "it is beyond me altogether. What then is the +explanation?" + +"My friend," I said, "you were right. Neither before nor after what has +passed to-day would I have done the work you designed for me which was +to get these men's confidence, and then betray it again. But it is not +their idea to give me their confidence at all. So I will work with you +very gladly." + +"But then what can you do--" he began in amazement. + +"Listen," I said. "It will fall out just as I say. They will give me +very few names; they will admit me to none of their real secrets; but +yet they will feign to do so." + +"But, what a' God's name--" + +"Oh! man!" I cried, "you are surely slow-witted to-day. They will do all +this--" (I leaned forward as I spoke for further emphasis)--"_in order +that I may hand it on to His Majesty_; but they will give me no real +secret till the climax is come, and their designs perfected. And then +they will give me a false one altogether. They think that they will make +me a tool to further their true plans by betraying false ones. We may +know this for certain then--that whatever they tell me, knowing that I +will tell you, is not what they intend, but something else altogether. +And it will not be hard to know the truth, if we are certified of what +is false." + + * * * * * + +There was complete silence in the room when I had finished, except for +the wash of the tide outside the windows. The man's mouth was open, and +his eyes set in thought. Then sense came back to his face; and he smiled +suddenly and widely. + +"God!" he said, and slapped me suddenly on the thigh. "Good God! you +have hit it, I believe." + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +From now onwards there began for me such a series of complications that +I all but despair of making clear even the course that they ran. My +diaries are filled with notes and initials and dates which I dared not +at the time set down more explicitly; and my memory is often confused +between them. For, indeed, my work in France was but child's play to +this, neither was there any danger in France such as was here. + +For consider what, not a double part merely, but a triple, I had to +play. The gentlemen, who were beginning at this time to conspire in real +earnest against the King and the Constitution, some of whom afterwards, +such as my Lord Russell, suffered death for it, and others of whom like +my Lord Howard of Escrick escaped by turning King's evidence--although +their guilt was very various--these gentlemen, through my Lord Essex, +had got at me, as they thought, to betray not truth but falsehood to His +Majesty, and told me matters, under promise of secrecy, which they +intended me to tell to the King and his advisers. To them, therefore, I +had to feign feigning: I had to feign, that is, that I was feigning to +keep their confidence, but that in reality that I was betraying it; +while to Mr. Chiffinch I had to disclose these precious secrets not as +true but as false, and conjecture with him what was the truth. (My +evidence, later, was never called upon, nor did my name appear in any +way, for that the jury would never have understood it.) I had, +therefore, a double danger to guard against; first that which came from +the conspirators--the fear that they should discover I was tricking +them, or rather that I had discovered their trickery; and, on the other +side, that I should become involved with them in the fall that was so +certain from the beginning, and be myself accused of conspiracy--or of +misprision of treason at the least. Against the latter I guarded as well +as I could, by revealing to Mr. Chiffinch every least incident so soon +as it happened; and on three occasions in the following year having a +long discourse with His Majesty. But against the former danger I had +only my wits to protect me. + +The best thing, therefore, that I can do is to relate a few of the +events that happened to me. (I have never, I think, experienced such a +strain on my wits; for it went on for a good deal more than a year, +since I could for a long time arrive at no certain proofs of the guilt +of the conspirators, and His Majesty did not wish to strike until their +conviction was assured.) + +The first meeting of the conspirators to which I was admitted was in +January. (I had not been able, of course, to go to Hare Street for +Christmas; but the letters I had now and again from Dolly, greatly +encouraged and comforted me. I had told her that I "was keeping to my +resolution," but that "I should be in some peril for a good while to +come," and begged her to remember me often in her pure prayers.) + +A fellow came to my lodgings about the middle of January, with a letter +from my Lord Essex. It ran as follows: + +"SIR,--With regard to some matters of which we spoke together on the +occasion of our very pleasant ride to town last month, I am very anxious +to see you again. Pray do not write any answer to this; but if you can +meet me on Thursday night at the house of my friend Mr. West, in Creed +Lane, at nine o'clock, we may have a little conversation with some other +friends of ours. I am, sir, your obliged servant, + +"Essex." + +I told the fellow that the answer was Yes. My Lord had been to see me in +Covent Garden twice, but had said very little that was at all explicit; +but Mr. Chiffinch had bid me hold myself in readiness, and put aside all +else for the further invitations that would surely come. And so it had. + +I found the house without difficulty; and was shewn into a little +parlour near the door; where presently my Lord came to me alone, all +smiles. + +"I am very glad you are come, Mr. Mallock," he said. "I was sure that +you would. I have a few friends here who meet to talk politics; and they +would greatly like to hear your views on the points. I think I may now +venture to say that we know who you are, Mr. Mallock, and that you have +done a good deal for His Majesty in France. Your opinion then would be +of the greatest interest to us all." + +(I understood why he put so much emphasis on France; it was to quiet me +as to any suspicions they thought I might have as to my being the King's +servant in England too.) + +I answered him very civilly, smiling as if I was at my ease; and after a +word or two more he took me in. It was a long low room, with a beamed +ceiling and shuttered windows, in which the men were sitting. There were +six of them there; and I knew two of them, immediately. He that sat at +the head of the table, a very grim-looking man, with pointed features, +in an iron-grey peruke, was no other than my Lord Shaftesbury himself; +and the one on his left, with a highish colour in his cheeks, was my +Lord Grey. Of the rest I knew nothing; but those two were enough to shew +me that I must make no mistakes. There were candles on the table. + +My Lord Essex smiled as he turned to me. + +"Mr. Mallock," he said, "I see you know some of these gentlemen by +sight." + +"I know my Lord Shaftesbury, and my Lord Grey by sight," I said, bowing +to each. They each inclined a little in return. + +"And this is Mr. West," said my Lord. + +This was a very busy-looking active little fellow, with bright dark +eyes. (He had the name of being an atheist, I learned afterwards.) + +"Sit down, Mr. Mallock," said my Lord, pointing to a chair on my Lord +Shaftesbury's right. I did so. There was no servant in the room. The two +other men were presently made known to me as a Mr. Sheppard and a Mr. +Goodenough. I knew nothing of either of these two at this time. + +Now it may seem that it was extraordinary bold of all these persons to +admit me, believing as they did, that I was on His Majesty's side, and +would reveal all to him; and it was, in one way, bold of them; yet it +was the more clever. For, as will appear, they said nothing to me at +present that could be taken hold of in any way; and yet they sent, or +rather thought they sent, to the King, false news that would help their +cause. + +When he had discoursed for a little while on general matters, yet +drawing nearer ever to the point, my Lord Essex opened the engagement. + +"That Mr. Rumbald," he said. "Do you know who he is, Mr. Mallock?" + +"Why, he is a maltster, is he not?" I said. + +"Well: he married a maltster's widow, who is dead now. But he is an +honest old Cromwellian--loyal enough to His Majesty--" (the gentlemen +all solemnly put hands to their hats)--"yet very greatly distressed at +the course things are taking." + +"An old soldier?" I asked. + +"Yes: he was a Colonel under Oliver." + +Such was the opening; and after that we talked more freely, though not +so freely as, I doubt not, they had talked for an hour before I came. My +Lord Shaftesbury did not say a great deal; he had a quick discontented +look; but I think I satisfied him. He was in a very low condition at +this time--all but desperate--so strongly had the tide set against him +since my Lord Stafford's death and the reaction that followed it; and I +think he would have grasped at anything to further his fortunes: for +that was what he chiefly cared about. My Lord Essex did most of the +talking, and Mr. West; and I could see that they were shewing me off, as +a new capture, and one on whose treachery to them their hopes might +turn. + +Now there were three or four matters on which they were very emphatic. +First, that no injury was intended to the King or the Duke of York; but +this they did not disclaim for themselves so much as for the disaffected +persons generally; as regards themselves they said little or nothing: +and from this I deduced that the King's life would certainly be aimed +at; and the more so, as they said what a pity it was that His Majesty's +guards were still doubled. + +"It shews a lack of confidence in the people," said my Lord Essex. + +(From that, then, I argued that an attempt was contemplated upon +Whitehall.) + +The second thing that Mr. West was very emphatic upon was the need of +proceeding, if any reform were to be brought about, in a legal and +Parliamentary manner. + +"Why does not His Majesty call another Parliament?" he added, "that at +least we may air our grievances? It is true enough that my Lord +Shaftesbury--" (here he bowed to my Lord who blinked in return)--"that +my Lord Shaftesbury found Parliament against him in the event; but he +does not complain of that. He hath at least been heard." + +(From that I argued either that they thought they would be stronger in a +new Parliament, or that they contemplated acting in quite another +manner. I could not tell for certain which; but I supposed the latter.) + +The third thing that Mr. Goodenough said, relating how he had heard it +from a Mr. Ferguson of Bristol, was that the West of England was in a +very discontented condition, and that His Majesty would do well to send +troops there. + +Now I knew that his statement was tolerably true; and that therefore the +false part must be the second. The only conclusion I could draw was that +they wished troops to be withdrawn from London. + +To all these things, however, I assented civilly, arguing a little, for +form's sake; but not too much. + + * * * * * + +When at last we broke up, my Lord Essex again came with me to the door, +and carried me first, for an instant into the little parlour. + +"Mr. Mallock," he said, "we have had a pleasant evening, have we not? +But I need not tell you that our talk had best not be repeated. We have +said not a word that is disloyal to His Majesty: but even a little +fault-finding is apt to be misrepresented in these days." + +I said that I understood him perfectly (which indeed I did); and nodded +very sagely. + +"Let us meet again, then, Mr. Mallock--on that understanding. I have +some more friends I would wish you to meet; and whom I am sure you could +do good to. There is a quantity of discontent about." + +I went to see Mr. Chiffinch the next day, and reported all that had +passed, as they had intended me to do. We drew up a little report which +was carried into effect: first, that no troops should be sent out of +London; but that they should be dispersed as much as possible within the +confines of the City; next that the guards at the gates of Whitehall +should be diminished by one half--(this, to give colour to the +malcontents' hope; and provoke them to action)--but the guards within +increased by the same amount, yet kept out of sight so much as was +possible; thirdly, that a rumour should be set about that the King would +call a Parliament within the year at latest; and this Mr. Chiffinch +promised to undertake (for a very great effect indeed can be produced on +popular opinion by those who know the value of false rumours); but that +His Majesty should be dissuaded from doing anything of the kind. Such +then was the result of that first meeting to which I was admitted; and +such more or less was our course of procedure all through the spring and +summer. This I have related in full, to serve as an example of our +method, because, since it was the first, I remember it very distinctly. +In this manner I used the information I gained for the King's benefit; +and, at the same time the conspirators were led to believe that I was +their tool, and no more. + + * * * * * + +The next important incident fell in the beginning of the summer. + +Now, in the meantime I had learned, from Mr. Chiffinch for the most +part, though there were some matters I was able rather to inform him +about, that there were two separate and distinct parties amongst the +conspirators. There were those who intended nothing but some kind of a +rising--scarcely more than an armed demonstration--and to this party +would belong such a man as my Lord Russell--if he were of them at all; +and there were those who meant a great deal more than this--who were +hoping, in fact so to excite their followers as to bring about the +King's death. But of these I found it very hard to get any names--and +quite impossible, so far, to obtain any positive proof at all. The Duke +of Monmouth, I knew, was of the moderate party; so, I thought then, was +my Lord Grey--but Mr. Algernon Sidney whom I met once or twice was of +the extreme side. But as to my Lord Shaftesbury, I knew nothing: he was +pretty silent always; and it was with regard to him most of all that we +desired evidence. It was this division of parties, no doubt, that +hindered any action; the moderates were for ever trying to drag back the +fanatics; and the fanatics to urge on the moderates; so that nothing was +done. + +From my diaries I find that I spoke with my Lord Essex no less than +eight times between Christmas and July; I saw my Lord Russell only once +as I shall relate presently, but did not speak with him: the rest I met +now and again, but never all of them together. It was necessary, no +doubt, that they should be well drilled before they could be trusted +with me. Mr. Rumbald I met about four times, and my Lord Howard but +once. I think all this time they were wholly satisfied that I passed on +to Mr. Chiffinch what they told me, and nothing else; for he and I +usually contrived to carry out part at least of their recommendations. + +I first began to learn something of my Lord Russell's position in the +matter in a meeting in July, in the house of the Mr. Sheppard (whom I +had met at Mr. West's), that was situated in Wapping; and I learned +something else too at the same time. My Lord Essex; came for me in his +coach that day, and himself carried me down. (I need not say that on +these occasions I carried always some pistol or other weapon with me +beside my sword, for I never knew when they might not find me out.) + +Mr. Sheppard's house was in a little street, that was a _cul-de-sac_, +between the Garden Grounds, which was a great open space, and the Old +Stairs on the river. It was about eight o'clock, and was beginning to be +twilight when we came. + +As we descended from the coach I noticed at a little distance away a +number of fellows, very rough looking, standing together watching us; +and I perceived that they saluted my Lord who returned the salute very +heartily. I did not much like that. Who were these folks, I wondered, +who knew my Lord? + +The house was very ordinary within; it was flagged with stones that had +some kind of matting upon them: the entrance was all panelled; and, what +surprised me was that no servant was to be seen. Mr. Sheppard himself +opened the door to us when we knocked. + +We did not speak at all as we came in; and my Lord led me straight +through into the parlour on the left that was full of tobacco-smoke. +This was a very good room, hung all round with tapestry, though of a +poorish quality, and, though it was not yet dark, the windows were +shuttered and barred. At the table sat half a dozen persons, of whom I +knew my Lord Shaftesbury at the head of the table as usual, and Mr. +Goodenough that sat with his back to the hearth. Between these two sat a +gentleman whom I knew to be my Lord Howard of Escrick, though I had +never spoken with him. He carried himself with a very high air, and was +the only man there dressed as if he were still in Westminster; the rest +were subdued, somewhat, in their appearance. My Lord Howard looked at me +with an intolerant kind of disdain, which my Lord Essex made haste to +cover by directing me to my place. + +I thought that my Lord Shaftesbury seemed very heavy this evening. He +treated me with a silent kind of civility; and so, too, did he treat the +rest. His eyes wandered away sometimes as we talked, as if he were +thinking of something else. We spoke of nothing of any importance for a +time, for Mr. Sheppard was bringing in wine with his own hands, though I +saw a number of used glasses on the press which shewed me that the +company had been here some time already. + +It would be not until after ten or twelve minutes that Mr. Sheppard was +deputed to open the affair on account of which I had been sent for. + +"Now then, Sheppard," said my Lord Essex who sat on my right, "tell us +the news." + +Mr. Sheppard pushed his glass forward and leaned his elbows on the +table. I could see that all that he said was directed principally at me. + +"Well, my lords," he said, "I have very good news. You remember how I +told you that I was beginning to fear for the people down here--that +they would be provoked soon into some kind of a rising. They are still +not wholly pacified--" (here he shot a look at me, which he should not +have done)--"but I am doing my best to tell them that we have very good +hopes indeed that His Majesty will be persuaded to call a Parliament; +and I think they are beginning to believe me. I think we may say that +the danger is past." + +"Why; what danger is that, Mr. Sheppard?" said I, very innocently. + +"Why--a rising!" he said. "Has not my Lord Essex told you?" + +"Ah! yes!" said I, "I had forgot." (This was wholly false. He had told +me once or twice at least that there was danger of this. This had been a +month ago; and his object had been to persuade me that they had been +telling the truth.) + +"I saw some fellows as we came in," I said. + +"Those are the malcontents," he said. "There are not more than a very +few now, who go about and brag." + +I assented. + +"By the way," said my Lord Essex to Shaftesbury who looked at him +heavily, "I spoke with my Lord Russell a week ago. You know my Lord +Russell, Mr. Mallock?" + +I said that I did not. + +"Well; I had hoped he would have been here to-night. But he is gone down +to the country--to Stratton--where he has his seat." + +He talked a while longer of my Lord Russell; and I saw that he wished me +to believe that my Lord was of their party: whence I argued to myself +that was just what he was not; but that they wished to win him over for +the sake of his name, perhaps, and his known probity. (And, as the +event shewed, I was right in that conjecture.) + +Two or three of them were still talking together in this strain, and +while I listened enough to tell me that it was nothing very important +that they said, I was observing my Lord Shaftesbury: and, upon my heart! +I was sorry for the man. Three years ago he was in the front of the +rising tide, in the full blast of popularity and power; he had so worked +upon the old Popish Plot and the mob, that he had all the movement with +him: His Majesty himself was afraid of him, and was forced to follow his +leading. Now he was fallen from all this; the Court-party had triumphed +because he had so overshot his mark, and here was he, in this poor +quarter, in the house of a man that would have been nothing to him five +years ago, forced to this very poor kind of conspiring for his last +hopes. He sat as if he knew all this himself: his eyes strayed about him +as we talked, and there were heavy pouches beneath them, and deep lines +at the corner of his nose and mouth. It was this man, thought I, who was +so largely responsible for the death of so many innocents--and all for +his own ambition! + +Presently I heard His Grace of Monmouth spoken of. It was Mr. Sheppard +who spoke the name; and in an instant I was on the alert again. What he +said fell very pat with what I was thinking of my Lord Shaftesbury. + +"I declare," cried Mr. Sheppard, once more talking at me very evidently, +"that His Grace of Monmouth breaks my heart. I was with his Grace a +fortnight ago. His loyalty and love for the King are overpowering. I had +heard"--(this was a very bold stroke of poor Mr. Sheppard)--"I had heard +that some villainous fellows had proposed to His Grace--oh! a great +while ago, in April, I think--that an assault should be made upon the +King; and that His Grace near killed one of them for it. Yet His Majesty +will scarce speak to him, so much he distrusts him." + +This was all very pretty: and from it I argued that the Duke was deeper +in the affair than we had thought, and perhaps belonged even to the +extremest party, led, we supposed, chiefly by Mr. Sidney. But I murmured +that it was a shame that His Majesty treated him so; and while I was +listening to further eulogies on His Grace, a new thought came to me +which I determined to put into execution that very night; for I felt we +were not making any progress. + +There was not much more conversation of any significance, and I was soon +able to carry out what I determined; for my Lord Essex when we broke +about half-past nine o'clock, again offered to take me home. + +I said good-night very respectfully to the company; and followed him +into the coach. + +For a while I said nothing, but appeared preoccupied; so that at last my +Lord clapped me on the knee and asked me if I ailed--which was what I +wished him to do. + +"My Lord," said I, with an appearance of great openness, "I have a +confession to make." + +"Well?" said he. "What is it?" + +"I am disappointed," I said. "There is a deal of talk; and most +interesting talk; and all very loyal and respectful. But I had fancied +there was more behind." + +"What do you mean?" asked he. + +"Well:" I said. "If His Grace of Monmouth will do nothing, will none of +his friends do it for him?" + +"Of what nature?" asked my Lord. + +"My Lord," said I, "need I say more?" + +He was silent for a while; and I could see how his mind was a trifle +bewildered. But he did presently exactly what I hoped he would do. + +"Mr. Mallock," he said, "you are right: there is more behind. And I +promise you you shall hear of it when the time comes. Is that enough?" + + +"That is enough, my Lord," said I. "I am content." + + * * * * * + +I was with Mr. Chiffinch before the gates were shut for the night; and +this was the report I gave him. + +"I have learned three things at least," I said, when he had bolted the +door, and drawn the hanging across it. "First that they are +contemplating a rising as soon as they can get their men together; and +that it will be from Wapping and thereabouts that the insurrectionists +will come. Next that His Grace of Monmouth is more deeply involved than +we had thought. And the third thing is, that I have persuaded my Lord +Essex that I can be trusted to be a good traitor, and to report +everything; but that if they do not commit more important falsehoods to +me, I shall lose heart with them. We may expect then that after a little +while I shall have more vital and significant lies told me, whence we +can arrive at the truth." + +"Is that everything?" said he. + +"Ah! there is one thing more. They are trying to entangle my Lord +Russell; and they think that they will succeed, and so do I; but at +present he will not be caught." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +We are drawing nearer now to the heart of the conspiracy that was +forming little by little, as an abscess forms in the body of a sick man. +For two months more no great move was made. I was summoned now and again +to such meetings as those which I have described: and sometimes one man +was there and sometimes another. They were becoming less cautious with +me in this--since I had by now the names of nearly all the Londoners +involved: and Mr. Chiffinch had the names of the principal men in +Scotland and the provinces, especially in the West, with whom they were +concerting. They still fed me with lies from time to time, in small +points; and I gained a little knowledge from these as to what they +wished me to believe, and hence as to what was indeed the truth. + +It was in October that the next meeting of importance took place--the +next, that is to say, to which I myself was admitted: and it was again +in Mr. Sheppard's house in Wapping. There were gathered there, for the +first time mostly all the principal gentlemen in the affair; and this +was one more sign of how reckless they were becoming that I was admitted +there at all. But I think it was because Mr. Chiffinch and I had been +very discreet and careful that they thought that they had me in hand, +and that I was somewhat of an innocent fool, and revealed no more than +what they wished. + +Before I went there--for I went by water this time, in a private wherry, +to Wapping Old Stairs, I went first to Mr. Chiffinch to see if there +were any news for me. + +"Why, yes," he said, when he had me alone, "there is a little matter I +would like you to find out about. The Duke of Monmouth was here with my +Lord Grey, a day or two ago: they all dined with Sir Thomas Armstrong: +and all three of them went round the posts and the guardroom, and saw +everything. Now what was that for?" + +"Sir Thomas Armstrong?" said I in astonishment. "Why he is--" + +I was about to say he was one of His Majesty's closest friends and evil +geniuses; but I stopped. There was no need. + +The page smiled. + +"Yes," he said. "Well; Mr. Mallock? If you can find out anything--" + +"And the Duke too!" I said. "Well; I was right, was I not?" (For what I +had found out was true enough--that His Grace was far more deeply +involved than we had at first suspected. We had known that he was their +_protege_, but not that he was so much in their counsel, and of one mind +with them.) + +"His Grace will come to some disaster, I think," said Mr. Chiffinch very +tranquilly. + + * * * * * + +When I came to Wapping Old Stairs it appeared that the watermen there +knew well enough what was forward; for while one ran down to help me +from the wherry, a number of others stood watching as if they knew what +I had come for; and all saluted me as I went up. At the head of the +stairs, I looked back, and two more wherries with a gentleman in each +were just coming in. + +Mr. Sheppard himself opened the door to me, and appeared a little +confused, looking over his shoulder into the entrance-hall where two or +three gentlemen were just going into the great parlour on the left. I +could have sworn that one of them was the Duke, from the way he carried +himself. With him was another whom I thought I knew, but he was not +familiar to me. I appeared to notice nothing, but beat off the mud from +my boots. + +"Mr. Mallock," said Mr. Sheppard, "they are not yet all come; and two or +three who are here have a little private business on another matter +first. Will you wait a little in another room?" + +I assented immediately; and he took me through the hall into another +little parlour behind that in which the company was assembled. + +"It will not be more than ten minutes," he said. "I will come for you +myself when they are done." + +When he was gone again I observed the room. It had but one window, which +was shuttered; but it had two doors--the one by which I was come in, and +another, beyond the hearth, leading to the great parlour. This door was +closed. + +Now it was of the greatest importance that I should hear what was +passing in the next room. I should learn more in five words spoken there +then, than in five hours when they were playing a part to me; and I had +no scruple whatever, considering what they were at, and how they were +using me, in learning by any means that were in my power what I wished +to know. Even from where I stood I could hear the murmur of talk; and it +was probable, it seemed to me, that if I laid my ear on the panel of the +door I should hear every word of it. But first I pulled out a chair and +set it by the table, with my hat and cane beside it. Then I went to the +door into the hall, which opened, fortunately, with its hinge nearer to +the hearth--(so that a man entering would not see immediately into that +part of the room in which I should be)--and beneath the door I slipped a +little sliver of wood from the wood-basket by the hearth, so that the +door would stick a little. Having done that I went on tip-toe to the +other door and put my ear to the panel. But I feared they would not say +anything very significant, with me so close. + +Now it was a little while before I could distinguish which voice +belonged to what man. I got the Duke's at once; there was a lordly kind +of ring in it that could never be forgotten; and I got presently my Lord +Grey's voice; and then one with a drawl in it which I had never heard +before; and then one that had no special characteristic, but was a +little slow. These were the four whom I heard speak, besides Mr. +Sheppard once. The conversation I heard was somewhat as follows. I set +it all down on my way home. + +The Duke said: "I am very pleased indeed that you are come after all, my +Lord. We understand by that you have put aside all suspicions; and that +is an encouragement." + +The slow voice said; "I would do anything in my power, your Grace, +which was not against my conscience, to help on that cause of which you +have spoken; but I must confess--" + +My Lord Grey said, sharply: "There, there! we understand, and are very +glad of it. The thing can be arranged without any treason at all, or any +injury to a soul. It is merely a demonstration--no more, upon my +honour." + +The drawling voice said: "No more will be needed. His Grace and we two +went round everywhere. They are not like soldiers at all; they are +remiss in everything." + +The Duke said: "You see, my Lord, it is exactly as I said. God knows we +would not injure a soul. I well know your Lordship's high principles." + +The slow voice said: "Well, your Grace, so long as that is understood--I +shall be very happy to hear what the design may be." + +Mr. Sheppard said: "One instant, my Lord--" Then he dropped his voice; +and I saw what he was at. I slipped back as quick as I could; drew out +the sliver of wood from beneath the other door, and sat down. Then I +heard his footstep outside. + +When he came in, I was in the chair; but I rose. + +"I beg pardon for keeping you, sir," he said: "there is just that trifle +of business, and no more. I am come to keep you company." + +Well; I resigned myself to it with a good air; and we sat and talked +there of indifferent matters, or very nearly, for at least half an hour +longer. It was highly provoking to me, but it could not be helped--that +I should sit there with an affair of real importance proceeding in the +next room, and I placed so favourably for the hearing of it. However I +had gained something, though at present I did not know how much. + +Suddenly Mr. Sheppard stood up; and I heard a door open and voices in +the entrance hall. + +"You will excuse me, sir, an instant," he said. "I must see these +gentlemen out." + +I bowed to him as I stood up and put myself in such a position that I +could get a good look into the hall as he went out; and fortune favoured +me, for there in the light of the pair of candles outside I caught a +plain sight of the plump and rather solemn face of my Lord Russell. It +was only for an instant; but that was enough; and at the same time I +heard the drawling voice of someone out of sight, bidding good-night to +others within the parlour. Then Mr. Sheppard shut the door behind him, +and I sat down again. + +Well; I had gained something; and I was beginning to repeat to myself +what I had heard, for that is the best way of all to imprint it on the +memory; when Mr. Sheppard came in again and invited me to follow him. + +"Who was that that spoke?" I said carelessly, "as you went out just now? +I can swear I know the voice." + +He glanced sharply at me. + +"That?" he said. "Oh! that must have been Sir Thomas Armstrong who is +just gone out." + + * * * * * + +The parlour had no more than five men in it when we entered; and one +seemed about to take his leave. That one was His Grace of Monmouth. I +was a little astonished that they let me see him there, though I +understood presently why it was so. He turned to me very friendly, while +I was observing the two others I did not know--one of whom, Mr. +Ferguson, was dressed as a minister. + +"Why, Mr. Mallock," he said, "you come as I go!" + +He recognized me a shade too swiftly. That shewed me that they had been +speaking of me to him. + +I said something civil; and then I saw that he was to say the piece they +had just taught him; for that he was not sharp enough to be trusted long +in the room with me. + +"I hear you are all consulting," said he, "how to keep the peace. Well; +I have given my counsel; and my Lord Essex here knows what I wish. I +would I could stay, gentlemen; but that cannot be done." + +There was a loyal and grateful murmur from the others. Indeed he looked +a prince, every inch of him. He took his leave with a superb courtesy, +giving his hand to each; and each bowed over it very low. I was not sure +but that Mr. Sheppard did not kiss it. For myself, I kissed it outright. +While I did so, I could have sworn that Mr. Sheppard said something +very swiftly in the ear of my Lord Essex. + +Now I was wondering why they had kept me from my Lord Russell. His +probity was known well enough; and if they had wished to reassure me +they could have done no better than tell me he was one of them; and +then, of a sudden I recollected that to reassure me was the very last +thing they wished; on the contrary, they wished to hold me tight, +betraying only what they wished me to betray, until they were ready for +their final stroke. And, just as I had arrived at that, when we were all +sat down, my Lord Essex again dumfoundered me. + +"Mr. Mallock," he said, "I wish to tell you, now we are in private, that +my Lord Russell has been here, as well as His Grace and Sir Thomas +Armstrong. You can tell from the presence of those three what our chief +difficulty will be; for not one of them will hear of even the danger of +any injury to His Majesty or the Duke of York. His Grace of Monmouth, of +course, had to be consulted on one or two points; and he brought those +other two with him to hear what we had to say. Well; I think we have +satisfied them; though I fear, later, that they will not approve of our +methods. But we did not wish my Lord Russell to see you until we had +done talking to him; for fear that he might know something of your +disaffection. We have satisfied him--and, what is more important--His +Grace too, for the present; and they will not interfere with us." + +Now this speech was an exceedingly ingenious one. Before he had done +speaking I understood that Mr. Sheppard had suspected that I had seen my +Lord Russell, and that that was why they were so open with me. But the +rest of the speech was very shrewd indeed; and I think it might have +deceived me, if I had not learned by the conversation that it was His +Grace who was trying to reassure my Lord, and no one that was trying to +reassure His Grace. But the web was so well woven that for the moment I +could not see through it all; though I understood it all presently, when +I had had a little time to think. For the instant, however, I saw one +safe answer that I could make. + +"I am obliged to your Lordship for telling me," I said, "and I trust +from what you have said that it is but a preliminary to a little more +information. Your Lordship told me in July that there would be more news +for me presently." + +He could not resist a glance at my Lord Grey--as if in triumph at his +success. + +"That is what we are met for," he said; and then--"Why, Mr. Mallock, I +have not made these other gentlemen known to you." + +They turned out to be--on the right of my Lord, the minister, Mr. +Ferguson--he who had been spoken of before as an informant from Bristol; +and a Colonel Rumsey--an old Cromwellian like the maltster of +Hoddesdon--who sat next to Mr. Ferguson. We saluted one another; and +then the affair began. + +"Mr. Mallock," said my Lord, "the first piece of news is a little +disappointing. It is that my Lord Shaftesbury is ill. It is not at all +grave; but he is confined to his bed; and that throws back some of our +designs." + +(I made a proper answer of regret; and considered what was likely to be +the truth. At the moment I could not see what this would be.) + +"The next piece of news I have, gentlemen," went on my Lord--(for I +think he thought he appeared to be speaking too much at me)--"is that +owing to my Lord Shaftesbury's illness we must relinquish all thoughts +of any demonstration in London. That, Mr. Mallock, was what we had hoped +to be able to do in a week or two from now. Well; that is impossible. +For the rest, Mr. Ferguson had better tell us." + +This gentleman I took to be somewhat of an ass by his appearance and +manner; but I am not sure he was not the cleverest liar of them all. He +spoke with a strong Scotch accent, and an appearance of shy sheepiness, +and therefore with an air too of extraordinary truth. He spoke, too, at +great length, as if he were in his pulpit; and my Lord Essex yawned +behind his hand once or twice. + +Briefly put--Mr. Ferguson's report was as follows: + +The discontent in the West was rising to a climax; and if a much longer +delay were made, real danger might follow. It was sadly disconcerting, +therefore, to him to hear that there was any hitch in the London +designs: for the promise that he had given to some of the leaders in the +West (whose names, he said, with an appearance of a stupid boorish kind +of cunning, "had best not be said even here") was that a demonstration +should be made simultaneously both here, in the West, and in Scot-- + +Here he interrupted himself sharply; and I saw that he had made a +blunder. But he covered it so admirably, that if I had not previously +known that discontent was seething among the Covenanters, I am sure I +should have suspected nothing. + +"In Scotland," said he, "we must look for nothing. They are forever +promising and not performing--though I say it of my own countrymen. Any +demonstration there would surely be a failure." + +It was admirably done; and it was then that I perceived what an actor +the man was. + +Well; when he had done, we talked over it a while. I professed myself +very well satisfied with what I had heard; and I put forward an opinion +that it would be far better to delay no longer in the West. A +demonstration there might lead to alarm here; troops might be withdrawn +here, and relieve the pressure, and thus make possible a further +demonstration in London. I spoke, I think, with some eloquence, +remembering however that they all looked on me with the same confidence +that I had in them--and no more: that is, that they believed me a liar. +My observations were received with applause, very well delivered. + +It was growing pretty late by the time we had done; yet before we went I +had learned one more piece of news, partly through a little trap I laid, +and partly through my Lord Essex's clumsiness. + +"Well," said I, "I must be getting homewards, my Lords. I wish my Lord +Shaftesbury had been here. Could I see his Lordship, do you think?--if I +were to call at his town house? There is a very particular matter--" + +My Lord Essex started a little. He was tired and overanxious, I think, +with the continual part that he had to play before me; yet it was the +first slip he made. + +"My Lord is out of town--" he said. Then he paused. "You could not tell +us, I suppose--" + +I affected indifference. (Was my Lord out of town, I wondered?) + +"Why; it is nothing," I said. + +My Lord exchanged a look with Mr. Sheppard; and made his second mistake. + +"I saw my Lord only--last week," he said suddenly. "He wishes his +address to be private for the present; but-- + +"Do not trouble yourself, my Lord," I said. "I assure you it has nothing +to do with our business here." + +I repeated this, I think, with a good enough manner to persuade them +that what I said was true; and presently afterwards took my leave. + +As I sat in the wherry that took me back to the Privy Stairs--(I had +announced of course, "to the Temple")--I was preparing in my mind what I +should say. I had learned a considerable amount for an evening; for the +conversation I had overheard, added to what Mr. Chiffinch had told me, +added to what they had all said in the parlour, interpreted and fitted +together, was pretty significant. + +These were the points I arranged. + +First, that the visit of the Duke, my Lord Grey and Sir Thomas Armstrong +to Whitehall was to see in what state the guards were in case of a +surprise; and the conclusion they had arrived at was they "were not like +soldiers at all" but "very remiss." + +Second, that a "demonstration" in London was very imminent. + +Third, that they had won over my Lord Russell enough at least to gain +the help that his name would give. + +Fourth, I was confirmed in what Mr. Chiffinch had told me as to the +probability of a rising in Scotland. + +Fifth, I was confirmed in my view that the Duke was very deeply +involved. + +Sixth, it appeared to me exceedingly probable that my Lord Shaftesbury +was still in town, though not in his own house: and, all things +considered, it was very nearly certain that he was hidden in Wapping. He +was, probably also, a little ill, or he would have been at our meeting +to-night. + +One conclusion then, immediate and pressing, came out of all this; that +an assault on Whitehall and an attack on the King's person was in urgent +contemplation. + + * * * * * + +Then, as we went up under the stars, my waterman and I, one of those +moods came upon me which come on all men in such stress as I was; and I +appeared to myself, for the time, to be worlds away from all this +sedition and passion and fever. The little affairs of men which they +thought so great seemed to me in that hour very little and wicked--like +the scheming of naughty children, or the quarrels and spites of efts in +a muddy pond. In that hour my whole heart grew sick at this miserable +murderous pother in the midst of which my duty seemed to lie; and +yearned instead to those things that are great indeed--the love of the +maid who had promised herself to me, and the Love of God that should +make us one. My religion--though I am a little ashamed to confess +it--had been very little to me lately: I had heard mass, indeed, +usually, on Sundays, in one of the privileged chapels, and had confessed +myself at Easter and once since, to one of the Capuchins, and received +Communion; yet, for the rest it had largely been blotted out by these +hot absorbing affairs in which I found myself. But, in that hour (for +the tide was beginning to set against us)--it came back on me like a +breeze in a stifling room. I thought of that cleanly passionless life I +had led as a novice, and of that no less cleanly, though perhaps less +supernatural life, that should one day be mine and Dolly's--and these +politics and these plottings and this listening at doors, and this +elaborate lying--all blew off from me like a cloud. + +When we were yet twenty yards from the Privy Stairs a wherry shot past +us, with no light burning. There was but one passenger in it, whom I +knew well enough, though I feigned to see nothing; and once more my +sickness came on me, that it was for a King like this, slipping out on +some shameful pleasure, that I so toiled and endangered myself. + + * * * * * + +When I had reported all to Mr. Chiffinch, sitting back weary in my +chair, yet knowing that I must go through with the work to which I had +set my hand, he remained silent. + +"Well?" I said. "Am I wrong in any point?" + +"Why no," he said. "Your information tallies perfectly with all I know, +and has increased the sum very much. For example, I had no idea where my +Lord Shaftesbury was. I have no doubt whatever, from what you say, that +he is in Wapping." + +"Will you send and take him there?" I asked. + +"No," he said shortly. "Leave him alone. We failed last time we took +him. And he can do no great harm there. Plainly too, he is at the +waterside that he may escape if there is need. I shall set spies there; +and no more." + +"What is to be done then? Double the guards again?" + +"Why that of course," said he. + +"And what else?" I asked; for I could see that he had not said all. + +"A counterstroke," he said. "But of what kind? You say the rising will +be pretty soon." + +"I do not suppose for a week or two at the most. They were decided, I am +sure; but no more." + +Suddenly the man slapped his leg; and his eyes grew little with his +smile. + +"I have it for sure," he said. "It will be for the seventeenth of +November. That is the popular date. Queen Bess and Dangerfield and the +rest." + +"But what can you do?" + +"Why," said he, "forbid by proclamation all processions or bonfires on +that day. Then they cannot even begin to gather." + + * * * * * + +He proved right in every particular. The proclamation was issued, and +met their intended assault to the very moment, as we learned afterwards, +besides frightening the leaders lest their intention had been +discovered: and the next night came one of the spies whom Mr. Chiffinch +had sent down to Wapping, to say that my Lord Shaftesbury had slipped +away and taken boat for Holland. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + + +Now indeed the fear grew imminent. I had thought that once my Lord +Shaftesbury was gone abroad, one of two things would happen--either that +the whole movement would collapse, or that the leaders would be arrested +forthwith. But Mr. Chiffinch was sharper than I this time; and said No +to both. + +"No," said he, sitting like a Judge, with his fingers together, on the +morning after my Lord Shaftesbury's evasion. "The feeling is far too +strong to fall away all of a sudden. I dare predict just the contrary, +that, now that the coolest of them all is gone--for he dare not come +back again--the hot-heads will take the lead; and that means the +sharpest peril we have yet encountered. This time they will not stop at +a demonstration; indeed I doubt if they could raise one successfully; +they will aim direct at the person of the King. It is their only hope +left." + +"Then why not take them before they can do any mischief?" I asked. + +"First, Mr. Mallock," he said, "because we have not enough positive +evidence--at any rate not enough to hang them all; and next we must +catch the small fry--the desperate little ones who will themselves +attempt the killing. It is now that I should be ready for a visit from +your friend Rumbald, if I were you. They can have no suspicion that you +have done anything but betray them in the way they intended: they have a +great weapon, they think, in you, to continue carrying false news. Now, +Mr. Mallock, is the very time come of which you once spoke to me--the +climax, when they will feign to reveal everything to you, and then make +their last stroke. You have seen my Lord Essex again?" + +"Not a sight of him. I had only a very guarded note, two days ago, but +very friendly: saying that the designs were fallen through for the +present." + +"Precisely what I have been saying," observed Mr. Chiffinch. "No, Mr. +Mallock, you must not stir from town. I am sorry for your pretty cousin, +and Christmas, and the rest: but you see for yourself that we must leave +no loophole unguarded. His Majesty must not die out of his bed, if we +can help it." + +There, then, I was nailed until more should happen. I dared not ask my +cousins to come to town; for God only knew what mischief my Cousin Tom +might not play; and I had not eyes on both sides of my head at once. I +wrote only to Dolly; and said that once more I was disappointed; but +that I would most certainly see her soon, if I had to ride two nights +running, from town and back. + + +I accomplished this, but not until Christmas was well over, and indeed +Lent begun. During those weeks, certainly nothing of any importance +happened to me, though my Lord Essex kept me in touch with him, and I +even was present at one very dismal meeting with him and Mr. Ferguson, +when it was deplored, in my presence, that the "demonstration"--as they +still called it--of the seventeenth of November had been so adroitly +prevented; and my Lord Shaftesbury's death--which had taken place +(chiefly, I think, from disappointment) that very week--was spoken of +with a certain relief. I think they were pleased to have matters +entirely in their own hands now. However they proposed no immediate +action, which more than ever persuaded me that this was what they +intended. Yet the days went by: and no more news came, either from them +or from Mr. Chiffinch--so I took affairs into my own hands, and one +night, before the gates of the City were shut went down to Hare Street +with a couple of men, leaving James at home, for I could trust him +better than any other man. + +Now I need not relate all that passed at Hare Street; for every lover +knows how sweet was that day to me. I had seen her not at all for more +than a year--(one year of those three that were to pass!)--and though we +had written often to one another, whenever we could get a letter taken, +yet the letters had done no more than increase my thirst. I think she +was dearer to me than ever; she was a shade paler and more grave, and I +knew what it was that had made her so, for I had told her very plainly +indeed that I was in peril and that she must pray much for me. My Cousin +Tom was friendly enough, though I saw he was no more reconciled in his +heart to our affair than he had been at the beginning; but I guessed +nothing whatever of what he was contemplating. (However perhaps he was +not contemplating it then, for he did not attempt it till much later.) +Yet he was pretty reasonable, and interrupted us no more than was +necessary; so we had that day to ourselves, until night fell, and I must +ride again. I was so weary that night, though refreshed in my spirit, +that I think I drowsed a little on my horse, and thought that I stood +again at the gate of the yard with Dolly, bareheaded in spite of the +cold, holding the lantern to help us to mount. + + * * * * * + +I was still brooding all the way up Fleet Street, and even to my own +door; until I saw James standing there; and at the sight of him I knew +that something was fallen out. + +I said nothing, but nodded at him only, as a master may, but he +understood that he was to follow upstairs. There, in my chamber I faced +him. + +"Well?" said I. "What is it?" + +"Sir," he said, "a fellow came last night and seemed much put out when I +told him you were out of town." + +"What sort of a fellow was he?" said I. + +"He was a clean-shaven man, sir, rather red in the face, with reddish +hair turning grey on his temples." + +"Heavily built?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Well; what did he say?" + +"He said that you would know what affair he was come about--that it was +very urgent; and that he could not stay in town beyond noon to-day. He +said, sir, that he was to be found till then at the _Mitre_ without +Aldgate." + +Well; that was enough for me. But I did not relish the prospect of no +sleep again; for I cannot trust my wits when I have not slept my seven +or eight hours. But there was no help for it. + +"James," said I, "bring my morning up here at once, with some meat too. +I may not be able to dine to-day, or not till late. When you have +brought it I shall have a letter ready, for Mr. Chiffinch. That you must +take yourself. Then return here, and pack a pair of valises, with a suit +in them for yourself. Have two horses ready at eleven o'clock: you must +come with me, and no one else. I do not know how long we may be away. +You understand?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Very well. I must get some sleep if I can before eleven." + +Then a thought came to me. If Rumbald must be gone from town by noon, +would he not likely want me to go with him? + +"Wait," I said. "I do not know this man very well; but I will tell you +that his name is Rumbald and that he lives at the Rye, near Hoddesdon. +You had best not come with me. But do all else as I have said; but you +must ride by yourself at eleven, to Hoddesdon; and put up at the inn +there--I forget its name, but the largest there, if there be more than +one. Remain there until you hear from me again: I may want a courier. Do +not go a hundred yards from the inn on any account; and do not seem to +know me, unless I speak to you first. You may see me, or you may not. I +know nothing till I have seen Rumbald. If you do not hear of me before +ten o'clock to-night, you can go to bed, and return here in the morning. +I will communicate with you by to-morrow night at latest. If I do not, +go to Mr. Chiffinch yourself and tell him." + +My mind was working at that swift feverish speed which weariness +sometimes will give. I was amazed afterwards at my own foresight, for +there was very little evidence of what was intended; and yet there had +come upon me, as in an illumination, that the time for which we had +waited so long was arrived at last. I do not see how I could have +guessed more than I did; neither do I now see how I guessed so much. + +My letter to Mr. Chiffinch was not long. It ran as follows: + +"Rumbald hath been to see me; and bids me be with him, if I can, by noon +to-day at the _Mitre_, without Aldgate. I know no more than that; but I +am making ready to go down with him to the Rye at Hoddesdon, if he +should want me there. I think that something is intended, if we are +right in our conjectures. I shall have my man at the inn in Hoddesdon. +You must send no one else for fear of alarming them, unless my man comes +to you to-morrow to tell you that he does not know where I am. Is His +Majesty still at Newmarket? If so, when does he purpose to return? Which +road will he come by? Send an answer back by my man who bears this. + +"R.M." + +Well; that was all that I could do. I gave the letter to James; telling +him not to awaken me with the answer till he came at eleven o'clock; and +after eating a good meal, I went to my bed and fell sound asleep; and it +seemed scarcely five minutes, before James came knocking, with Mr. +Chiffinch's answer. I sat up on my bed and read it--my mind still +swimming with sleep. + +"_Prospere procede_!" it ran. "I will observe all that you say. The King +and His Royal Highness are together at Newmarket. They purpose to return +on a Saturday, as the King usually does; but he hath not yet sent to say +whether it will be to-morrow, the 18th or the 25th. I shall hear by +night, no doubt. Neither do I know the road by which they may come." + +I read it through twice; then I tore it into fragments and gave them to +James. + +"Burn all these," I said. "Are the horses ready?" + +"Yes, sir," said James. + +Undoubtedly my sleep had refreshed me; for by the time that I rode up to +the _Mitre_ without Aldgate, I was awake with a kind of clear-headedness +that astonished me. It appeared to me that I had thought out every +contingency. I had with me a little valise, ready for the country, if +need be; yet I could return to my lodgings without remark. James was +already on his way to Hoddesdon, and would be there if I needed him. No +harm was done if my conjectures were at fault; I had left no loophole +that I could see, if they were not. It was with a tolerably contented +heart, in spite of the dangers I foresaw--(for I think these gave spice +to my adventure)--that I rode up to the _Mitre_, and saw Mr. Rumbald +himself standing astraddle in the doorway. + +I must confess however that the sight of him gave me a little check. He +appeared to me more truculent than I had ever seen him. He had his hands +behind him, with a great whip in them; he hardly smiled to me, but +nodded only, fixing his fierce eyes on my face. He had, more than I had +ever noticed it before, that hard fanatic look of the Puritan. After +all, I reflected, this maltster had commanded a troop under Cromwell at +Naseby. His manner was very different from when I had last seen him; he +appeared to me as if desperate. + +However, I think I shewed nothing of what I felt. I saluted him easily, +and swung myself off my horse. He had gone into the house at my +approach; and I followed him straight through into a little parlour to +which, it seemed, he had particular access, for he turned a key in the +door as he went in. When I was in, after him, and the door was shut, he +turned to me, with a very stern look. + +"Well, Mr. Mallock?" he said. "I see you are come ready for a ride." + +"Yes," I said. "I had your message." + +He nodded. Then he came a little closer, looking at me with his fierce +eyes. + +"You understand what is forward?" + +"I understand enough," said I. + +"That is very good then. We will ride at once." + +As we came out, a couple of men--one of them I noticed in particular, +dressed as a workman--(I set him down for a carpenter or some such +thing)--made as though they would speak to us; but Rumbald waved his +hand at them sharply, as if to hold them off. I could see that he was +displeased. I said nothing, but I marked the man closely: he was a +little fellow, that looked ill. Mr. Rumbald's horse was already there; +and mine was being held still by the ostler into whose hands I had given +him. We mounted without another word; and rode away. + +I think we did not speak one word at all till we were out from town. +Such was his mood, and such therefore I imitated. He rode like a +soldier, sitting easily and squarely in his saddle; and the more I +observed him and thought of him, the less I liked my business. It was +wonderful how some emotion had driven up the power that lay in him. All +that genial hail-fellow manner was gone completely. + +When we were clear of town he spoke at last. + +"This is a very grave business, sir," he said. "We had best not speak of +it till we are home. Have you no servants?" + +He spoke so naturally of my servants that I saw he was astonished I had +none. I had very little time to think what I should answer; it appeared +to me that I had best be open. + +"Yes," I said. "My man is gone on to Hoddesdon to await me there. I +thought it was best he should not ride with us." + +He looked at me with a peculiar expression that I could not understand; +but only for an instant. Then he nodded, and turned his stern face again +over his horse's ears. + +My moods were very various as I rode on. Now I felt as a sheep being led +to the slaughter; now as an adventurer on a quest; and, again, of a +sudden there would sweep over me a great anxiety as to His Majesty's +safety. The thought of Dolly, too, came upon me continually and affected +me now in this way, now in that. Now I longed to be free and safe back +at Hare Street; now I knew that I could never look her in the face again +if I evaded my plain duty. One thing I can say, however, from my heart, +and that is that never for an instant did I seriously consider any +evasion. It was all in the course that I had chosen--to "serve the +King." Well; I must do so now, wherever it led me. What, however, +greatly added to the horror of my position was that I knew that this +strong fellow at my side thought me to be a traitor to himself and was +using that knowledge only for his own ends. He would surely be ruthless +if he found I had served my turn; and here was I, riding to his house, +and only two men in the world knew whither I was gone. + +Rumbald had already dined; and thought not at all of me. We drew rein +therefore, nowhere; but rode straight on, through village and country +alike--now ambling for a little, once or twice cantering, and then +walking again when the way had holes in it. So we passed through +Totteridge and Barnet and Enfield Chase and Wood Green, and came at last +to Broxbourne where the roads forked, and we turned down to the right. +It was terrible that ride--all in silence; once or twice I had attempted +a general observation; but he answered so shortly that I tried no more; +and I am not ashamed to say that I committed myself again and again to +the tuition of Our Lady of Good Counsel whose picture I had venerated in +Rome. Indeed, it was counsel that I needed. + +I did not know precisely where was the Rye, nor what it was like; for I +had avoided the place, of design. I supposed it only a little place, +perhaps in a village. I was a trifle disconcerted therefore when, as we +crossed the Lea by a wooden bridge, he pointed with his whip, in +silence, to a very solid-looking house that even had battlemented +roofs--not two hundred yards away, to the left of the road. There was no +other building that I could see, except the roofs of an outhouse or two, +and suchlike. However, I nodded, and said nothing. No words were best: +in silence we rode on over the bridge, and beyond; and in silence we +turned in through a gateway, and up to the house, crossing a moat as we +went. + +Indeed, now I was astonished more than ever at the house. It was liker a +castle. There was an arched entrance, very solid, all of brick, with the +teeth even of a portcullis shewing. An old man came out of a door on our +right, as our hoofs rang out; but he made no sign or salute; he took our +horses' heads as we dismounted, and I heard him presently leading them +away. + +Still without speaking, the Colonel led me through the little guard-room +on the right, hung round with old weapons of the Civil War, and up a +staircase at the further end. At the head of the staircase a door was +open on the right, and I saw a bed within; but we went up a couple more +steps on the left, and came out into the principal living-room of the +house. + +It was a very good chamber, this, panelled about eight feet up the +walls, with the bricks shewing above, but whitewashed. A hearth was on +the right; a couple of windows in the wall opposite, and another door +beyond the hearth. The furniture was very plain but very good: a great +table stood under the windows with three or four chairs about it. The +walls seemed immensely strong and well-built; and, though the place +could not stand out for above an hour or two against guns, in the old +days it could have faced a little siege of men-at-arms, very well. + +Rumbald, when he had seen me shut the door behind me, went across to the +table and put down his whip upon it. + +"Sit down, sir," he said. "Here is my little stronghold." + +He said it with a grim kind of geniality, at which I did not know +whether to be encouraged or not: I did as he told me, and looked about +me with as easy an air as I could muster. + +"A little stronghold indeed," I said. + +He paid no attention. + +"Now, sir," he said, "we have not very much time. Supper will be up in +half in hour; we had best have our talk first, and then you may send for +your servant. Old Alick will find him out." + +"With all my heart," I said, wondering that he made so much of my +servant. + +He sat down suddenly, and looked at me very heavily and penetratingly. + +"Sir," he said, "you are going to hear the truth at last, I said we had +not much time. Well; we have not." + +"Then let me have the truth quickly," I said. + +He took his eyes from my face. I was glad of that; as I did not greatly +like his regard. What, thought I, if I be alone with a madman? + +"Well, sir," he said, "we are driven desperate, as you may have guessed. +I say, we; for you have identified yourself with our cause a hundred +times over. My Lord Shaftesbury is gone; my Lord Essex is hanging back. +Well; but those are not all. We have other men besides those that have +been urged on and urged on, and now cannot be restrained. I have tried +to restrain them myself"--(here he gulped in his throat: lying was not +very easy to this man, I think)--"and I have failed. Well, sir, I must +trust you more than I have ever trusted you before." + +Again he stopped. + +Then all came out with a rush. + +"Not half a mile from here," said he, "along the Newmarket road there be +twenty men, with blunderbusses and other arms, waiting for His Majesty +and the Duke, who will come to-morrow." + +"But how do you know?" cried I--all bewildered for the instant. + +His head shook with passion. + +"Listen," said he. "We have had certain information that they come this +way--Why, do you think we have not--" (again he broke off; but I knew +well enough what he would have said!) "I tell you we know it. The King +is not lying at Royston, to-night. He comes by this road to-morrow. Now +then, sir--what do you say to that?" + +My mind was still all in a whirl. I had looked for sudden danger, but +not so sudden as this. Half a dozen questions flashed before me. I put +the first into words: + +"Why have you told me?" I cried. + +His face contracted suddenly. (It was growing very dark by now, and we +had no candles. The muscles of his face stood out like cords.) + +"Not so loud!" said he; and then: "Well, are you not one of us? You are +pledged very deeply, sir; I tell you." + +Then came the blessed relief. For the first moment, so genuine appeared +his passion, I had believed him; and that the ambushment was there, as +he had said. Then, like a train of gunpowder, light ran along my mind +and I understood that it was the same game still that they were playing +with me; that there was no ambushment ready; that they had indeed fixed +upon this journey of the King's; but that they were unprepared and +desired delay. His anxiety about my servant; his evident displeasure and +impatience; his sending for me at all when he must have known over and +over again that I was not of his party--each detail fitted in like a +puzzle. And yet I must not shew a sign of it! + +I hid my face in my hands for a moment, to think what I could answer. +Then I looked up. + +"Mr. Rumbald," said I, "you are right. I am too deeply pledged. Tell me +what I am to do. It is sink or swim with me now." + +He believed, of course, that I was lying; and so I was, but not as he +thought. He believed that he had gained his point; and the relief of +that thought melted him. He believed, that is, that I should presently +make an excuse to get hold of my servant and send him off to delay the +King's coming. Then, I suppose, he saw the one flaw in his design; and +he strove, very pitifully, to put it right. + +"One more thing, Mr. Mallock," said he, "this is not the only party that +waits for him. There is another on the Royston road, among the downs +near Barkway. They will catch him whichever way he comes." + +I nodded. + +"I had supposed so," I said; for I did not wish to confuse him further. + +"Well," said he, "why I have sent for you is that you may help me here. +There may be more guards with the King than we think for. It may come to +a fight; and even a siege here--if they come this way. We must be ready +to defend this place for a little." + +It was, indeed, pitiful to see how poor he was as an actor. His +sternness was all gone, or very nearly: he babbled freely and +drunkenly--walking up and down the chamber, like a restless beast. He +told me point after point that he need not--even their very code--how +"swan-quills" and "goose-quills" and "crow-quills" stood for +blunderbusses and muskets and pistols; and "sand and ink" for powder and +balls. It was, as I say, pitiful to see him, now that his anxiety was +over, and he had me, as he thought, in his toils. It was a very strange +nature that he had altogether;--this old Cromwellian and Puritan--and I +am not sure to this day whether he were not in good faith in his +murderous designs. I thought of these things, even at this moment; and +wondered what he would do if he knew the truth. + +At supper he fell silent again, and even morose; and I think it +possible he may have had some suspicions of me; for he suspected +everyone, I think. But he brightened wonderfully when I said with a very +innocent air that I would like my servant to be fetched, and that I +would give him his instructions and send him back to London, for that I +did not wish to embroil him in this matter. + +"Why, certainly, Mr. Mallock," he said, "it is what I wish. I trust you +utterly, as you see. You shall see him where you will." + +He turned to his old man who came in at that instant, and bade him fetch +Mr. Mallock's servant from Hoddesdon. I described him to Alick, and +scribbled a note that would bring him. Then we fell to the same kind of +talking again. + + * * * * * + +It was eight o'clock, pretty well, by the time that James came to the +Rye. I had determined to see him out of doors where none could hear us; +and before eight I was walking up and down in the dark between the gate +and the house, talking to my host. When the two men came through the +gate, Rumbald was very particular to leave me immediately, that I might, +as he thought, send my man to Newmarket to put off the King's coming; +and have no interruption. + +"I will leave you," said he. "You shall see how much I trust you." + +I waited till he was gone in and the door shut. Then I took James apart +into a little walled garden that I had noticed as I came in, where we +could not by any chance be overheard. Even then too I spoke in a very +small whisper. + +"James," said I, "go back to Hoddesdon; and get a fresh horse. Leave all +luggage behind and ride as light as you can, for you must go straight to +Newmarket; and be there before six o'clock, at any cost. Go straight to +the King's lodgings, and ask for any of Mr. Chiffinch's men that are +there, whom you know. Do you know of any who are there?" + +"Yes, sir," whispered James; and he named one. + +"Very good. With him you must go straight to His Majesty; and have him +awakened if need be. Tell him that you come from me--Mr. Chiffinch's +men will support you in that. Tell His Majesty that if he values his +life he must return to town to-morrow--and not sleep anywhere on the +way: and that the Duke of York must come with him. Tell him that there +is no fear whatever if he comes at once; but that there is every fear if +he delays. He had best come, too, by this road and not by Royston. You +understand?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"I shall remain here until to-morrow night at the earliest. If I am not +at home by Sunday night, go to Mr. Chiffinch, as I told you this +morning. Is all clear?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Then go at once. Spare no horses or expense. Good-night, James." + +"Good-night, sir." + +I watched him out of the gate. Then I turned and went back to the house. + + + + +CHAPTER X + + +It was a strange night and day that followed. On the one side my host +found it hard, I think, to maintain the story he had told me, in action; +for, in accordance with his tale, he had to bear himself as though he +expected before nightfall the assassination of the King and His Royal +Highness half a mile away, and the rush of the murderers to his house +for shelter. On my side, it was scarcely less hard, for I knew nothing +of how my man James had fared, or whether or no His Majesty would act +upon my message. I guessed, however, that he would, if only my man got +there; for Chiffinch's men (who now followed him everywhere) would be as +eager as I that no danger should come to him. + +My plans therefore were more secure than Rumbald's; since I knew, either +that His Majesty would come, and no harm done, or that, merely, he would +not come. In the latter case Rumbald would be certified that I had done +as he thought I would; and would, no doubt, let me go peacefully, to use +me again later in the same manner, if occasion rose. For myself, then, I +intended after nightfall at the latest to ride back to London and report +all that had passed; and, if the King had not come, to lay all in Mr. +Chiffinch's hands for his further protection. + +I was left a good deal to myself during the morning--Mr. Rumbald's +powers of dissimulation being, I think, less than his desire for them; +and I did not quarrel with that. I was very restless myself, and spent a +good deal of time in examining the house and the old arms, used no +doubt, forty years ago in the Civil War, that were hung up everywhere. +Within, as well as without, it was liker an arsenal or a barracks, than +a dwelling-house. Its lonely situation too, and its strength, made it a +very suitable place for such a design as that which its owner had for +it. The great chamber, at the head of the stairs, and over the archway, +where we had our food, was no doubt the room where the conspirators had +held their meetings. + +A little before eleven o'clock, as I was walking in the open space +between the house and the gate, I saw a fellow look in suddenly from the +road, and then was away again. Every movement perturbed me, as may be +imagined in such suspense; yet anything was better than ignorance, and I +called out to let him see that I had observed him. So he came forward +again; and I saw him to be the little carpenter, or what not, that had +wished to speak to Rumbald yesterday at the inn. + +He saluted me very properly. + +"I beg your pardon, sir," said he, "but is Mr. Rumbald within?" + +Now I had seen Mr. Rumbald, not ten minutes ago, slip back into the +house from the outhouses where he had pretended to go upon some +preparation or other for the reception of the assassins this evening; +but he had not known that I saw him. + +"He is very busy at present," said I. "Cannot I do your business for +you?" + +(I tried to look as if I knew more than I did.) + +"Why, sir," he said, "I think not." + +He seemed, I thought, in a very pitiable state. (I learned some months +later that he was come down expressly to dissuade Rumbald from any +attempt at that time; but I did not know that then.) Here, only, thought +I, is one of the chicken-hearted ones. I determined to play upon his +fears, if I could, and at the same time, perhaps, upon his hopes. + +"I think I can, however," I said. "You would be out of the business, if +you could, would you not?" + +He turned so white that I thought he would have fallen. I saw that my +shot had told; but it was not a hard one to make. + +"Hold up, man," I said. "Why, what do you suppose I am here for?" + +"What business, sir?" he said. "I do not know what you mean." + +I smiled; so that he could see me do it. + +"Very good, then," I said. "I will leave you to Mr. Rumbald;" and I +made as if I would pass on. + +"Sir," he said, "can you give me any assurance?... I am terrified." And +indeed he looked it; so I supposed that he thought that the attempt was +indeed to be made to-day. I determined on a bold stroke. + +"My man!" I said. "If you will tell me your name, and then begone at +once, back to town, I will tell you something that will be of service to +you. If not--" and I broke off. + +He looked at me piteously. I think my air frightened him. He drew back a +little from the house, though we were in a place where we could not be +seen from the windows. + +"My name is Keeling, sir. You will not betray me? What is it, sir?" + +"Well," said I, "I can give you an assurance that what you fear will not +take place. There is not a man here beyond myself and Mr. Rumbald and +old Alick. Now begone at once. Stay; where do you live?" + +He shook his head. A little colour had come back to his face again at +the news. + +"No, sir; that was not in the bargain. I will begone, sir, as you said; +and thank you, sir." + +He slipped back again very quickly, and was vanished. I suppose that he +had ridden down in some cart all night, and that he went back in the +same way, for I saw no more of him. + +Well; I had gained two little points--I had kept him from Mr. Rumbald, +which was one--(for I did not want my host to consult with any if I +could help it)--and I had learned what perhaps was his name. This, +however, I would test for myself presently. + +At noon we dined; and having observed no difference in my host's manner, +that might shew that he had any idea I had met with anyone, I made two +remarks. + +"I talked with a fellow at the gate this morning," I said; "he seemed to +know nothing of the King's coming." + +Rumbald jerked his head impatiently; and I perceived that we had not +been seen. Presently I said: + +"Who was that pale-looking fellow who wished to speak with you +yesterday, Mr. Rumbald, at the _Mitre?_" + +He looked sharply at me for an instant. + +"His name is Thompson," said he. "He is one of my malting-men." + +Then I knew that he had lied. A man does not invent the name of Keeling, +but very easily the name of Thompson. So I saw that Rumbald had not yet +lost all discretion; and indeed, for all his talk, he had hardly spoken +a name that I could get hold of. + +After a while I ventured on another sentence which suited my purpose, +and at the same time confirmed him in his own view. + +"If by any chance His Majesty should not come to-day--will it be done, +do you think, to-morrow? Shall you wait till he does come?" + +He shook his head and lied again very promptly. + +"If it is not done to-day, it will never be done." + +Looking back on the affair now, I truly do wonder at the adroitness with +which we both talked. There was scarcely a slip on either side, though +we were at cross-purposes if ever men were. But I suppose that in both +of us there was a very great tension of mind--as of men walking on the +edge of a precipice; and it was the knowledge of that which saved us +both. After dinner I said I would walk again out of doors; and he +thought it was mere affectation, since I must know by now that His +Majesty was not coming. + +"Well," I said, "if by any mischance His Majesty doth not come to-day, I +will get back to town." + +He looked at me; but he kept any kind of irony out of his face. + +"You had best do that," he said. + + * * * * * + +Now it must have been forty miles from Newmarket to the Rye; and I had +calculated that His Majesty would not start till nine o'clock at the +earliest. He would have four horses and would change them at least three +times; but they would not be able to go out of a trot for most of the +way, so that I need not look for any news of him till three o'clock at +the earliest. From then till five o'clock would be the time. If he were +not come by five, or at the very latest half-past, I should know that my +design had miscarried. + +It is very difficult for me to describe at all the state I was in--all +the more as I dared not shew it. It was not merely that my Sovereign was +at stake, but a great deal more than that. My religion too was in some +peril, for if, by any mischance things should not go as I expected; if, +as certainly occurred to my mind as one possibility in ten, I had +completely mistaken Rumbald, and he had spoken the truth for once--it +was not the King only who would perish, but the Catholic heir also, and +then good-bye to all our hopes. Yet, I declare that even this did not +affect me so much as the thought that it was the man whom I had learned +to love that was in peril--to love, in spite of his selfishness and his +indolence and his sins. It was all but an intolerable thought to me that +that melancholy fiery man who had so scolded me--whom, to tell the +truth, I had scolded back--that this man might, even in imagination, be +mixed up with the horror of the firing of guns and the plunging of the +wounded horses--should himself be shot at and murdered, there in the +lonely Hertfordshire lane. + +At about three o'clock I could bear it no more. God knows how many +prayers I had said; for I think I prayed all the time, as even careless +men will do at such crises. There was the grim house behind me, the +leafless trees overhead, the lane stretching up northwards beyond the +gate. All was very silent, except for the barking of a dog now and +again. It was a very solitary place--the very place for a murder; there +were no meadows near us, where men might be working, but only the deep +woods. It was a clearish kind of day, with clouds in the west. + +At about three o'clock then I went to the stables to see my horse. These +were behind the house. There was no one about, and no other horse in the +stables but Rumbald's own black mare that had carried him yesterday. + +It came to me as I looked at my horse that no harm would be done if I +put the saddle on him. Rumbald would but think me a little foolish for +so confessing in action that I knew the King would not come; and for +myself it would be some relief to my feelings to know that if by any +mischance I did hear the sound of shots, I could at least ride up and do +my best, though I knew it would be too late. + +I saddled my horse then, and put on the bridle, as quickly as I could. +Then, again, I thought there would be no harm done if I led him out to +the gate and fastened him there. I looked out of the stable door, but +there was no one in sight. So I led my horse out, as quietly as I could, +yet openly, and brought him round past the front of the house and so +towards the gate. I thought nothing of my valise; for at that time I +intended no more than what I had said. I was uneasy, and had no +determined plans. I would tell Rumbald, if he came out, that I was but +holding myself ready to ride out if I were needed. + +Then, as I came past the front of the house, I heard, very distinctly in +the still air, the tramp of horses far away on the hill to the north; +and I knew enough of that sound to tell me that there were at least +eight or nine coming, and coming fast. + +Now it might have been the coach of anyone coming that way. The races +were at Newmarket, and plenty went to and fro, though it is true that +none had come this way all day. Yet at that sound my heart leapt up, +both in excitement and terror. What if I had made any mistake, and +enticed the King to his death? Well, it would be my death too--but I +swear I did not think of that! All I know is that I broke into a run, +and the horse into a trot after me; and as I reached the gate heard +Rumbald run out of the house behind me. + +I paid him no attention at all, though I heard his breathing at my +shoulder. I was listening for the tramp and rattle of the hoofs again, +for the sound had died away in a hollow of the road I suppose. Then +again they rang out; and I thought they must be coming very near the +place he had told me of; and I turned and looked at him; but I think he +did not see me. He too was staring out, his face gone pale under its +ruddiness, listening for what very well might be the end of all his +hopes. + +Then the distant hoofs grew muffled once more, though not altogether; +and, at that, Rumbald ran out into the road as he was, bareheaded; and I +saw that he carried a cleaver in his hand, caught up, I suppose, at +random; for it was of no use to him. + +Then, loud and clear not a hundred yards away I heard the rattle and +roar of a coach coming down the hill and the tramp of the hoofs. + +"Back, you fool," I screamed, "back!" for I dared not pull my horse out +into the road. "Throw it away!" + +He turned on me with the face of a devil. Though he must have seen the +liveries and the guardsmen from where he stood, I think not even yet did +he take in how he had been deceived; but that he began to suspect it, I +have no doubt. + +He came back at my cry, as if unwillingly, and stood by my side; but +never a word did he say: and together we waited. + +Then, past the gate on the left, over the hedge, I caught a flash of +colour, and another, come and gone again; and then the gleam of a +coach-roof; and, though I had no certainty from my senses, I was as sure +it was the King, as if I had seen him. + +So we waited still. I drew up in my hands my horse's bridle, not knowing +what I did, and moved round to where I could mount, if there were any +road; and, as I did it, past the gate, full in view there swept at a +gallop, first three guards riding abreast, a brave blaze of colour in +the dusky lane; then the four grey horses, with their postilions +cracking their whips; then the coach; and, as this passed, as plain as a +picture I saw the King lean forward and look--his great hat and periwig +thrust forward--and behind him another man. Then the coach was gone; and +two more guards flew by and were gone too. + +I lost my head completely for the single time, I think, in all this +affair; now that I knew that the King was safe. There, standing where I +was, I lifted my hat, and shouted with my full voice: + +"God save the King!" + + * * * * * + +I turned as I shouted; and, as the last word left my lips, I saw +Rumbald, his face afire with anger, coming at me, round my horse from +behind, with the cleaver upraised. If he had not been near mad with +disappointment, he would have struck at my horse; but he was too intent +on me for that. + +I leapt forward, for I had no time to do anything else, dragging my +horse's haunches forward again and round; and with the next movement I +was across my saddle, all-asprawl, as my horse started and plunged. I +was ten yards away before the man could do anything, and struggling to +my seat; but, as I rose and gripped the reins, something flew over my +head, scarce missing it by six inches; and I saw the blade of the +cleaver flash into the ditch beyond. + +At that, I turned and lifted my hat, reining in my horse; for I was as +mad with success as the other man with failure. + +"God save the King!" I cried again. "Ah! Mr. Rumbald, if only you had +learned to speak the truth!" + +Then I put in my spurs and was gone, hearing before me, the hollow tramp +and rumble of the great coach in front, as the King's party went across +the bridge. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + + +It was three months later that I sat once more, though not for the first +time since my adventure at the Rye in Mr. Chiffinch's parlour. + + * * * * * + +Of those three months I need not say very much; especially of the +beginning of them, since I received then, I think, more compliments than +ever in my life before. My interviews had been very many; not with Mr. +Chiffinch only, but with two other personages whose lives, they were +pleased to say, I had saved. + +His Majesty had laughed very heartily indeed at the tale of my +adventures. + +"Odds-fish!" said he. "We had all been done, but for you, Mr. Mallock. +It was three or four days after, at the least, that I had intended +returning; and by that time, no doubt, our friends would have had their +ambushment complete. But when your man came, all a-sweat, into my very +bed-chamber, telling me to fly for my life--well; there was no more to +be said. There was a fire too at my lodgings that same morning;--and +poor Sir Christopher's low ceilings all ruined with the smoke--but that +would not have brought me, though I suppose we must give out that it +did. No; Mr. Mallock, 'twas you, and no other. Odds-fish! I did not +think I had such an accomplished liar in my service!" + +His Royal Highness, too, was no less gracious; though he talked in a +very different fashion. + +To him there was no humour in the matter at all; 'twas all God's +Providence; and I am not sure but that he was not more right than his +brother; though indeed there are always two sides to a thing. His talk +was less of myself, and more of the interests I had served; and there +too he was right; for, as I have said, if there had been any mistake in +the matter, good-bye to Catholic hopes. + +My first interview with Mr. Chiffinch astonished me most. When he had +finished paying compliments, I began on business. + +"You will hardly catch Rumbald," said I, "unless you take him pretty +soon. He too will be off to Holland, I think." + +He shook his head, smiling. + +"I am sorry not to be able to give you vengeance for that +cleaver-throwing; but you must wait awhile." + +"Wait?" cried I. + +"What single name do you know besides that of Rumbald, which was +certainly involved in this affair? Why, Mr. Mallock, you yourself have +told me that he observed discretion so far; and did not name a single +man." + +"Well; there is Keeling," I said. + +"And what is Keeling?" he asked with some contempt. "A maltster, and a +carpenter: a fine bag of assassins! And how can you prove anything but +treasonable talk? Where were the 'swan-quills' and the 'sand and the +ink'? Did you set eyes on any of them?" + +I was silent. + +"No, no, Mr. Mallock; we must wait awhile. I have even talked to +Jeffreys, and he says the same. We must lime more birds before we pull +our twig down. Now, if you could lay your hand on Keeling!" + +He was right: I saw that well enough. + +"And meantime," said I, smiling, "I must go in peril of my life. They +surely know now what part I have played?" + +"They must be fools if they do not. But there will be no more +cleaver-throwing for the present, if you take but reasonable care. +Meanwhile, you may go to Hare Street, if you will; though I cannot say I +should advise it. And I will look for Keeling." + + * * * * * + +Well; I did not take his advice. That was too much to expect. I went to +Hare Street in April and remained there a couple of months; but I do not +propose to discourse on that beyond saying that I was very well +satisfied, and even with Cousin Tom himself, who appeared to me more +resigned to have me as a son-in-law. To neither of them could I say a +word of what had passed, except to tell Dolly that my peril was over for +the present, and to thank her for her prayers. During those two months I +had no word of Rumbald at all; and I suspect that he lay very quiet, +knowing, after all, how little I knew. If he went to Holland, he +certainly came back again. Then, in June, once more a man came from Mr. +Chiffinch, to call me to town. So here I sat once more, with the birds +singing their vespers, in the Privy Garden, a hundred yards away, and +the river flowing without the windows, as if no blood had ever flowed +with it. + +"Well," said Chiffinch, when I was down in a chair, "the first news is +that we have found Keeling. You were right, or very nearly. He is a +joiner, and lives in the City. He hath been to the Secretary of the +Council, and will go to him again to-morrow." + +"How was that done?" I asked. + +"Why, I sent a couple of men to him," said the page, "when we had marked +him down; who so worked on his fears that he went straight to my Lord +Dartmouth; and my Lord Dartmouth carried him to Sir Leoline Jenkins. The +Secretary very properly remarked that he was but one witness; and +Keeling went away again, to see if he can find another. Well; the tale +is that he hath found another--his own brother--and that both will go +again to the Secretary to-morrow. So I thought it best that you should +see him first here, to-night, to identify him for certain." + +"That is very good," I said. "But, Mr. Chaffinch, if I appear too +publicly in this matter, I shall be of very little service to the King +hereafter." + +"I know that very well," said the page. "And you shall not appear +publicly at all, neither shall your name. Indeed, the King hath a little +more business for you at last, in France; and you will wish perhaps to +go to Rome. So the best thing that you can do, when we have seen that +all is in order, is to wait no longer, but be off, and for a good while +too. Your life may be in some peril for the very particular part that +you played, for though we shall catch, I think, all the principal men +in the affair, we shall not catch all the underlings; and even a joiner +or a scavenger for that matter, if he be angry enough, is enough to let +the life out of a man. And we cannot spare you yet, Mr. Mallock." + +This seemed to me both reasonable and thoughtful; and it was not +altogether a surprise to me. Indeed I had prepared Dolly for a long +absence, thinking that I might go to Rome again, as I had not been there +for a long while. Besides, waiting in England for the time laid down by +Tom and agreed to by both of us, would make that time come no swifter; +and, if there were work to be done, I had best do it, before I had a +wife to engage my attention. + +But I sighed a little. + +"Well," said I; "and where is Keeling?" + +"I have been expecting him this last ten minutes," said he. + +Even as he spoke, a knock came upon the door. The page cried to come in; +and there entered, first a servant holding the door, and then the little +joiner himself, flushed in his face, I supposed with the excitement. He +was dressed in his Sunday clothes, rather ill-fitting. He did not know +me, I think, for he made no movement of surprise. I caught Mr. +Chiffinch's look of inquiry, and nodded very slightly. + +"Well, sir," began the page in a very severe tone, "so you have made up +your mind to evade the charge of misprision of treason--that, at the +least!" + +"Yes, sir," said the man in a very timid way. (He must have heard that +phrase pretty often lately.) + +"Well; and you have found your other witness?" + +"Yes, sir; my own brother, sir." + +"Ah! Was he too in this detestable affair?" + +"No, sir." + +"Well, then; how do you bring him in?" + +"Sir," said the man, seeming to recover himself a little, "I put my +brother in a secret place; and then caused him to overhear a +conversation between myself and another." + +"Very pretty! very pretty!" cried the page. "And who was this other?" + +"Sir; it was a Mr. Goodenough--under-sheriff once of--" + +I could not restrain a start; for I had not thought Mr. Goodenough, the +friend of my Lord Essex, to be so deep in the affair as this. Keeling +saw me start, I suppose; for he looked at me, and himself showed sudden +agitation. + +"Good evening, Keeling," said I. "We have had a little conversation once +before." + +"Oh! for God's sake, gentlemen! for God's sake! I am already within an +inch of my life." + +"I know you are," said Mr. Chiffinch severely, "and you will be nearer +even than that, if you do not speak the whole truth." + +"Sir; it is not that I mean," cried the man, in a very panic of terror. +"Rumbald hath been--" + +"Eh? What is that?" said Mr. Chiffinch. + +"Rumbald, sir, the old Colonel, of the Rye--" + +"God, man! We know all about Rumbald," said the page contemptuously. +"What hath he been at now?" + +"Sir; he and some of the others caught me but yesterday. They had heard +some tale of my having been to Mr. Secretary, and--" + +"And you swore you had not, I suppose," snarled the other. + +"Sir; what could I do? Rumbald was all for despatching me then and +there. They caught me at Wapping. I prayed them for God's love not to +believe such things: I entreated: I wept--" + +"I'll be bound you did," said Mr. Chiffinch. "Well? And what then?" + +"Sir! they let me go again." + +"They did? The damned fools!" cried Chiffinch. + +I was astonished at his vehemence. But, like his master, if there was +one thing that the page could not bear, it was a fool. I made him a +little sign. + +"Keeling," said I, "you remember me well enough. Well; I need not say +that we know pretty near everything that there is to know. But we must +have it from you, too. Tell us both now, as near as you can recollect, +every name to which you can speak with certainty. Remember, we want no +lies. We had enough of them a while back in another plot." (I could not +resist that; though Mr. Chiffinch snapped his lips together.) "Well, +now, take your time. No, do not speak. Consider yourself carefully." + +It was, indeed, a miserable sight to see this poor wretch so hemmed in. +The sweet evening light fell full upon his terrified eyes and his +working lips, as he sought to gather up the names. He was persuaded, I +am sure, that we were as gods, knowing all things--above all, he feared +myself, as I could see, having met me first at the very house of +Rumbald, as if I were his friend, and now again in the chamber of his +accuser. It was piteous to see how he sought to be very exact in his +memories, and not go by a hair's breadth beyond the truth. + +At last I let him speak. + +"Now then," I said, "tell us the names." (I saw as I spoke that Mr. +Chiffinch held a note-book below the table to take them down.) + +"Sir, these for certain. Rumbald; West; Rumsey--" + +"Slowly, man, slowly," I cried. + +"Rumsey; Goodenough; Burton; Thompson; Barber--those last three all of +Wapping, sir. Then, sir, there is Wade, Nelthrop, West, Walcot--" he +hesitated. + +"Well, sir," demanded Mr. Chiffinch very fiercely. "That is not all." + +"No, sir, no no.... There is Hone, a joiner like myself." + +"Man," cried the page, "we want better names than snivelling tradesmen +like yourself." + +The fellow turned even paler. + +"Well, sir; but how can I tell that--" + +"Sir," said the page to me sharply, "call the guard!" + +"Sir," cried the poor wretch, "I will tell all; indeed I will tell." + +"Well?" + +"Sir, the Duke of Monmouth was in it--at least we heard so. He was +certainly in the former plot!" + +"And what was that?" asked the other very quietly. + +"Why, sir; the plot to assault Whitehall; it is all one in reality; +but--" + +"We know all about that," snapped the page sharply. "Well; and what +other names?" + +"Sir; there was my Lord Russell." + +I moved in my chair. Even to this day I cannot believe that that peer +was guilty; though indeed he was found so to be. Mr. Chiffinch cast me a +look. + +"Proceed, sir," he said. + +"And there was Mr. Ferguson, a minister; and Mr. Wildman; and my Lord +Argyle in Scotland; and my Lord Howard of Escrick; and Mr. Sidney; and +my Lord Essex. I do not say, sir, that all those--" + +"There! there: go on. We shall test every word you say; you may depend +upon it. What other names have you?" + +"There was my Lord Grey, sir; and Sir Thomas Armstrong ... Sir; I can +remember no more!" + +"And a pretty load on any man's conscience!" cried the virtuous Mr. +Chiffinch. "And so all this nest of assassins--" + +"Sir; I did not say that. I said--" + +"That is enough; we want no comments and glosses, but the bare truth. +Well, Keeling, if this tale be true, you have saved your own life--that +is, if your fellow murderers do not get at you again. You have been in +trouble before, I hear, too." + +"Sir; it was on the matter of the Lord Mayor--" + +"I know that well enough. Well, sir; so this is the tale you will tell +to-morrow to Mr. Secretary." + +"Yes, sir, if I can remember it all." + +"You will remember it, I'll warrant. Well, sir; I think I have no more +questions for the present. Sir, have you any questions to ask this man?" + +I shook my head. I was near sick at the torture the man was in. + +"Well, sir; you may go," said the page. "And I would recommend you and +your brother to lie very private to-night. There must be no more +evasion." + + * * * * * + +When he was gone, Mr. Chiffinch turned to me. + +"Well?" he said. "What do you think?" + +"Oh! I think he speaks the truth, in the main," I said wearily. "Shall I +be needed any more; or when may I leave town?" + +"You must wait, Mr. Mallock, until we have laid hands on them." + + * * * * * + +It was not until the middle of July that I was able to leave. On the +eighteenth of June a proclamation was issued, with the names of some of +the conspirators; and numerous arrests were made. One matter pleased me +a little, and that was that Keeling had been man enough after all, to +warn some of the humbler folk, who had been led into the affair, of what +he had done; and the most of these got clean away. Then Sheppard came +forward and betrayed three or four who had met in his house, as I had +seen for myself: and West added many details. A second proclamation +containing the names, and offering rewards for the arrest of Monmouth, +my Lord Grey, Sir Thomas Armstrong and the Reverend Robert Ferguson, was +made after my Lord Russell's arrest; but all four of them escaped. My +Lords Howard and Essex were taken on the tenth of July; and two days +later Walcot, Hone and Rouse were convicted. + +As soon as my Lord Russell's trial was begun, and the certainty that he +would be convicted was made plain by my Lord Howard turning King's +evidence, I left London with my man James. And before we were at Dover +the news came to us that my Lord Essex, in despair, had cut his throat +in the Tower. As for myself, I was glad enough to leave; for I was both +sick and weary of intrigue. It would be of a very different sort in +France; and of a kind that a gentleman may undertake without misgivings: +so, though I was loth to leave the land where Dolly was, the balance +altogether left me refreshed rather than saddened. + + * * * * * + +It was a clear day as the packet put out from Dover; and, as I stood on +deck, watching the cliffs recede as we went, there came on me again that +same mood that had fallen on me as I went up the river so long ago from +Wapping. Once more it appeared to me as if I were in somewhat of a +dream. Those men I had left behind, awaiting trial and death; Mr. +Chiffinch; the King, the Court, even Dolly herself, appeared to have +something phantom-like about them. Once more the realities seemed to +close about me and envelop me--or rather that great Reality whom we name +God; and all else seemed but very little and trifling. + + + + +PART IV + + + + +CHAPTER I + + +Once more it was high summer, a year afterwards, as I rode in, still +with James, thank God! and three other men, over London Bridge. + + * * * * * + +My life abroad once more must remain undescribed. There is plenty of +reason against the telling of it; and nothing at all for it. One thing +only may I say, that I came last from Rome, having stayed over for the +Feast of the Apostles, and carried with me, though verbally only, some +very particular instructions for His Royal Highness the Duke of York +from personages whom he should respect, if he did not. And what those +counsels were will appear in the proper place. By those same personages +I had been complimented very considerably, and urged to yet greater +efforts. Briefly with regard to the two Royal Brothers, I was urged to +press on the one, and to restrain the other; for I heard in Rome that it +was said that they would listen to me, if I observed discretion. + +As to what had passed in England, a very short account will suffice. + +First, with regard to the conspirators, a number had been executed, +among whom I suppose must be reckoned my Lord Russell--an upright man, I +think; yet one who had at least played with very hot fire. Frankly, I do +not believe that he aimed ever at the King's life, but that my Lord +Howard witnessed that he did, in order to save himself. Of the others +that were executed, I think all deserved it; and the principal, I +suppose, was Mr. Sidney, that ancient Republican and Commonwealth man, +who was undoubtedly guilty. Besides him, my Lord Essex had killed +himself in prison--for I never believed the ugly story of the bloody +razor having been thrown out of his window--and Sir Thomas Armstrong was +executed--and richly he had earned it by a thousand crimes and +debaucheries--and old Colonel Rumbald; whose fate, I must allow, caused +me a little sorrow (even though he had flung a sharp cleaver at my +head), for he was very much more of a man than that puling treacherous +hound my Lord Howard, who was taken hiding in his shirt, up his own +chimney, and turned traitor to his friends. Holloway too--a merchant of +Bristol, and a friend of Mr. Ferguson--was executed, and several in +Edinburgh, of the Scottish plotters under Argyle, among whom the +principal was Baillie of Jerviswood. The torture of the boot and the +thumbscrews was used there, I am sorry to say; for they had plenty of +evidence without it. Of the others some evaded altogether, of whom a +good number went to Holland, which was their great refuge at this time, +and others again saved their lives by turning King's evidence. The +Reverend Mr. Ferguson proved himself a clever fellow, as indeed I had +thought him, and a courageous one too, for after attending my Lord +Shaftesbury upon his deathbed, he returned again to Edinburgh, and +there, upon search being made for him, hid himself in the very prison to +which they wished to consign him, and so escaped the death he had +earned. + +With regard to the Duke of Monmouth, affairs had taken a very strange +course; and His Majesty, as I think, had behaved with less than his +usual wisdom. Before even Mr. Sidney's death, the Duke had made his +peace, both with the King and the Duke of York, and had, after +expressing extraordinary contrition, and yet denying that he had been in +any way privy to any attempt on the King's life, received a pardon. But +he had not been content with that; and so soon as the _Gazette_ +announced that it was so, and had given men to understand that Monmouth +had made his peace by turning King's evidence, what must His Grace do, +but deny it again, and cause it to be denied too in all the +coffee-houses in town? The King was thrown into a passion by this; and +once again His Grace had to sign and read aloud a paper, in the presence +of witnesses and of the King, in the private parlour of the Duchess of +Portsmouth's lodgings--(where, it must be confessed, His Majesty did +much of his business at this time). But the paper was not explicit +enough, and must be re-written: and so the foolish shilly-shally went +on--and he guilty all the time--and at last he evaded them all, and went +back again to Holland. + +There was another piece of news that had come to me lately that pleased +me better; and that was of the trial of Oates, for treasonous speaking, +and his condemnation in one hundred thousand pounds, which caused him to +be shut up in prison without more ado, where he could do no more +mischief. Indeed his credit was all gone now, thank God! and all that he +had to do in prison was to prepare himself for his whippings which he +got a year later. A few months earlier too, the four Popish lords that +had been left in the Tower were released again, which I was very glad to +hear of. + +Other matters too had passed; but I think I have said enough to shew how +affairs stood in the month of July when I came back to England--with the +exception of what I shall relate presently as of my own experience. + + * * * * * + +The evening was as bright and fair as that on which I had come back to +London near two years and a half ago, with so heavy a heart, to find +Dolly at Court; but this time the heaviness was all gone. I had had +letters from her continually, and all those I carried with me. She told +me that her father seemed a little moody, now and again; but I did not +care very greatly about that. He could be as moody as he liked, if he +but let her and me alone. It was less than a year now from my +twenty-eighth birthday, which was the period that had been fixed. + +Now a piece of news had reached me at Dover that made me pretty content; +and that was that His Majesty desired me to have lodgings now in +Whitehall. These were very hard to come by, except a man had great +influence; and I was happy to think that such as I had was from the King +himself. So I did not return northwards this time from the Strand, but +held on, and so to the gate of Whitehall. Here I was stopped and asked +my name. + +I gave it; and the officer saluted me very civilly. + +"Your lodgings are ready, sir," said he. "Mr. Chiffinch was very urgent +about them. And he bade me tell you you would find visitors there, if +you came before eight o'clock." + +It was now scarcely gone seven; but I thought very little of my +visitors, supposing they might perhaps be Mr. Chiffinch himself and a +friend: so I inquired very, leisurely where the lodgings were situate. + +"They are my Lord Peterborough's old lodgings, sir," said the man. "He +hath moved elsewhere. They look out upon the Privy Garden and the +bowling-green; or, to be more close, on the trees between them." + +This was a fine piece of news indeed; for these lodgings were among the +best. I was indeed become a person of importance. + +There were two entrances to these lodgings--one from the Stone Gallery, +and the other from the garden; but that into the garden was only a +little door, whose use was not greatly encouraged, because of the +personages that walked there; so I went up the Stone Gallery, between +all the books and the cabinets, and so to my own door; with my James +behind me. My other men I bade follow when they had bestowed the horses +and found their own quarters. + +It was a fine entrance, with a new shield over the door; lately scraped +white, for the reception of my own arms. I knocked upon it, and a fellow +opened; and when I had told him my name, he let me through; and I went +upstairs to the parlour that looked over the garden; and there, to my +happiness were my visitors. For they were none other than my dear love +herself and her maid. + +I cannot tell what that was to me, to find her there.... The maid was +sent into the little writing-room, next door, into which my visitors +would usually be shewn; and we two sat down on the window-seat. Dolly +looked not a day older: she was in a fine dress. + +"See," she said, "you have caught me again at Court? Will you send me +away again this time?" + +She told me presently that she and her father were come up to town for a +few days; but must be gone again directly. They had written to Mr. +Chiffinch demanding news of me, and when should I be at liberty to come +to Hare Street; and he had told them that at anyrate not yet for a +while, and that they had best come and see me in my new lodgings. I was +sorry that he had said I could not go to Hare Street for the +present--though I had expected no less; but I soon forgot it again in +her dear presence. + +"You are a great man, now, I suppose," she said presently, "too great to +see to the pigs any longer. We have no such rooms as this at Hare +Street." + +They were indeed fine; and we went through them together. They were all +furnished from roof to floor; there were some good tapestries and +pictures; and the windows, as the officer had said, looked out for the +most part upon the trees beneath which so long ago I had watched ladies +walking. But I told her that I loved my panelled chamber at Hare Street, +and the little parlour, with the poor Knights of the Grail, who rode +there for ever and never attained their quest, more than all Whitehall. +Then I kissed her again, for perhaps the thirtieth time; and, as I was +doing so Cousin Tom came in. + +"Ah!" said he, "I have caught you then!" But he said it without much +merriment. + +If Dolly was no older, her father was. There were grey hairs in his +eyebrows, for that was all that I could see of his hair, since he wore a +periwig; and his face appeared a little blotchy. + +I met him however with cordiality, and congratulated him on his looks. +He sat down, and presently, to my astonishment, he too opened out upon +my prospects, though in a very different manner from Dolly. + +"You are a great man now," he said, "in these fine lodgings. I wonder +His Majesty hath not made you at least a knight." + +I was a little angry at his manner. He said it not pleasantly at all; +but as if he found fault. I determined I would not meet his ambitions at +all. + +"My dear Cousin," said I, "indeed I am not a knight; and have no hope of +being so. His Majesty hath a thousand men more competent than I." + +"Then why hath he given you these lodgings?" said he, with a sharp look. + +I shrugged my shoulders. + +"I am of some convenience to His Majesty; and the more so if I am near +him. I suppose that these lodgings fell vacant in the nick of time." + +He looked at me very earnestly. He had, of course, no idea of in what +matters I was engaged: I might have been a mere valet for all he knew. + +"That is so?" he said. + +"I have no reason to think otherwise," I answered him. + + * * * * * + +Well; it was growing late; and I had not supped, as Dolly presently +remembered; it was near eight o'clock, and after that time there would +be formalities at the gate as they went out. So they took their leave at +last; and I kissed Dolly for the thirty-first time, and went downstairs +with them, and watched them down the gallery; they having promised to +come again next day. + + * * * * * + +I had scarcely done supper and looked about me a little, when Mr. +Chiffinch's name was brought to me; and I went to see him in the little +parlour and bring him through to what would be my private closet--so +great was I become! He looked older; and I told him so. + +"Well; so I am," said he. "And so are we all. You will be astonished +when you see His Majesty." + +"Is he so much older?" I asked. + +"He has aged five years in one," said he. + +We talked presently (after looking through my lodgings again, to see if +all were as it should be, and after my thanking Mr. Chiffinch for the +pains he had put himself to), first of France and then of Rome. He +shewed himself very astute when we spoke of Rome. + +"I do not wish to pry," he said, "but I hope to God's sake that the Holy +Father hath given you a commission to His Royal Highness, to bid him +hold himself more quiet. He will ruin all, if he be not careful." + +"Why; how is that?" said I. + +"Ah! you ecclesiastics," he cried--"for I count you half an one at +least, in spite of your pretty cousin--you are more close than any of +us! Well; I will tell you as if you did not know." + +He put his fingers together, in his old manner. + +"First," said he, "he is Lord High Admiral again. I count that very +rash. We are Protestants, we English, you know; and we like not a Papist +to be our guard-in-chief." + +"You will have to put up with a Papist as a King, some day," said I. + +"Why I suppose so--though I would not have been so sure two years ago. +But a King is another matter from an High Admiral." + +"Well; what else has he done?" I asked. + +"He hath been readmitted to the Council, in the very face of the Test +Act too. But it is how he bears himself and speaks that is the worst of +all. He carries himself and his religion as openly as he can; and does +all that is in His power to relieve the Papists of disabilities. That is +very courageous, I know; but it is not very shrewd. God knows where he +will stop if once he is on the throne. I think he will not be there +long." + +I said nothing; for indeed my instructions were on those very points; +and I knew them all as well as Chiffinch, and, I think, better. + +He spoke, presently, of myself. + +"As for you, Mr. Mallock, I need not tell you how high you are in favour +here. _Si monumentum requiris, circumspice_"; and he waved his hands at +the rich rooms. + +"His Majesty is very good," I said. + +"His Majesty hath a peerage for you, if you want it. He said he had made +too many grocers and lickspittles into knights, to make you one." + +I cannot deny that to hear that news pleased me. Yet even then I +hesitated. + +"Mr. Chiffinch," said I at last, "if you mean what you say, I have +something to answer to that." + +"Well?" said he. + +"Let me have one year more of obscurity. I may be able to do much more +that way. In one year from now I shall be married, as I told you. Well, +when I have a wife she must come to town, and make acquaintances; and +so I shall be known in any case. Let me have it then, if I want it--as a +wedding gift; so that she shall come as My Lady. And I will do what I +can then, in His Majesty's service, more publicly." + +"What if His Majesty is dead before that?" said he, regarding me +closely. + +"Then we will go without," said I. + +He nodded; and said no more. + + * * * * * + +It was strange to lie down that night in a great room, with four posts +and all their hangings about me, with my Lord Peterborough's arms +emblazoned on the ceiling; and to know that it was indeed I, Roger +Mallock, who lay there, with a man within call; and a coronet, if I +would have it, within reach. It was not till then, I think, that I +understood how swift had been my rise; for here was I, but just +twenty-seven years old, and in England but the better part of six years. +Yet, even then, more than half my thoughts were of Dolly, and of how she +would look in a peeress' robes. I even determined what my title should +be--taken from my French estates in the village of Malmaison, in +Normandy, so foolish and trifling are a man's thoughts at such a time. +One thing, however, I resolved; and that was to say nothing at all of +all this either to Dolly or her father. It should be a wedding gift to +the one, and a consolation to the other; for dearly would my Cousin Tom +love to speak of his son-in-law the Viscount, or even the plain Lord +Malmaison. As for His Majesty's death before another year, I thought +nothing of that; for what young man of twenty-seven years of age thinks +ever that anyone will die? Even should he die too--which I prayed God +might not be yet!--there was His Royal Highness to follow; and I had +served him, all things considered, pretty near as well as his brother. + +So, then, I lay in thought, hearing a fountain play somewhere without my +windows, and the rustle of the wind in the limes that stood along the +Privy Garden. I heard midnight strike from the Clock-Tower at the +further end of the palace, before I slept; and presently after the cry +of the watchman that "all was well, and a fair night." + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +It was not until the third day after my coming to town that I had +audience of the Duke--in the evening after supper, having bidden +good-bye that morning, with a very heavy heart, to my cousins, at +Aldgate, whither I had escorted them. I had promised Dolly I would come +when I could; but God knew when that would be! + +Even by then, I think, I had become accustomed to my new surroundings. I +had made no friends indeed, for that was expressly contrary to my +desires, since a man on secret service must be very slow to do so; but I +had made a number of acquaintances even in that short time, and had +renewed some others. I had had a word or two with Sir George Jeffreys, +now a long time Lord Chief Justice, in Scroggs' old place; and found him +a very brilliant kind of man, of an extraordinary handsomeness, and no +less extraordinary power--not at all brutal in manner, as I had thought, +but liker to a very bright sword, at once sharp and heavy: and sharp and +heavy indeed men found him when they looked at him from the dock. It was +in Mr. Chiffinch's closet that I was made known to him. I had spoken too +with my Lord Halifax--another brilliant fellow, very satirical and +witty, for which the King loved him, though all the world guessed, and +the King, I think knew, that his opposition to our cause was so hot as +even to keep him in correspondence with the Duke of Monmouth, safe away +in Holland. At least that was the talk in the coffee-houses. He, like +the Lord Keeper North, hated a Papist like the Devil, and all his ways +and wishes. He said of my Lord Rochester, now made president of the +Council--a post of immense dignity and no power at all--that "he was +kicked upstairs," which was a very precise description of the matter. + + * * * * * + +I was taken straight through into the Duke's private closet, where he +awaited me; and, by the rarest chance His Majesty was just about to take +his leave, and they had me in before he was gone. + +I was very deeply shocked by His Majesty's appearance. He was standing +below a pair of candles when I came in, and his face was all in shadow; +but when, after I had saluted the two, he moved out presently, I could +see how fallen his face was, and how heavily lined. Since it was evening +too, and he had not shaved since morning I could see a little +frostiness, as it were, upon his chin. He dyed his eyebrows and +moustaches, I suppose, for these were as black as ever. His melancholy +eyes had a twinkle in them, as he looked at me. + +"Well," said he, "so here is our hero back again--come to pay his +respects to the rising sun, I suppose." (But he said it very pleasantly, +without any irony.) + +"Why, Sir," said I, "I have always understood that there is neither +rising nor setting with England's sun; but that it is always in +mid-heaven. The King never dies; and the King can do no wrong." + +(Such was the manner in which we spoke at Court in those days--very +foolish and bombastic, no doubt.) + +"Hark to that, brother," said the King; "there is a pretty compliment to +us both! It is to neither of us that Mr. Mallock is loyal; but to the +Crown only." + +"It is that which we all serve, Sir," said I; "even Your Majesty." + +The King smiled. + +"Well," he said, "I must be off while you two plot, I suppose. Come and +see me too, Mr. Mallock; when you have done all your duties." + +I took him to the door of the closet where the servants were waiting for +him; and even his gait seemed to me older. + +Now James had very little--(though no Stuart could have none)--of his +family's charm. He looked no older, no sharper and no lighter than a +year ago; and he had learned nothing from adversity, as I presently +understood. He very graciously made me sit down; but in even that the +condescension was evident--not as his brother did it. + +"You have been to Rome, again," he said pretty soon, when he had told +me how he did, and how the King was not so well as he had been. "And +what news do you bring with you?" + +I told him first of the Holy Father's health, and delivered a few +compliments from one or two of the Cardinals, and spoke of three or four +general matters of the Court there. He nodded and asked some questions; +but I could see that he was thinking of something else. + +"But you have more to say to me, have you not?" said he. "I had a letter +from the Cardinal Secretary--" he paused. + +"Yes, Sir," said I. "The Holy Father was graciously pleased to put me at +Your Royal Highness' disposal, if you should wish to know His Holiness' +mind on one or two affairs." + +I put it like this, as gently as I could; for indeed I had something +very like a scolding, in my pocket, for him. He saw through it, however, +for he lowered his eyelids a little sullenly as his way was, when he was +displeased. + +"Well; let us hear it," said he. "What have I done wrong now?" + +This would never do. His Royal Highness resembled a mule in this, at +least, that the harder he was pushed, the more he kicked and jibbed. He +must be drawn forward by some kind of a carrot, if he were to be moved. +I made haste to draw out my finest. + +"His Holiness is inexpressibly consoled," I said, "by Your Royal +Highness' zeal for religion, and courage too, in that course. He bade me +tell you that he could say his _Nunc Dimittis_, if he could but see such +zeal and obedience in the rest of Europe." + +The Duke smiled a little; and I could see that he was pleased. (It was +really necessary to speak to him in this manner; he would have resented +any such freedom or informality as I used towards the King.) + +"These are the sweets before the medicine," he said. "And now for the +draught." + +"Sir," I said, "there is no draught. There is but a word of warning His +Holiness--" + +"Well; call it what you will. What is it, Mr. Mallock?" + +I told him then, as gently as I could (interlarding all with a great +many compliments) that His Holiness was anxious that matters should not +go too fast; that there was still a great deal of disaffection in +England, and that, though the pendulum had swung it would surely swing +back again, though, please God! never so far as it had been; and that +meantime a great deal of caution should be used. For example, it was a +wonderful thing that His Royal Highness should be Lord High Admiral of +the Fleet again; but that great care should be observed lest the people +should be frightened that a Papist should have the guarding of them; or +again, that the Test Act should be set aside in His Royal Highness' +case, yet the exception should not be pressed too far. All this my Lord +Cardinal Howard had expressly told me; but there was one yet more +difficult matter to speak of; and this I reserved for the moment. + +"Well," said the Duke, when I had got so far, "I am obliged to His +Holiness for his solicitude; and I shall give the advice my closest +attention. Was there anything more, Mr. Mallock?" + +He had received it, I thought, with unusual humility; so I made haste to +bring out the last of what I had to say. + +"There is no more, Sir," I said, "in substance. There was only that His +Eminence thought perhaps that the extraordinary courage and fervour of +Your Royal Highness' Jesuit advisers led them to neglect discretion a +little." + +"Ah! His Eminence thought that, did he?" said James meditatively. + +His Eminence had said it a great deal more strongly than that; but I +dared not put it as he had. + +"Yes, Sir," I said. "They are largely under French influence; and French +circumstances are not at all as in England. The Society is a little apt +at present--" + +Then the Duke lost his self-command; and his heavy face lightened with a +kind of anger. + +"Mr. Mallock," he said, "you have said enough. I do not blame you at +all; but His Eminence (with all possible respect to him!) does not know +what he is talking about. These good Fathers have imperilled their lives +for England; if any have a right to speak, it is they; and I would +sooner listen to their counsel than to all the Cardinals in Christendom. +They know England, as Rome cannot; and, while I allow myself to be led +by the nose by no man living, I would sooner do what they advise than +what a Roman Cardinal advises. It is not by subtlety or plotting that +the Faith will be commended in this country; but by courageous action; +and since God has placed me here in the position that I hold, it is to +Him alone that I must answer. You can send that message back to Rome, +sir, as soon as you like." + +Now there was James, true to himself; and I could see that further words +would be wasted. I smoothed him down as well as I could; and I was happy +to see that it was not with myself that he was angry--(for he made that +very plain)--for that I still might hope he would listen to me later on. +But anything further at that time was useless; so I prepared to take my +leave; and he made no opposition. + +"Well, sir," he said, "you have given your message very well; and I +thank you for not wrapping it up. You have done very well in France, I +hear." + +"His Majesty hath been pleased to think so," I said. Then his face +lightened again. + +"Ah!" said he, "when the time comes, we shall shew Europe what England +can do. We shall astonish even Rome itself, I think. We have long been +without the light; but it is dawning once more, and when the sun is +indeed risen, as His Majesty said, men will be amazed at us. We shall +need no more help from France then. The whole land will be a garden of +the Lord." + +His face itself was alight with enthusiasm; and I wondered how, once +more in this man, as in many others, the Church shewed itself able to +inspire and warm, yet without that full moral conversion that she +desires. He was not yet by any means free from the sins of the flesh and +from pride--(which two things so commonly go together)--he could not be +released from these until humiliation should come on him--as it did, and +made him very like a Saint before the end. Meanwhile it was something to +thank God for that he should be so whole-hearted and zealous, even +though he lacked discretion. + +As I was going down the stairs whom should I run into, coming up, but +Father Huddleston, who stopped to speak with me. I did not know him very +well; though I had talked with him once or twice. He was the one priest +of English blood who was tolerated openly and legally in England, and +who had leave to wear his habit, for his saving of the King's life after +the battle of Worcester. + +"So you are home again, Mr. Mallock," he said in his cheery voice. + +I told him Yes; and that I was come for a good time. + +"And His Majesty?" he said. "Have you seen him? He is terribly aged, is +he not, this last year." + +This priest was a very pleasant-looking fellow, going on for sixty years +old, I would say; and, except for his dress, resembled some fine old +country-squire. He wore a great brown periwig that set off his rosy +face. He was not, I think, a very spiritual man, though good and +conscientious, and he meddled not at all with politics or even with +religion. He went his way, and let men alone, which, though not very +apostolic, is at least very prudent and peaceful. He was fond of country +sports, I had heard, and of the classics; and spent his time pretty +equally in them both. + +"Yes," said I; "the King is a year older since this time twelvemonth." + +He laughed loudly. + +"There speaks the courtier," he said. "And you come from the Duke?" + +I told him Yes. + +"And I go to him. Well; good day to you, Mr. Mallock." + + * * * * * + +It was very pleasant to me, this new air in which I lived. Here was I, +come from the Duke who had received me as never before, with a +deference--(if the Duke's behaviour to any man could be called +that)--such as he had never shewn me, being greeted too by this priest +who up to this time had never manifested much interest in me, going back +to my fine lodgings and my half-dozen servants. Indeed it was a great +change. As I went past the sentry a minute or two later, he saluted me, +and I returned it, feeling very happy that I was come to be of some +consideration at last, with do much more, too, in the background of +which others never dreamed. + + * * * * * + +I had my first audience of His Majesty a week later, and confirmed my +impressions of his ageing very rapidly. He received me with +extraordinary kindness; but, as to the first part of the interview, +since this concerned private affairs in France, I shall give no +description. It was the end only that was of general interest; and one +part of it very particular, since I was able to speak my mind to him +again. + +He was standing looking out of the window when he said his last word on +France, and kept silent a little. He stood as upright as ever, but there +was an air in him as if he felt the weight of his years, though they +were scarcely fifty-four in number. His hand nearest to me hung down +listlessly, with the lace over it. When he spoke, he put into words the +very thing that I was thinking. + +"I am getting an old man, Mr. Mallock," he said, suddenly turning on me; +"and I would that affairs were better settled than they are. They are +better than they were--I do not dispute that--but these endless little +matters distress me. Why cannot folk be at peace and charitable one with +another?" + +I said nothing; but I knew of what he was thinking. It was the old +business of religion which so much entered into everything and distorted +men's judgments: for he had just been speaking of His Grace of Monmouth. + +"Why cannot men serve God according to their own conscience?" he said, +"and leave others to do the same." + +"Sir," I said, "there is but one Church of God where men are at unity +with one another." + +He paid no attention to that; and his face suddenly contracted +strangely. + +"Did you hear any gossip--I mean about myself--after the death of the +Jesuit Fathers?" + +I told him No; for I had heard nothing of it at that time. + +He came and sat down, motioning me too to a seat; for I had stood up +when he did. + +"Well," he said, "it is certainly strange enough, and I should not have +believed it, if it had not happened to myself." + +Again he stopped with an odd look. + +"Well," he said, "here is the tale; and I will swear to it. You know how +unwilling I was to sign the death-warrants." + +"Yes, Sir; all the world knows that." + +"And all the world knows that I did it," he said with a vehement kind of +bitterness. "Yes; I did it, for there was no way out of it that I could +see. It was they or the Crown must go. But I never intended it; and I +swore I would not." + +"Yes, Sir," I said quietly, "you said so to me." + +"Did I? Well, I said so to many. I even swore that my right hand might +rot off if I did it." + +His heavy face was all working. I had seldom seen him so much moved. + +"Yes," he said, "that was what I swore. Well, Mr. Mallock, did you ever +hear what followed?" + +"No, Sir," I said again. + +"It was within that week, that when I awakened one morning I felt my +right hand to be all stiff. I thought nothing of it at the first; I +believed I must have strained it at tennis. Well; that day I said +nothing to anyone; but I rubbed some ointment on my hand that night." + +He stopped again, lifted his right hand a little and looked at it, as if +meditating on it. It was a square strong man's hand, but very well +shaped and very brown; it had a couple of great rings on the fingers. + +"Well," he said, "the next morning a sore had broken out on it; and I +sent for a physician. He told me it was nothing but a little humour in +the blood, and he bade me take care of my diet. I said nothing to anyone +else, and bade him not speak of it; and that night I put on some more +ointment; and the next morning another sore was broken out, between the +finger and the thumb, so that I could not hold a pen without pain; and +it was then, for the first time, that I remembered what I had sworn." + +He had his features under command again, but I could see, as he looked +at me, that his eyes were still full of emotion. + +"Well, Mr. Mallock; I was in a great way at that; but yet I dared tell +nobody. I wore my glove all day, so that no one should see my hand; and +that evening when I went in to see Her Majesty, what should I see +hanging up on the wall of the chamber but the pictures of the five men +whose warrants I had signed!" + +Once more he stopped. + +Now I remembered that I had heard a little gossip as to the King's hand +about that time; but it had been so little that I had thought nothing of +it. It was very strange to hear it all now from himself. + +"Well, sir," he said, "I am not ashamed to say what I did. I kissed +their pictures one by one, and I begged them to intercede for me. The +next morning, Mr. Mallock, the sores were healed up; and, the morning +after, the stiffness was all gone." + +I said nothing; for what could I say? It is true enough that many might +say that it had all fallen out so, by chance, that it was no more than a +strain at tennis, or a humour in the blood, as the physician had +thought. But I did not think so, nor, I think, would many Catholics. + +"You say nothing, Mr. Mallock," said the King. + +"What is there to say, Sir?" asked I. + +"What indeed?" he cried, again with the greatest emotion. "There is +nothing at all to say. The facts are as I have said." + +Then there came upon me once more that passionate desire to see this +strange and restless soul at peace. Of those who have never received the +gift of faith I say nothing: God will be their Judge, and, I doubt not, +their Saviour if they have but been faithful to what they know; but for +those who have received the knowledge of the truth and have drawn back +from it I have always feared very greatly. Now that His Majesty had +received this light long before this time, I had never had any doubt; +indeed it had been reported, though I knew falsely, that he had +submitted to the Church and been taken into her Communion while he was +yet a young man in France. Yet here he was still, holding back from what +he knew to be true--and growing old too, as he had said. All this went +through my mind; but before I could speak he was up again. + +"An instant, Mr. Mallock," he said, as I rose up with him; and he turned +swiftly towards the door that was behind him, and was out through it, +leaving it open behind him. From where I stood I could see what he did. +There was a great press in the little chamber next door, and he flung +the doors of this open so that I could see him pull forward his +strong-box that lay within. This he opened with a key that he carried +hung on a chain, and fumbled in it a minute or two, drawing out at last +a paper; and so, bearing this, and leaving the strong-box open just as +it was, he came back to me. + +"Look at that, Mr. Mallock," said he. + +It was a sheet of paper, written very closely in His Majesty's own hand, +and was headed in capital letters. + +Then there followed a set of reasons, all numbered, shewing that the +Holy Roman Church was none other than the very Church of Christ outside +of which there is no salvation. (It was made public later, as all the +world knows, so I need not set it out here in full.) + +"There, sir," he said when I had done reading it. "What do you think of +that?" + +I shall never forget how he looked, when I lifted my eyes and regarded +him. He was standing by the window, with the light on his face, and +there was an extraordinary earnestness and purpose in his features. It +was near incredible that this could be the man whom I had seen so +careless with his ladies--so light and indolent. But there are many +sides to every man, as I have learned in a very long life. + +"Sir," I cried, "what am I to say? There is nothing that I can add. This +is Your Majesty's own conscience, written out in ink." (I tapped the +paper with my finger, still holding it.) + +"Eh?" said he. + +"And by conscience God judges us all," I cried. Again I stared into his +eyes, and he into mine. + +"Your Majesty will have to answer to this," said I, "on Judgment Day." + +I could say no more, so great was my emotion; and, as I hesitated a +change went over his face. His brows came down as if he were angry, but +his lips twitched a little as if in humour. + +"There! there!" he said. "Give me the paper, Mr. Mallock." + +I gave it back to him; and he stood running his eyes down it. + +"Why, this is damned good!" he murmured. "I should have made a +theologian." + +And with that I knew that his mood was changed again, and that I could +say no more. + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +I do not know which is the more strange that, when a great time of trial +approaches a man, either he has some kind of a premonition that trouble +is coming upon him, or that he has not. Certainly it is strange enough +that some sense, of which we know nothing, should scent danger when +there are no outward signs that any is near; but it appears even more +strange to me that the storm should break all of a sudden without any +cloud in the sky to shew its coming. It was the latter case with me; and +the storm came upon me as I shall now relate. + + * * * * * + +It was now for the first time that I began to see something of the way +the Court lived--I mean as one who was himself a part of it. I had +looked on it before rather as a spectator at a show, observing the +pageants pass before me, but myself, from the nature of my employment, +taking no part in it from within. + +A great deal that I saw was very dreadful and unchristian. Many of the +persons resembled hogs and monkeys more than human beings; and a great +deal of what passed for wit and merriment was nothing other than pure +evil. Virtue was very little reckoned of; or, rather reckoned only as +giving additional zest to its own corruption. I do not mean that there +were no virtuous people at all--(there were virtuous people in Sodom and +Gomorrah themselves)--but they were unusual, and were looked upon as a +little freakish or mad. Yet, for all that, side by side with the evil, +there went on a great deal of seemliness and religion: sermons were +preached before the Court every Sunday; and His Majesty, who by his own +life was greatly responsible for the wickedness around him, went to +morning-prayers at least three or four times in the week; though I +cannot say that his behaviour there accorded very well with the business +he was engaged upon. Some blamed the Bishops and other ministers for +their laxity and the flattery that they shewed to His Majesty: but I do +not think that charge is a fair one; for they were very bold indeed upon +occasion. Dr. Ken, who preached pretty often, was as outspoken as a +preacher well could be, denouncing the sins of the Court in unmeasured +language, even in His Majesty's presence: and a certain Bishop, whose +name I forget, observing on one occasion during sermon-time that the +King was fast asleep, turned and rebuked in a loud voice some other +gentleman who was asleep too. + +"You snore so loudly, sir," he cried, "that you will awake His Majesty, +if you do not have a care." + +I went sometimes to the chapel, with the crowd, to hear the anthem, as +the custom was; for the music was extraordinary good, and no expense +spared; and I heard there some very fine motets, the most of which were +adapted from the old Catholic music and set to new words taken from the +Protestant Scripture. + + * * * * * + +I went one night in August to the Duke's Theatre, as it was called, to +see a play of Sir Charles Sedley, called _The Mulberry Garden_. + +This extraordinary man, with whom I had already talked on more than one +occasion, was, according to one account, the loosest man that ever +lived; and indeed the tales related of him are such that I could not +even hint at them in such a work as this. But he was now about +forty-five years old; and a thought steadier. It chanced that he and my +Lord Dorset--(who was of the same reputation, but had fought too both by +land and sea)--were present with ladies, of whom the Duchess of +Cleveland was one, in one of the boxes that looked upon the stage; and I +was astonished at the behaviour of them all. Sedley himself, who +appeared pretty drunk, was the noisiest person in the house; he laughed +loudly at any of his own lines that took his fancy, and conversed +equally loudly with his friends when they did not. As for the play it +was of a very poor kind, and gave me no pleasure at all; for there was +but one subject in it from beginning to end, and that was the passion +which the author would call love. There were lines too in it of the +greatest coarseness, and at these he laughed the loudest. He had a sharp +bold face, of an extraordinary insolence; and he appeared to take the +highest delight in the theme of his play--(which he had written for the +King's Theatre a good while before)--and which concerned nothing else +but the love-adventures of two maids that had an over-youthful fop for a +father. + +When the play was over, and I going out to my little coach that I used, +I found that the Duchess of Cleveland's coach stopped the way, in spite +of the others waiting behind, and Her Grace not come. However there was +nothing to be done: and I waited. Presently out they came, Sedley +leading the way with great solemnity, who knocked against me as I stood +there, and asked what the devil I did in his road. + +I saluted them as ironically as I could; and begged his pardon. + +"I had no idea, Sir Charles," said I, "that the theatre and street were +yours as well as the play." + +He looked at me as if he could not believe his ears; but my Lord Dorset +who was just behind came up and took him by the arm. + +"He is right," he said. "Mr. Mallock is quite right. Beg his pardon, I +tell you." + +"Why the devil--" began Sir Charles again, still not recognizing me. + +My Lord clapped him sharply on his hat, driving it over his eyes. + +"He is blind now, Mr. Mallock," he said, "in every sense. You would not +be angry with a blind man!" + +When Sir Charles had got his hat straight again he was now angry with my +Lord Dorset, and very friendly and apologetic to myself, whom I suppose +he had remembered by now; so the two drove away presently, after the +ladies, still disputing loudly. But I think my Lord's behaviour shewed +me more than ever that I was become a person of some consequence. Yet +this kind of manners, in the midst of the crowd, though it commended +gentlemen as well known as were those two--to the ruder elements among +the spectators, who laughed and shouted--did a great deal of harm in +those days to the Court and the King, among the more serious and sober +persons of the country; and it is these who, in the long run, always +have the ordering of things. God knows I would not live in a puritanical +country if I could help it; yet decent breeding is surely due from +gentlemen. + + * * * * * + +A week or two later I was at a _levee_ in Her Majesty's apartments; and +had a clearer sight than ever of the relations between the King and +Queen. + +Now His Majesty had behaved himself very ill to the Queen; he had +flaunted his mistresses everywhere, and had even compelled her to +receive them; he had neglected her very grossly; yet I must say in his +defence that there was one line he would not pass: he would not on any +account listen to those advisers of his who from time to time had urged +him to put her away by divorce, and marry a Protestant who might bear +him children. Even my Lord Bishop of Salisbury, Dr. Burnet, had, +thirteen or fourteen years ago given as his opinion that a barren wife +might be divorced, and even that polygamy was not contrary to the New +Testament! This, however, Charles had flatly refused to countenance; +and, when he thought of it, now and again, shewed her a sort of +compassionate kindness, in spite of his distaste for her company. Yet +his very compassionateness proved his distaste. + +It was on occasion of a reception by Her Majesty of some Moorish +deputation or embassage from Tangier, that I was present in her +apartments; and it was immediately after this, too--(so that I have good +cause to remember it)--that the first completely unexpected reverse came +to my fortunes. + +I arrived at Her Majesty's lodgings about nine o'clock in the evening; +and was pleased to see that the Yeomen of the Guard lined the staircase +up to the great gallery. This was an honour which the Queen did not very +often enjoy; and very fine they looked in their scarlet and gold, with +their halberds, all the way up from the bottom to the top. + +The Great Gallery, when I came into it, was tolerably full of people, +of whom I spoke to a good number, among whom again were Sir Charles +Sedley and my Lord Dorset, as usual inseparable. But I was very much +astonished at the manner in which the Moors were treated, for they were +seated on couches, on one side of the state under which Her Majesty sat, +as if they were some kind of raree-show, set there to be looked at. They +were extraordinary rich and barbaric in their appearance; and when I had +kissed Her Majesty's hand, I too went and looked with the rest of the +crowd who jostled all together to stare at them. They were in very +gorgeous silks, and wore turbans; and their jewels were beyond anything +that I had ever seen--great uncut emeralds, and red stones of which I +did not know the name, and ropes of pearls. The folks about me bore +themselves with an amazing insolence, regarding them as if they had been +monsters, and freely making comments on them which their interpreter, at +least, must have understood. The Moors themselves behaved with great +dignity; and it was impossible not to reflect that these shewed a far +higher degree of dignity and civilization than did my own countrymen. +They were very dark-skinned, and three or four of them of a wonderful +handsomeness. They sat there almost in silence, looking gravely at the +crowd, and observing, I thought, with surprise the bare shoulders and +bosoms of the ladies who stared and screamed as much as any. It appeared +to me that these poor Moors, too, thought that the civilization lay +principally upon their own side. I presently felt ashamed of myself for +looking at them; and turned away. + + * * * * * + +The gallery and the antechambers had some fine furniture in them, pushed +against the walls that the crowd might circulate; but all was not near +so fine as the Duchess of Portsmouth's apartments, nor even as the +King's. The cressets, I saw, most of them, were of brass, not silver; +the brocades, which were Portuguese, were a little faded here and there; +and there was not near the show of gold and silver plate that I had +expected. But of all the sights there, I think Her Majesty was the most +melancholy. She was dressed very splendid; and her skirt was so stiff +with bullion that it scarce fell in folds at all. Her pearls were +magnificent, but too many of them; for her _coiffure_ was full of them. +She resembled, to my mind, a sorrowful child dressed up for a play. Her +complexion was very dark and faded, though her features were +well-formed, all except her mouth. She was a little like a very pretty +monkey, if such a thing can be conceived. She sat under her state, with +an empty chair beside her--very upright, with the Countess of Suffolk +and her other ladies round about her and behind her. She appeared +altogether ill at ease, and eyed continually down the length of the +gallery along which His Majesty would come, if indeed he came at all; +for he had a way of sending a sudden message that he could not; and all +the world knew where he would be instead. + +To-night, however, he kept his word and came. + +I was in one of the antechambers at the time, talking to a couple of +gentlemen and to one of the Queen's Portuguese chaplains who knew a +little Italian, when I heard the music playing, and ran out in time to +see him go past from the way that led from his own lodgings. He seemed +in a very merry mood this evening, and was smiling as he walked, very +fast, as usual. He was in a dark yellow and gold brocade that set off +the darkness of his complexion wonderful well, and a dark brown periwig +with his hat upon it; and he wore his Garter and Star. The crowd closed +in behind his gentlemen so that I could not get near him; and when I +came up he was on his chair by Her Majesty, and she smiling and +tremulous with happiness, and the Moors coming up one by one to kiss his +hand. + +I could not hear very well what the interpreter was saying, when all +this was done; but I heard him speak of a gift of thirty ostriches that +this Moorish mission had brought as a gift to him. + +His Majesty laughed loud when he heard that. + +"I can send nothing more proper back again," said he, "than a flock of +geese. I have enough and to spare of them." + +Then, when all about were laughing, he turned very solemn. "You had best +not tell them that," he said; "or they might take some of my friends +away with them in mistake." + +(This was pretty fooling; but it scarce struck me as suited to the +dignity of the occasion.) + +Presently the interpreter was saying how consumed with loyal envy were +these Moors at all the splendour that they saw about them. + +"It is better to be envied than pitied," observed His Majesty, with a +very serious look. + + * * * * * + +At first be bore himself with extraordinary geniality this evening. He +had been drinking a little, I think, yet not at all to excess, for this +he never did, though he had no objection to others doing so in his +company. There was related of him, I remember, how the Lord Mayor once, +after a City Banquet, pressed His Majesty very unduly to remain a little +longer after he had risen up to go. His Majesty was already at the door +when the Mayor did this, even venturing--(for he was pretty far gone in +wine)--to lay his fingers on the King's arm. + +His Majesty looked at him for an instant, and then burst out laughing. + +"Ah well!" he said, quoting the old song, "'He that is drunk is as great +as a King.'" + +And he went back and drank another bottle. + + * * * * * + +He was in that merry kind of mood, then, this evening: but such moods +have their reactions; and half an hour later he was beginning first to +yawn behind his hand and then to wear a heavy look on his face. Her +Majesty observed it, too, as I could see: for she fell silent (which was +the worst thing in the world to do), and began to eye him sidelong with +a kind of dismay. (It was wonderful how little knowledge she had of how +to manage him; and how she shewed to all present what she was feeling.) + +Presently he was paying no more attention to her at all, but was leaning +back in his chair, listening to my Lord Dorset who was talking in his +ear; and nodding and smiling rather heavily sometimes. I felt very sorry +for the Queen; but I had best have been feeling sorry for myself, for it +was now, that, all unknown to me, a design was maturing against me, +though not from my Lord Dorset. + +As I was about to turn away, to go once more through the rooms before +taking my leave, I observed Mr. Chiffinch coming through very fast from +the direction of the King's apartments, as if he had some message. He +did not observe me, as I was within the crowd; but I saw him go up, +threading his way as well as he could, and touching one or two to make +them move out of his way, straight up to the King's side of the state. I +thought he would pause then; but he did not. He put his hand on my Lord +Dorset's shoulder from behind, and made him give way; and then he took +his place and began to whisper to His Majesty. I saw His Majesty frown +once or twice, as if he were displeased, and then glance quickly up at +the faces before him, and down again, as if he looked to see if someone +were there. But I did not know that it was for me that he looked. Then +the King nodded thrice, sharply--Mr. Chiffinch whispering all the +while--and then he leaned over and whispered to the Queen. Then both of +them stood up, the King looking heavier than ever, and the Queen very +near fit to cry, and both came down front the dais together, all the +company saluting them and making way. And so they went down the gallery +together. + +I was still staring after him, wondering what was the matter, when I +felt myself touched, and turned to find Mr. Chiffinch at my elbow. He +looked very serious. + +"Come this way, sir," said he. "I must speak with you instantly." + +I went after him, down the gallery; and he led me into the little empty +chamber where I had been talking with the priest half an hour ago. He +closed the door carefully behind him; and turned to me again. + +"Mr. Mallock," he said, "I have very serious news for you." + +"Yes," said I, never dreaming what the matter was. + +"It touches yourself very closely," he said, searching my face with his +eyes. + +"Well; what is it?" asked I--my heart beginning to beat a little. + +"Mr. Mallock," he said, very gravely, "there is an order for your +arrest. If you will come back with me quietly to my lodgings we can +effect all that is necessary without scandal." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +I said never a word as we went back, first downstairs between the +Yeomen, then to the right, and so round through the little familiar +passage and up the stairs. I could hear the tramp of guards behind, and +knew that they had followed us from the Queen's lodgings and would be at +the doors after we were within. I was completely stunned, except, I +think, for a little glimmer of sense still left which told me that the +least said in any public place, the better. Mr. Chiffinch, too, I could +see very well, was as bewildered as myself--for, so far as I was +concerned, there was not yet the faintest suspicion in my mind as to +what was the matter. At least, I told myself, my conscience was clear. + +So soon as we were within the closet, the page, having again shut the +door carefully behind me came forward to where I stood. + +"Sit down, Mr. Mallock," said he, in a low voice, but very kindly. + +I could see that his face was very pale and that he seemed greatly +agitated. When I was seated, he sat himself down at his table a little +way off. + +"This is a terrible affair," he said, "and I do not know--" + +"For God's sake," I whispered suddenly, "tell me what I am charged +with." + +He looked up at me sharply. + +"You do not know, Mr. Mallock?" + +"Before God," I said, "I have no more idea what the pother is about +than--" + +"Well, shortly," he said, "it is treason." + +"Treason! Why--" + +He leaned forward and took up a pen, to play with as be talked. + +"I will tell you the whole thing from the beginning," he said. "You +must have patience. An hour ago a clerk came to me here from the Board +of the Green Cloth to tell me that the magistrates desired my presence +there immediately on a matter of the highest importance. I went there +directly and found three or four of them there, with Sir George Jeffreys +whom they had sent for, it seemed, as they did not know what course to +pursue, and had thought perhaps that I might throw some light upon it. +They were very grave indeed, and presently mentioned your name, saying +that a charge had been laid against you before one of the Westminster +magistrates, of having been privy to the Ryehouse Plot." + +"Why--" cried I, with sudden relief. + +He held up his hand. + +"Wait," he said, "I too laughed when I heard that; and gave them to +understand on what side you had been throughout that matter, and how you +had been in His Majesty's service and that I myself was privy to every +detail of the affair. They looked more easy at that; and I thought that +all was over. But they asked me to look at papers they had of yours--" + +"Papers! Of mine!" I cried. + +"Yes, Mr. Mallock. Papers of yours. I will tell you presently how they +came by them. Well; there were about a dozen, I suppose, altogether; and +some of them I knew all about, and said so. These were notes and reports +that you had shewed to me: and there were three or four more which, +though I had not seen them I could answer for. But there was one, Mr. +Mallock, that I could not understand at all." + +He paused and looked at me; and I could see that he was uneasy. + +Now it may appear incredible; but even then I could not think of what +paper he meant. To the best of my belief I had shewn him everything that +I thought to be of the least importance--notes and reports, as he had +said, such as was that which I had made in the wherry on my way up from +Wapping one night. + +I shook my head. + +"I do not know what you mean," I said. "Where did they get the papers +from?" + +"Think again, Mr. Mallock. I said it was on a charge of treason just +now. Well: I will say now that it may be no more than misprision of +treason." + +Still I had no suspicion. I was thinking still, I suppose, of my +lodgings here in Whitehall and of a few papers I had there. + +"You must tell me," I said. + +"Mr. Mallock," he said, "this paper I speak of was in cypher. It +contained--" + +"Lord!" I cried. "Cousin Tom!--" + +Then I bit my lip; but it was too late. + +"Yes," said the other, very gravely. "I can see that you remember. It +was your cousin who brought them up from Hare Street. He found them all +in a little hiding-hole: and conceived it to be his duty--" + +"His duty!" I cried. "Good God! why--" + +Then again I checked myself. + +"Mr. Chiffinch," said I, "I remember the paper perfectly: at least I +remember that I had it, though I have never read it or thought anything +of it." + +"It is in very easy cypher, sir," said he, with some severity. + +"Well; it was too hard for me," I said. + +"Then why did you not shew it to me?" he asked. + +"Lord! man," I said, "I tell you it was gone clean from my memory. I got +it from Rumbald a great while ago--a year or two at the least before the +Plot. It was on my mind to send it to you; but I did not. I had no idea +that it was of the least importance." + +"A letter, in cypher, and from Rumbald! And you thought it of no +importance--even though the names of my Lord Shaftesbury and half a +dozen others are written in full!" + +"I tell you I forgot it," I said sullenly, for I had not looked for +suspicion from this man. + +He still looked at me, as if searching my face: and I suppose that I +presented the very picture of an unmasked villain; for the whole affair +was so surprising and unexpected that I was completely taken aback. + +"Well," he said, "if you had but shewn me that paper, we could have +forestalled the whole affair." + +"What was in it?" I asked, striving to control myself. + +"You tell me you do not know?" he asked. + +Then indeed I lost control of myself. I stood up. + +"Mr. Chiffinch," I said, "I see that you do not believe a word that I +say. It will be best if you take me straight to those who have authority +to question me." + +He did not move. + +"You had best sit down again, Mr. Mallock. I do not say that I do not +believe you. But I will allow that I do not know what to think. You are +a very shrewd man, sir; and it truly is beyond my understanding that you +should have forgotten so completely this most vital matter. I wish to be +your friend; but I confess I do not understand. Oh! sit down, man!" he +cried suddenly. "Do not playact with me. Just answer my questions." + +I sat down again. I saw that he was sincere and that indeed he was +puzzled; and my anger went. + +"Well," I said, "I suppose it may be difficult. Let me tell you the +whole affair." + +So I told him. I related the whole of my adventure in the inn, and how I +got the paper, and tried to read it, and could not: then, how I took it +to Hare Street and put it where he had described: then how I very nearly +had asked a Jesuit priest if he had any skill in cypher; and then how, +once more, it had all slipped my mind, and that, a long time having +elapsed, even when Rumbald became prominent again, even then I had not +remembered it. + +"That is absolutely the whole tale," I said; "and I know no more than +the dead what it is all about. What is it all about, Mr. Chiffinch?" + +He drew a breath and then expelled it again, and, at the same time stood +up, withdrawing his eyes from my face. I think it was then for the first +time that he put away his doubts; for I had got my wits back again and +could talk reasonably. + +"Well," he said, "we had best be off at once, and see what they say." + +"Where to?" asked I. + +"Why to His Majesty's lodgings," he said. "I fetched him out to tell +him. Did you not see me?" + +"His Majesty!" I cried. + +"Why yes; I thought it best. Else it would have meant your arrest, Mr. +Mallock." + + * * * * * + +I must confess that my uneasiness came back--(which had left me just +now)--as I went with the page to the King's lodgings, more especially +when I saw again how the guards fell in behind us and followed us every +step of the way. It was very well to say that I "should have been +arrested" if such and such a thing had not happened: the truth was, I +was already under arrest, as I should soon have found if I had attempted +to run away. It seemed to me somewhat portentous too that His Majesty +was so ready to see us, instead of mocking at the whole tale at once. + +Mr. Chiffinch said nothing to me as we went. I think he himself was +fully convinced of my innocence--at least of any deliberate +treachery--but not so convinced that others would be; and that he was +considering how he should put my case. It was a sad humiliation for +me--this trudging along like a schoolboy going to be whipped, with a +couple of guards following to see that I did not evade it. + +We went straight upstairs, through the antechamber, and to the door of +the private closet. I heard voices talking there--one of which cried to +come in as the page knocked. Then we entered. + +I had thought to find His Majesty alone, or very nearly so; and I was +astonished and disconcerted at the number of persons that were there. +The King himself was seated beyond his great table, with the rest +standing about him, five in number. On his right was Sir George Jeffreys +in his rich suit, just as he had come from some entertainment, his +handsome face flushed with wine, yet none the less full of wit and +attention. The officer of the Green Cloth was on the other side--(it was +this gentleman's business to deal with all cases, within his +jurisdiction, that took their rise in Whitehall itself); and a couple of +magistrates beside him, with neither of whom I had any acquaintance. An +officer, whose face again was new to me--named Colonel Hoskyns--a +truculent-looking fellow, in the dress of His Majesty's Lifeguards, +stood very upright beside Sir George Jeffreys, with his hat in his hand. +A sheaf of papers lay before the King on the table. + +I was even more disconcerted to see how His Majesty looked. An hour or +two ago he had been smiling and gracious: now he wore a very stern look +on his face; he made no sign of recognition as I came in after Mr. +Chiffinch, but, so soon as the door was shut, spoke immediately to the +page. + +"Well?" he said. "What have you got from him?" + +Chiffinch advanced a step nearer, glancing at the faces that all looked +on him. + +"Sir," he said, "I am convinced there has been nothing more than an +indiscretion--" + +Then the King shewed how angry he was. He threw himself back in his +chair. + +"Bah!" he cried--"an indiscretion indeed! With his guilt staring him +in the face!" + +There was a murmur from the others: and Colonel Hoskyns gave me a look +of very high disdain, as if I had been a toad or a serpent. For myself I +said nothing: I remained with my eyes down. Once or twice before I had +seen His Majesty in this very mood. For the most part he was the least +suspicious man I had ever encountered; but once his suspicion was awake +there was none harder to persuade. So he had been with His Grace of +Monmouth on two or three occasions; so, it appeared, he was to be with +me now. + +"Sir," said Mr. Chiffinch again, "I have examined Mr. Mallock very +closely: but I have told him very little. Will Your Majesty allow him +to hear what the case is against him?" + +The King, who was frowning and pursing his lips, raised his eyes; and +immediately I dropped my own. He was in a black mood indeed, and all the +blacker for his past kindness to me. + +"Tell him, Hoskyns," he said; and then, before the Colonel could speak +he addressed me directly. + +"Mr. Mallock," he said sharply, "I will tell you plainly why I have you +here, and why you are not in ward. You have been of service to me; I do +not deny that. And I have never known you yet to betray your trust. +Well, then, I do not wish to disgrace you publicly without allowing you +an opportunity of speaking and clearing yourself if that is possible. I +tell you frankly, I do not think you will. I see no loophole anywhere. +But--well there it is. Tell him, Hoskyns." + +I will not deny that I was terrified. This was so wholly unlike all I +had ever known of His Majesty. What in the world could be the case +against me? (For I now saw that Mr. Chiffinch had not told me the whole, +but only a part of the charge.) I fixed my eyes upon Mr. Hoskyns for +whom I had conceived, so soon as I had set eyes on him, an extreme +repulsion. + +He made a kind of apologetic cringing movement towards the papers. The +King made no movement, but rested heavily in his chair, with his hat +forward, his elbows on the arms of his chair and his fingers knit +beneath his chin. The Colonel took the papers up, shuffled them for a +minute, and then began. There was an extraordinary malice in his manner +which I could not understand. + +"The charge against the--the gentleman--whose name, I understand, is +Roger Mallock, consists of two distinct points: + +"The first is that he has received and concealed a paper, containing an +account of a debate held between certain of His Majesty's enemies, five +years ago, in November of sixteen hundred and seventy-nine, with the +list of the persons present and the votes that they gave as regards +compassing the King's death. The first point to which Mr. Mallock has to +answer is, How he came to be in possession of this paper at all?" + +I made a movement to speak, as his voice ceased; but the King held up +his hand. Then, as if by an afterthought he dropped it again. + +"Well; speak if you like--point by point. But I would recommend you to +hear it all first." + +"Sir," I said, "I have no reserves, and nothing to conceal. I will +answer point by point if Your Majesty will give me leave." + +He said nothing. I turned back to the other. + +"Well, sir," I said, "I had that paper from one Rumbald, in a private +parlour in the _Mitre_ inn, without Aldgate. He gave it me with some +others, and forgot to ask for it again." + +No one moved a finger or a feature, except the Colonel, who glanced at +me, and then down again. + +"The second point is, Why Mr. Mallock did not hand over the paper to the +proper authorities." Again he paused. + +"It was in cypher," said I, "and I could not read it." + +"Then why did you preserve it so carefully, sir?" asked the Colonel +angrily, speaking direct to me for the first time. + +"I preserved it because it might be of interest, seeing from whom I +received it." + +"You preserved it then, because it might be of interest; and you did not +hand it over because it might not," sneered the Colonel. + +"Come! come!" said the King sharply. "We must have a better answer than +that, Mr. Mallock." + +Then my heart blazed at the injustice. + +"Sir," I said, "I am telling the naked truth. If I were a liar and a +knave I could make up a very plausible tale, no doubt. But I am not. The +naked truth is that I preserved the paper for what it might contain; and +then--" + +I paused then; for I saw plainly what a very poor defence I had. + +"And then--" sneered the Colonel softly. + +"If you must have the truth," I said, "I forgot all about it." + +Well; it was as I thought. Sir George Jeffreys threw back his head and +laughed aloud--(he was a man of extraordinary freedom with the King)--a +great grin appeared on the Colonel's face; and His Majesty, as I saw in +the shadow beneath his hat, smiled bitterly, showing his white teeth. +Even the magistrates chuckled together. + +"Ah, sir," said Jeffreys, "for a clever man that is truly a little dull. +You might have done better than that." + +Then desperation seized me; and I flung all prudence to the winds. + +"I thought you wanted the truth," said I. "I will lie if you drive me +much further. Go on, sir," I cried to Hoskyns. "Let us have the rest." + +The King stared at me, and his face was terrible. + +"A word more like that in my presence, sir--" + +"Sir," I cried, "I mean no disrespect. But I am hard put to it--" + +"You are indeed," said Jeffreys. "Go on, Colonel Hoskyns." + +The Colonel sniffled through his nose, lifting his papers once more. + +"The next main charge against Mr. Mallock is even more grave. It is to +the effect that when His Majesty and His Royal Highness were together at +Newmarket, Mr. Mallock, knowing that there was a plot against their +lives--of which the Rye was the centre--despatched a messenger to His +Majesty bidding him come immediately, by the road that leads past the +Rye, instead of directing him by Royston." + +At that monstrous charge my spirit almost went from me. That it should +be this thing, above all others that should be brought against me! I +glanced this way and that; and saw how even Chiffinch, who had fallen +back a little as I advanced, was looking askance at me! + +"That is perfectly true," I said. "What of it?" + +"Mr. Mallock does not seem to perceive," snarled the Colonel, "that the +fact itself is enough. It is true that no harm came of it; but Mr. +Mallock will scarcely deny that an armed man stood by him, waiting for +the coach." + +"Armed with a cleaver," said I, "which he presently flung at my head." + +"So Mr. Mallock says," observed the Colonel. + +"You say I am a liar?" I cried. + +The King struck suddenly upon the table. + +"Silence, sir!" he said. "Mr. Chiffinch, you told me before that you had +something to say. You had best say it now." + +I fell back, for I saw that my bolt was shot. If Chiffinch could not +save me, no man could. It was gone clean beyond mere misprision of +treason now: I saw that plain enough. + +Then Mr. Chiffinch began; and I am bound to say that he shewed himself a +better pleader than myself. I thanked God, as he spoke, that I had +treated him with patience just now in his lodgings. + +First, he remarked that I had been in His Majesty's service now for near +six years, and that in all that time I had proved myself loyal and +faithful. Then he proceeded to deal with the charges. + +First, he said that the very weakness of my excuse with regard to the +paper was my strength. If I were indeed the villain that I seemed, why +in God's name had I not destroyed the paper? I had had near five years +to do it in! Was not that an additional sign that I had, as I said, +merely forgotten it? (As be said this I marvelled that I had not thought +of that answer myself.) It was true that the paper was of the highest +importance, but, as my story stood, I had not known that. Should not my +word then be taken, considering all the other services I had done to His +Majesty? + +With regard to the second point, first let them divest their minds of +any prejudice caused by the first; for the first was not proved. Having +done that, it was necessary to remember how carefully I had reported +every movement of the King's enemies to himself--Mr. Chiffinch. It was +true that there had been found other papers in the hiding-hole which he +himself had not seen, but he had at least known the substance of +them--except of course of the cypher of which he had already treated. +With regard to the affair at the Rye it was necessary to remember that +my policy throughout had been to report all that I had learned and to +interpret it as directly contrary to the truth; and that this policy had +proved successful. (I saw the Colonel give a very odd look as this was +said; and I saw that Mr. Chiffinch had seen it too.) At the worst it had +been an error of judgment on my part that I had recommended the road by +the Rye; but it was an error that had had no bad consequences; and to +have recommended it was only in accordance with all my policy of taking +as true the precise opposite to all that the conspirators had told me. +So far as my policy was sound, all that I knew was that the Rye road +would be safe on that one day; of the Royston road I knew little or +nothing. As regards the incident of the cleaver, I had spoken of that to +him immediately I returned to town; and, surely, it was true that a +single man with a cleaver could do very little damage to a galloping +coach. In short, though the evidence might be interpreted as against +me--(here he shot a look at the Colonel)--it might also be interpreted +for me, and, that this was the fairer interpretation, he pleaded my +record of other services done to the King. + +When he ended, there was a dead silence; and I think I knew even at that +moment that the worst at any rate had been averted. But I was not sure: +and I waited. + + * * * * * + +Sir George Jeffreys was the first to move. He had remained motionless, +smiling a little, while the page had been speaking, watching him as a +man may watch an actor who pleases him. At the end, after a little +pause, he jerked his head a little, as if to throw off the situation. I +think he had had no malice to me, but had watched the whole affair as a +kind of sport, which was what he did upon the Bench too. He made a +movement as if to move away, but remembered where he was, and stood +still. + +The two magistrates began to move also; and one nodded at the other. + +Colonel Hoskyns shook his head sharply, and began to speak. + +"Sir-" he began in his harsh voice. + +The King held up his hand; and all was dead still again. + +It was strange to me to watch the King, or rather to shoot a glance at +him now and again; for I saw presently, in spite of the shadow of his +hat and his dusky face, that he was looking from one to the other of us, +as if appraising what had been said. I heard a fellow cough somewhere, +not in the chamber, and knew by that that it was the guards, most +likely, who were waiting for the verdict. Truly, during those moments +all my confidence left me again; for this was a mood of the King that I +never understood and had never seen so clearly as I saw it now. It was a +sort of heaviness of mind, I think, that fell on him sometimes and +obscured his clear wit, for to my mind nothing could be more plain than +Mr. Chiffinch's argument. Yet I depended now, not only for my liberty, +but for my very life, on the King's judgment. As a Catholic and a member +of the secret service I could look for no hope at all if I were sent for +trial. I looked at Mr. Ramsden, the Officer of the Green Cloth; for I +had scarcely noticed him before, so quiet was he. It was through his +hands first, I supposed, that the case would pass. He was still +motionless, looking down upon the table. + +Then the King spoke, not moving at all. + +"Go into the antechamber, Mr. Mallock," he said dully, "and wait there +till you be sent for." + + * * * * * + +I suppose that that waiting was the hardest I have ever done. Again my +suspense came down on me, and I had no idea as to which way the matter +would go. I sat very still there, hearing again one of the men hemming +without the door on the one side: and very low voices talking in the +chamber I had come from. + +Then all of a sudden the door opened sharply, and Mr. Chiffinch came +through. He smiled and nodded, though a little doubtfully, as he came +through; and my heart gave a great leap, for I knew that the worst +would not happen to me. + +He said nothing, but beckoned me to follow, and we went straight through +to where the guards wailed. + +"You can go," he said; "this gentleman is no longer under arrest." + +Still, all the way as we went, he said nothing; neither did I. He said +nothing at all till we were back again in his closet, and the door shut. +Then he faced me, smiling. + +"Well, Mr. Mallock," he said, "His Majesty has determined to do nothing. +You may even keep your lodgings for the present; but you will be +watched, I need not tell you, very closely indeed: and you must expect +no more employment for a while." + +"But--" + +"Wait," said he. "That black mood is on His Majesty; and you are very +fortunate indeed to have come out of it so well. It was a very clever +little design--" + +"Design!" cried I. + +"Why, of course," he said. "Did you not see that? I should have thought +anyone--" + +"Design," I said again. "Of whom? And why?" + +He smiled. + +"You are a very innocent young gentleman," he said, "in spite of your +dexterity. Of course it was a design; and it nearly deceived even +me--" + +"My Cousin Tom--" I began. + +"Your Cousin Tom is an ass," he said, "a malicious one, no doubt; but a +mere tool. I have no doubt he intended to injure you; but he could have +done nothing if he had not met with the right man. I have no doubt that +he came up with the papers, and gossiped in the coffee-houses till he +met other of your enemies: and they have done the rest. But it was +Colonel Hoskyns no doubt who manipulated the affair." + +"Colonel Hoskyns!" I said. "Why, I have never set eyes on the man +before." + +"I daresay not," said the page, still smiling. "But I have had his name +in my books for a great while." + +"Who is he?" I cried. "And what reason had he--" + +Mr. Chiffinch shook his head at me lamentably. + +"Why he is one of the party," he said, "though I can get no evidence +that would hang a cat. I have no doubt whatever that he has been in the +whole Shaftesbury affair from the beginning, and knows that they made +shipwreck principally upon yourself. It is sheer revenge now, no doubt; +for they cannot hope to make any further attempts upon His Majesty." + +"But he is in the Guards!" I said, all in amazement. + +The page shrugged his shoulders. + +"What would you have?" he said. "I can get no evidence, even to warn His +Majesty, though I have told him what I think. And, to tell the truth, I +believe His Majesty to be safe enough. But that does not hinder them +from wishing to have their revenge. Mr. Mallock--" + +"Yes," I said, still all bewildered. + +"I wonder what he will attempt next," said Mr. Chiffinch. + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +The dreariness of the time that followed is beyond my power of +description. I besought Mr. Chiffinch to let me go abroad again, but he +forbade me very emphatically; and I owed so much to him that I could not +find it in my heart to disobey. For so desperate was I, at the ruin of +all my hopes, that the thought even came to me that I would go back and +try to be a monk again; for how, thought I, can I keep my word even to +Dolly herself? Every prospect I had was ruined; my coronet was gone like +the dream which it had always been; I had failed lamentably and +hopelessly; and it was through her father's treachery and malice that +all had come about. This I felt in my heaviest moods; but Mr. Chiffinch +would hear none of it. He said that it was but a question of time, and +His Majesty would come round once more; that he would never be content +until I was reinstated; that he had not for an instant lost heart. +Besides, he said, I was of use in another way, and that was to make +Hoskyns disclose himself. Hoskyns would never rest, he said, till he had +made at least one more attempt upon me; and next time, he hoped, he +would catch him at it, and get rid of the fellow once and for all. + +Neither could I even go to Hare Street; for how could I live again even +for an hour in the house of my Cousin who had betrayed me? I could not +even tell Dolly all that had fallen; for I was as sure as of anything in +the world that her father would tell her nothing, and I did not have the +heart to disgrace him in her eyes. I but wrote to her that I was a +little out of favour with His Majesty at present, though I kept my +lodgings, and that I must not stir from Court till I had regained my +position. Meanwhile I reserved what I had to say to my Cousin Tom, until +I should meet with him alone. I had no doubt whatever that he had done +what he had, thinking to get rid of me as his daughter's lover. + +The time dragged then very heavily; for I did not care to go much into +the society of others, and had nowhere else to go, since I must not +leave Whitehall; for it soon became known that I was out of favour, +though I do not suppose that the reason was ever named. I spent my days +principally in my own lodgings, and did a good deal of private work for +Mr. Chiffinch, which occupied me. I went to the play sometimes, taking +my man James with me; and I rode out with him usually, down Chelsea way, +or to the north, coming back for dinner or supper. I never went alone, +by Mr. Chiffinch's urgent desire. + + * * * * * + +It was after Christmas that matters were brought to a head, and that the +last great adventures of my life came about that closed all that I +thought to be life at that time. Even now, so many years after, I can +scarce bear to write them down, though, as I look back upon them now, +there were at least two matters for which I should have thanked God even +then. I thank Him now. + + * * * * * + +It was on the last Thursday but one, in January, to be precise, that I +was coming back from a ride, having been down the river-bank past +Chelsea, where I had seen, I remember, Winchester House--that great +place with all its courts--and my Lord Bishop returning in his coach: I +do not remember anything else that I saw, for I was very heavy indeed +and more than ever determined that, if matters did not mend very soon, I +would be off to France (where, six months later, I should be obliged to +go in any case when my estates would come to me), if not to Rome. It was +near five months now that I had lived in disgrace, His Majesty not +speaking to me above three or four times all that while, and then only +to avoid incivility. + +I could not understand why it was that he behaved so to me. He must know +by now, surely, that I had never been anything but faithful to him; and +I strove to put away the thought that it was mere caprice, and that he +often behaved so to others. But I am afraid that such was the case. +There were plenty of folks at Court, or who had left it, who had once +been in high favour and had ceased to be, through no fault of their own. +Neither would I seek consolation from any other source. The Duke was +civil to me whenever we met, and I suppose he knew that I was in +trouble, but he never spoke of it. Indeed it was a sad change from the +time when I had returned so joyfully, and found my new lodgings waiting +for me. + + * * * * * + +As we came up through Westminster I was riding alone, for I had bidden +my man James to go aside to a little shop that was almost on our route, +behind the abbey, to buy me something that I needed--I think it was a +pair of cuffs; but I am not sure. It was very near dark, and the lamps +were not yet lighted. + +As I came towards the gate of Whitehall, I was riding very carelessly +and heavily, paying little attention to anything, for I was thinking, as +it happened, of Dolly, with an extraordinary misery in my heart, and of +how I should ever tell her (unless matters mended soon) of what her +father had done; and whether in some manner he would not yet contrive to +separate us. My horse swerved a little, and I pulled him up, for there +were a couple of fellows immediately crossing before me. I saw that they +looked hard at me; but I noticed no more, for at that instant I heard a +horse coming up behind me, and turned to see that it was James. He +looked a little strange, thought I, but he said nothing: only he came +up, right beside me, and so rode with me through the gate. + +He said nothing then, nor did I; and it was not until I was dismounted +and a fellow had run out to take the horses that he asked if he might +speak with me. + +"Why, certainly," said I; and we turned together into the Court. + +"Sir," he said, so soon as we were out of earshot of the guard, "did you +see those two fellows without the gate?" I said that I had. + +"Sir," he said, "they were following you all the way from Chelsea. I +saw them at Winchester House; and I have seen them before to-day, too." + +"Eh?" said I, a little startled. + +Then he told me he had seen them for the last fortnight, three or four +times at least, and that he was sure they were after some mischief. Once +before to-day too, as we were riding in Southwark, and he had delayed +for a stone in his horse's foot, he had seen them run out from behind a +wall, but that they had made off when they saw him coming. + +Now I knew very well what he meant. London was very far from being a +safe place in those days for a man that had enemies. There was scarcely +a week passed but there was some outrage, in broad daylight too, in less +populated parts, and in the various Fields, and after dark men were not +very safe in the City itself. + +A year ago I should have thought nothing of it; but I was down in the +world now, I knew very well, and I had enemies who would stick at +nothing. It was true that they had let me alone for a while--no doubt +lest any suspicion should attach to them--but the winter was on us now, +and the mornings and evenings were dark; and, too, a good deal of time +had elapsed. I remembered what Mr. Chiffinch had said to me at the +beginning of the trouble. + +"You did very well to tell me," I said. "Would you know them again if +you saw them?" + +"I think so, sir," he said. + +"Well," I said, "I have no doubt that they are after me. You will tell +my other men, will you not?" + +"I told them a week ago," he said. + +I said no more to him then; but instead of going immediately to my +lodgings, I went first to see Mr. Chiffinch, and found him just come in. +I told him very briefly what James had told me; but made no comment. He +whistled, and bade me sit down. + +"They are after you then," he said. "I thought they would be." + +"But who are they?" said I, a little peevishly. + +"If I knew their names," said the page, "I could put my hands on them +on some excuse or other. But I do not know. It is the dregs of the old +country-party no doubt." + +"And what good do they think to get out of me?" + +"Why, it is revenge no doubt," he said. "They know that you are down +with the king and have not many friends; and they suspect that you are +still in with the secret service, no doubt." + +"They are after my life, then?" I asked. + +"I should suppose so." + +He considered a minute or two in silence. At last he spoke again. + +"I will have a word with His Majesty. He is treating you shamefully, Mr. +Mallock; and I will tell him so. And I will take other measures also." + +I asked what those might be. + +"I will have my men to look out closely when you go about. You had best +not go alone at all. Within Whitehall you are safe enough; but I would +not go out except with a couple of men, if I were you." + +I told him I always took one, at least. + +"Well; I would take two," he observed. "There was that murder last week, +in Lincoln's Inn Fields--put down to the Mohocks. Well; it was a +gentleman of my own who was killed, though that is not known; and it was +no more Mohocks than it was you or I." + + * * * * * + +As we were still talking my man James came up to seek me, with a letter +that he had found in my lodgings, waiting for me. I knew the hand well +enough; and I suppose that I shewed it; for when I looked up from +reading it, Mr. Chiffinch was looking at me with a quizzical face. + +"That is good news, Mr. Mallock, is it not?" + +I could not refrain from smiling; for indeed it was as if the sun had +risen on my dreariness. + +"It is very good news," I said. "It is from my cousin--the 'pretty +cousin,' Mr. Chiffinch. She is come to town with her maid; and asks me +to sup with her." + +"Well; take your two men when you go to see her," said he, laughing a +little. "They can entertain the maid, and you the mistress." + + * * * * * + +I cannot say how wonderfully the whole aspect of the world was changed +to me, as I set out in a little hired coach I used sometimes, with my +two men, half an hour later, for my old lodgings in Covent Garden where, +she said, she had come that evening. It was a very short letter; but it +was very sweet to me. She said only that she could wait no more; that +she knew how ill things must be going with me, and that she must see +with her own eyes that I was not dead altogether. I had striven in my +letters to her to make as light as I could of my troubles; but I suppose +that her woman's wit and her love had pierced my poor disguises. At +least here she was. + + * * * * * + +She was standing, all ready to greet me, in that old parlour of mine +where I had first met her six years ago; and she was more beautiful now, +a thousand times, in my eyes, than even then. The candles were lighted +all round the walls, and the curtains across the windows; and her maid +was not there. She had already changed her riding dress, and was in her +evening gown with her string of little pearls. As I close my eyes now I +can see her still, as if she stood before me. Her lips were a little +parted, and her flushed cheeks and her bright eyes made all the room +heaven for me. I had not seen her for six months. + +"Well, Cousin Roger," she said--no more. + + * * * * * + +Presently, even before supper came in, she had begun her questioning. + +"Cousin Roger," she said--(we two were by the fire, she on a couch and I +in a great chair)--"Cousin Roger, you have treated me shamefully. You +have told me nothing, except that you were in trouble; and that I could +have guessed for myself. I am come to town for three days--no more: my +father for a long time forbade me even to do that. If he were not gone +to Stortford for the horse-fair I should not be here now." + +"He does not know you are come to town!" I cried. + +She shook her head, like a child, and her eyes twinkled with merriment. + +"He thinks I am still minding the sheep," she said. "But that is not the +point. Cousin Roger, I care nothing whatever for His Majesty's affairs, +nor for secret service, nor for anything else of that kind. But I care +very much that you should be in trouble and not tell me what it is." + +Now I had not had much time to think what I should say, if she +questioned me, as I knew she would; for it would not be an easy thing to +tell her that her father was at the root of my troubles and had behaved +like a treacherous hound. Yet sooner or later she must be told, unless I +lost heart altogether. I might soften it and soften it--pretend that her +father owed a greater duty to the King than to me, and must have thought +it right to do as he had done. But she would see through it all: that I +knew very well. + +"Dolly," said I, very slowly, "I have not told you yet, because there +was nothing in the world that you could do to help me. I have waited, +thinking that matters might come straight again; but they have not. I +will tell you, then, before you go home again. I promise you that. And +on my side I ask you not to question me this evening. Let us have this +one evening without any troubles at all." + +She looked at me very earnestly for a moment without speaking; and I +could see that her lightness of manner had been but put on to disguise +how anxious she was. It is wonderful how a woman--in spite of her +foolishness at other times--can read the heart of a man. I had said very +little to her in my letters; and yet I could see now how she had +suffered all the while. I had thought myself to have been alone in my +unhappiness; now I understood that never for an instant had I been so; +and my whole heart rose up in a kind of exultation and longing. Then she +swallowed down her anxiety. + +"I take you at your word, Cousin Roger," she said lightly. "I will ask +no question at all." + +Then Anne and my man James came in with the supper. + + * * * * * + +I think there is not one moment of that evening in my old lodgings that +I have forgotten. As now I look back upon it it seems to me to have that +kind of brightness which a garden has when a storm is coming up very +quickly, and the clouds are very black, and yet the shadow has not yet +reached it. I remember how the curtains hung across the windows; they +were my own old curtains of blue stuff, a little faded but still rich +and good; how the fire glowed in the wide chimney; how Dolly looked +across the table, in her blue sac, with lace, and her wide sleeves, and +her little pearls. She had dressed up, all for me, as indeed I had for +her, for I was in my maroon suit, with my silver-handled sword and my +black periwig. Ah! and above all I remember the very look in her eyes as +she suddenly clapped her hands together. (The servants were out of the +room at that instant.) + +"Cousin Roger!" she said, "I shall never keep my promise unless I am +distracted. We will go to the play: you and I and Anne, all together: +and your man James shall wait upon us with oranges." + +Well; she had said it; and I laughed at her merriment: she was so like a +child on her holiday, and a stolen holiday too. The ways of God are very +strange--that so much should hang upon so little! It was upon that +sudden thought of hers that the whole of my life turned; and hers too! +As it was, I said nothing but that it should be as she wished; and that +my coach should set us down there and come again when the play was over. +So the threads are caught up in those great unseen shuttles that are +guided by God's Hand, and the whole pattern changed, it would appear, by +a moment's whim. And yet I cannot doubt--for if I did, my whole faith +would be shattered--that even those whims are part of the Divine design, +and that all is done according to His Holy Will. + +The rest of supper was hastened, lest we should be late for the play; +and then, when James came up to tell us that the coach was +waiting--though it was scarcely a hundred yards to the King's +Theatre--and Dolly was gone for her hood and cloak, I stood, with a +glass of wine in my hand, on the hearth, looking down at the fire. + +Now I cannot tell how it was; but I suppose that the shadow that I spoke +of just now, began to touch that little garden of love in which I stood; +for a kind of melancholy came on me again. While she had been with cue, +it had all seemed gone; we had been as merry at supper as if nothing at +all were the matter; but now, even while she was in the next chamber +with her maid, I fell a-brooding once more. I thought--God knows +why!--of the little parlour at Hare Street which I had not seen for so +long, and of the fire that burned there, upon that hearth too--the +hearth on which I had stood in my foolish patronizing pride when I had +first asked her to be my wife and she had treated me as I deserved. I +did not think then of how we had sat there together afterwards so often; +and of the happiness I had had there, but only of that miserable +Christmas night when I thought I had lost her. The mood came on me +suddenly; and I was still brooding when she came in again, alone. She +was in her hood, and her face looked out of it like a flower. + +"Cousin Roger," she said, "I have never told you why I came up to-day." + +"My dear; you did," I said. "It was your father who--" + +"No; no; but this day in particular. Cousin Roger, the woman came again +last night." + +"The woman! What woman?" I asked. + +"Why--the tall old woman--to my chamber, up the stairs. You remember? +She came the night before you were sent for--why--six years ago." + +I stared on her; and a kind of horror came on me. + +"Ah! do not look like that," she said. "It is nothing." She smiled full +at me, putting her hand on my arm. + +"You saw her!" I said. + +"No; no. I heard her only. It was just as it was before. But I came up +to town to--to see if all were well with you. And it is: or will be. +Kiss me, Roger, before we go." + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +I cannot think without horror, even now, of that play we saw on that +night in the King's Theatre. It was Mrs. Aphra Behn's tragedy, called +_Abdelazar_, or _The Moor's Revenge_, and Mrs. Lee acted the principal +part of _Isabella_, the Spanish Queen. We sat in a little box next the +stage, which we had to ourselves; and in the box opposite was my Lord +the Earl of Bath with a couple of his ladies. He was a pompous-looking +fellow, and a hot Protestant, and he looked very disdainfully at the +company. In the box over him was Mistress Gwyn herself, and the people +cried at her good-humouredly when she came in, at which she bowed very +merrily as if she were royal, this way and that, so that the whole +play-house was full of laughter. It was turned very cold, with a frost, +and before the play was half done the whole house was in a steam under +the glass cupola. Folks were eating oranges everywhere in the higher +seats, and throwing the peel down upon the heads of the people below. +The stage was lighted, as always, with wax candles burning on cressets; +and the orange girls were standing in the front row of the pit with +their backs to the stage. + +Dolly, who was a little quiet at first, got very merry and excited +presently at all the good-humour, as well as at the actors. She had +thrown her hood back, so that her head came out of it very sweet and +pretty; and a spot of colour burned on each cheek. I saw her watching +Mistress Nell once or twice with a look of amazement--for she knew who +she was--for Nell, though she was not on the stage, bore herself as +though she were, and never ceased for an instant, though full of +merriment and good humour, to turn herself this way and that, and bow to +her friends, some of whom relished it very little; and to applaud very +heartily, and then, immediately to throw a great piece of orange peel at +Mr. Harris, who played the King. She had her boy with her--whom His +Majesty had made Duke of St. Albans--and two or three gentlemen whom I +did not know. + +Dolly whispered to me once, to know who the boy was. + +"That is her boy," I said. + +Dolly said nothing; but I understood the kind of terror that she had to +see them both there, so outrageous and bold; but she presently turned +back again to the stage to observe the play. + + * * * * * + +I said just now that the play which we saw has very dreadful memories +for me; but I do not know that more than once or twice at the time I had +any such feeling. There were some pretty passages in the play that +distracted me altogether, and a song or two, of which I remember very +well one sung by a _Nymph_, and answered by her swain with his +shepherds, of which the refrain was: + + _The Sun is up and will not stay;_ + _And oh! how very short's a lover's day!_ + +For the rest there was a quantity of bloodshed and intrigue and false +accusation, but I was surprised, considering the subject, how little was +against Popery; but Mrs. Behn was content at the end of it to make the +_Cardinal_ beg pardon of _King Philip_. + +For the most part then I attended to the action--(and to Dolly, of +course, all the while). Yet certainly there were other moments for me, +when the shadow came down again, and I saw the actors and the whole +house as if in a kind of bloody mist, though I had at that time no +reason for it at all, and do not think that I shewed any sign of it. Two +or three times before, as I have related, there came on me a strange +mood--once when I came up from Wapping, and once as I put out from Dover +in the packet. But it was not that kind of mood this time. Then it was +as if all the world of sense were but a very thin veil, and all that was +happening a kind of dream, or play. Now it was as if the play had a +shocking kind of reality, as if the audience and the actors were +monstrous devils in hell; and the paint on Mrs. Lee's cheeks her true +colour, and her gestures great symbols, and the noise of the people the +roar of hell. This came and went once or twice; and at the time I +thought it to be my own humour only; but now I know that it was +something other than this. When I looked at Dolly it went again in an +instant, and she and I seemed to me the heart of everything, and all +else but our circumstances and for our pleasure. + +Well; it ended at last, and there was a great deal of applauding, and +Mrs. Lee came on to the stage again to bow and smile. It was then, for +the third time, I think, that my horror fell on me. As I stared at her, +all else seemed to turn dim and vanish. She was in her costume with the +blood on her arm and breast, and her great billowy skirts about her, and +her stage-jewels, and she was smiling; and I, as I looked at her, seemed +to see the folly and the shame of her like fire; and yet that folly and +shame had a power that nothing else had. Her smile seemed to me like the +grin of a devil; and her colour to be daubs upon her bare cheek-bones, +and she herself like some rotten thing with a semblance of life that was +not life at all. I cannot put it into words at all: I know only that I +ceased applauding, and stared on her as if I were bewitched. + +Then I saw my dear love's fingers on my arm, and her face looking at me +as if she were frightened. + +"What is the matter, Cousin Roger?" she whispered; and then: "Come, +Cousin Roger; it is late." + +Then my mood passed, or I shook myself clear of it. + +"Yes; yes," I said. "It is nothing. Come, my dear." + + * * * * * + +The little passage by which we went out was crammed full of folk, +talking and whistling and laughing; some imitating the cries of the +actors, some, both men and women, looking about them freely with bold +eyes. I saw presently that Dolly did not like it, and that we should be +a great while getting out that way; and then I saw a little door beside +me that might very well lead out to the air. I pushed upon this, and saw +another little passage. + +"James," said I, for he was close behind me, "go out and bring the +coach round to this side if there is a way out." (And then to Dolly.) +"Come, sweetheart, we will find a way out here." + +I pushed my way behind a fellow who was just in front, and got through +the door, and Dolly and her maid followed me. + +It was a little passage with doors on the right which I think led to the +actors' rooms and the stage, for I heard talking and laughing behind; +but I made nothing of that, and we went on. As we went past one of the +doors it opened all of a sudden and Mrs. Lee herself came out, still in +her dress and her jewels, and her face all a-daub with paint, and the +blood on her arm and dress, and ran through another door further along, +leaving behind her a great whiff of coarse perfume. It was but for an +instant that we saw her; yet, even in that instant, a sort of horror +came on me again as if she were something monstrous and ominous, +though--poor woman!--I have never heard anything against her more than +was said at that time against all women that were actresses--all, that +is, except Mrs. Betterton. She appeared more dreadful even than in the +play, or than when she had spoken those terrible words as she sat in her +chair, all bloody, as she died--stabbed by the mock Friar: + + --_but 'tis too late-- + And Life and Love must yield to Death and Fate._ + +I looked at Dolly; but she was laughing, though with a kind of terror in +her eyes too at that sudden apparition. + +"Oh, Roger!" she said, "and now she will go and wash it all off, will +she not?" + +"Yes, yes," I said. "She will wash it all off." And I looked at her, and +made myself laugh too. She said nothing, but took my arm a little +closer. + + * * * * * + +I was right about the passage, that it led out to the air, yet not into +Little Russell Street, but to a little yard by which, I suppose, the +players came to their rooms. The frost had fallen very sharp while we +had been in the theatre; overhead the stars tingled as if they shook, +beyond the chimneys, and there were little pools of ice between the +stones. + +I stayed an instant when we came down the three steps that led into the +yard, to pull Dolly's hood more closely about her head, for it was +bitter cold, and to gather up my own cloak, and, as I did this, I saw +that three men had followed us out, and were coming down the steps +behind us. There was no one else in the yard. There was one little +oil-lamp burning near one of the two entrances to shew the players the +way, I suppose. + +Then, when I had arranged my cloak, I gave Dolly my arm once more, and, +as I did so, heard Anne, who was behind us, suddenly give a great +scream; and, at the sound, whisked about to see what was the matter. + +There was a man coming at me from behind with a dagger, and the two +other fellows were behind him. + + * * * * * + +Now I had not an instant in which to think what to do, though I knew +well enough what they were and whom they were after. What I did, I did, +I suppose, by a kind of instinct. I tore my arm free from Dolly's hand, +pushing her behind me with my left hand, and at the same time dashed my +cloak away as well as I could, to draw out my sword. The fellow was a +little on my right when I was so turned about, but appeared a little +confounded by my quickness, for he hesitated. + +"Back to the wall, Dolly!" I shouted. "Back to the wall"; and, at the +same time I began to back myself, with her still behind me, to the wall +that was opposite to the steps we had just come down. My cloak was sadly +in my way; but, as I reached the wall, still going backwards, I had my +sword out just in time to keep off, by a flourish of it, the fellow who +had recovered himself, and was coming at me again. + +So for a moment, we stood; and in that moment I heard Anne screaming +somewhere for help. + + * * * * * + +Then I saw how the two other men, at a swift sign from their leader, +spread out on this side and that, so as to come at me from three +directions together; and, at that saw that I must delay no longer. +Before, I think, they saw what I intended, I leapt forward at the fellow +in front, and lunged with all my force; and though he threw up his arms, +with the dagger in one of his bands, and tried to evade a parry all at +once, he was too late; my point went clean through his throat, and he +fell backwards with a dreadful cry. And, at the same moment his two +companions ran in on me from either side. + +Now I do not even now see what else I could have done. I felt sure that +one of them would have me, for I could not properly deal with them both; +but I turned and stabbed quickly, with a short arm, at the face of the +one on my right, missing him altogether, and, at the same time strove to +strike with my left elbow the face of the other. + +But, ah! Dolly was too quick for me. She must have run forward on my +left to keep the fellow off, for I heard a swift dreadful sound as I +shortened my right arm to stab at the other again; and I felt something +fall about my feet. + +I turned like a madman, screaming aloud with anger, careless of all +else, or of whether or no anyone ran at me again, for I knew, in part at +least what had happened; and, at the same moment the yard seemed all +alive with folks running and crying out. The door at the head of the +steps was open, and three or four players ran out and down; while from +Little Russell Street on the right, where the coaches were, a great +number ran in. + +But I cared nothing for that at that instant. I had flung away my sword +on to the stones and was stooping to pick up my dear love who had saved +my life. There was already a great puddle of blood, and I felt it run +hot over my left hand that was about her--hot, for it flowed straight +from her heart that had been stabbed through by the knife that was aimed +at me. + + * * * * * + +When I looked up again, I saw, standing against the light in the door +opposite, at the head of the steps, the woman that had played the Queen +with that mock-blood still on her arm and breast. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +"Mr. Mallock," said the page, "the King is heartily sorry, and wishes to +tell you so himself." + +I said nothing. + +Of all that happened, after Dolly's death in the theatre-yard, I think +now as of a kind of dream, though it changed my whole life and has made +me what I am. I have, too, scarcely the heart to write of it; and what I +say of it now is gathered partly from what I can remember and partly +from what other folks told me. + +It must have been a terrible sight that they all saw as they ran in from +the lane, my man James first among them all. There lay, bloodying all +the ice about him, the fellow whom I had run through the throat, as dead +as the rat he was, but still jerking blood from beneath his ear; and +there in my arms, as I kneeled on the stones, lay Dolly, her head fallen +back and out of her hood, as white as a lily, dead too in an instant, +for she was stabbed through her heart, with her life-blood in a great +smear down her side, and all over my hands and clothes. + +My man James proved again as faithful a friend as he had always been to +me; for the affair had been no fault of his: I had sent him for the +coach, and he was bringing it up to the yard-entrance from the lane, as +Anne had run out screaming. Then he had run in, and my other man with +him, and the crowd after him, in time to see the two living assassins +make off into the dark entrance on the other side. A number had run +after them, but to no purpose, for we never heard of them again; and my +Dolly's murderer, I suppose, is still breathing God's air, unless he has +been hanged long ago for some other crime. + +The next matter was to get us home again; for James has told me that I +would allow no one to touch either her or me, until a physician came +out of the crowd and told me the truth. Then I had gathered her up in my +arms like a child without a word to any; and went out, the crowd falling +back as I came, to where the coach waited in Little Russell Street. +Still carrying her I went into the coach, and would allow no one else +within; and so we drove back to Covent Garden. + +When we came there a part of the crowd had already run on before and was +waiting. When the coach drew up, I came out of the coach, with my dear +love still in my arms, and went upstairs with her to her own chamber and +laid her on her bed; and it was a great while before I would let the +women come at her to wash her and make all sweet and clean again. I lay +all that night in the outer parlour that had been my own so long ago, +or, rather, I went up and down it till daybreak; and no one dared to +speak to me or to move away the supper-things from the table where she +and I had supped the night before. + +The inquest was held that day, but nothing came of it. I related my +story in the barest words, saying that I knew nothing of the three men, +and leaving it to Mr. Chiffinch to whisper in the officer's ear to +prevent him asking what he should not. Of the man I had killed nothing +was ever made public, except that he was a tanner's man and lived in +Wapping, and that his name was Belton. + +On the Saturday we went down to Hare Street, all together, with the body +of the little maid in a coach by itself. I rode my horse behind, but +would speak never a word to my Cousin Tom who went in a coach, neither +then nor at any other time; neither would I lie in Hare Street House, +nor even enter it; but I lay in the house of a farmer at Hormead; and +waited outside the house for the funeral to come out next day, after the +Morning Prayer had been said in the church. She lies now in the +churchyard of Hormead Parva, where we laid her on that windy Sunday, in +the shadow of the little Saxon church. I rode straight away again with +my men from the churchyard gate, and came to London very late that +night. I went straight to my lodgings, and refused myself to everyone +for three days, writing letters here and there, and giving orders as to +the packing of all my effects. On the Thursday, a week after my Cousin +Dolly had come to town, I went to Mr. Chiffinch to take my leave. + +Now of those days I dare say no more than that; and even if I would I +could add very little. My mind throughout was in a kind of dark tumult, +until, after my three days of solitude, I had determined what to do. +There were hours, I will not deny, in which my very faith in God Himself +seemed wholly gone; in which it was merely incredible to me that if He +were in Heaven such things could happen on earth. But sorrow of such a +dreadful kind as this is, in truth, if we will but yield to it, a sort +of initiation or revelation, rather than an obscurer of truth; and, by +the time that my three days were over I thought I saw where my duty lay, +and to what all those events tended. I had come from a monk's life that +I might taste what the world was like; I had tasted and found it very +bitter; there was not one affair--(for so it appeared to me then)--that +had not failure written all over it. Very well then; I would go back to +the monk's life once more if they would have me. On the third day, then, +I had written to my Lord Abbot at St. Paul's-without-the-Walls, telling +him that I was coming back again, and had thrown up my affairs here. + +"You were right, my Lord," I wrote at the end of it, "and I was wrong. +My Vocation seems very plain to me now; and I would to God that I had +seen it sooner, or at the least been more humble to Your Lordship's +opinion." + +At first I had thought that I would take no leave of the King; and had +told Mr. Chiffinch so, after I had announced to him what my intentions +were, and announced them too in such a manner that he scarcely even +attempted to dissuade me from them. But he had begged me to take my +leave in proper form; no harm would be done by that; and then he had +told me that His Majesty knew all that had passed and was very sorry for +it. + +I sat silent when he said that. + +"Yes, Mr. Mallock," he said again, "and I mean not only for your own +sorrow, but for his own treatment of you. It hath been a whim with him: +he treats often so those whom he loves. His Majesty hath something of a +woman in him, in that matter. His suspicions were real enough, at least +for a time." + +"I had done better if I had been one of his enemies, then," said I. + +"It is of no use to be bitter, sir," said the page. "Men are what they +are. We would all be otherwise, no doubt, if we could. See the King, Mr. +Mallock, I beg of you: and appear once at least at Court, publicly. You +should allow him at least to make amends." + +I gave a great sigh. + +"Well: it shall be so," I said. "But I must leave town on Tuesday." + + * * * * * + +It was with a very strange sense of detachment that I went about my +affairs all Friday and Saturday; for I had still plenty to do, and was +not to see His Majesty till the Saturday night after supper. The weather +was turned soft again, and we had sunshine for an hour or two. On one +day I watched His Majesty go to dinner, with his guards about him, and +his gentlemen; but I did not see it with the pleasure I had once had in +such brave sights. It was with me, during those days, as it had been +with me for those two or three moments during the play, though in a +gentler manner; for I thought more of the humanity beneath than of the +show above; and a rotten humanity most of it seemed to me. These were +but men like myself, and some pretty evil too. Those gentlemen that were +with the King--there was scarcely one of them about whom I did not know +something considerably to his discredit: there was my Lord Ailesbury in +strict attendance on him; and Killigrew--he that had the theatre--and +the less said of him the better: and there were three or four more like +him; the Earl of Craven was there, colonel of the foot-guards; and Lord +Keeper Guildford; and the Earl of Bath; and there, in the midst, the +King himself, with his blue silk cloak over his shoulders, and his +princely walk, going fast as he always did, and smiling-well, what of +those thirteen known mistresses of his that he had had, as well as of +those other--God knows how many!--poor maids, who must look upon him as +their ruin? It was a brave sight enough, there in the sunshine--I will +not deny that--with the sun on the jewels and the silks, and on the buff +and steel of the guards, with that swift kingly figure going in the +midst; and it was a brave noise that the music made as they went within +the Banqueting-Hall; but how, thought I, does God see it all? And for +what do such things count before His Holy Presence? + +I had not rehearsed what I should say to His Majesty when I saw him; for +indeed it was of no further moment to me what either I or he should say. +I should be gone for ever in three days to the secret service of another +King than him--to that secret service where men need not lie and cheat +and spy and get their hearts broken after all and no gratitude for it; +but to that service which is called _Opus Dei_ in the choir, and is +prayer and study and contemplation in the cloister and the cell. There I +should sing, week by week: + +"Oh! put not your trust in princes nor in any child of man: for there is +no help in them." + +In such a mood then--not wholly Christian, I will admit!--I came into +the King's closet, to take my leave of him, on that Saturday night, the +last day of January, in the year of Salvation sixteen hundred and +eighty-five. + +He was standing up when I entered his private closet, with a very +serious look on his face; and, to my astonishment, took a step towards +me, holding out both his hands. I will not deny that I was moved; but I +had determined to be very stiff. So I saluted him in the proper manner, +very carefully and punctually, kneeling to kiss his hand, and then +standing upright again. A little spaniel barked at me all the time. + +"There! there! Mr. Mallock," he said. "Sit you down! sit you down! +There are some amends due to you." + +I seated myself as he bade me; and he leaned towards me a little from +his own chair, with one leg across the other. I saw that he limped a +little as he went to his chair; and learned afterwards that he had a +sore on his heel from walking in the Park. + +"There are some amends due to you," he said again: "but first I wish to +tell you how very truly I grieve at the sorrow that has come on you, and +in my service too, as I understand." + +(Ah! thought I: then Mr. Chiffinch has made that plain enough.) He spoke +with the greatest feeling and gravity; but the next moment he near +ruined it all. + +"Ah! these ladies!" he said. "How they can torment a man's heart to be +sure! How they can torture us and yet send us into a kind of ecstasy all +at once! We hate them one day, and vow never to see them again, and yet +when they die or leave us we would give the world to get them back +again!" + +For the moment I felt myself all stiff with anger at such a manner of +speaking, and then once more a great pity came on me. What, after all, +does this man, thought I, know of love as God meant it to be? + +"Well, well!" he said. "It is of no use speaking. I know that well +enough. And it was that very cousin, I hear, that was Maid to Her +Majesty!" + +"Yes, Sir," said I, very short. + +I wondered if he would say next that that circumstance made it all the +sadder; but he was not gross enough for that. + +"Well," he said, "I will say no more on that point. I am only grieved +that it should have come upon you in my service; and I wish to make +amends. I already owed you a heavy debt, Mr. Mallock; and this has made +it the heavier; and before saying any more I wish to tell you that I am +heartily sorry for my suspicions of you. They were real enough, I am +ashamed to say: I should have known better. But at least I have got rid +of Hoskyns; and he hath gone to the devil altogether, I hear. He had a +cunning way with him, you know, Mr. Mallock." + +He spoke almost as if he pleaded; and I was amazed at his condescension. +It is not the way of Kings to ask pardon very often. + +"Well, Mr. Mallock," he said next; "and I hear that you wish to leave my +service?" + +"If Your Majesty pleases," said I. + +"My Majesty doth not please at all; but he will submit, I suppose. Tell +me, sir, why it is that you wish to leave." + +"Sir," I said, "the reasons are pretty plain. I have displeased Your +Majesty for the past half-year; and I cannot forget that, even though, +Sir, you are graciously pleased to compliment me now. Then I have +quarrelled with my Cousin Jermyn, so that I have not a kinsman left in +England; and--and I have lost her whom I was to make my wife this year. +Finally, if more reasons are wanting, I am weary of a world in which I +have failed so greatly; and I must go back again to the cloister, if +they will have me there." + +All came with a rush when I began to speak, for His Majesty's presence +had always an extraordinary effect upon me, as upon so many others. I +had determined to say very little; yet here I had said it all, and I +felt the blood in my face. He listened very patiently to me, with his +head a little on one side, and his underlip thrust out, and his great +melancholy eyes searching my face. + +"Well! well! well," he said again, "if you must be a monk there is no +more to be said. But what of your apostleship in the world?" + +"Sir," I cried--for I knew what he meant--"my apostleship as you name +it has been a greater disaster than all the rest: and God knows that is +great enough." + +He was silent a full half minute, I should think, still looking on me +earnestly. + +"Are you so sure of that?" said he. + +My heart gave a leap; but he held up his hand before I could speak. + +"Wait, sir," he said. "I will tell you this. You have said very little +to me; but I vow to you that what you have said I have remembered. It is +not argument that a man needs--at least after the first--but example. +That you have given me." + +Then I flushed up scarlet; for I was sure he was mocking me. + +"Sir," I cried, "you might have spared--" + +He lifted his eyes a little. + +"I assure you, Mr. Mallock," he said, "that I mean what I say. You have +been very faithful; you have ventured your life again and again for me; +you have refused rewards, except the very smallest; you have lost even +your sweetheart in my service; and now, when all is within your reach +again, you fling it back at me. It is not very gracious; but it is very +Christian, as I understand Christianity." + +I said nothing. What was there to say? I seemed a very poor Christian to +myself. + +"Come! come, Mr. Mallock," pursued the King very gently and kindly. +"Think of it once again. You shall have what you please--your Viscounty +or anything else of that sort; and you shall keep your lodgings and +remain here as my friend. What do you say to that?" + +For a moment again I hesitated; for it is not to everyone that a King +offers his friendship. If it had been that alone I think I might have +yielded, for I knew that I loved this man in spite of all his wickedness +and his treatment of me--for that, and for my "apostleship" as he called +it, I might have stayed. But at the word _Viscounty_ all turned to +bitterness: I remembered my childish dreams and the sweetness of them, +and the sweetness of my dear love who was to have shared them; and all +turned to bitterness and vanity. + +"No, Sir," said I--and I felt my lips tremble. "No, Sir. I will be +ungracious and--and Christian to the end. I am resolved to go; and +nothing in this world shall keep me from it." + +The King stood up abruptly; and I rose with him. I did not know whether +he were angry or not; and I did not greatly care. He stepped away from +me, and began to walk up and down. One of his bitch-spaniels whined at +him from her basket, lifting her great liquid eyes that were not unlike +his own; and he stooped and caressed her for a moment. Then the clocks +began to chime, one after the other, for it was eight o'clock, and I +heard them at it, too, in the bed-chamber beyond. There would be thirty +or forty of them, I daresay, in the two chambers. So for a minute or two +he went up and down; and I have but to close my eyes now, to see him +again. He was limping a little from the sore on his heel; but he carried +himself very kingly, his swarthy face looking straight before him, and +his lips pursed. I think that indeed he was a little angry, but that he +was resolved not to shew it. + +Suddenly he wheeled on me, and held out his hand. + +"Well, Mr. Mallock; there is no more to be said; and I must honour you +for it whatever else I do. I would that all my servants were as +disinterested." + +I knelt to kiss his hand. I think I could not have spoken at that +moment. As I stood up, he spoke again. + +"When do you leave town?" he said. + +"On Tuesday, Sir." + +"Well, come and see me again before you go. No, not in private: you need +not fear for that. Come to-morrow night, to the _levee_ after supper." + +"I will do so, Sir," said I. + + * * * * * + +On the following night then, which was Sunday, I presented myself for +the last time, I thought, to His Majesty. + +I need not say that half a dozen times since I had left him, my +resolution had faltered; though, it had never broken down. I heard mass +in Weld Street; and there again I wondered whether I had decided +rightly, and again as I burned all my papers after dinner--(for when a +man begins afresh he had best make a clean sweep of the past). I went to +take the air a little, before sunset, in St. James' Park, and from a +good distance saw His Majesty going to feed the ducks, with a dozen +spaniels, I daresay going after him, and a couple of gentlemen with him, +but no guards at all. The King walked much more slowly that day than +was his wont--I suppose because of the sore on his heel. But I did not +go near enough for him to see me; for I would trouble him now no further +than I need. All this time--or at least now and again--I wondered a +little as to whether I was right to go. I will not deny that the +prospect of remaining had a little allurement in it; but it was truly +not more than a little; and as evening fell and my heart went inwards +again, as hearts do when the curtains are drawn, I wondered that it had +been any allurement at all: for my life lay buried in the churchyard of +Hormead Parva, and I had best bury the rest of me in the place where at +least I had a few friends left. After supper, about ten o'clock, I put +on my cloak and went across to the Duchess of Portsmouth's lodgings, +where the _levee_ was held usually on such evenings. My man James went +with me to light me there. + +I do not think I have seen a more splendid sight, very often, than that +great gallery, when I came into it that night, passing on my way through +the closet where I had once talked with Her Grace. It was all alight +from end to end with candles in cressets, and on the great round table +at the further end where the company was playing basset, stood tall +candlesticks amidst all the gold. I had not seen this great gallery +before; and it was beyond everything, and far beyond Her Majesty's own +great chamber. If I had thought the closet fine, this was a thousand +times more. There were great French tapestries on the walls, and between +them paintings that had been once Her Majesty's, and those not the worst +of them. The quantity of silver in the room astonished me: there were +whole tables of it, and braziers and sconces and cressets beyond +reckoning; and there were at least five or six chiming clocks that the +King had given to Her Grace; and tall Japanese presses and cabinets of +lacquer which she loved especially. + +There was a fire of Scotch coal burning on the hearth, as in His +Majesty's own bedchamber; and on a great silver couch, beside this, +covered with silk tapestry, sat the King, smiling to himself, with two +or three dogs beside him, and Her Grace of Portsmouth on the same +couch. The Duchesses of Cleveland and Mazarin were on chairs very near +the couch. + +There was a great clamour of voices from the basset-table as I came in +and the King looked up; and, as I went across to pay my respects to His +Majesty, he said something to the Duchess, very merrily. She too glanced +up at me; and indeed she was a splendid sight in her silks and in the +jewels she had had from him. + +"Why; here is my friend!" said the King, as he put out his hand to me; +and once more the dogs yapped at me from his side. He put his left hand +out over their heads and pressed them down. + +"You must not bark at my friend Mr. Mallock," he said. "He is off to be +a holy monk." + +For a moment I thought the King was making a mock of me; but it was not +so. He was smiling at me very friendly. + + * * * * * + +He was in wonderful good humour that evening; and I heard more of his +public talk than ever before; for he made me draw up a stool presently +upon the hearth. Now and again a gentleman came across to be presented +to him; and others came and looked in for a while and away again. There +were constant comings and goings; and once, as a French boy was singing +songs to a spinet, near the door, I saw the serious face of Mr. Evelyn, +with two of his friends, look in upon the scene. + +I cannot remember one quarter of all the things that were said. Now the +King was silent, playing with the ears of his dogs and smiling to +himself; now he would say little things that stuck in the memory, God +knows why! For example, he said that he had eaten two goose's eggs for +supper, which shewed what a strong stomach he had; and he described to +us a very fierce duck that had snapped his hand that afternoon in the +park. History is not made of these things; and yet sometimes I think +that it should be; for those be the matters that interest little folk; +and most of us are no more than that. I do not suppose that in all the +world there is one person except myself who knows that His Sacred +Majesty ate two goose's eggs to his supper on that Sunday night. + +He spoke presently of his new palace at Winchester that he was +a-building, and that was near finished. + +"I shall be very happy this week," said he, "for my building will be all +covered in with lead." (He said the same thing again, later, to my Lord +Ailesbury, who remembered it when it was fulfilled, though in another +manner than the King had meant.) + +He talked too of "little Ken," as he named him (who had been made Bishop +last week), and of the story that so many told--(for the King told his +stories several times over when he was in a good humour)--and the way he +told it to-night was this. + +"Ah! that little Ken!" said he. "Little black Ken! He is the man to +tell me my sins! Your Grace should hear him"--(added he)--"upon the +Seventh Commandment! And such lessons drawn from Scripture too-from the +Old Testament!" + +He looked up sharply and merrily at Her Grace of Portsmouth as he said +this. + +"Well; when poor Nell and I went down to Winchester a good while ago," +he went on, "what must little Ken do but refuse her a lodging! This is a +man to be a Bishop, thought I. And so poor Nell had to sleep where she +could." + +Her Grace of Portsmouth looked very glum while this tale was told; for +she hated Mrs. Nelly with all her heart. She flounced a little in her +seat; and one of the dogs barked at her for it. + +"First a monk and then a Duchess!" said the King. "Did you ever hear of +the good man of Salisbury who put his hand into my carriage to greet me, +and was bitten for his pains? 'God bless Your Majesty,' said he, 'and +God damn Your Majesty's dogs!'--Eh, Fubbs?"--(for so he called the +Duchess). + +So he discoursed this evening, very freely indeed, and there was a +number of men presently behind his couch, listening to what he said. A +great deal of what he said cannot be set down here, for it was +extraordinary indecent as well as profane. Yet there was a wonderful +charm about his manner, and there is no denying it; and in this, I +suppose, lay a great deal of the injury he did to innocent souls, for it +all seemed nothing but merriment and good-humour. His quickness of +conception, his pleasantness of wit, his variety of knowledge, his +tales, his judgment of men--all these were beyond anything that I have +ever met in any other man. + +There was silence made every now and then for the French boy to sing +another song; and this singing affected me very deeply, so long as I did +not look at the lad; for he was a silly-looking creature all dressed up +like a doll; but he sang wonderfully clear and sweet, and one of the +King's chapel-gentlemen played for him. His songs were all in French, +and the substance of some of them was scarcely decent; but I had not the +pain of hearing any that I had heard in Hare Street. During the singing +of the last of these songs, near midnight, again that mood fell on me +that all was but a painted show on a stage, and that reality was +somewhere else. The great chamber was pretty hot by now, with the +roaring fire and all the folks, and a kind of steam was in the air, as +it had been in the theatre ten days ago; and the faces were some of them +flushed and some of them pale with the heat. The Duchess of Cleveland +was walking up and down before the fire, with her hands clasped as if +she were restless; for she spoke scarce a word all the evening. + +When the song was done the King clapped his hands to applaud and stood +up; and all stood with him. + +"Odd's fish!" said he, "that is a pretty boy and a pretty song." Then he +gave a great yawn. "It is time to go to bed," said he. + +As he said that the door from the outer gallery opened; and I saw my +Lord Ailesbury there--a young man, very languid and handsome who was +Gentleman of the Bed chamber this week, though his turn ended to-morrow; +and behind him Sir Thomas Killigrew who was Groom--(these two slept in +the King's bedchamber all night)--and two or three pages, one of them +of the Backstairs. My Lord Ailesbury carried a tall silver candlestick +in his hand with the candle burning in it. He bowed to His Majesty. + +"Did I not say so?" said the king. + +He did not give his hand to anyone when he said good-night, but turned +and bowed a little to the company about him on the hearth, and they back +to him, the three duchesses curtseying very low. But to me he gave his +hand to kiss. + +"Good-night, Mr. Mallock," said he, in a loud voice; then, raising it-- + +"Mr. Mallock goes abroad to-morrow; or is it Tuesday?" + +"It is Tuesday, Sir," said I. + +"Then God go with you," he said very kindly. + +I watched him go out to the door with his hat on, all the other +gentlemen uncovered and bowing to him, and him nodding and smiling in +very good humour, though still limping a little. And my heart seemed to +go with him. At the door however he stopped; for a strange thing had +happened. As my Lord Ailesbury had given the candle to the page who was +to go before them, it had suddenly gone out, though there was no draught +to blow it. The page looked very startled and afraid, and shook his head +a little. Then one of the gentlemen sprang forward and took a candle +from one of the cressets to light the other with. His Majesty stood +smiling while this was done; but he said nothing. When it was lighted, +he turned again, and waved his hand to the company. Then he went out +after his gentlemen. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +It was a little after eight o'clock next morning that I heard first of +His Majesty's seizure. + +I had drunk my morning and was on the point of going out with my +man--indeed I was descending the stairs--when I heard steps run past in +the gallery outside; and then another man also running. I came out as he +went past and saw that he was one of Mr. Chiffinch's men, very +disordered-looking and excited. I cried out to know what was the matter, +but he shook his head and flapped his hand at me as if he could not +stay, and immediately turned off from the gallery and ran out to the +right in the direction of the King's lodgings. + +I turned to my man James who was just behind me. + +"Go and see what the matter is," I said; for after seeing the King so +well and cheerful last night, I never thought of any illness. + +While he was gone, I waited just within my door, observing one of my +engravings, with my hat on. It was a very bitter morning. In less than +five minutes James was back again, very white and breathing fast. + +"His Majesty is ill," said he. "Mr. Chiffinch--" + +I heard no more, for I ran out past him at a great pace, and so to the +King's lodgings. + + * * * * * + +When I came to the door of them, all was in confusion. There was but one +guard here--(for the other was within with the Earl of Craven)--and a +little crowd was pestering him with questions. I made no bones with him, +but slipped in, and ran upstairs as fast as I could. There was no one in +the first antechamber at all, and the door was open into the private +closet beyond. It was contrary to all etiquette to enter this unbidden, +but I cared nothing for that, and ran through; and this again was empty; +so I passed out at the further door and found myself at the head of a +little stair leading down into a wide lobby, from which opened out two +or three chambers, with the King's bedchamber at the further end. And +here, in the lobby, I ran into the company. + +There was above a dozen persons there, at least, all talking together in +low voices; but I saw no one I cared to speak with, since I had no +business in the place at all. But no one paid any attention to me. It +was yet pretty dark here, for there were no candles; so I waited, +leaning against the wall at the head of the stairs. + +Then the voices grew louder; and the crowd opened out a little to let +someone through; and there came, walking very quickly, and talking +together, my Lord Craven leaning on the arm of my Lord Ailesbury. My +Lord Craven--near ninety years old at this time--was in his full-dress +as colonel of the foot-guards, for he had attended a few minutes before +to receive from His Majesty the pass-word of the day: and my Lord +Ailesbury was but half dressed with his points hanging loose; for he had +been all undressed just now, when the King had been taken ill. + +After they had passed by me I stood again to wait; but, almost +immediately, across the further end of the lobby I saw Mr. Chiffinch +pass swiftly from a door on the left to a door on the right. At that +sight I determined to wait no longer: for there was but one thought in +my mind, all this while. + +I said nothing, but I came down the stairs and laid my hand on the +shoulder of a physician (I think he was), who stood in front of me, and +pushed him aside, as if I had a right to be there; and so I went through +them very quickly, and into the room where I had seen Mr. Chiffinch go. +The door was ajar: I pushed it open and went in. + +It was a pretty small room, and there were no beds in it; it had presses +round the walls: a coal fire burned in the hearth in a brazier, and a +round table was in the midst, lit by a single candle, and near the +candle stood a heap of surgical instruments and a roll of bandages. +(This was the room, I learned later, next to the Royal Bedchamber, where +the surgeons had attended half an hour ago to dress the King's heel.) +There were three persons in the room beyond the table, talking very +earnestly together. Two of them I did not know; but the third was Mr. +Chiffinch. They all three turned when I came in, and stared at me. + +"Why--" began the page--"Mr. Mallock, what do you--" + +He came towards me with an air of impatience. + +"Mr. Chiffinch," said I, in a low voice--"how is His Majesty. I--" + +The further door which stood at the head of three or four steps leading +up to it opened sharply, and the page whisked round to see what it was. +A face looked out, very peaked-looking and white, and nodded briskly at +the bandages and the instruments; the two other men darted at those, +seized them, ran up the stairs and vanished, leaving the door but a +crack open behind them. + +Then Mr. Chiffinch turned and stared at me again. He appeared very pale +and agitated. + +"Mr. Chiffinch," said I, "I will take no refusal at all. How is His +Majesty?" + +His lips worked a little, and I could see that he was thinking more of +what was passing in the chamber beyond than of my presence here. + +"They are blooding him again," he said; and then--"What are you doing +here?" + +I took him by the lapel of his coat to make him attend to me; for his +eyes were wandering back like a mule's, at every sound behind. + +"See here," said I. "If His Majesty is ill, it is time to send for a +priest. I tell you--" + +"Priest!" snapped the page in a whisper. "What the devil--" + +I shook him gently by his coat. + +"Mr. Chiffinch; I will have the truth. Is the King dying?" + +"No, he is not then!" he whispered angrily. "Hark--" + +He tore himself free, darted back to the further door, and stood there, +at the foot of the stairs, with his head lowered, listening. Even from +where I was I could hear a gentle sort of sound as of moaning or very +heavy breathing, and then a sharp whisper or two; and then the noise of +something trickling into a basin. Presently all was quiet again; and the +page lifted his head. I stood where I was; for I know how it is with men +in a sudden anxiety: they will snap and snarl, and then all at once turn +confidential. I was not disappointed. + +After he had waited a moment or two he came towards me once more. + +"Mr. Mallock," he whispered, "the King needs no priest. He is not so ill +as that; and he is unconscious too at present." + +"Tell me," I said. + +Again he glanced behind him; but there was no further sound. He came a +little nearer. + +"His Majesty was taken with a fit soon after he awakened. Mr. King was +here, by good fortune, and blooded him at once. Now they are blooding +him again. Her Majesty hath been sent for." + +"He is not dying? You will swear that to me?" + +He nodded: and again he appeared to listen. I took him by his button +again. + +"Mr. Chiffinch," said I, "you must attend to me. This is the very thing +I have waited for. If there is any imminent danger you must send for a +priest. You promise me that?" + +He shook his head violently: so I tried another attack. + +"Well," I said, "then you will allow me to remain here? Is the Duke +come?" + +"Not yet," said he. "Ailesbury is gone for him." + +"Well--I may remain then?" + +There came a knock on the inner side of the further door; and he tore +himself free again. But I was after him, and seized him once more. + +"I may remain?" + +"Yes, yes," he snapped, "as you will! Let me go, sir." He whisked +himself out of my hold, and went swiftly up the stairs and through the +door, shutting it behind him, giving me but the smallest glimpse of a +vast candle-lit room and men's heads all together and the curtains of a +great bed near the door. But I was content: I had got my way. + + * * * * * + +As I walked up and down the antechamber, very softly, on tip-toe, it +appeared to me that I was, as it were, two persons in one. On the one +side there was the conviction and the determination that, come what +would, I must get a priest to the King if he took a turn at all for the +worse--since, for the present, I believed Mr. Chiffinch's word that His +Majesty was not actually dying. (This was not at all what the physicians +thought at that time; but I did not know that.) This conviction, I +suppose, had always been with me that it was for this that in God's +Providence I had been sent to England; at least, seven in the moment +that I had left my house and run down the gallery, there it was, all +full-formed and mature. As to how it was to be done I had no idea at +all; yet that it would be done I had no doubt. On the other side, +however, every faculty of observation that I had, was alert and +tight-stretched. I remember the very pattern of the carpet I walked on; +the pictures on the walls; and the carving on the presses. Above all I +remember the little door in the corner of the chamber--the third; and +how I opened it, and peeped down the winding staircase that led from it. +(I did not know then what part that little door and winding staircase +was to play in my great design!) Now and again I looked out of the +single window at the river beneath in the early morning sunshine; now I +paced the floor again. It seemed to me that I had found a very pretty +post of observation, as this appeared a very private little room, and +that I should not be troubled here. The great anterooms, I knew, where +the company would be, must lie on the further side of the bedchamber. + +I suppose it would be about five minutes after Mr. Chiffinch had left me +that Her Majesty came. The first I knew of it was a great murmur of +voices and footsteps without the door. I went to the door and pulled it +a little open so that I could see without being seen, and looked up the +lobby beyond the King's chamber; for in that direction, I knew, lay Her +Majesty's apartments. A couple of pages came first, very hastily, with +rods; and then immediately after them Her Majesty herself, hurrying as +fast as she could, scarce decently dressed, with a cloak flung over all, +with a hood. Behind her came two or three of her ladies. I saw the poor +woman's face very plain for a moment, since there was no one between me +and her; and even at that distance I could see her miserable agitation; +her brown face was all sallow and her mouth hung open. Then she whisked +after the pages through the door into the great antechamber that lay +beyond the bedroom. I went back again, to shut the door and listen at +the other; for I knew that the King's bed was close to it (though he was +not in it at this time, but still in the barber's chair where he had +been blooded); and presently I heard the poor soul begin to wail aloud. +I heard voices too, as if soothing her, for all the physicians were +there, and half a dozen others; but the wailing grew, as she saw, I +suppose, in what condition His Majesty was--(for he still seemed all +unconscious)--till she began to shriek. That was a terrible sound, for +she laughed and sobbed too, all at once, in a kind of fit. I could hear +the tone very plain through the door, though I could not hear what she +said; and the voices of Mr. King and others who endeavoured to quiet +her. Gradually the wailing and shrieking grew less as they forced her +away and out again; till I heard it, as she went back again to her own +apartments, die away in spasms. Poor soul indeed! she was nothing +accounted of in that Court, yet she loved the King very dearly in spite +of his neglect towards her. She could not even speak to him (I heard +afterwards), though he had spoken her name and asked for her, after his +first blooding. + + * * * * * + +Half an hour later--(in the meantime no one had come in to me, and I +could only walk up and down and listen as well as I could)--I heard +again the murmur of voices in the lobby, and steps coming swiftly down +from the private closet. Again I was in time at the door to see who it +was that went by; and it was the Duke of York, with my Lord Ailesbury +who had gone to fetch him from St. James'. He went by me so near that I +could hear his quick breathing from his run upstairs; and he had come in +such a hurry that he had only one shoe on, and on the other foot a +slipper. He went very near at a run up the lobby, and up a step or two, +and into the great antechamber and so round to the Bedchamber; and I +presently heard him enter it. Indeed I was very favourably placed for +observing all that went on. + + * * * * * + +It was about eleven o'clock, as I suppose, when I first heard His +Majesty's voice; and the relief of it to me was extraordinary. + +I had ventured up the stair or two that led from this room into the +Bedchamber, and had, very delicately, opened the door a crack so as to +hear more plainly; but I dared not look through for fear that I should +be seen. + +For a long while I had heard nothing but whispers; and once the yapping +of a little dog, very sharp and startling, but the noise was stifled +almost immediately, and the dog, I suppose, taken out at the other door. +Once or twice too had come the sudden chiming of all the clocks that +were in the Bedchamber. + +I heard first a great groan from the bed, to which by now they had moved +him from the chair, and then Ailesbury's name spoken in a very broken +voice. (My own heart beat so loud when I heard that, that I could scarce +listen to what followed.) + +"Yes, Sir," came Ailesbury's voice; and then a broken murmur again. (He +was thanking him, I heard afterwards from Mr. Chiffinch, for his +affection to him, and for having caused him to be bled so promptly by +Mr. King, and for having sent Chiffinch to him to bring him back from +his private closet.) + +Presently he grew stronger; and I could hear what he said. + +"I went there," he said, "for the King's Drops.... I felt very ailing +when I rose.... I walked about there; but felt no better. I nearly fell +from giddiness as I came down again." + +He spoke very slowly, but strongly enough; and he gave a great sigh at +the end. + +Presently he spoke again. + +"Why, brother," he said. "So there you are." + +I heard the Duke's voice answer him, but so brokenly and confusedly that +I could hear no words. + +"No, no," said His Majesty, "I do very well now." + + * * * * * + +I came down the stairs again, shaking all over. I cannot say how +affected I was to hear his voice again; and I think there could scarce +be a man in the place any less affected. He was a man who compelled love +in an extraordinary fashion. I felt that if he died I could bear no more +at all. + +I was walking up and down again very softly, when the door into the +Bedchamber was noiselessly pulled open, and Mr. Chiffinch came down the +stairs. That dreadful look of tightness and pain was gone from his face: +he was almost smiling. He nodded at me, very cheerful. + +"He is better. The King's Majesty is much better," he whispered. Then +his face twitched with emotion; and I saw that he was very near crying. +I was not far from it myself. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + + +How the hours of that day went by I scarcely know at all. I went back to +dine in my lodgings, and to counter-order all preparations for my going +on the morrow, so soon as I knew that His Majesty was out of any +immediate danger; for I could not find it in my heart to leave town +until he was altogether recovered. In the afternoon, before going back +to inquire how he was, I walked a good while in the court and the Privy +Garden, though the day was very raw and cold. + +Whitehall had been put as in a state of siege from the first moment that +the King's illness was known. The gates were closed to all but those who +had lodgings in the Palace, and those who were allowed special entry by +His Royal Highness. The sentries everywhere were greatly augmented; both +horse and foot were placed at every entrance; and the greatest +strictness was observed that no letter should pass out either to His +Grace of Monmouth or to the Prince of Orange: even M. Barillon had but +permission to send one letter to the French King as to His Majesty's +state. All this was to hinder any rising or invasion that might be made +either within or without the kingdom. I was in the court when the +couriers rode out with despatches to the Lords Lieutenant of the +Counties with advices as to what to do should His Majesty die; and I was +there too when the deputies came from the Lord Mayor and Aldermen and +Lieutenants of the City to inquire for the King and to assure His Royal +Highness of their loyalty and support. This was of the greatest +satisfaction to the Duke; for I suppose that he did not feel very +secure. + +A little before supper I went round to Mr. Chiffinch's; and, by the +greatest good fortune found him on the point of returning to His +Majesty's lodgings. He gave me an excellent account as we went together. + +"The physicians declare," said he, "that His Majesty is out of danger: +and bath permitted the Duke to tell the foreign ministers so. They have +had another consultation on him; and have prescribed God knows what! +Cowslip and Sal of Ammoniac, sneezing mixtures, plasters for his feet; +and he is to have broth and ale to his supper. They are determined to +catch hold of his disorder somehow, if not by one thing then by another. +To tell the truth I think they know not at all what is the matter with +him. They have taken near thirty ounces of blood from him too, to-day. +If the King were not a giant for health he would have died of his +remedies, I think!" + +He talked so; but he was in very cheerful spirits; and before he left me +at the door of the lodgings I had got an order from him to admit me +everywhere within reason. It was something of a surprise to me to see +how dearly this man--whose name was so evil spoken of, and, I fear with +good cause enough--yet loved his master. + + * * * * * + +On Tuesday morning I was up again very early, and round at His Majesty's +lodgings. I went up by the other way and into the great antechamber; and +there I met with one of the physicians who was just come from the +consultation that twelve of them had held together. He was a very +communicative fellow and told me that six of them had been with His +Majesty all night, and that His Majesty had slept pretty well; and +that--to encourage him, I suppose!--ten more ounces of blood had been +taken from his neck. He was proceeding to speak of some new +remedies--and mentioned an anti-spasmodic julep of Black Cherry Water +that had been prescribed, when another put out his head and called to +him from the Bedchamber; and he went away back into it with an important +air. + +All that day too I never left Whitehall. There were great crowds in all +the streets and outside the gates, I heard, but their demeanour was very +quiet and sorrowful; and prayers were said all day long in the churches. +When I went back to the antechamber in the evening I saw my Lord Bishop +of Ely there, and heard from one of the pages that he was to spend that +night in His Majesty's room. So I gathered from that that the physicians +were not very confident even yet, though couriers had been sent out +again to-day to bear the news of the King's happy recovery; and I was, +besides, in two minds, when I saw the Bishop there, as to what I should +do about a Catholic priest. If I had seen His Royal Highness then, I +think I should have said something to him upon it; but the Duke was in +the Bedchamber; and there I dared not yet penetrate. + + * * * * * + +On the Wednesday morning, when I went early to inquire, I heard that +again His Majesty had slept well, and that the physicians were well +satisfied; I saw no one but a man of Mr. Chiffinch's, who told me that; +and that Dr. Ken, my Lord Bishop of Bath and Wells, was with the King; +and I went away content: but when I went back again, for the third time +that day, just before supper-time, I saw from the faces in the +antechamber that all was not so well. Yet I could get nothing out of +anyone, and did not wish to press too hard lest I should be turned out +altogether. I saw my friend of yesterday, whose name I have never yet +learned, hurrying across the end of the chamber into another little room +where the physicians had their consultations--(it was, I think, my Lord +Ailesbury's dressing-room)--but I was not in time to catch him; so I +went away again in some little dismay, yet not greatly alarmed even now. +The Bishop, I thought, could at least do him no great harm. + +On the Thursday morning, before I was dressed, my man brought me the +_London Gazette_ that had been printed about six o'clock the evening +before. The announcement as to the King's health ran as follows. (I cut +out the passage then and there and put it in my diary.) + + * * * * * + + "At the Council Chamber, Whitehall, the 4th of February, 1684 [1685 N. + S.], at five in the afternoon. + + "The Lords of His Majesty's most Honourable Privy Council have thought + fit, for preventing false reports, I make known that His Majesty, upon + Monday morning last, was seized with a violent fit that gave great + cause to fear the issue of it; but after some hours an amendment + appeared, which with the blessing of God being improved by the + application of proper and seasonable remedies, is now so advanced, that + the physicians have this day as well as yesterday given this account to + the Council, viz.--That they conceive His Majesty to be in a condition + of safety, and that he will in a few days be freed from his distemper. + + "JOHN NICHOLAS." + +Yes, thought I, that is all very well; but what of yesterday after five +o'clock, and what of this morning? + + * * * * * + +As I went to His Majesty's lodgings an hour afterwards I heard the bells +from the churches beginning to peal, to call the folks to give thanks; +yet the faces within the Palace were very different. When I went up into +the great antechamber, the physicians were just dispersing; and, by good +fortune I was at hand when my Lord Keeper North questioned Sir Charles +Scarburgh as he went back to His Majesty's chamber. + +"Well?" said he, very short. "What do you say to-day?" + +"My Lord!" said Sir Charles, "we conclude that His Majesty hath an +intermittent fever." + +"And what the devil of that?" asked my Lord. "Could anything be worse?" + +(There was a little group round them by now; and I could see one of the +Bishops listening a little way off.) + +"My Lord," said the other, "at least we know now what to do." + +"And what is that?" snapped my Lord who seemed in a very ill humour. + +"To give the Cortex, my Lord," said Sir Charles with great dignity; for +indeed the manner of my Lord was most insolent. + +My Lord grunted at that. + +"Peruvian Bark, my Lord," said the physician, as if speaking to a child. + +Well; there was no more to be got that morning. I was in and out for a +little, again in two minds as to what to do. His Royal Highness went +through the antechamber at one time (to meet M. Barillon, as I saw +presently, and conduct him to the King's chamber), a little before +dinner, but at such a quickness, and with such sorrow in his face that I +dared not speak to him. I went back to dinner; and fell asleep +afterwards in my chair, so greatly was I wearied out with anxiety; and +did not wake till near four o'clock. Then, thank God! I did awake; and, +with all speed went again to His Majesty's lodgings; and this time, +guided, I suppose, by Divine Providence, for I had no clear intention in +what I did, I went up the private way, through the King's closet where I +found no one, down the steps, and so into the little chamber where I had +talked with Mr. Chiffinch on the first morning of His Majesty's +distemper. + +The chamber was empty; but immediately after I had entered--first +knocking, and getting no answer--who should come through, his face all +distorted with sorrow, but Mr. Chiffinch himself! There was but one +candle on the table, but by its light, I saw how it was with him. + +I went up immediately, and took him by the arms; he stared at me like a +terrified child. + +"My friend," said I, "I must have no further delay. You must take me to +His Majesty." + +He shook his head violently; but he could not speak. As for me, all my +resolution rose up as never before. + +I gripped him tighter. + +"I ask but five minutes," I said. "But that I must have!" + +"I--I cannot," said he, very low. + +I let go of him, and went straight towards the steps that led up into +His Majesty's room. As I reached the foot of them, he had seized my arm +from behind. + +"Where are you going?" he whispered sharply. "That is the way to the +King's room." + +I turned and looked at him. + +"Yes," I said very slowly, "I know that." + +"Well--well, you cannot," he stammered. + +"Then you must take me," I said. + +He still stared at me as if either he or I were mad. Then, of a sudden +his face changed; and he nodded. I could see how distraught he was, and +unsettled. + +"I will take you," he whispered, "I will take you, Mr. Mallock. For +God's sake, Mr. Mallock--" + +He went up the steps before me, in his soft shoes; and I went after, as +quietly as I could. As he put his hand on the handle he turned again. + +"For Christ's sake!" he whispered in a terrible soft voice. "For +Christ's sake! It must be but five minutes. I am sent to fetch the +Bishops, Mr. Mallock." + +He opened the door a little, and peered in. I could see nothing, so dark +was the chamber within--but the candles at the further end and a few +faces far away. A great curtain, as a wall, shut off all view to my +left. + +"Quick, Mr. Mallock," he whispered, turning back to me. "This side of +the bed is clear. Go in quick; he is turned on this side. I will fetch +you out this way again." + +He was his own man again, swift and prompt and steady. As for me, the +beating of my heart made me near sick. Then I felt myself pushed within +the chamber; and heard the door close softly behind me. + + * * * * * + +At first I could see nothing on this side, as I had been staring over +the candle just now, except a group of persons at the further end of the +great room, and among them the white of a Bishop's rochet; and the +candlelight and firelight on the roof. The clocks were all chiming four +as I came in, and drowned, I suppose, the sounds of my coming. + +Then, almost immediately I saw that the curtains were drawn back on this +side of the great bed that stood in this end of the room, and that they +were partly drawn forward on the other side, so as to shroud from the +candlelight him who lay within them, and beneath the Royal Arms of +England emblazoned on the state. + +And then I saw him. + +He was lying over on this side of the bed, propped on high pillows, but +leaning all over, and breathing loudly. His left, arm was flung over the +coverlet; and his fingers contracted and opened and contracted again. I +went forward swiftly and noiselessly, threw myself on my knees, laid my +hand softly beneath his, and kissed it. + +"Eh? eh?" murmured the heavy voice. "Who is it?" + +I saw the curtain on the other side pulled a little, and the face of Sir +Charles Scarburgh all in shadow peer in: it looked very lean and sharp +and high-browed. The King flapped his hand in a gesture of dismissal, +and the face vanished again. + +"Sir," whispered I, very earnestly, yet so low that I think none but he +could have heard me. "Sir: it is Roger Mallock--" + +"Mallock," repeated the voice; yet so low that it could not have been +understood by any but me. His face was very near to me; and it was +shockingly lined and patched, and the eyes terribly hollow and languid: +but there was intelligence in them. + +"Sir," said I, "you spoke to me once of an apostleship." + +"So I did," murmured the voice. "So I--" + +"Sir: I am come to fulfill it. It is not too late. Sir; the Bishops are +sent for. Have nothing to say to them! Sir, let me get you a true +priest--For Christ's sake!" + +The cold fingers that I yet held, twitched and pressed on mine. I was +sure that he understood. + +He drew a long breath. + +"And what of poor little Ken?" he murmured. "Poor little Ken: he will +break his heart--if he may not say his prayers." + +"Let him say what he will, Sir. But no sacrament! Let me send for a +priest!" + +There was a long silence. He sighed once or twice. His fingers all the +while twitched in mine, pressing on them, and opening again. Ah! how I +prayed in my heart; to Mary conceived without sin to pray for this poor +soul that had such a load on him. The minutes were passing. I thought, +maybe, he was unconscious again. And the Bishops, if they were in the +Palace, might be here at any instant, and all undone. I am not ashamed +to say that I entreated even my own dear love to pray for us. She had +laid down her life in his service and mine. Might it not be, thought I, +even in this agony, that by God's permission, she were near to help me? + +He stirred again at last. + +"Going to be a monk," said he, "going to be a monk, Roger Mallock. Pray +for me, Roger Mallock, when you be a monk." + +"Sir--" + +He went on as if he had not heard me. + +"Yes," murmured he. "A very good idea. But you will never do it. Go to +Fubbs, Roger Mallock. Fubbs will do it." + +"For a priest, Sir?" whispered I, scarcely able to believe that he +meant it. + +"Yes," he murmured again, "for a priest. Yes: for God's sake. Fubbs will +do it. Fubbs is always--" + +His voice trailed off into silence once more; and his fingers relaxed. +At the same instant I heard the door open softly behind, and, turning, I +saw the page's face again, lean and anxious, peering in at me. Then his +finger appeared in the line of light, beckoning. + +I kissed the loose cold fingers once again; rose up and went out on +tip-toe. + + + + +CHAPTER X + + +Then began for me the most amazing adventure of all. My adventures had +indeed been very surprising--some of them; and my last I had thought to +be the greatest of all, and the most heart-breaking, in the yard of the +Theatre Royal. I had thought that that had drained the last energy from +me and that I had no desires left except of the peace of the cloister +and death itself. Yet after my words with the King and his to me, there +awakened that in me which I had thought already dead--a fierce +overmastering ambition to accomplish one more task that was the greatest +of them all and to get salvation to the man who had again and again +flouted and neglected me, whom yet I loved as I had never yet loved any +man. As I went to and fro, as I shall now relate, until I saw him again, +there went with me the vision of him and of his fallen death-stricken +face there in the shadow of the great bed; and there went with me too, I +think, the eager presence of my own love, near as warm as in life. + +"What shall we do next? What shall we do next, Dolly?" I caught myself +murmuring more than once as I ran here and there; and I had almost sworn +that she whispered back to me, and that her breath was in my hair. + + * * * * * + +Within five minutes of my having left the King's bedchamber, I was +running up the stairs to Her Grace of Portsmouth's lodgings. I had said +scarce a word to Mr. Chiffinch when I came out into the little anteroom, +except that I was sent on a message by His Majesty; and he stared on me +as if I were mad. Then I was out again by the private way, through the +closet and the rooms beyond, and down the staircase. + +At the door of Her Grace's lodgings there stood a sentry who lowered his +pike as I came up, to bar my way. + +"Out of the way, man!" I cried at him. "I am on His Majesty's business." + +He too stared on me, and faltered, lifting his pike a little. All were +distraught by the news that was run like fire about the place that the +King was dying, or he would never have let me through. But I was past +him before he could change his mind again, and through a compile of +antechambers in one of which a page started up to know my business, but +I was past him as if he were no more than a shadow. + +Then I was in the great gallery, where I had sat with the King and his +company but four days ago. + + * * * * * + +It presented a very different appearance now. Then it had been all +ablaze with lights and merry with laughter and music. Now it was lit by +but a pair of candles over the hearth and, the glow of a dying fire. +Overhead the high roof glimmered into darkness, and the gorgeous +furniture was no more than dimness. I stopped short on the threshold, +bewildered at the gloom, thinking that the chamber was empty; then I saw +that a woman had raised herself from the great couch on which the King +had lolled with his little dogs last Sunday night, and was staring at me +like a ghost. + +At that sight I ran forward and kneeled down on one knee. + +"Madame," I said in French, "His Majesty hath sent me--" + +At that she was up, and had me by the shoulders. Her face was ghastly, +all slobbered over with crying, and her eyes sunken and her lips pale as +wax. God knows what she was dressed in; for I do not. + +"His Majesty," she cried, "His Majesty! He is not dead! For the love of +God--" + +I stood up; she still gripped me like a fury. + +"No, Madame," said I, "His Majesty is not dead. He hath sent me. I spoke +with him not five minutes ago. But he is very near death." + +"He hath sent for me! He hath sent for me!" she screamed, as if in +mingled joy and terror. + +"No, Madame; but he hath sent to you. His Majesty desires you to get him +a priest." + +Her hands relaxed and fell to her side. I do not know what she thought. +I do not judge her. But I thought that she hesitated. I fell on my knees +again; and seized her hand. I would have kneeled to the Devil, if he +could have helped me then. + +"Madame--for the love of Christ do as the King asks! He desires a +priest. For the love of Christ, Madame!" + +She was still silent for an instant, staring down on me. Then she tore +her hand free, and I thought she would refuse me. But she caught me +again by the shoulders. + +"Stand up, sir; stand up. I--I will do whatever the King desires. But +what can I do? God! there is someone coming!" + +There came very plainly, through the antechambers I had just run +through, the tramp of feet. I stood, as in a paralysis, not knowing what +to do next. Then she seized on me again as the steps came near. + +"Stand back," she said, "stand back, sir. I must see--" + +There came a knocking on the door as I sprang back away from the hearth, +and stood out of the firelight. Then the door opened, as Her Grace made +no answer, and the page whom I had seen just now stood bowing upon the +threshold. + +"Madame," said he. "M. Barillon, the French ambassador--" + +She made a swift gesture, and he fell back. There was a pause; and then, +through the door came M. Barillon, very upright and lean, walking +quickly, all alone. He stopped short when he saw Her Grace, put his +heels together and bowed very low. + +She was at him in an instant. + +"Monsieur!" she cried. "Yon are come in the very nick of time. How is +His Majesty?" + +He said nothing as he walked with her towards the hearth. She stood, +waiting, with her hands clasped, and a face of extraordinary anguish. + +"Madame," he said, "there is very bad news. I am come on behalf of His +Majesty King Louis--" + +"Sh!" she hissed at him, with a quick gesture to where I stood. He had +not observed me. He straightened himself, as he saw me, and then bowed a +little. + +The Duchess went on with extraordinary rapidity, still talking in +French. + +"This is Mr. Mallock," said she, "Mr. Mallock--but just now come from +His Majesty. He brings me very grave news. Monsieur Barillon, you will +help us, will you not? You will help us, surely?" + +All her anguish had passed into an extraordinary pleading: she was as a +child begging for life. + +"Madame--" began the ambassador. + +"Ah! listen, Monsieur, the king desires a priest. He is a Catholic at +heart, you know. He hath been a Catholic at heart a long time, ever +since--" she broke off. "You will help us, will you not, Monsieur?" + +He threw out his hands: but she paid no attention. + +"Monsieur, I swear to you that it is so. Yet what can I do? I cannot go +to him, with decency. The Queen is there continually, I hear. The Duke +is taken up with a thousand affairs and does not think of it. Go to the +Duke, I entreat you, Monsieur l'Ambassadeur; go to the Duke and tell him +what I say. Mr. Mallock shall go with you. He is a friend of the Duke. +He will bear me out. Monsieur, for the love of God lose no time. Come +and see me again; but go now, or it may be too late. Monsieur, I entreat +you." + +She had seized him by the arm as she spoke. Even his rigid face twitched +a little at the violence of her pleading. I knew well what was in his +mind, and how he wondered whether he dared do as she asked him. God knew +what complications might follow! + +"Monsieur--" + +He nodded suddenly and sharply. + +"Madame," said he, "I will go. Mr. Mallock--" + +He bowed to me. + +"Ah! God bless you, sir--" + +He stooped suddenly to her hand, lifted it and kissed it. I think in +that moment something of the compassion of the Saviour Himself fell on +him for this poor woman who yet might be forgiven much, for indeed, +under all her foolishness and sin, she loved very ardently. Then he +wheeled and went out of the room again; and I followed. No sound came +from the Duchess as we left her there in the half lit twilight. She was +standing with her hands clasped, staring after us as we went out. + + * * * * * + +He said nothing as we passed again through the anterooms and down the +stairs. Then, as we went on through the next gallery he spoke to me. His +men were a good way behind us, and another in front. + +"Mr. Mallock," said he--(for he had known me well enough in +France)--"His Majesty told you this himself?" + +"Yes, sir," said I, "not a quarter of an hour ago." + +"Then the Duke is our only chance," he said. + +He said no more till we came to the great antechamber by the King's +bedroom. It was half full of people; but the Duke was nowhere to be +seen. I waited by the door as M. Barillon went forward and spoke to +someone. Then he came back to me. + +"The Duke is with the Queen," he said. "We must go to him there." + +It was enough to send a man mad so to seek person after person in such a +simple matter as this. Why in God's name, I wondered, might not even a +King die in what religion he liked, without all this plotting and +conspiring? Was I never to be free from these things? + +At the door to the Queen's apartments M. Barillon turned to me. + +"You had best wait here, sir," he said. "I will speak with the Duke +privately first." + +He was admitted instantly so soon as he knocked; and went through +leaving me in a little gallery. + + * * * * * + +Of all that went through my mind as I walked up and down, with a page +watching me from the door, I can give no account at all. Again one half +of my attention was fixed, though with out any coherency, on the +business I was at; the other half observed the carpet under my feet, +the cabinets along the wall, and the pictures. It was not near as +splendid as were the rooms I had left so short a while ago. + +I had not to wait long. There was a sudden talking of voices beyond the +door that the Ambassador had just passed through; and I heard the Duke's +tones very plain. Then the page stiffened to attention, the door was +flung open suddenly, and the Duke came out alone at a great pace, +leaving the door open behind him. He never saw me at all. The page +darted after him, and the two disappeared together round the corner in +the direction of the King's rooms. As soon as they were gone, M. +Barillon came out and beckoned to me; and together we went up and down +the gallery. + +"You are perfectly right, sir," he said. "His Royal Highness shewed +great sorrow for not leaving thought of it. He is gone instantly to His +Majesty." + +"He will fetch a priest?" + +"He will speak to His Majesty first. He will find out, at least, what he +thinks." + +"But, good God!" said I. "His Majesty hath told me himself what he +wishes." + +"You must let His Royal Highness do it in his own way," he said. "He +must not be pushed. But I think you have done the trick, Mr. Mallock." + +"How is Her Majesty?" I asked abruptly. + +"The physicians have been at her too," he said dryly. "She had a +fainting-fit just now in His Majesty's presence; and they have been +blooding her." + +"What priest can be got?" I asked next. + +He made a gesture towards the chamber he had just come out of. + +"There is a pack of them in there," he said, "next to Her Majesty's +private closet. They have been praying all day in the oratory." + + * * * * * + +It was fallen dark by now; for it was long after five o'clock; and there +were no candles lighted here. We went up and down a good while longer, +for the most part in silence, speaking of this and that; and I will not +deny that we talked a little of French affairs, though God knows I was +in no heart for that, and answered very indifferently. It appeared to me +extraordinary that a man could think of such little things as the +affairs of kingdoms when an immortal soul was at stake. + +A little before six o'clock, when at last the servants brought lights, +the Ambassador left me again to go in to see the Queen, leaving me to +watch for the Duke; and I had not very long to wait, for soon after I +had heard a clock chime the hour, His Royal Highness came again, walking +very quickly as before; and, when he saw me waiting there, beckoned me +to follow him. We went through two or three rooms, all lighted up and +empty--the Duke sending a page to fetch M. Barillon out of the Queen's +private closet where he was talking with her--into a little chamber +that looked out upon the court, where there was a fire lighted. We had +hardly got there before the Ambassador came, all in haste, to hear what +had been done. + +"I have spoken with His Majesty," said the Duke, looking very white and +drawn in the face. "He is in most excellent dispositions. He tells me +that he hath put off the Bishops and has not received the sacrament from +them and will not." + +"And what of a priest, Sir?" asked the Ambassador sharply. + +"I did not speak to him of that," answered the Duke so pompously that I +raged to hear him. "He said that Dr. Ken hath read prayers over him, and +told him that he need make no confession unless he willed; and that he +willed not, and did not; but that Dr. Ken read an absolution over him +which he values not at a straw." + +"Sir," said I, very boldly, "this is very pretty talk; but it is not a +priest. His Majesty wishes for a priest; he told me so himself." + +The Duke turned on me very hotly. + +"Eh, sir?" + +I made haste to swallow down my wrath. + +"Sir," I said, "I did not mean to be discourteous. But I assure Your +Royal Highness that the King said so to me expressly. It is his immortal +soul that is at stake." + +Then I understood what was the matter. The Duke flung out his hands as +if in despair. + +"But what can I do?" he cried. "I am watched every instant. They will +not leave me alone with him. Dr. Ken eyed me very sharply. They suspect +something--I know they do--from my brother's having refused their +ministrations. How can I get a priest to him?" + +Then again, by God's inspiration as I truly believe, a thought came to +me. + +"Sir," I said, "I myself spoke with the King a while ago: and I do not +think that a soul saw who I was. I came through the little door at the +back of the bed. Why should not--" + +The Ambassador struck his hands together. + +"_Bon Dieu_!" he said. "I believe Mr. Mallock hath hit it again." + +The Duke turned and eyed me very sternly. + +"Well, sir, what is your plan?" + +"Sir," I said, "let the chamber be cleared, or almost. Then let M. +Barillon here go in as if he had a message from the French King. While +he is there let a priest be brought by the back way, not through the +antechamber at all--" + +M. Barillon held up his hand. + +"There would not be time," he said. "It does not take half an hour to +deliver a message; and the priest's business would take full half an +hour?" + +"No! no!" cried James. "They would suspect something. Let Her Majesty +come again to take her leave of the King; and then I will go in after +for the same thing. While we are there, let the priest come, as Mr. +Mallock has said--" + +"Sir," said the Ambassador, "we must not have too many folks in this +business--" + +All this bargaining drove me near mad. Once more I broke in; and this +time with more effect. + +"Sir," I said to the Duke, "I entreat you to hear me. There is the +little room at the back of His Majesty's bed, all ready, and empty too. +We do not need all these devices. If you, Sir, will go to the King and +prepare him for it, I will find a priest and bring him up the other way. +I do not believe that even if there were folks in the bedchamber they +would hear what passed." + +"Which way would the priest come?" asked the Duke. + +"There is a little stair in the corner of the room--" + +"God! There is," cried the Duke. "I had forgotten it." + +We stared on one another in silence. My mind raced like a mill. Then +once more the Duke near ruined the whole design by his diplomacy. + +"Gentlemen," he said, "we are too precipitate. His Majesty hath not yet +told me that he wishes for a priest--" + +"Sir--" I began in desperation. + +He looked at me so fiercely that I stopped. + +"Listen to me," said he very imperiously. "I will have it my own way. M. +Barillon, do you come with me now to His Majesty. I will bid the company +withdraw into the antechamber--Bishops and all--on the pretext that I +wish to consult with my brother privately. M. Barillon shall be in the +doorway that none may come through. Mr. Mallock shall be with the +company and hear what they say. Then, if the King wishes for a priest, +we will consult again here, and see if Mr. Mallock's plan is a possible +one." + +He strode towards the door. There was no more to be said. It was a +dreadful risk that we ran in so long delaying; but there was no +gainsaying James when he had made up his mind. + + * * * * * + +The great antechamber was near full of folks of all kinds when we three +came to it again. They fell back as they saw the Duke; and he passed +straight through, as was arranged, with M. Barillon, leaving me behind, +near the door. The King's bedchamber was pretty dark, and I could see no +more of the bed at the far distant end than its curtains. + +Presently I heard the Duke in a low voice saying something to the +company that was within: and immediately they began to come out, three +or four Bishops, among them, my Lord Halifax, Lord Keeper North, and my +Lord Craven; I noticed that M. Barillon was very careful to let all in +the antechamber have a clear view of the bed, at which, by now the Duke +was kneeling down, having drawn back the curtains a little, yet not so +much as to shew us the King lying there. + +Round about me they talked very little, though I saw the Bishops +whispering together. The two brothers spoke together, very low, for ten +minutes or a quarter of an hour; and I could hear the murmur of the +Duke's voice. Of His Majesty's I heard nothing except that twice he +said, very clear: + +"Yes.... Yes, with all my heart." + +And I thanked God when I heard that. + + * * * * * + +Yet, even so, all was not yet done. + +So soon as I saw the Duke stand up again from his kneeling, and coming +down the chamber, I slipped away to the door that leads out towards Her +Majesty's apartments, that I might be ready for him. I saw him come +through, all the people standing and bowing to him, and M. Barillon +following him; and I noticed in particular a young gentleman whose name +I did not know at that time--(it was the Comte de Castelmelhor, a very +good Catholic)--standing out, a little by himself. I noticed this man +because I saw that the Duke looked at him as he came and presently +signed to him very slightly, with his head, to follow. So all four of us +passed through the door into the long gallery that unites their +Majesties' apartments and found ourselves alone in it. The Count was a +little behind. + +"He has consented," said the Duke in a low voice, "to my bringing him a +priest. We must send for one. But I dare not bring one of the Duchess': +they are too well-known." + +"Sir," said Monsieur Barillon, "I will do so with pleasure. Why not one +of Her Majesty's priests?" + +The Duke nodded. We three were all standing together about the middle of +the gallery. The Comte de Castelmelhor was halted, uncovered, a little +behind us. The Duke turned to him. + +"Count," said he, speaking in French, "we are on a very urgent business. +His Majesty hath consented that a priest should come to him. Will you +go for us to the Queen and ask for one of her chaplains?" + +The young man flushed up with pleasure. + +"With all my heart, Sir," he said. "Which priest shall I ask for? Is +there one that can speak English?" + +The Duke struck his forehead with his open hand. + +"Lord!" he said. "I never thought of that. We must have an Englishman. +Where shall we send?" + +"Sir," said the Ambassador; "there is one at least at the Venetian +Resident's." + +Again I broke in. (My impatience drove me near mad. Time was passing +quickly. I could have fetched a priest myself ten times over if the Duke +had but allowed me to go in the beginning.) + +"Sir," said I, "for God's sake let me go first to Her Majesty's +apartments. I'll be bound there's one at least there that knows English. +Let this gentleman come with me." + +The Duke stared at me as if bewildered. I think he saw that he had done +little but hinder the business, so far. + +"Go," he said suddenly. "Go both of you together--Stay. Bring a priest +with you, if you can find one, to the little room behind the King's bed; +but bring him up the stairs the other way. Bid him stay till I send +Chiffinch to him." + +Then we were gone at full speed. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + + +It was eight o'clock at night; and the priest and I were still waiting +in the little room; and no word was come through from the Bedchamber, +beyond that Mr. Chiffinch had come through once to bid us be ready. + + * * * * * + +Once again God had favoured us in spite of all our blunders. The Count +and I had run together through to Her Majesty's lodging and there we had +found, as I knew we should, a priest that knew English. But I had not +thought that God's Hand should be so visible in the matter as that we +should find none other but Mr. Huddleston himself, the Scotsman, that +had saved the King's life after the battle of Worcester. There was a +very particular seemliness in this--though I had not much time to think +of it then. But our difficulties were not all over. + +First, Mr. Huddleston declared that he had never reconciled a convert in +his life; and did not know how to set about it. Next he said that he was +the worst man in the world to do it, as his face was very well known, +and that he would surely be suspected if he were seen: and third that +the Most Holy Sacrament was not in Whitehall at all, and that therefore +he could not give _Viaticum._ He looked very agitated, in spite of his +ruddy face. + +I was amazed at the man; but I forced myself to treat him with patience, +for he was the only priest we could get. + +First I told him that nothing was needed but to hear the King's +confession, give him absolution and anoint him: next, that we would +disguise him in a great periwig and a gown, such as the Protestant +Divines wore--(for, as I spoke, I actually spied such a gown hanging on +the wall of the chamber in which I was speaking with him). Third, that +another priest could go to St. James' and bring the Most Holy Sacrament +to him from there. + +At that point Father Bento de Lemoz, who was listening to our talk, +came forward and interposed. He would get a little Ritual directly, he +said (in very poor English)--that had in it all that was necessary: and +he would go himself, not to St. James', for that was too far off, but to +Somerset House, and get the Holy Sacrament from the royal chapel there. +Mr. Huddleston had nothing to say to that; and in five minutes we had +him in his periwig and gown, with the book in his pocket, with the holy +oils, and away downstairs, and along the passage beneath, and up again +by the little winding stair into the chamber beyond the King's bed. I +gave him no time to think of any more objections. + + * * * * * + +That was a very strange vigil that we held for very near, I should +think, twenty minutes or half an hour. We both sat there together +without speaking. For the most of the time Mr. Huddleston was reading in +his Ritual, and I could see his brow furrowed and his lips moving, as be +conned over all that he would have to do and say to His Majesty. He was +a man, as he had said, completely unaccustomed to such ministrations, +though he was a very good man and a good priest too, in other matters. +After a while he laid aside his book, and prayed, I think, for he +covered his face with his hands. + + * * * * * + +A minute or two later I could bear the delay no longer. I rose and went +up the three or four steps that led to the King's Bedchamber, and +listened. There was a low murmur of voices within; so that it seemed to +me that the room was not yet cleared. I put my hand upon the door and +pushed it a little; and to my satisfaction it was not latched, but +opened an inch or two. But someone was standing immediately on the other +side of it. I stepped back, and the door opened again just enough for me +to see the face of Mr. Chiffinch. He looked past me quickly to see that +the priest was there, I suppose, and then nodded at me two or three +times. Then he pushed the door almost to, again. A moment after I heard +the Duke's voice within, a little unsteady, but very clear and distinct. +He was standing up, I think, on the far side of the bed. + +"Gentlemen," he said, "the King wishes all to retire excepting the +Earls of Bath and Feversham." + +(Bath and Feversham! thought I. Why those two, in God's name, that were +such a pair of Protestants? But, indeed, it was the one good stroke that +the Duke made, for the names reassured, as I heard afterwards, all that +had any suspicions, and even the Bishops themselves.) + +There was a rustle of footsteps, very plain, that followed the Duke's +words. I turned to the room behind me, again, and saw that Mr. +Huddleston too had heard what had passed. He was standing up, very pale +and agitated, with the book clasped in his hands. I moved down the steps +again so as not to block the way; and again there followed a silence, in +the midst of which I heard a door latched somewhere in the Bedchamber. + +Then, suddenly, the door opened at the head of the stairs; and the Duke +stood there, he too as pale as death. He nodded once, very emphatically, +and disappeared again. Then the priest went by me without a word, up the +steps and so through. The door, as before, remained a crack open. I went +up to it, and put my eye to the crack. + +On the left was the end of the bed, with the curtains drawn across it; +and beyond the bed I could see the whole room down to the end, for the +candles were burning everywhere, as well as the fire. I could see the +great table before the hearth, the physician's instruments and bottles +and cupping-glasses upon it, the chairs about it; the tall furniture +against the walls, and at least half a dozen clocks, whose ticking was +very plain in the silence. Three figures only were visible there. That +nearest, standing very rigid by the table, was Mr. Chiffinch: of the two +beyond I could recognize only my Lord Bath whose face looked this way: +the other I supposed to be my Lord Feversham. The Duke was not within +sight. He was kneeling, I suppose, out of my sight, beyond the bed. + +Then I heard His Majesty's voice very plain, though very weak and slow. + +"Ah!" said he, "you that saved my body is now come to save my soul." + +There was the murmur of the priest's voice in answer. (The two of them +were not more than three or four yards away from me, at the most.) Then +again I heard the King, very clear and continuous, though still weak, +and not so loud as he had first spoken. + +"Yes," said he, "I desire to die in the Faith and Communion of the Holy +Roman Catholic Church. I am sorry with all my heart that I have deferred +it for so long; and for all my sins." + +(He said it quite distinctly, as if he had rehearsed it beforehand.) + +Then the priest and he spoke together--the King repeating the priest's +words sometimes, and sometimes volunteering word or two of his own. + +He said that through Christ's Passion he hoped to be saved; that he was +in charity with all the world; that he pardoned his enemies most +heartily, and desired pardon of all whom he had offended; that if God +would yet spare him, he would amend his life in every particular. + +All that I heard with my own ears, and with inexpressible comfort. His +Majesty's voice was low, but very distinct, though sometimes he spoke +scarce above a whisper; and I do not think that any man who heard him +could doubt his sincerity--however late it was to shew it. But he was +not altogether too late, thank God! + + * * * * * + +So soon as His Majesty began his confession, after Mr. Huddleston's +moving him to it, I slipped away from the door and began, as softly as I +could to walk up and down the little chamber again. I was satisfied +beyond measure: yet it seemed to me sometimes near incredible that I +should in very truth, be here at such a time, and that I should have +been, under God's merciful Providence, the instrument in such an affair. +My life was ended, I knew well enough now, in all matters that the world +counts life to consist of; yet was there ever such an ending? I had seen +all else go from me--my natural activities of every kind, my ambitions, +even the most sacred thing that the world can give, after the Love of +God, and that is the love of a woman! Yet the one purely supernatural +end that I had set before me--that end to which, four days ago, I had +said, as I thought, good-bye for ever in the Duchess of Portsmouth's +gallery--this was the one single thing that was mine after all. I could +take that at least with me into the cloister, and could praise God for +it all my life long--I mean the conversion of the man that was called +King of England, the man who, for all his sins and his treatment of me, +I yet loved as I have never loved any other man on earth. I think that +in those minutes of sorrow and joy as I paced up and down the little +room, my dearest Dolly was not very far away from me and that she knew +all that I felt. + +Once--in a loud broken voice through the door--I heard these words: + +--"Sweet Jesus. Amen.... Mercy, Sweet Jesus, Mercy!" + +That was the King's voice that I heard: and I kneeled down when I heard +them. + + * * * * * + +It would be about ten minutes later, as I still kneeled, that I heard, +upon the outside of the door that led down the winding stairs, a very +small tapping. + +I ran to the door to open it, wondering who it could be; for I had +forgotten all about the Portuguese priest, though I had set the candles +ready burning, with a napkin on the table between them, in readiness for +his coming. And there he stood, with his eyes cast down, and his hands +clasped upon his breast. + +I beckoned him forward, pointing to the table, and kneeled down again. + +He went past me without a word, kneeled himself before the table and +then, unbuttoning his cloak he drew from round his neck the chain and +the Pyx from his breast, and laid it all upon the table, continuing +himself to kneel. + +Presently he turned and looked at me, lifting his brows. + +I knew what he wished; rose from my knees and went up the stairs, but +very cautiously, lest I should hear anything that I should not. There +was but a very faint murmur of the priest's voice, so I took courage and +pushed the door a little open so that I could see the King. + +It was very dark within the curtains, for they were drawn against the +candlelight; but I could see what was passing. His Majesty was lying +flat upon his back, with his hands clasped beneath his chin, and Mr. +Huddleston was in the very act of arranging the coverlet over him again, +after the last Anointing. As I looked the priest turned and caught my +eyes, as he put the oil-stock and the wool away again in his cassock +breast. I nodded three times very emphatically--(His Majesty did not see +me at all, for his eyes were closed)--and went back again down the +stairs and kneeled once more. A few moments later Mr. Huddleston came +through. + +I have never seen so swift a change in any man's face. He had been +terrified as he had gone in--all pale and shaking. Now he was still +pale, but his eyes shone, and there was a look of great assurance in his +face. He came straight down the steps without speaking, kneeled, rose +again, took up the Pyx and the corporal which Father de Lemoz had spread +beneath it, and passed up and out again. His priesthood, I suppose, had +risen in him like a great tide, and driven out all other emotions. + + * * * * * + +Again I followed him to the door, and kneeled there where I could see; +and then there followed such a scene as I had never dreamed of. + +The curtains on the other side of the bed had been drawn back just +enough to admit the face of the Duke who now kneeled there, yet not so +much that any of the three others at the further end of the chamber +could see into the bed. The candlelight streamed in through the opening +above the Duke's head; and in it, I saw His Majesty, all weak as he was, +striving to rise, with his eyes fixed on That which the priest was +holding in his right hand. I saw the priest's left hand go out to +restrain him; but I heard the King's voice distinctly. + +"Father," he said very brokenly, "let me receive my Heavenly Saviour in +a better posture than lying on my bed." + +"Sir," said Mr. Huddleston with great firmness, "lie down again, if you +please. God Almighty who sees your heart will accept your good +intention." + +(But neither of them spoke loud enough to be heard at the further end of +the great chamber.) + +And so he was persuaded to lie down again. + +Then the priest repeated again, still holding the Blessed Sacrament +before the King's eyes, the Act of Contrition of which I had heard a +word or two a while ago; and His Majesty repeated it after him, word for +word, very devoutly. + +Then, as the time was short Mr. Huddleston omitted several of the proper +prayers, and proceeded at once to the Communion, saying but the _Agnus +Dei_ three times, and then communicating him immediately. With my own +eyes I saw that holy act which sealed all and admitted the dying man to +sacramental union with his God. His eyes were closed throughout; and +when it was done he lay as still as a stone, his poor wasted face all +dark against the white pillows. I caught a glimpse too of the Duke: his +face was bowed in his hands, and he was weeping so that his shoulders +shook with it. + +Presently the priest was reading again as well as he could in a very low +whisper the prayers for the Recommendation of a Departing Soul, down to +the very end. His Majesty lay motionless throughout. At the end he +opened his eyes. + +"Father," he whispered, "the Act of Contrition once more, if you please. +I have sinned, I have sinned very--" He could speak no more for +weeping. + +Then, once more, very slowly and tenderly, the priest repeated it; down +to _Mercy, Sweet Jesus, Mercy!_ My own eyes were all dim with tears, and +as fast as I brushed them away, they came again. When at last I could +see plainly once more, the priest was holding up a little crucifix +before the King's eyes; and he made him a short address, very Christian +and forcible. I remember near every word of it, as he said it. + +"Lift up the eyes of your soul, Sir," he said, "and represent to +yourself your sweet Saviour here crucified, bowing down His Head to kiss +you; His Arms stretched out to embrace you; His Body and members all +bloody and pale with death to redeem you. Beseech Him, Sir, with all +humility that His most Precious Blood may not be shed in vain for you; +and that it will please Him, by the merits of His bitter Death and +Passion, to pardon and forgive you all your offences; and, finally, to +receive your soul into His Blessed Hands; and, when it shall please Him +to take it out of this transitory world, to grant you a joyful +resurrection, and an eternal crown of glory in the next." + +He bent lower, making a great sign of the cross with his right +hand--(and the King too tried to bless himself in response). + +"In the Name," said he, "of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy +Ghost. Amen." + + * * * * * + +One more joy and sorrow all in one was yet to be mine before the end. As +I opened the door for the priest to come back, His Majesty lifted his +eyes and saw me there; and I perceived that he recognized me. The Duke +had already risen up and gone down the room to bid them, I suppose, to +open the door and let the folks in again. Then, as the King's eyes met +my own he made a sign with his head that I should come near. I think +that if the chamber had been filled with but one mob of priest-hunters +and Protestants, I should have obeyed him then, even though I should +have been torn to pieces the next instant. + +I went forward without a word, leaving the door open behind me, and +flung myself on my knees at the bedside. + +His Majesty was too weary to speak, but, as I kneeled there, with my +face in my hands on the bedclothes, and my tears raining down, he lifted +his right hand and put it on my head, leaving it there for an instant. +It was all he could do to thank me; and I value that blessing from him, +a penitent sinner as he was, with the Body of our Saviour still in his +breast, as much as any blessing I have ever had from any man, priest or +bishop or Pope. + +As he lifted his hand off again, I caught at it, and kissed it three or +four times, careless whether or no my tears poured down upon it. + + * * * * * + +As I passed back again through the door to where Mr. Huddleston was +waiting for me, I heard the doors at the further end of the chamber +unlatched and the footsteps of the folks--physicians, courtiers, Bishops +and the rest--that poured in to see the end. + + + + +EPILOGUE + + +I have said again and again how strange this or that moment or incident +appeared to me as I experienced it; yet as I sit here now in my cell, +thirty years later, looking out upon the cloister-garth with its twisted +columns, and the cypresses and the grass, it is not so much this or that +thing that appears to me strange, but the whole of my experiences and +indeed human life altogether. For what can be more extraordinary than a +life which began as mine did, when I first went to England in sixteen +hundred and seventy-eight, should be ending as mine will end presently, +if God will, as a monk of St. Paul's-Without-the-Walls, in Holy Rome? To +what purpose, I ask myself, was that part of my life designed by Divine +Providence? For what did I labour so long, when all was to come to +nothing? For what was I to learn the passion of human love; if but to +lose it again? For what was I to intrigue and spy and labour and +adventure my life, for the cause of England and the Catholic Church, +when all a year or two later was to fall back, and further than it had +ever fallen before, into the darkness of heresy? There is but one effort +in all those years of which I saw the fruition, and that was the +conversion of my master upon his deathbed. + +However, I have not yet related what passed after I had gone from the +King again, and took Mr. Huddleston downstairs. I will relate that very +shortly; and make an end. I had it all from Mr. Chiffinch before I left +London. + + * * * * * + +His Majesty, after we were gone from him, rallied a little, in so far as +to make some think that he would recover altogether; but the physicians +said No; and they were right for near the first time in all their +diagnosis of his state. But they continued to give him their remedies of +Sal Ammoniac and Peruvian Bark, and later the Oriental Bezoar Stone, +which is a pebble, I understand, taken from the stomach of a goat. Also +they blooded him again, twelve ounces more, and all to no purpose. + +His Majesty said a number of things that night that were very +characteristic of him; for God gave him back his gift of merriment, now +that he had the Gift of Faith as well: and he shewed a great tenderness +too from time to time and a very Christian appreciation of his own +condition. + +For example, he said that he was suffering very much, but he thanked God +for it and that he was able to bear it with patience, as indeed he did. + +Two or three times however he seemed to sigh for death to come quickly; +and once he looked round with his old laughter at the solemn faces round +his bed, and begged their pardon that he was "such an unconscionable +time in dying." "My work in this world seems over," he said--"such as it +has been. I pray God I may be at a better occupation presently." + +He thanked His Royal Highness the Duke of York (who was by his bed all +that night, weeping and kissing his hand repeatedly) for all his +attention and love for him, and asked his pardon for any hardship that +had been done to his brother, through his fault. He gave him his clothes +and his keys; telling him that all was now his; and that he prayed God +to give him a prosperous reign. + +To Her Majesty who came to see him again about midnight, he shewed the +tenderest consideration and love: but the Queen, who swooned again and +again at the sight of him, and had to be carried back to her apartments, +sent him a message later begging his pardon for any offence that she had +ever done to him. + +"What!" whispered the King. "What! She beg my pardon, poor woman! Rather +I beg hers with all my heart. Carry that message back to Her Majesty." + +No less than twice did the King commend the Duchess of Portsmouth to the +Duke's care--poor "Fubbs" as he had called her to me. Some blamed him +for thinking of her at all at such a time; as also for bidding his +brother "not to let poor Nell starve"; but for myself I cannot +understand such blame at all. If ever there were two poor souls who +needed care and forgiveness it was those two women, Mrs. Nell and Her +Grace. + +All his natural sons were there--all except the Duke of Monmouth whose +name never passed his lips from the beginning of his sickness to the +end--and these too he recommended to his brother--the three sons of the +Duchess of Cleveland, and the rest. I do not wonder that he left out His +Grace of Monmouth: it seems to me very near prophetical of what was to +fall presently, when the Duke was to revolt against his new Sovereign +and suffer the last penalty for it, at his hands. But His Majesty +blessed all the rest of his children one by one, drawing them down to +him upon the bed--they weeping aloud, as I heard. + +A very strange scene followed this. One of the Bishops fell down upon +his knees, and begged him, who was the "Lord's Anointed"--(and anointed +too, lately, in a fashion the Bishop never dreamed of!)--to bless all +that were there, since they were all his children, and all his subjects +too. The Bedchamber was now full from end to end; and all the company +fell together upon their knees. His Majesty, raising himself in bed, +first begged the pardon of all in a loud voice for anything in which he +had acted contrary to the interests of his country or the principles of +good government; and then, still in a loud voice, pronounced a blessing +on them all. Then he fell back again upon his pillows. + +So that night went slowly by. The dogs were still in the room, whining +from time to time, as Mr. Chiffinch told me afterwards--(for it was +thought better that I myself, as one so deeply involved in what had +lately passed should not be present)--and one of the little dogs sought +repeatedly to leap upon the bed, but was prevented; and at last was +carried away, crying. Again and again first one Bishop and then another +begged him to receive the sacrament; but he would not: so they prayed by +him instead, which was all they could do. + +At about six o'clock, when dawn came, he begged that the curtains of his +bed might be drawn back yet further, and the windows opened, that he +might see daylight again and breathe the fresh air: and this was done. +Then, at the chiming of the hour by the clocks in the room, he +remembered that one of them, which was an eight-day one, should be wound +up, for it was a Friday on which it was always wound. And this too was +done. + +At seven o'clock breathlessness came on him again, and he was compelled +to sit up in bed, with his brother's arm about him on one side, and a +physician's upon the other. They blooded him again, to twelve ounces +more, which I suppose took his last remnant of strength from him; for in +spite of their remedies, he sank very rapidly; and about half-past eight +lost all power of speech. He kept his consciousness, however, moving his +eyes and shewing that he understood what was said to him till ten +o'clock; and then he became unconscious altogether. + +At a little before noon, without a struggle or agony of any kind, His +Sacred Majesty ceased to breathe. + +Of all that followed, there is no need that I should write; for I +remained in England only till after the funeral in Westminster +Abbey--which was very poorly done--eight days later; and I left on the +Sunday morning, for Dover, after being present first, for a remembrance, +at the first mass celebrated publicly in England, with open doors, in +the presence of the Sovereign, since over a hundred and thirty years. I +had audience with King James on the night before, when I went to take my +leave of him; and he renewed to me the offer of the Viscounty, of which +I think Mr. Chiffinch had spoken to him. But I refused it as courteously +as I could, telling him that I was for Rome and the cloister. + +All the rest, however, is known by others better than by myself; and the +events that followed. His Majesty shewed himself as he had always +been--courageous, obstinate, well-intentioned and entirely without +understanding. He was profuse in his promises of religious equality; but +slow to observe them. He shewed ruthlessness where he should have shewn +tenderness, and tenderness where he should have shewn ruthlessness. So, +once more, all our labours went for nothing; and William came in; and +the Catholic cause vanished clean out of England until it shall please +God to bring it back again. + +So here I sit near sixty years old, a monk of the Order of Saint Benet, +in my cell at St. Paul's-Without-the-Walls. I have been Novice Master +three times; but I shall never be more than that; for governmental +affairs and I have said farewell to one another a long while ago. It was +through my telling of my adventures to my Novices at recreation-time +that the writing of them down came about; for my Lord Abbot heard of +them, and put me under obedience to write them down. He did this when he +heard one of my Novices name me to another as Father Viscount! I have +written them, then, down all in full, leaving nothing out except the +French affairs on which I was put under oath by His Majesty never to +reveal anything: I have left out not even the tale of my Cousin Dolly; +for I hold that in such a love as was ours there is nothing that a monk +need be ashamed of. I will venture even further than that, and will say +that I am a better monk than I should have been without it; and as one +last piece of rashness I will say that amongst "those good things which +God hath prepared for them that love Him" in that world which is beyond +this (if I ever come at it by His Grace), will be, I think, the look on +my Cousin Dolly's face when I see her again. + +Of other personages whose acquaintance I made in England--excepting +always His Majesty, and my master, Charles the Second--I neither speak +nor think very much now. My Cousin Tom died of an apoplexy three years +after I left England, and God knows who hath Hare Street House to-day! +His Majesty James the Second, as all the world knows, made a most +excellent end of it in France, dying as he had never lived till after +his coming to France, a very humble and Christian soul. In regard to Mr. +Chiffinch, I think of him sometimes and wonder what kind of an end he +made. He was very reprobate while I knew him; yet he had the gift of +fidelity, and that, I think, must count for something before God who +gave it him. Of the ladies of the Court I know nothing at all, nor how +they fared nor how they ended, nor even if they are all dead yet--I mean +such ladies as was Her Grace of Portsmouth. + +But all of them I commend to God every day in my mass living or dead; +and trust that all may have found the mercy of God, or may yet find it. +But most of all I remember at the altar the names of two persons, than +between whom there could be no greater difference in this world--the +names of Dorothy Mary Jermyn, the least of all sinners; and of Charles +Stuart, King of England, the greatest of all sinners, yet a penitent +one. For these are the two whom I have loved as I can never love any +others. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Oddsfish!, by Robert Hugh Benson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ODDSFISH! *** + +***** This file should be named 16288.txt or 16288.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/2/8/16288/ + +Produced by Geoff Horton and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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