"You were well enough; she played divinely, Mr Dale."
"She played for life, Sir."
"Ay, poor Nelly loves me," said he softly. "I had been cruel to her. But I won"t weary you with my affairs. What would you?"
"Mistress Gwyn, Sir, has been very kind to me."
"So I believe," remarked the King.
"But my heart, Sir, is now and has been for long irrevocably set on another."
"On my faith, Mr Dale, and speaking as one man to another, I"m glad to hear it. Was it so at Canterbury?"
"More than ever before, Sir. For she was there and----"
"I know she was there."
"Nay, Sir, I mean the other, her whom I love, her whom I now woo. I mean Mistress Barbara Quinton, Sir."
The King looked down and frowned; he patted his dog, he looked up again, frowning still. Then a queer smile bent his lips and he said in a voice which was most grave, for all his smile,
"You remember M. de Perrencourt?"
"I remember M. de Perrencourt very well, Sir."
"It was by his choice, not mine, Mr Dale, that you set out for Calais."
"So I understood at the time, Sir."
"And he is believed, both by himself and others, to choose his men--perhaps you will allow me to say his instruments, Mr Dale--better than any Prince in Christendom. So you would wed Mistress Quinton? Well, sir, she is above your station."
"I was to have been made her husband, Sir."
"Nay, but she"s above your station," he repeated, smiling at my retort, but conceiving that it needed no answer.
"She"s not above your Majesty"s persuasion, or, rather, her father is not. She needs none."
"You do not err in modesty, Mr Dale."
"How should I, Sir, I who have drunk of the King"s cup?"
"So that we should be friends."
"And known what the King hid?"
"So that we must stand or fall together?"
"And loved where the King loved?"
He made no answer to that, but sat silent for a great while. I was conscious that many eyes were on us, in wonder that I was so long with him, in speculation on what our business might be and whence came the favour that gained me such distinction. I paid little heed, for I was seeking to follow the thoughts of the King and hoping that I had won him to my side. I asked only leave to lead a quiet life with her whom I loved, setting bounds at once to my ambition and to the plans which he had made concerning her. Nay, I believe that I might have claimed some hold over him, but I would not. A gentleman may not levy hush-money however fair the coins seem in his eyes. Yet I feared that he might suspect me, and I said:
"To-day, I leave the town, Sir, whether I have what I ask of you or not; and whether I have what I ask of you or not I am silent. If your Majesty will not grant it me, yet, in all things that I may be, I am your loyal subject."
To all this--perhaps it rang too solemn, as the words of a young man are apt to at the moments when his heart is moved--he answered nothing, but looking up with a whimsical smile said,
"Tell me now; how do you love this Mistress Quinton?"
At this I fell suddenly into a fit of shame and bashful embarra.s.sment.
The a.s.surance that I had gained at Court forsook me, and I was tongue-tied as any calf-lover.
"I--I don"t know," I stammered.
"Nay, but I grow old. Pray tell me, Mr Dale," he urged, beginning to laugh at my perturbation.
For my life I could not; it seems to me that the more a man feels a thing the harder it is for him to utter; sacred things are secret, and the hymn must not be heard save by the deity.
The King suddenly bent forward and beckoned. Rochester was pa.s.sing by, with him now was the Duke of Monmouth. They approached; I bowed low to the Duke, who returned my salute most cavalierly. He had small reason to be pleased with me, and his brow was puckered. The King seemed to find fresh amus.e.m.e.nt in his son"s bearing, but he made no remark on it, and, addressing himself to Rochester, said:
"Here, my lord, is a young gentleman much enamoured of a lovely and most chaste maiden. I ask him what this love of his is--for my memory fails--and behold he cannot tell me! In case he doesn"t know what it is that he feels, I pray you tell him."
Rochester looked at me with an ironical smile.
"Am I to tell what love is?" he asked.
"Ay, with your utmost eloquence," answered the King, laughing still and pinching his dog"s ears.
Rochester twisted his face in a grimace, and looked appealingly at the King.
"There"s no escape; to-day I am a tyrant," said the King.
"Hear then, youths," said Rochester, and his face was smoothed into a pensive and gentle expression. "Love is madness and the only sanity, delirium and the only truth; blindness and the only vision, folly and the only wisdom. It is----" He broke off and cried impatiently, "I have forgotten what it is."
"Why, my lord, you never knew what it is," said the King. "Alone of us here, Mr Dale knows, and since he cannot tell us the knowledge is lost to the world. James, have you any news of my friend M. de Fontelles?"
"Such news as your Majesty has," answered Monmouth. "And I hear that my Lord Carford will not die."
"Let us be as thankful as is fitting for that," said the King. "M. de Fontelles sent me a very uncivil message; he is leaving England, and goes, he tells me, to seek a King whom a gentleman may serve."
"Is the gentleman about to kill himself, Sir?" asked Rochester with an affected air of grave concern.
"He"s an insolent rascal," cried Monmouth angrily. "Will he go back to France?"
"Why, yes, in the end, when he has tried the rest of my brethren in Europe. A man"s King is like his nose; the nose may not be handsome, James, but it"s small profit to cut it off. That was done once, you remember----"
"And here is your Majesty on the throne," interposed Rochester with a most loyal bow.
"James," said the King, "our friend Mr Dale desires to wed Mistress Barbara Quinton."
Monmouth started violently and turned red.