"Where?"
"At Pontefract! the night I first met the Duke of Gloucester."
"Aye, that may be true--it was crowded in those days. . . Pardieu! it is scarce three months since then--and yet . . . Holy Paul, what, changes!"
He half closed his eyes in retrospection. . . "It is marvellous what memory can show us in an instant," he said, and turning sharply from the cas.e.m.e.nt struck the bell again. . . "Summon the Lord Steward," he ordered . . . then, to De Lacy, when the page had gone: "And do you attend to what is said and pay no regard to Stanley"s glances of uneasiness. . . You understand?"
De Lacy bowed. "I do, and with profound satisfaction."
"Why satisfaction?"
"That Your Majesty does not trust him."
Richard smiled grimly. "Trust him or his brother William? Rather look for faith and honesty in the Fiend himself. Nathless, I may not slight them--yet awhile. It is watch and wait--now. And a trying task truly, for they are the shrewdest brained in the land."
"Save the King of England," Aymer added.
"Save none, as you some day may see."
"G.o.d forbid!" De Lacy exclaimed earnestly.
But Richard only shrugged his shoulders. "Nay, what boots it? As great Coeur-de-Lion said: "From the Devil we Plantagenets all come, and to the Devil shall we all go.""
"Then Your Majesty will never be quit of the Stanleys."
"It would seem so," with a short laugh; "yet it is the live Stanley that worries me now."
"The Lord Stanley awaits Your Majesty"s pleasure," said the page, stepping within the arras.
"Admit him," the King ordered, choosing a place where his own face would be in the shadow and the other"s in the glare. . . "And would it were my pleasure, rather than my expediency, that awaited him," he added in an undertone.
Stanley came forward in his precise and cautious way and bent knee to the King.
"Be seated, my lord," said Richard cordially. "I wish your advice upon a most important matter, if you can spare me a little of your time."
The Lord Steward bowed. "My time belongs to you, Sire," he said suavely; "though I fear my poor advice can aid but little your own keen judgment; yet it is flattering to be asked it."
Richard made a gesture of dissent. "I did not summon you for flattery,"
he said; "if I did not value your discretion you would not be here."
"Then I trust your gracious confidence may not be misplaced."
"I am about to test it. . . Tell me, my lord, what is the gravest state problem that confronts me now?"
The Lord Steward"s crafty blue eyes shot a sharp glance at the King, but Richard"s black ones met it half way and drove it back in quick retreat.
Now, Stanley had one weakness. He was vain of his astuteness and ever ready to display it; and he thought he had discerned instantly what was in the King"s mind.
"Your Majesty means the two Princes--Edward"s sons," he said.
Richard"s face showed blank surprise.
"Nay, my lord, I mean nothing in particular," he said. "I sought only what, in your opinion, was my chief embarra.s.sment and peril. . . And you answer: the young Princes. . . By St. Paul! you may be right--give me your reasons."
Stanley saw his blunder and grew hot with rage. He had been outwitted; and now, as between him and the King, he must ever bear the burden of having first suggested Edward"s sons as a menace to the State. The trap was so easy; and yet he had never seen it until it had caught him tight.
And between his anger and the strange influence which Richard exercised over all men when in his presence, he blundered again--and worse than before.
"When, since time began," he asked, "has a new King had peace or comfort while his supplanted predecessor lived to breed revolt?"
Richard seized the opening instantly.
"Great St. George! You do not urge the Princes" death?" he exclaimed.
And Stanley floundered deeper.
"Holy Mother, Sire, do not misunderstand me," he answered. "I urge nothing. But the problem, as I see it, is, not why to act, but how to refrain."
"Yet Parliament has declared them b.a.s.t.a.r.ds and so never eligible to the crown," Richard objected.
But Stanley had gone too far now to retreat and he pressed on, knowing that he, himself, was incurring little or no danger by the advice.
Richard alone would be responsible if he acted upon it, and all the open shame would fall upon him.
"The Beauforts were b.a.s.t.a.r.ds," he answered, "and Parliament specifically refused them the royal dignity; yet who, to-day, is Lancaster"s chief and claimant for your Crown but the heir of those same Beauforts? Pardieu!
Sire, you need not me to tell you that Parliament belongs to him whose writ summons it."
"I would never countenance it," the King answered; "and it would surely destroy me if I did."
Stanley smiled shrewdly. "Did the Fourth Henry sit less easy on the throne when the deposed Richard died suddenly at Pontefract? . . . Did John tyrannize the less because of Arthur"s cruel taking off?"
The King arose and paced the floor, looking straight before him. Stanley watched him furtively, trying vainly to read behind the mask of that pa.s.sionless face.
"Tell me, my lord," said Richard presently, halting beside him and putting a hand on his shoulder, "if you were King of England, what would you do with the Princes?"
Stanley evaded the direct question. "Your Majesty is King of England, and I can never be aught but a subject--how can I know what a King would do?"
Richard nodded. "That is but fair, my lord," he said. "To decide as King one must be King. Yet I would gather from our talk that you deem the . . . removal . . . most essential--is it not so?"
Pushed into the corner, the shifty Baron hesitated and sought to evade again. But he managed badly, for now the King"s eyes were hard upon his face.
"Of a truth, Sire," he replied, "our talk this night has convinced me it would be most expedient for Your Majesty."
Richard"s lips softened into the very faintest smile.
"Our talk------!" he began.
Then suddenly Stanley started up and pointed to the window.
"Who is yonder listener?" he exclaimed.
Richard turned quickly, following the gesture.