"I was not aware, sir, that I had spoken of my suit to Madam Beatrix to your Royal Highness."
"Bah, bah, Monsieur! we need not be a conjurer to see that. It makes itself seen at all moments. You are jealous, my lord, and the maid of honor cannot look at another face without yours beginning to scowl. That which you do is unworthy, Monsieur; is inhospitable--is, is lache, yes, lache: (he spoke rapidly in French, his rage carrying him away with each phrase:) "I come to your house; I risk my life; I pa.s.s it in ennui; I repose myself on your fidelity; I have no company but your lordship"s sermons or the conversations of that adorable young lady, and you take her from me, and you, you rest! Merci, Monsieur! I shall thank you when I have the means; I shall know to recompense a devotion a little importunate, my lord--a little importunate. For a month past your airs of protector have annoyed me beyond measure. You deign to offer me the crown, and bid me take it on my knees like King John-- eh! I know my history, Monsieur, and mock myself of frowning barons. I admire your mistress, and you send her to a Bastile of the Province; I enter your house, and you mistrust me. I will leave it, Monsieur; from to-night I will leave it. I have other friends whose loyalty will not be so ready to question mine. If I have garters to give away, "tis to n.o.blemen who are not so ready to think evil. Bring me a coach and let me quit this place, or let the fair Beatrix return to it. I will not have your hospitality at the expense of the freedom of that fair creature."
This harangue was uttered with rapid gesticulation such as the French use, and in the language of that nation. The Prince striding up and down the room; his face flushed, and his hands trembling with anger. He was very thin and frail from repeated illness and a life of pleasure. Either Castlewood or Esmond could have broke him across their knee, and in half a minute"s struggle put an end to him; and here he was insulting us both, and scarce deigning to hide from the two, whose honor it most concerned, the pa.s.sion he felt for the young lady of our family. My Lord Castlewood replied to the Prince"s tirade very n.o.bly and simply.
"Sir," says he, "your Royal Highness is pleased to forget that others risk their lives, and for your cause. Very few Englishmen, please G.o.d, would dare to lay hands on your sacred person, though none would ever think of respecting ours. Our family"s lives are at your service, and everything we have except our honor."
"Honor! bah, sir, who ever thought of hurting your honor?" says the Prince with a peevish air.
"We implore your Royal Highness never to think of hurting it," says Lord Castlewood with a low bow. The night being warm, the windows were open both towards the Gardens and the Square. Colonel Esmond heard through the closed door the voice of the watchman calling the hour, in the square on the other side. He opened the door communicating with the Prince"s room; Martin, the servant that had rode with Beatrix to Hounslow, was just going out of the chamber as Esmond entered it, and when the fellow was gone, and the watchman again sang his cry of "Past ten o"clock, and a starlight night," Esmond spoke to the Prince in a low voice, and said--"Your Royal Highness hears that man."
"Apres, Monsieur?" says the Prince.
"I have but to beckon him from the window, and send him fifty yards, and he returns with a guard of men, and I deliver up to him the body of the person calling himself James the Third, for whose capture Parliament hath offered a reward of 500L., as your Royal Highness saw on our ride from Rochester. I have but to say the word, and, by the heaven that made me, I would say it if I thought the Prince, for his honor"s sake, would not desist from insulting ours. But the first gentleman of England knows his duty too well to forget himself with the humblest, or peril his crown for a deed that were shameful if it were done."
"Has your lordship anything to say," says the Prince, turning to Frank Castlewood, and quite pale with anger; "any threat or any insult, with which you would like to end this agreeable night"s entertainment?"
"I follow the head of our house," says Castlewood, bowing gravely. "At what time shall it please the Prince that we should wait upon him in the morning?"
"You will wait on the Bishop of Rochester early, you will bid him bring his coach hither; and prepare an apartment for me in his own house, or in a place of safety. The King will reward you handsomely, never fear, for all you have done in his behalf. I wish you a good night, and shall go to bed, unless it pleases the Marquis of Esmond to call his colleague, the watchman, and that I should pa.s.s the night with the Kensington guard. Fare you well, be sure I will remember you. My Lord Castlewood, I can go to bed to-night without need of a chamberlain." And the Prince dismissed us with a grim bow, locking one door as he spoke, that into the supping-room, and the other through which we pa.s.sed, after us. It led into the small chamber which Frank Castlewood or MONSIEUR BAPTISTE occupied, and by which Martin entered when Colonel Esmond but now saw him in the chamber.
At an early hour next morning the Bishop arrived, and was closeted for some time with his master in his own apartment, where the Prince laid open to his counsellor the wrongs which, according to his version, he had received from the gentlemen of the Esmond family. The worthy prelate came out from the conference with an air of great satisfaction; he was a man full of resources, and of a most a.s.sured fidelity, and possessed of genius, and a hundred good qualities; but captious and of a most jealous temper, that could not help exulting at the downfall of any favorite; and he was pleased in spite of himself to hear that the Esmond Ministry was at an end.
"I have soothed your guest," says he, coming out to the two gentlemen and the widow; who had been made acquainted with somewhat of the dispute of the night before. (By the version we gave her, the Prince was only made to exhibit anger because we doubted of his intentions in respect to Beatrix; and to leave us, because we questioned his honor.) "But I think, all things considered, "tis as well he should leave this house; and then, my Lady Castlewood," says the Bishop, "my pretty Beatrix may come back to it."
"She is quite as well at home at Castlewood," Esmond"s mistress said, "till everything is over."
"You shall have your t.i.tle, Esmond, that I promise you," says the good Bishop, a.s.suming the airs of a Prime Minister. "The Prince hath expressed himself most n.o.bly in regard of the little difference of last night, and I promise you he hath listened to my sermon, as well as to that of other folks," says the Doctor, archly; "he hath every great and generous quality, with perhaps a weakness for the s.e.x which belongs to his family, and hath been known in scores of popular sovereigns from King David downwards."
"My lord, my lord!" breaks out Lady Esmond, "the levity with which you speak of such conduct towards our s.e.x shocks me, and what you call weakness I call deplorable sin."
"Sin it is, my dear creature," says the Bishop, with a shrug, taking snuff; "but consider what a sinner King Solomon was, and in spite of a thousand of wives too."
"Enough of this, my lord," says Lady Castlewood, with a fine blush, and walked out of the room very stately.
The Prince entered it presently with a smile on his face, and if he felt any offence against us on the previous night, at present exhibited none. He offered a hand to each gentleman with great courtesy. "If all your bishops preach so well as Doctor Atterbury." says he, "I don"t know, gentlemen, what may happen to me. I spoke very hastily, my lords, last night, and ask pardon of both of you. But I must not stay any longer," says he, "giving umbrage to good friends, or keeping pretty girls away from their homes. My Lord Bishop hath found a safe place for me, hard by at a curate"s house, whom the Bishop can trust, and whose wife is so ugly as to be beyond all danger; we will decamp into those new quarters, and I leave you, thanking you for a hundred kindnesses here. Where is my hostess, that I may bid her farewell; to welcome her in a house of my own, soon, I trust, where my friends shall have no cause to quarrel with me."
Lady Castlewood arrived presently, blushing with great grace, and tears filling her eyes as the Prince graciously saluted her. She looked so charming and young, that the doctor, in his bantering way, could not help speaking of her beauty to the Prince; whose compliment made her blush, and look more charming still.
CHAPTER XII.
A GREAT SCHEME, AND WHO BALKED IT.
As characters written with a secret ink come out with the application of fire, and disappear again and leave the paper white, as soon as it is cool; a hundred names of men, high in repute and favoring the Prince"s cause, that were writ in our private lists, would have been visible enough on the great roll of the conspiracy, had it ever been laid open under the sun. What crowds would have pressed forward, and subscribed their names and protested their loyalty, when the danger was over! What a number of Whigs, now high in place and creatures of the all-powerful Minister, scorned Mr. Walpole then! If ever a match was gained by the manliness and decision of a few at a moment of danger; if ever one was lost by the treachery and imbecility of those that had the cards in their hands, and might have played them, it was in that momentous game which was enacted in the next three days, and of which the n.o.blest crown in the world was the stake.
From the conduct of my Lord Bolingbroke, those who were interested in the scheme we had in hand, saw pretty well that he was not to be trusted. Should the Prince prevail, it was his lordship"s gracious intention to declare for him: should the Hanoverian party bring in their sovereign, who more ready to go on his knee, and cry, "G.o.d Save King George?" And he betrayed the one Prince and the other; but exactly at the wrong time. When he should have struck for King James, he faltered and coquetted with the Whigs; and having committed himself by the most monstrous professions of devotion, which the Elector rightly scorned, he proved the justness of their contempt for him by flying and taking renegade service with St. Germains, just when he should have kept aloof: and that Court despised him, as the manly and resolute men who established the Elector in England had before done. He signed his own name to every accusation of insincerity his enemies made against him; and the King and the Pretender alike could show proofs of St. John"s treachery under his own hand and seal.
Our friends kept a pretty close watch upon his motions, as on those of the brave and hearty Whig party, that made little concealment of theirs. They would have in the Elector, and used every means in their power to effect their end. My Lord Marlborough was now with them. His expulsion from power by the Tories had thrown that great captain at once on the Whig side. We heard he was coming from Antwerp; and, in fact, on the day of the Queen"s death, he once more landed on English sh.o.r.e. A great part of the army was always with their ill.u.s.trious leader; even the Tories in it were indignant at the injustice of the persecution which the Whig officers were made to undergo. The chiefs of these were in London, and at the head of them one of the most intrepid men in the world, the Scots Duke of Argyle, whose conduct on the second day after that to which I have now brought down my history, ended, as such honesty and bravery deserved to end, by establishing the present Royal race on the English throne.
Meanwhile there was no slight difference of opinion amongst the councillors surrounding the Prince, as to the plan his Highness should pursue. His female Minister at Court, fancying she saw some amelioration in the Queen, was for waiting a few days, or hours it might be, until he could be brought to her bedside, and acknowledged as her heir. Mr. Esmond was for having him march thither, escorted by a couple of troops of Horse Guards, and openly presenting himself to the Council. During the whole of the night of the 29th-30th July, the Colonel was engaged with gentlemen of the military profession, whom "tis needless here to name; suffice it to say that several of them had exceeding high rank in the army, and one of them in especial was a General, who, when he heard the Duke of Marlborough was coming on the other side, waved his crutch over his head with a huzzah, at the idea that he should march out and engage him. Of the three Secretaries of State, we knew that one was devoted to us. The Governor of the Tower was ours; the two companies on duty at Kensington barrack were safe; and we had intelligence, very speedy and accurate, of all that took place at the Palace within.
At noon, on the 30th of July, a message came to the Prince"s friends that the Committee of Council was sitting at Kensington Palace, their Graces of Ormonde and Shrewsbury, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the three Secretaries of State, being there a.s.sembled. In an hour afterwards, hurried news was brought that the two great Whig Dukes, Argyle and Somerset, had broke into the Council-chamber without a summons, and taken their seat at table. After holding a debate there, the whole party proceeded to the chamber of the Queen, who was lying in great weakness, but still sensible, and the Lords recommended his Grace of Shrewsbury as the fittest person to take the vacant place of Lord Treasurer; her Majesty gave him the staff, as all know. "And now," writ my messenger from Court, "NOW OR NEVER IS THE TIME."
Now or never was the time indeed. In spite of the Whig Dukes, our side had still the majority in the Council, and Esmond, to whom the message had been brought, (the personage at Court not being aware that the Prince had quitted his lodging in Kensington Square,) and Esmond"s gallant young aide-de-camp, Frank Castlewood, putting on sword and uniform, took a brief leave of their dear lady, who embraced and blessed them both, and went to her chamber to pray for the issue of the great event which was then pending.
Castlewood sped to the barrack to give warning to the captain of the Guard there; and then went to the "King"s Arms" tavern at Kensington, where our friends were a.s.sembled, having come by parties of twos and threes, riding or in coaches, and were got together in the upper chamber, fifty-three of them; their servants, who had been instructed to bring arms likewise, being below in the garden of the tavern, where they were served with drink. Out of this garden is a little door that leads into the road of the Palace, and through this it was arranged that masters and servants were to march; when that signal was given, and that Personage appeared, for whom all were waiting. There was in our company the famous officer next in command to the Captain-General of the Forces, his Grace the Duke of Ormonde, who was within at the Council. There were with him two more lieutenant-generals, nine major-generals and brigadiers, seven colonels, eleven Peers of Parliament, and twenty-one members of the House of Commons. The Guard was with us within and without the Palace: the Queen was with us; the Council (save the two Whig Dukes, that must have succ.u.mbed); the day was our own, and with a beating heart Esmond walked rapidly to the Mall of Kensington, where he had parted with the Prince on the night before. For three nights the Colonel had not been to bed: the last had been pa.s.sed summoning the Prince"s friends together, of whom the great majority had no sort of inkling of the transaction pending until they were told that he was actually on the spot, and were summoned to strike the blow. The night before and after the altercation with the Prince, my gentleman, having suspicions of his Royal Highness, and fearing lest he should be minded to give us the slip, and fly off after his fugitive beauty, had spent, if the truth must be told, at the "Greyhound" tavern, over against my Lady Castlewood"s house in Kensington Square, with an eye on the door, lest the Prince should escape from it. The night before that he had pa.s.sed in his boots at the "Crown" at Hounslow, where he must watch forsooth all night, in order to get one moment"s glimpse of Beatrix in the morning. And fate had decreed that he was to have a fourth night"s ride and wakefulness before his business was ended.
He ran to the curate"s house in Kensington Mall, and asked for Mr. Bates, the name the Prince went by. The curate"s wife said Mr. Bates had gone abroad very early in the morning in his boots, saying he was going to the Bishop of Rochester"s house at Chelsey. But the Bishop had been at Kensington himself two hours ago to seek for Mr. Bates, and had returned in his coach to his own house, when he heard that the gentleman was gone thither to seek him.
This absence was most unpropitious, for an hour"s delay might cost a kingdom; Esmond had nothing for it but to hasten to the "King"s Arms," and tell the gentlemen there a.s.sembled that Mr. George (as we called the Prince there) was not at home, but that Esmond would go fetch him; and taking a General"s coach that happened to be there, Esmond drove across the country to Chelsey, to the Bishop"s house there.
The porter said two gentlemen were with his lordship, and Esmond ran past this sentry up to the locked door of the Bishop"s study, at which he rattled, and was admitted presently. Of the Bishop"s guests one was a brother prelate, and the other the Abbe G----.
"Where is Mr. George?" says Mr. Esmond; "now is the time." The Bishop looked scared: "I went to his lodging," he said, "and they told me he was come hither. I returned as quick as coach would carry me; and he hath not been here."
The Colonel burst out with an oath; that was all he could say to their reverences; ran down the stairs again, and bidding the coachman, an old friend and fellow-campaigner, drive as if he was charging the French with his master at Wynendael--they were back at Kensington in half an hour.
Again Esmond went to the curate"s house. Mr. Bates had not returned. The Colonel had to go with this blank errand to the gentlemen at the "King"s Arms," that were grown very impatient by this time.
Out of the window of the tavern, and looking over the garden wall, you can see the green before Kensington Palace, the Palace gate (round which the Ministers" coaches were standing), and the barrack building. As we were looking out from this window in gloomy discourse, we heard presently trumpets blowing, and some of us ran to the window of the front-room, looking into the High Street of Kensington, and saw a regiment of Horse coming.
"It"s Ormonde"s Guards," says one.
"No, by G.o.d, it"s Argyle"s old regiment!" says my General, clapping down his crutch.
It was, indeed, Argyle"s regiment that was brought from Westminster, and that took the place of the regiment at Kensington on which we could rely.
"Oh, Harry!" says one of the generals there present, "you were born under an unlucky star; I begin to think that there"s no Mr. George, nor Mr. Dragon either. "Tis not the peerage I care for, for our name is so ancient and famous, that merely to be called Lord Lydiard would do me no good; but "tis the chance you promised me of fighting Marlborough."
As we were talking, Castlewood entered the room with a disturbed air.
"What news, Frank?" says the Colonel. "Is Mr. George coming at last?"
"d.a.m.n him, look here!" says Castlewood, holding out a paper. "I found it in the book--the what you call it, "Eik.u.m Basilik.u.m,"-- that villain Martin put it there--he said his young mistress bade him. It was directed to me, but it was meant for him I know, and I broke the seal and read it."
The whole a.s.sembly of officers seemed to swim away before Esmond"s eyes as he read the paper; all that was written on it was:-- "Beatrix Esmond is sent away to prison, to Castlewood, where she will pray for happier days."
"Can you guess where he is?" says Castlewood.
"Yes," says Colonel Esmond. He knew full well, Frank knew full well: our instinct told whither that traitor had fled.
He had courage to turn to the company and say, "Gentlemen, I fear very much that Mr. George will not be here to-day; something hath happened--and--and--I very much fear some accident may befall him, which must keep him out of the way. Having had your noon"s draught, you had best pay the reckoning and go home; there can be no game where there is no one to play it."
Some of the gentlemen went away without a word, others called to pay their duty to her Majesty and ask for her health. The little army disappeared into the darkness out of which it had been called; there had been no writings, no paper to implicate any man. Some few officers and Members of Parliament had been invited over night to breakfast at the "King"s Arms," at Kensington; and they had called for their bill and gone home.
CHAPTER XIII.
AUGUST 1ST, 1714.
"Does my mistress know of this?" Esmond asked of Frank, as they walked along.
"My mother found the letter in the book, on the toilet-table. She had writ it ere she had left home," Frank said. "Mother met her on the stairs, with her hand upon the door, trying to enter, and never left her after that till she went away. He did not think of looking at it there, nor had Martin the chance of telling him. I believe the poor devil meant no harm, though I half killed him; he thought "twas to Beatrix"s brother he was bringing the letter."
Frank never said a word of reproach to me for having brought the villain amongst us. As we knocked at the door I said, "When will the horses be ready?" Frank pointed with his cane, they were turning the street that moment.
We went up and bade adieu to our mistress; she was in a dreadful state of agitation by this time, and that Bishop was with her whose company she was so fond of.
"Did you tell him, my lord," says Esmond, "that Beatrix was at Castlewood?" The Bishop blushed and stammered: "Well," says he, "I ..."
"You served the villain right," broke out Mr. Esmond, "and he has lost a crown by what you told him."
My mistress turned quite white, "Henry, Henry," says she, "do not kill him."
"It may not be too late," says Esmond; "he may not have gone to Castlewood; pray G.o.d, it is not too late." The Bishop was breaking out with some ba.n.a.le phrases about loyalty, and the sacredness of the Sovereign"s person; but Esmond sternly bade him hold his tongue, burn all papers, and take care of Lady Castlewood; and in five minutes he and Frank were in the saddle, John Lockwood behind them, riding towards Castlewood at a rapid pace.
We were just got to Alton, when who should meet us but old Lockwood, the porter from Castlewood, John"s father, walking by the side of the Hexton flying-coach, who slept the night at Alton. Lockwood said his young mistress had arrived at home on Wednesday night, and this morning, Friday, had despatched him with a packet for my lady at Kensington, saying the letter was of great importance.
We took the freedom to break it, while Lockwood stared with wonder, and cried out his "Lord bless me"s," and "Who"d a thought it"s," at the sight of his young lord, whom he had not seen these seven years.
The packet from Beatrix contained no news of importance at all. It was written in a jocular strain, affecting to make light of her captivity. She asked whether she might have leave to visit Mrs. Tusher, or to walk beyond the court and the garden wall. She gave news of the peac.o.c.ks, and a fawn she had there. She bade her mother send her certain gowns and smocks by old Lockwood; she sent her duty to a certain Person, if certain other persons permitted her to take such a freedom; how that, as she was not able to play cards with him, she hoped he would read good books, such as Doctor Atterbury"s sermons and "Eikon Basilike:" she was going to read good books; she thought her pretty mamma would like to know she was not crying her eyes out.
"Who is in the house besides you, Lockwood?" says the Colonel.
"There be the laundry-maid, and the kitchen-maid, Madam Beatrix"s maid, the man from London, and that be all; and he sleepeth in my lodge away from the maids," says old Lockwood.
Esmond scribbled a line with a pencil on the note, giving it to the old man, and bidding him go on to his lady. We knew why Beatrix had been so dutiful on a sudden, and why she spoke of "Eikon Basilike." She writ this letter to put the Prince on the scent, and the porter out of the way.
"We have a fine moonlight night for riding on," says Esmond; "Frank, we may reach Castlewood in time yet." All the way along they made inquiries at the post-houses, when a tall young gentleman in a gray suit, with a light brown periwig, just the color of my lord"s, had been seen to pa.s.s. He had set off at six that morning, and we at three in the afternoon. He rode almost as quickly as we had done; he was seven hours a-head of us still when we reached the last stage.
We rode over Castlewood Downs before the breaking of dawn. We pa.s.sed the very spot where the car was upset fourteen years since, and Mohun lay. The village was not up yet, nor the forge lighted, as we rode through it, pa.s.sing by the elms, where the rooks were still roosting, and by the church, and over the bridge. We got off our horses at the bridge and walked up to the gate.
"If she is safe," says Frank, trembling, and his honest eyes filling with tears, "a silver statue to Our Lady!" He was going to rattle at the great iron knocker on the oak gate; but Esmond stopped his kinsman"s hand. He had his own fears, his own hopes, his own despairs and griefs, too; but he spoke not a word of these to his companion, or showed any signs of emotion.
He went and tapped at the little window at the porter"s lodge, gently, but repeatedly, until the man came to the bars.
"Who"s there?" says he, looking out; it was the servant from Kensington.
"My Lord Castlewood and Colonel Esmond," we said, from below. "Open the gate and let us in without any noise."
"My Lord Castlewood?" says the other; "my lord"s here, and in bed."
"Open, d--n you," says Castlewood, with a curse.
"I shall open to no one," says the man, shutting the gla.s.s window as Frank drew a pistol. He would have fired at the porter, but Esmond again held his hand.
"There are more ways than one," says he, "of entering such a great house as this." Frank grumbled that the west gate was half a mile round. "But I know of a way that"s not a hundred yards off," says Mr. Esmond; and leading his kinsman close along the wall, and by the shrubs which had now grown thick on what had been an old moat about the house, they came to the b.u.t.tress, at the side of which the little window was, which was Father Holt"s private door. Esmond climbed up to this easily, broke a pane that had been mended, and touched the spring inside, and the two gentlemen pa.s.sed in that way, treading as lightly as they could; and so going through the pa.s.sage into the court, over which the dawn was now reddening, and where the fountain plashed in the silence.
They sped instantly to the porter"s lodge, where the fellow had not fastened his door that led into the court; and pistol in hand came upon the terrified wretch, and bade him be silent. Then they asked him (Esmond"s head reeled, and he almost fell as he spoke) when Lord Castlewood had arrived? He said on the previous evening, about eight of the clock.--"And what then?"--His lordship supped with his sister.--"Did the man wait?" Yes, he and my lady"s maid both waited: the other servants made the supper; and there was no wine, and they could give his lordship but milk, at which he grumbled; and--and Madam Beatrix kept Miss Lucy always in the room with her. And there being a bed across the court in the Chaplain"s room, she had arranged my lord was to sleep there. Madam Beatrix had come down stairs laughing with the maids, and had locked herself in, and my lord had stood for a while talking to her through the door, and she laughing at him. And then he paced the court awhile, and she came again to the upper window; and my lord implored her to come down and walk in the room; but she would not, and laughed at him again, and shut the window; and so my lord, uttering what seemed curses, but in a foreign language, went to the Chaplain"s room to bed.
"Was this all!"--"All," the man swore upon his honor; all as he hoped to be saved.--"Stop, there was one thing more. My lord, on arriving, and once or twice during supper, did kiss his sister, as was natural, and she kissed him." At this Esmond ground his teeth with rage, and wellnigh throttled the amazed miscreant who was speaking, whereas Castlewood, seizing hold of his cousin"s hand, burst into a great fit of laughter.
"If it amuses thee," says Esmond in French, "that your sister should be exchanging of kisses with a stranger, I fear poor Beatrix will give thee plenty of sport."--Esmond darkly thought, how Hamilton, Ashburnham, had before been masters of those roses that the young Prince"s lips were now feeding on. He sickened at that notion. Her cheek was desecrated, her beauty tarnished; shame and honor stood between it and him. The love was dead within him; had she a crown to bring him with her love, he felt that both would degrade him.
But this wrath against Beatrix did not lessen the angry feelings of the Colonel against the man who had been the occasion if not the cause of the evil. Frank sat down on a stone bench in the court- yard, and fairly fell asleep, while Esmond paced up and down the court, debating what should ensue. What mattered how much or how little had pa.s.sed between the Prince and the poor faithless girl? They were arrived in time perhaps to rescue her person, but not her mind; had she not instigated the young Prince to come to her; suborned servants, dismissed others, so that she might communicate with him? The treacherous heart within her had surrendered, though the place was safe; and it was to win this that he had given a life"s struggle and devotion; this, that she was ready to give away for the bribe of a coronet or a wink of the Prince"s eye.
When he had thought his thoughts out he shook up poor Frank from his sleep, who rose yawning, and said he had been dreaming of Clotilda. "You must back me," says Esmond, in what I am going to do. I have been thinking that yonder scoundrel may have been instructed to tell that story, and that the whole of it may be a lie; if it be, we shall find it out from the gentleman who is asleep yonder. See if the door leading to my lady"s rooms," (so we called the rooms at the north-west angle of the house,) "see if the door is barred as he saith." We tried; it was indeed as the lackey had said, closed within.
"It may have been opened and shut afterwards," says poor Esmond; "the foundress of our family let our ancestor in in that way."
"What will you do, Harry, if--if what that fellow saith should turn out untrue?" The young man looked scared and frightened into his kinsman"s face; I dare say it wore no very pleasant expression.
"Let us first go see whether the two stories agree," says Esmond; and went in at the pa.s.sage and opened the door into what had been his own chamber now for wellnigh five-and-twenty years. A candle was still burning, and the Prince asleep dressed on the bed--Esmond did not care for making a noise. The Prince started up in his bed, seeing two men in his chamber. "Qui est la" says he, and took a pistol from under his pillow.
"It is the Marquis of Esmond," says the Colonel, "come to welcome his Majesty to his house of Castlewood, and to report of what hath happened in London. Pursuant to the King"s orders, I pa.s.sed the night before last, after leaving his Majesty, in waiting upon the friends of the King. It is a pity that his Majesty"s desire to see the country and to visit our poor house should have caused the King to quit London without notice yesterday, when the opportunity happened which in all human probability may not occur again; and had the King not chosen to ride to Castlewood, the Prince of Wales might have slept at St. James"s."
""Sdeath! gentlemen," says the Prince, starting off his bed, whereon he was lying in his clothes, "the Doctor was with me yesterday morning, and after watching by my sister all night, told me I might not hope to see the Queen."
"It would have been otherwise," says Esmond with another bow; "as, by this time, the Queen may be dead in spite of the Doctor. The Council was met, a new Treasurer was appointed, the troops were devoted to the King"s cause; and fifty loyal gentlemen of the greatest names of this kingdom were a.s.sembled to accompany the Prince of Wales, who might have been the acknowledged heir of the throne, or the possessor of it by this time, had your Majesty not chosen to take the air. We were ready; there was only one person that failed us, your Majesty"s gracious--"
"Morbleu, Monsieur, you give me too much Majesty," said the Prince, who had now risen up and seemed to be looking to one of us to help him to his coat. But neither stirred.
"We shall take care," says Esmond, "not much oftener to offend in that particular."
"What mean you, my lord?" says the Prince, and muttered something about a guet-a-pens, which Esmond caught up.
"The snare, Sir," said he, "was not of our laying; it is not we that invited you. We came to avenge, and not to compa.s.s, the dishonor of our family."
"Dishonor! Morbleu, there has been no dishonor," says the Prince, turning scarlet, "only a little harmless playing."
"That was meant to end seriously."
"I swear," the Prince broke out impetuously, "upon the honor of a gentleman, my lords--"