The Historical Nights Entertainment, Second Series

of Lord

of the jetty by the light of a lanthorn, whose rays gleamed lividly on crushed brown seaweed and trailing green sea slime. Leaning heavily upon the arm which a sailor held ou

gh up against the black background of the night. The elderly gentleman, huddled now in the stern-sheets, looked behind him-to look his last upon the

r of England, into exile. As a dying man looks down the foreshortened vista of his active life, so may Edward Hyde-whose career had reached a finality but one degree removed from th

a bitter sort, in those impecunious days when the Second Charles, whose steps he guided, was a needy, homeless outcast. A man less staunch and loyal might have thrown over so profitless a service. He had talents that would have commanded a price in the Roundhead market. Yet staunchly adhering to the Stuart fortunes, labouring ceaseless

ew conditions of political affairs. And it was Hyde who was the scapegoat when things did not run the course that Englishmen desired. As the head of the administration he was held responsible even for those acts wh

York. Now the Duke of York was the heir-apparent, and the people, ever ready to attach most credit to that which is most incredible a

openly denounced as a traitor by a people stricken with terror and seeking a victim in the blind, unreasoning way of public feeling. T

sses. Nor did he court popularity elsewhere. Because he was austere in his morals, grave and sober in his conduct, he was hated by those who made up the debauched court of his prince. Becaus

For a time, it is true, the King stood his friend, and might so have continued to the end had not the women become mixed up

a sense, it is also the story of the King's marriage and of Catherine of Braganza, his unfortunate little ugly Queen, who must

ain. He had been influenced by the dowry offered-five hundred thousand pounds in money, Tangier, which would give England a commanding position on the Mediterranean, and the Island of Bombay. Without yet foreseeing that the possession of Bomba

le man, tall-he stood a full six feet high-lean and elegantly vigorous. The ugliness of his drawn, harsh-featured face was mitigated by the glory of full, low-lidded, dark eyes, and h

ssed as she was in an outlandish, full-skirted farthingale, she had the appearance of being on her knees when she stood before him. Her complexion was sallow, and though her eyes, like his own, were fine, they were no

luptuary, with his nice discernment in women, should have che

eredge, who was beside him. "They'

was well dowered, and Charles

, "I must swallow this black draugh

e advantages of this marriage. If he did not presume to rebuke the ribaldry of his maste

erness who was a monster. With this retinue she repaired to Hampton Court, where the honeymoon was spent, and where for a b

was no more than a wife de jure. With wives de facto Charles would people his seraglio as fancy moved him; and the present wife de facto, the mistress

ting back to the time when he was still a homeless wanderer. The knowledge would appear to have troubled the poor soul profoundly; but the climax of her distress was reached when, on her coming to Whitehall, she found at the head of the list

which he dealt with this situation. Himself he led his boldly handsome favourite by the hand into his wife's presence, before the whole Court assembled, and himse

led until it was grey and drawn; tears of outraged pride and mortification flooded her eyes. And then, as if something snapped within her br

ve withdrew, realizing that if he lingered not all his easy skill in

adyship's wish, and since Charles was as wax in her ladyship's hands-it became necessary to have the Queen instructed in what was, in her husband's view, fitting. For this task he selected

ven expostulated with Charles upon the unseemlin

and who shall not be the ladies of her bedchamber. A

d, that it is a decisio

the Chancellor

ajesty, o

ourself, sire, at a time when your own wishes did not warp your judgment, have condemned the very thing that now you are urging. Yourself, sire, hotly bl

s which he was now invited to apply to his own

Lady Castlemaine-he returned to the attack, and sent the Chanc

ur is so much concerned in. And whosoever I find to be my Lady Castlemaine's ene

ter from his King was a bitter draught. All that Charles possessed and was he owed to Clarendon. Yet in such a contest as this, Charles did not hesitate to pen

the unworthy thing that Charles now demanded. All that he had accomplished in the

mbassy with whose ends he was so entirely out of sympathy. He used argum

the following day the talk of the Court was all upon a midnight scene between the royal couple in the privacy

fection but even of the respect that was her absolute due. And Charles, his purpose set, urged to it by the handsome termagant whom he dared not refuse, stirred out of his indolent good-nature, turn

r pride and submitted. And a very complete submission it was. Lady Castlemaine was not only installed as a Lady of

ly she hated him with all the spiteful bitterness that is inseparable from the nature of such women. And she hated him the more because, wrapped in his cold contempt, he moved in utter unconcern of her hostility.

im-that crew of rakes went laboriously and insidiously to work upon the public mind, which is to say the public ignorance-most fruitful soil for sca

ghts to

gier, and a

could have wished. But, Charles being what he was, it follows that her ladyship had frequent, if transient, anxious jealousies to mar the perfe

part she owed it to an indiscretion of her own, but in far greater measure to a child of sixteen, of a golden-headed, fresh, youthful loveliness, and a nature that still found pleasure in dolls and

d a glimpse of her one day riding in the Park with the King, and a troop of ladies, among whom my Lady Castlemaine, looking, as he tells us, "mighty out of humour." There was a moment when Miss Stewart came very near to becoming Queen of En

ere above or below-"below" meaning Miss Stewart's apartments on the ground-floor of the palace, in which apartments his Majesty was a constant visitor. And since where the King goes the Court follows, and where the Ki

ad-dresses and bare shoulders, played at basset one night in January. Conversation rippled, breaking here and there into laughter, white, j

her ill-humour was not the game. She played recklessly, her attention wandering; those handsome, brooding eyes of hers were intent upon watching what went on at the other end of the long room. There, at a smaller table, sat Miss Stewart, half a dozen gallants hovering near her, engaged upon a game of cards of a vas

rthy, saturnine countenance. Absently, with one hand he stroked a little spaniel that was curled in his lap. A black boy in a gorgeous, plumed turban a

found himself alone with her-the others having removed themselves on his approach, as jackals fall back before the coming of the lion. Th

e table, the tall house of

uckingham's architecture. Pouf! His Majesty blew, and

d Miss, pertly. "You demolish

ge me, it were easy to pr

The cards

gh for Buckingham. But such is not the c

jesty? Mon Dieu! But it

ed me." His fine eyes were oddly ardent.

away. Her eyelids fluttered dis

y would build for any but yo

as if she feared that fortune were not favouring her." She was so artless that Charles could not be sure there was a double meani

ch he sauntered beside her across the room was no more than a mask upon his chagrin. It was always thus that pretty Frances Stewart used him. She alw

t prove a prison." What had she meant by that? Must he take her

e of York and Clarendon, which, fearing the succession of the former, and, so, of the grandchildren of

t least helped to give currency to the silly slander that Clarendon had deliberately chosen for Charles a barren queen, so as to ensure the ultimate succession of his own daughter's children. But she had never thought to see that slander reco

piece. The suggestion startled Charles, voicing, as perhaps it did, the temp

you are the wicked

de a leg. "For a subjec

more compelling than the serious-laughed his soft, mellow

miserable only because she is my wife, and has

art herself who-in all innocence-supplied what was required in that direction. Driven to bay by the importunities of Charles, she announced at last that it was her intention to retire from Court, so as to preserve herself from the temptations by which she was beset, and

xpense as freely and lightly as the jewels he had tossed into her lap, or the collar of pearls worth sixteen hundred pounds he had put about her neck. The offers were ineffectual, and Charle

he cold, rarefied atmosphere of a neglect that amounted almost to disgrace, may have considered w

who was her ladyship's friend, made it and communicated it to her There had been one ardent respondent in the Duke of Richmond to that proclamation of Miss Stewart's that she would marry any gentleman of fifteen h

e cold night towards the end of February of that year 1667. Charles, going below at a late hour to visit Miss Stewart, when he j

nted in his own apartments by my Lady Castlemaine. Chiffinch had introd

Stewart has forbid you to see me at my own house. I come to condole with you upon the affliction

be amused, ma'am," s

will I endeavour to excuse frailties in myself which nothing can justify, since your constancy

ay I ask you why

annot bear that you should be m

ad

ing imposed upon by the Stewart's affectations, any more than you know that whilst you are denied admit

he was beginning,

will follow me, you will no longer be the dupe of a

s reluctance, back by the way he had so lately come. Outside her rival's door she l

ed his way, one of them informing him scarcely above a whisper that her mistress had been very ill

placed herself before the door of the inner room, his Majest

told, in "a very fine sleep," she was sitting up; and far from presenting an ailing appearance, she looked radiantly well and very lovely in her diaphanous sleeping toilet, with

r acting. His self-control deserted him entirely. Exactly what he said has not been preserved for us. All that we are told is that he signified his resentment in such terms as he had never before used; and that his Grace, almost petrified by the King's most royal rage, uttered never a word

m in an indignation nothing less than his own, and she was very far from attemp

as to the grounds of your complai

ound turn. His jaw fell, and he stared at her, lost n

know of no engagement that should prevent me from disposing of my hand as I think fit. But if this is not permitted me in your Majesty's dominions, I do not

omplete. On his knees he begged her forgiveness for the inj

peace," said she, "you would avoid offending by a longer vi

shaft went home. Charles rose, red in the face. Swear

y any man. If anything, the reflection must have fanned his passion. It was impossible, he thought, that she should love that knock-kneed fellow, Richmond, who had no graces either of body or of mind, and if she suffered the man's suit, it must be, as she had

rom the Court. But Richmond had not stayed for the orde

ing. The King was not pleased with him. But just as he had had his way, despite the Chancellor, in that other matter, so he would have his way despite him now. This time, however, the Chancellor took no risks. He feared too much the consequences for Charles, and he determined to spare no effort to avoid a scandal, and to save the already deeply-injured Queen. So he went secretly to work to outwit th

cation. But it was not until some six weeks later that he learnt by whose agency t

er injury still unavenged. Here at last was her chance to pay off that score. Clarendon, beset by enemies on every hand, yet trusting in the King whom he had served so well, stood his ground unintimidated and unmoved-an oak that had weathered mightier storms than this. He did not dream that he was in the power of an evil woman. And that woman used her powe

man refused to yield his seals to any but the King himself. He may have hoped that the memory of all that lay between them would rise up once more when they were face to face. So he came in pe

disgrace now consummated, Pep

itehall Gardens; and thither her woman brought her her nightgown; and she stood, blessing herself at the old man's going away; and several of the gallants of Whiteh

dilly until, impeached by Parliament, he remembered Strafford's fate, and se

ddaughters-Mary and Anne-reigned