NARRATIVE CONTINUED
Redgauntlet’s first course was to the chamber of his nephew. He unlocked
the door, entered the apartment, and asked what he wanted, that he made
so much noise.
‘I want my liberty,’ said Darsie, who had wrought himself up to a pitch
of passion in which his uncle’s wrath had lost its terrors. ‘I desire
my liberty, and to be assured of the safety of my beloved friend, Alan
Fairford, whose voice I heard but now.’
‘Your liberty shall be your own within half an hour from this
period--your friend shall be also set at freedom in due time--and you
yourself be permitted to have access to his place of confinement.’
‘This does not satisfy me,’ said Darsie; ‘I must see my friend
instantly; he is here, and he is here endangered on my account only--I
have heard violent exclamations--the clash of swords. You will gain no
point with me unless I have ocular demonstration of his safety.’
‘Arthur--dearest nephew,’ answered Redgauntlet, ‘drive me not mad! Thine
own fate--that of thy house--that of thousands--that of Britain herself,
are at this moment in the scales; and you are only occupied about the
safety of a poor insignificant pettifogger!’
‘He has sustained injury at your hands, then?’ said Darsie, fiercely. ‘I
know he has; but if so, not even our relationship shall protect you.’
‘Peace, ungrateful and obstinate fool!’ said Redgauntlet. Yet
stay--will you be satisfied if you see this Alan Fairford, the bundle
of bombazine--this precious friend of yours--well and sound? Will you,
I say, be satisfied with seeing him in perfect safety without attempting
to speak to or converse with him?’ Darsie signified his assent. ‘Take
hold of my arm, then,’ said Redgauntlet; ‘and do you, niece Lilias, take
the other; and beware; Sir Arthur, how you bear yourself.’
Darsie was compelled to acquiesce, sufficiently aware that his uncle
would permit him no interview with a friend whose influence would
certainly be used against his present earnest wishes, and in some
measure contented with the assurance of Fairford’s personal safety.
Redgauntlet led them through one or two passages (for the house, as
we have before said, was very irregular, and built at different times)
until they entered an apartment, where a man with shouldered carabine
kept watch at the door, but readily turned the key for their reception.
In this room they found Alan Fairford and the Quaker, apparently in
deep conversation with each other. They looked up as Redgauntlet and
his party entered; and Alan pulled off his hat and made a profound
reverence, which the young lady, who recognized him,--though, masked
as she was, he could not know her,--returned with some embarrassment,
arising probably from the recollection of the bold step she had taken in
visiting him.
Darsie longed to speak, but dared not. His uncle only said, ‘Gentlemen,
I know you are as anxious on Mr. Darsie Latimer’s account as he is upon
yours. I am commissioned by him to inform you, that he is as well as you
are--I trust you will all meet soon. Meantime, although I cannot suffer
you to be at large, you shall be as well treated as is possible under
your temporary confinement.’
He passed on, without pausing to hear the answers which the lawyer and
the Quaker were hastening to prefer; and only waving his hand by way
of adieu, made his exit, with the real and the seeming lady whom he
had under his charge, through a door at the upper end of the apartment,
which was fastened and guarded like that by which they entered.
Redgauntlet next led the way into a very small room; adjoining which,
but divided by a partition, was one of apparently larger dimensions; for
they heard the trampling of the heavy boots of the period, as if several
persons were walking to and fro and conversing in low and anxious
whispers.
‘Here,’ said Redgauntlet to his nephew, as he disencumbered him from
the riding-skirt and the mask, ‘I restore you to yourself, and trust you
will lay aside all effeminate thoughts with this feminine dress. Do
not blush at having worn a disguise to which kings and heroes have been
reduced. It is when female craft or female cowardice find their way
into a manly bosom, that he who entertains these sentiments should take
eternal shame to himself for thus having resembled womankind. Follow me,
while Lilias remains here. I will introduce you to those whom I hope to
see associated with you in the most glorious cause that hand ever drew
sword in.’
Darsie paused. ‘Uncle,’ he said, ‘my person is in your hands; but
remember, my will is my own. I will not be hurried into any resolution
of importance. Remember what I have already said--what I now
repeat--that I will take no step of importance but upon conviction.’
‘But canst thou be convinced, thou foolish boy, without hearing and
understanding the grounds on which we act?’
So saying he took Darsie by the arm, and walked with him to the next
room--a large apartment, partly filled with miscellaneous articles of
commerce, chiefly connected with contraband trade; where, among bales
and barrels, sat, or walked to and fro, several gentlemen, whose manners
and looks seemed superior to the plain riding dresses which they wore.
There was a grave and stern anxiety upon their countenances, when, on
Redgauntlet’s entrance, they drew from their separate coteries into one
group around him, and saluted him with a formality which had something
in it of ominous melancholy. As Darsie looked around the circle, he
thought he could discern in it few traces of that adventurous hope which
urges men upon desperate enterprises; and began to believe that the
conspiracy would dissolve of itself, without the necessity of his
placing himself in direct opposition to so violent a character as his
uncle, and incurring the hazard with which such opposition must be
attended.
Mr. Redgauntlet, however, did not, or would not, see any such marks of
depression of spirit amongst his coadjutors, but met them with cheerful
countenance, and a warm greeting of welcome. ‘Happy to meet you here,
my lord,’ he said, bowing low to a slender young man. ‘I trust you
come with the pledges of your noble father, of B--, and all that loyal
house.--Sir Richard, what news in the west? I am told you had two
hundred men on foot to have joined when the fatal retreat from Derby was
commenced. When the White Standard is again displayed, it shall not
be turned back so easily, either by the force of its enemies, or the
falsehood of its friends.--Doctor Grumball, I bow to the representative
of Oxford, the mother of learning and loyalty.--Pengwinion, you
Cornish chough, has this good wind blown you north?--Ah, my brave
Cambro-Britons, when was Wales last in the race of honour?’
Such and such-like compliments he dealt around, which were in general
answered by silent bows; but when he saluted one of his own countrymen
by the name of MacKellar, and greeted Maxwell of Summertrees by that
of Pate-in-Peril, the latter replied, ‘that if Pate were not a fool,
he would be Pate-in-Safety;’ and the former, a thin old gentle-man, in
tarnished embroidery, said bluntly, ‘Aye, troth, Redgauntlet, I am here
just like yourself; I have little to lose--they that took my land the
last time, may take my life this; and that is all I care about it.’
The English gentlemen, who were still in possession of their paternal
estates, looked doubtfully on each other, and there was something
whispered among them of the fox which had lost his tail.
Redgauntlet hastened to address them. ‘I think, my lords and gentlemen,’
he said, ‘that I can account for something like sadness which has crept
upon an assembly gathered together for so noble a purpose. Our numbers
seem, when thus assembled, too small and inconsiderable to shake the
firm-seated usurpation of a half-century. But do not count us by what
we are in thew and muscle, but by what our summons can do among our
countrymen. In this small party are those who have power to raise
battalions, and those who have wealth to pay them. And do not believe
our friends who are absent are cold or indifferent to the cause. Let us
once light the signal, and it will be hailed by all who retain love for
the Stuart, and by all--a more numerous body--who hate the Elector. Here
I have letters from’--
Sir Richard Glendale interrupted the speaker. ‘We all confide,
Redgauntlet, in your valour and skill--we admire your perseverance; and
probably nothing short of your strenuous exertions, and the emulation
awakened by your noble and disinterested conduct, could have brought
so many of us, the scattered remnant of a disheartened party, to meet
together once again in solemn consultation; for I take it, gentlemen,’
he said, looking round, ‘this is only a consultation.’
‘Nothing more,’ said the young lord.
‘Nothing more,’ said Doctor Grumball, shaking his large academical
peruke.
And, ‘Only a consultation,’ was echoed by the others.
Redgauntlet bit his lip. ‘I had hopes,’ he said, ‘that the discourses
I have held with most of you, from time to time, had ripened into more
maturity than your words imply, and that we were here to execute as
well as to deliberate; and for this we stand prepared. I can raise five
hundred men with my whistle.’
‘Five hundred men!’ said one of the Welsh squires; ‘Cot bless us! and
pray you, what cood could five hundred men do?’
‘All that the priming does for the cannon, Mr. Meredith,’ answered
Redgauntlet; ‘it will enable us to seize Carlisle, and you know what our
friends have engaged for in that case.’
‘Yes--but,’ said the young nobleman, ‘you must not hurry us on too fast,
Mr. Redgauntlet; we are all, I believe, as sincere and truehearted in
this business as you are, but we will not be driven forward blindfold.
We owe caution to ourselves and our families, as well as to those whom
we are empowered to represent on this occasion.’
‘Who hurries you, my lord? Who is it that would drive this meeting
forward blindfold? I do not understand your lordship,’ said Redgauntlet.
‘Nay,’ said Sir Richard Glendale, ‘at least do not let us fall under
our old reproach of disagreeing among ourselves. What my lord means,
Redgauntlet, is, that we have this morning heard it is uncertain
whether you could even bring that body of men whom you count upon; your
countryman, Mr. MacKellar, seemed, just before you came in, to doubt
whether your people would rise in any force, unless you could produce
the authority of your nephew.’
‘I might ask,’ said Redgauntlet,’ what right MacKellar, or any one, has
to doubt my being able to accomplish what I stand pledged for? But our
hopes consist in our unity. Here stands my nephew. Gentlemen, I present
to you my kinsman, Sir Arthur Darsie Redgauntlet of that Ilk.’
‘Gentlemen,’ said Darsie, with a throbbing bosom, for he felt the crisis
a very painful one, ‘Allow me to say, that I suspend expressing my
sentiments on the important subject under discussion until I have heard
those of the present meeting.’
‘Proceed in your deliberations, gentlemen,’ said Redgauntlet; ‘I will
show my nephew such reasons for acquiescing in the result, as will
entirely remove any scruples which may hang around his mind.’
Dr. Grumball now coughed, ‘shook his ambrosial curls,’ and addressed the
assembly.
‘The principles of Oxford,’ he said,’ are well understood, since she
was the last to resign herself to the Arch-Usurper,--since she has
condemned, by her sovereign authority, the blasphemous, atheistical,
and anarchical tenets of Locke, and other deluders of the public
mind. Oxford will give men, money and countenance, to the cause of the
rightful monarch. But we have, been often deluded by foreign powers,
who have availed themselves of our zeal to stir up civil dissensions, in
Britain, not for the advantage of our blessed though banished monarch,
but to stir up disturbances by which they might profit, while we, their
tools, are sure to be ruined. Oxford, therefore, will not rise, unless
our sovereign comes in person to claim our allegiance, in which case,
God forbid we should refuse him our best obedience.’
‘It is a very cood advice,’ said Mr. Meredith.
‘In troth,’ said Sir Richard Glendale, ‘it is the very keystone of our
enterprise, and the only condition upon which I myself and others
could ever have dreamt of taking up arms. No insurrection which has not
Charles Edward himself at its head, will, ever last longer than till a
single foot company of redcoats march to disperse it.’
‘This is my own opinion, and that of all my family,’ said the young
nobleman already mentioned; ‘and I own I am somewhat surprised at being
summoned to attend a dangerous rendezvous such as this, before something
certain could have been stated to us on this most important preliminary
point.’
‘Pardon me, my lord,’ said Redgauntlet; ‘I have not been so unjust
either to myself or my friends--I had no means of communicating to our
distant confederates (without the greatest risk of discovery) what is
known to some of my honourable friends. As courageous, and as resolved,
as when, twenty years since, he threw himself into the wilds of Moidart,
Charles Edward has instantly complied with the wishes of his faithful
subjects. Charles Edward is in this country--Charles Edward is in this
house!--Charles Edward waits but your present decision, to receive the
homage of those who have ever called themselves his loyal liegemen. He
that would now turn his coat, and change his note, must do so under the
eye of his sovereign.’
There was a deep pause. Those among the conspirators whom mere habit, or
a desire of preserving consistency, had engaged in the affair, now saw
with terror their retreat cut off; and others, who at a distance had
regarded the proposed enterprise as hopeful, trembled when the moment
of actually embarking in it was thus unexpectedly and almost inevitably
precipitated.
‘How now, my lords and gentlemen!’ said Redgauntlet; is it delight and
rapture that keep you thus silent? where are the eager welcomes that
should be paid to your rightful king, who a second time confides his
person to the care of his subjects, undeterred by the hairbreadth
escapes and severe privations of his former expedition? I hope there is
no gentleman here that is not ready to redeem, in his prince’s presence,
the pledge of fidelity which he offered in his absence.’
‘I, at least,’ said the young nobleman resolutely, and laying his hand
on his sword, ‘will not be that coward. If Charles is come to these
shores, I will be the first to give him welcome, and to devote my life
and fortune to his service.’
‘Before Cot,’ said Mr. Meredith, ‘I do not see that Mr. Redgauntlet has
left us anything else to do.’
‘Stay,’ said Summertrees, ‘there is yet one other question. Has he
brought any of those Irish rapparees with him, who broke the neck of our
last glorious affair?’
‘Not a man of them,’ said Redgauntlet.
‘I trust,’ said Dr. Grumball, ‘that there are no Catholic priests in his
company. I would not intrude on the private conscience of my sovereign,
but, as an unworthy son of the Church of England, it is my duty to
consider her security.’
‘Not a Popish dog or cat is there, to bark or mew about his Majesty,’
said Redgauntlet. ‘Old Shaftesbury himself could not wish a prince’s
person more secure from Popery--which may not be the worst religion
in the world, notwithstanding. Any more doubts, gentlemen? can no more
plausible reasons be discovered for postponing the payment of our duty,
and discharge of our oaths and engagements? Meantime your king waits
your declaration--by my faith he hath but a frozen reception!’
‘Redgauntlet,’ said Sir Richard Glendale, calmly, ‘your reproaches shall
not goad me into anything of which my reason disapproves. That I respect
my engagement as much as you do, is evident, since I am here, ready to
support it with the best blood in my veins. But has the king really come
hither entirely unattended?’
‘He has no man with him but young ------, as aide de camp, and a single
valet de chambre.’
‘No MAN--but, Redgauntlet, as you are a gentleman, has he no woman with
him?’
Redgauntlet cast his eyes on the ground and replied, ‘I am sorry to
say--he has.’
The company looked at each other, and remained silent for a moment.
At length Sir Richard proceeded. ‘I need not repeat to you, Mr.
Redgauntlet, what is the well-grounded opinion of his Majesty’s friends
concerning that most unhappy connexion there is but one sense and
feeling amongst us upon the subject. I must conclude that our humble
remonstrances were communicated by you, sir, to the king?’
‘In the same strong terms in which they were couched,’ replied
Redgauntlet. ‘I love his Majesty’s cause more than I fear his
displeasure.’
‘But, apparently, our humble expostulation has produced no effect.
This lady, who has crept into his bosom, has a sister in the Elector
of Hanover’s court, and yet we are well assured that our most private
communication is placed in her keeping.’
‘VARIUM ET MUTABILE SEMPER FEMINA,’ said Dr. Grumball.
‘She puts his secrets into her work-bag,’ said Maxwell; ‘and out they
fly whenever she opens it. If I must hang, I would wish it to be in
somewhat a better rope than the string of a lady’s hussey.’
‘Are you, too, turning dastard, Maxwell?’ said Redgauntlet, in a
whisper.
‘Not I,’ said Maxwell; ‘let us fight for it, and let them win and wear
us; but to be betrayed by a brimstone like that’--
‘Be temperate, gentlemen,’ said Redgauntlet; ‘the foible of which you
complain so heavily has always been that of kings and heroes; which I
feel strongly confident the king will surmount, upon the humble entreaty
of his best servants, and when he sees them ready to peril their all in
his cause, upon the slight condition of his resigning the society of
a female favourite, of whom I have seen reason to think he hath been
himself for some time wearied. But let us not press upon him rashly
with our well-meant zeal. He has a princely will as becomes his princely
birth, and we, gentlemen, who are royalists, should be the last to take
advantage of circumstances to limit its exercise. I am as much surprised
and hurt as you can be, to find that he has made her the companion of
this journey, increasing every chance of treachery and detection. But do
not let us insist upon a sacrifice so humiliating, while he has scarce
placed a foot upon the beach of his kingdom. Let us act generously by
our sovereign; and when we have shown what we will do for him, we
shall be able, with better face, to state what it is we expect him to
concede.’
‘Indeed, I think it is but a pity,’ said MacKellar, ‘when so many pretty
gentlemen are got together, that they should part without the flash of a
sword among them.’
‘I should be of that gentleman’s opinion,’ said Lord ------, ‘had I
nothing to lose but my life; but I frankly own, that the conditions
on which our family agreed to join having been, in this instance, left
unfulfilled, I will not peril the whole fortunes of our house on the
doubtful fidelity of an artful woman.’
‘I am sorry to see your lordship,’ said Redgauntlet, ‘take a course
which is more likely to secure your house’s wealth than to augment its
honours.’
‘How am I to understand your language, sir?’ said the young nobleman,
haughtily.
‘Nay, gentlemen,’ said Dr Grumball, interposing, ‘do not let friends
quarrel; we are all zealous for the cause--but truly, although I know
the license claimed by the great in such matters, and can, I hope, make
due allowance, there is, I may say, an indecorum in a prince who comes
to claim the allegiance of the Church of England, arriving on such an
errand with such a companion--SI NON CASTE, CAUTE TAMEN.’
‘I wonder how the Church of England came to be so heartily attached to
his merry old namesake,’ said Redgauntlet.
Sir Richard Glendale then took up the question, as one whose authority
and experience gave him right to speak with much weight.
‘We have no leisure for hesitation,’ he said; ‘it is full time that
we decide what course we are to hold. I feel as much as you, Mr.
Redgauntlet, the delicacy of capitulating with our sovereign in his
present condition. But I must also think of the total ruin of the
cause, the confiscation and bloodshed which will take place among his
adherents, and all through the infatuation with which he adheres to
a woman who is the pensionary of the present minister, as she was
for years Sir Robert Walpole’s. Let his Majesty send her back to the
continent, and the sword on which I now lay my hand shall instantly be
unsheathed, and, I trust, many hundred others at the same moment.’
The other persons present testified their unanimous acquiescence in what
Sir Richard Glendale had said.
‘I see you have taken your resolutions, gentlemen,’ said Redgauntlet;
‘unwisely I think, because I believe that, by softer and more generous
proceedings, you would have been more likely to carry a point which I
think as desirable as you do. But what is to be done if Charles should
refuse, with the inflexibility of his grandfather, to comply with this
request of yours? Do you mean to abandon him to his fate?’
‘God forbid!’ said Sir Richard, hastily; ‘and God forgive you, Mr.
Redgauntlet, for breathing such a thought. No! I for one will, with all
duty and humility, see him safe back to his vessel, and defend him with
my life against whosoever shall assail him. But when I have seen his
sails spread, my next act will be to secure, if I can, my own safety, by
retiring to my house; or, if I find our engagement, as is too probable,
has taken wind, by surrendering myself to the next Justice of Peace,
and giving security that hereafter I shall live quiet, and submit to the
ruling powers.’
Again the rest of the persons present intimated their agreement in
opinion with the speaker.
‘Well, gentlemen,’ said Redgauntlet, ‘it is not for me to oppose the
opinion of every one; and I must do you the justice to say, that
the king has, in the present instance, neglected a condition of your
agreement which was laid before him in very distinct terms. The question
now is, who is to acquaint him with the result of this conference; for I
presume you would not wait on him in a body to make the proposal that
he should dismiss a person from his family as the price of your
allegiance.’
‘I think Mr. Redgauntlet should make the explanation, said Lord--. ‘As
he has, doubtless, done justice to our remonstrances by communicating
them to the king, no one can, with such propriety and force, state the
natural and inevitable consequence of their being neglected.’
‘Now, I think,’ said Redgauntlet, ‘that those who make the objection
should state it, for I am confident the king will hardly believe, on
less authority than that of the heir of the loyal House of B--, that he
is the first to seek an evasion of his pledge to join him.’
‘An evasion, sir!’ repeated Lord ------, fiercely, ‘I have borne too
much from you already, and this I will not endure. Favour me with your
company to the downs.’
Redgauntlet laughed scornfully, and was about to follow the fiery young
man, when Sir Richard again interposed. ‘Are we to exhibit,’ he said,
‘the last symptoms of the dissolution of our party, by turning our
swords against each other? Be patient, Lord ------; in such conferences
as this, much must pass unquestioned which might brook challenge
elsewhere. There is a privilege of party as of parliament--men cannot,
in emergency, stand upon picking phrases. Gentlemen, if you will extend
your confidence in me so far, I will wait upon his Majesty, and I
hope my Lord ------ and Mr. Redgauntlet will accompany me. I trust the
explanation of this unpleasant matter will prove entirely satisfactory,
and that we shall find ourselves at liberty to render our homage to our
sovereign without reserve, when I for one will be the first to peril all
in his just quarrel.’
Redgauntlet at once stepped forward. ‘My lord,’ he said, ‘if my zeal
made me say anything in the slightest degree offensive, I wish it
unsaid, and ask your pardon. A gentleman can do no more.’
‘I could not have asked Mr. Redgauntlet to do so much,’ said the young
nobleman, willingly accepting the hand which Redgauntlet offered. ‘I
know no man living from whom I could take so much reproof without a
sense of degradation as from himself.’
‘Let me then hope, my lord, that you will go with Sir Richard and me to
the presence. Your warm blood will heat our zeal--our colder resolves
will temper yours.
The young lord smiled, and shook his head. ‘Alas! Mr. Redgauntlet,’ he
said, ‘I am ashamed to say, that in zeal you surpass us all. But I
will not refuse this mission, provided you will permit Sir Arthur, your
nephew, also to accompany us.’
‘My nephew?’ said Redgauntlet, and seemed to hesitate, then added, ‘Most
certainly. I trust,’ he said, looking at Darsie, ‘he will bring to his
prince’s presence such sentiments as fit the occasion.’
It seemed however to Darsie, that his uncle would rather have left
him behind, had he not feared that he might in that case have been
influenced by, or might perhaps himself influence, the unresolved
confederates with whom he must have associated during his absence.
‘I will go,’ said Redgauntlet, ‘and request admission.’
In a moment after he returned, and without speaking, motioned for the
young nobleman to advance. He did so, followed by Sir Richard Glendale
and Darsie, Redgauntlet himself bringing up the rear. A short
passage, and a few steps, brought them to the door of the temporary
presence-chamber, in which the Royal Wanderer was to receive their
homage. It was the upper loft of one of those cottages which made
additions to the old inn, poorly furnished, dusty, and in disorder; for,
rash as the enterprise might be considered, they had been still careful
not to draw the attention of strangers by any particular attentions
to the personal accommodation of the prince. He was seated, when the
deputies, as they might be termed, of his remaining adherents entered;
and as he rose, and came forward and bowed, in acceptance of their
salutation, it was with a dignified courtesy which at once supplied
whatever was deficient in external pomp, and converted the wretched
garret into a saloon worthy of the occasion.
It is needless to add that he was the same personage already introduced
in the character of Father Buonaventure, by which name he was
distinguished at Fairladies. His dress was not different from what he
then wore, excepting that he had a loose riding-coat of camlet, under
which he carried an efficient cut-and-thrust sword, instead of his
walking rapier, and also a pair of pistols.
Redgauntlet presented to him successively the young Lord ------, and
his kinsman, Sir Arthur Darsie Redgauntlet, who trembled as, bowing
and kissing his hand, he found himself surprised into what might be
construed an act of high treason, which yet he saw no safe means to
avoid.
Sir Richard Glendale seemed personally known to Charles Edward, who
received him with a mixture of dignity and affection, and seemed to
sympathize with the tears which rushed into that gentleman’s eyes as he
bade his Majesty welcome to his native kingdom.
‘Yes, my good Sir Richard,’ said the unfortunate prince in a tone
melancholy, yet resolved, ‘Charles Edward is with his faithful friends
once more--not, perhaps, with his former gay hopes which undervalued
danger, but with the same determined contempt of the worst which can
befall him, in claiming his own rights and those of his country.’
‘I rejoice, sire--and yet, alas! I must also grieve, to see you once
more on the British shores,’ said Sir Richard Glendale, and stopped
short--a tumult of contradictory feelings preventing his further
utterance.
‘It is the call of my faithful and suffering people which alone could
have induced me to take once more the sword in my hand. For my own part,
Sir Richard, when I have reflected how many of my loyal and devoted
friends perished by the sword and by proscription, or died indigent
and neglected in a foreign land, I have often, sworn that no view to my
personal aggrandizement should again induce me to agitate a title which
has cost my followers so dear. But since so many men of worth and honour
conceive the cause of England and Scotland to be linked with that of
Charles Stuart, I must follow their brave example, and, laying aside all
other considerations, once more stand forward as their deliverer. I am,
however, come hither upon your invitation; and as you are so completely
acquainted with circumstances to which my absence must necessarily
have rendered me a stranger, I must be a mere tool in the hands of my
friends. I know well I never can refer myself implicitly to more
loyal hearts or wiser heads, than Herries Redgauntlet, and Sir Richard
Glendale. Give me your advice, then, how we are to proceed, and decide
upon the fate of Charles Edward.’
Redgauntlet looked at Sir Richard, as if to say, ‘Can you press any
additional or unpleasant condition at a moment like this?’ And the other
shook his head and looked down, as if his resolution was unaltered, and
yet as feeling all the delicacy of the situation.
There was a silence, which was broken by the unfortunate representative
of an unhappy dynasty, with some appearance of irritation. ‘This is
strange, gentlemen,’ he said; ‘you have sent for me from the bosom of my
family, to head an adventure of doubt and danger; and when I come, your
own minds seem to be still irresolute. I had not expected this on the
part of two such men.’
‘For me, sire,’ said Redgauntlet, ‘the steel of my sword is not truer
than the temper of my mind.’
‘My Lord ------‘s and mine are equally so,’ said Sir Richard; ‘but you
had in charge, Mr. Redgauntlet, to convey our request to his Majesty,
coupled with certain conditions.’
‘And I discharged my duty to his Majesty and to you,’ said Redgauntlet.
‘I looked at no condition, gentlemen,’ said their king, with dignity,’
save that which called me here to assert my rights in person. That I
have fulfilled at no common risk. Here I stand to keep my word, and I
expect of you to be true to yours.’
‘There was, or should have been, something more than that in our
proposal, please your Majesty,’ said Sir Richard. ‘There was a condition
annexed to it.’
‘I saw it not,’ said Charles, interrupting him. ‘Out of tenderness
towards the noble hearts of whom I think so highly, I would neither
see nor read anything which could lessen them in my love and my esteem.
Conditions can have no part betwixt prince and subject.’
‘Sire,’ said Redgauntlet, kneeling on one knee, ‘I see from Sir
Richard’s countenance he deems it my fault that your Majesty seems
ignorant of what your subjects desired that I should communicate to your
Majesty. For Heaven’s sake! for the sake of all my past services and
sufferings, leave not such a stain upon my honour! The note, Number D,
of which this is a copy, referred to the painful subject to which Sir
Richard again directs your attention.’
‘You press upon me, gentlemen,’ said the prince, colouring highly,’
recollections, which, as I hold them most alien to your character, I
would willingly have banished from my memory. I did not suppose that
my loyal subjects would think so poorly of me, as to use my depressed
circumstances as a reason for forcing themselves into my domestic
privacies, and stipulating arrangements with their king regarding
matters in which the meanest minds claim the privilege of thinking for
themselves. In affairs of state and public policy, I will ever be guided
as becomes a prince, by the advice of my wisest counsellors; in those
which regard my private affections and my domestic arrangements, I claim
the same freedom of will which I allow to all my subjects, and without
which a crown were less worth wearing than a beggar’s bonnet.’
‘May it please your Majesty,’ said Sir Richard Glendale, ‘I see it must
be my lot to speak unwilling truths; but believe me, I do so with as
much profound respect as deep regret. It is true, we have called you to
head a mighty undertaking, and that your Majesty, preferring honour to
safety, and the love of your country to your own ease, has condescended
to become our leader. But we also pointed out as a necessary and
indispensable preparatory step to the achievement of our purpose--and,
I must say, as a positive condition of our engaging in it--that an
individual, supposed,--I presume not to guess how truly,--to have your
Majesty’s more intimate confidence, and believed, I will not say on
absolute proof but upon the most pregnant suspicion, to be capable of
betraying that confidence to the Elector of Hanover, should be removed
from your royal household and society.’
‘This is too insolent, Sir Richard!’ said Charles Edward. ‘Have you
inveigled me into your power to bait me in this unseemly manner? And
you, Redgauntlet, why did you suffer matters to come to such a point as
this, without making me more distinctly aware what insults were to be
practised on me?’
‘My gracious prince,’ said Redgauntlet, ‘I am so far to blame in this,
that I did not think so slight an impediment as that of a woman’s
society could have really interrupted an undertaking of this magnitude.
I am a plain man, sire, and speak but bluntly; I could not have dreamt
but what, within the first five minutes of this interview, either Sir
Richard and his friends would have ceased to insist upon a condition so
ungrateful to your Majesty, or that your Majesty would have sacrificed
this unhappy attachment to the sound advice, or even to the over-anxious
suspicions, of so many faithful subjects. I saw no entanglement in such
a difficulty which on either side might not have been broken through
like a cobweb.’
‘You were mistaken, sir,’ said Charles Edward, ‘entirely mistaken--as
much so as you are at this moment, when you think in your heart my
refusal to comply with this insolent proposition is dictated by a
childish and romantic passion for an individual, I tell you, sir, I
could part with that person to-morrow, without an instant’s regret--that
I have had thoughts of dismissing her from my court, for reasons known
to myself; but that I will never betray my rights as a sovereign and a
man, by taking this step to secure the favour of any one, or to purchase
that allegiance which, if you owe it to me at all, is due to me as my
birthright.’
‘I am sorry for this,’ said Redgauntlet; ‘I hope both your Majesty
and Sir Richard will reconsider your resolutions, or forbear this
discussion, in a conjuncture so pressing. I trust your Majesty will
recollect that you are on hostile ground; that our preparations cannot
have so far escaped notice as to permit us now with safety to retreat
from our purpose; insomuch, that it is with the deepest anxiety of
heart I foresee even danger to your own royal person, unless you can
generously give your subjects the satisfaction, which Sir Richard seems
to think they are obstinate in demanding.’
‘And deep indeed your anxiety ought to be,’ said the prince. ‘Is it in
these circumstances of personal danger in which you expect to overcome a
resolution, which is founded on a sense of what is due to me as a man
or a prince? If the axe and scaffold were ready before the windows of
Whitehall, I would rather tread the same path with my great-grandfather,
than concede the slightest point in which my honour is concerned.’
He spoke these words with a determined accent, and looked around him on
the company, all of whom (excepting Darsie, who saw, he thought, a
fair period to a most perilous enterprise) seemed in deep anxiety and
confusion. At length, Sir Richard spoke in a solemn and melancholy tone.
‘If the safety,’ he said, ‘of poor Richard Glendale were alone concerned
in this matter, I have never valued my life enough to weigh it
against the slightest point of your Majesty’s service. But I am only a
messenger--a commissioner, who must execute my trust, and upon whom a
thousand voices will cry, Curse and woe, if I do it not with fidelity.
All of your adherents, even Redgauntlet himself, see certain ruin to
this enterprise--the greatest danger to your Majesty’s person--the utter
destruction of all your party and friends, if they insist not on the
point, which, unfortunately, your Majesty is so unwilling to concede. I
speak it with a heart full of anguish--with a tongue unable to utter
my emotions--but it must be spoken--the fatal truth--that if your
royal goodness cannot yield to us a boon which we hold necessary to our
security and your own, your Majesty with one word disarms ten thousand
men, ready to draw their swords in your behalf; or, to speak yet more
plainly, you annihilate even the semblance of a royal party in Great
Britain.’
‘And why do you not add,’ said the prince, scornfully, ‘that the men
who have been ready to assume arms in my behalf, will atone for their
treason to the Elector, by delivering me up to the fate for which so
many proclamations have destined me? Carry my head to St. James’s,
gentlemen; you will do a more acceptable and a more honourable action,
than, having inveigled me into a situation which places me so completely
in your power, to dishonour yourselves by propositions which dishonour
me.
‘My God, sire!’ exclaimed Sir Richard, clasping his hands together,
in impatience, ‘of what great and inexpiable crime can your Majesty’s
ancestors have ‘been guilty, that they have been punished by the
infliction of judicial blindness on their whole generation!--Come, my
Lord ------, we must to our friends.’
‘By your leave, Sir Richard,’ said the young nobleman, ‘not till we,
have learned what measures can be taken for his Majesty’s personal
safety.’
‘Care not for me, young man,’ said Charles Edward; ‘when I was in the
society of Highland robbers and cattle-drovers, I was safer than I now
hold myself among the representatives of the best blood in England.
Farewell, gentlemen--I will shift for myself.’
‘This must never be,’ said Redgauntlet. ‘Let me that brought you to the
point of danger, at least provide for your safe retreat.’
So saying, he hastily left the apartment, followed by his nephew. The
Wanderer, averting his eyes from Lord ------ and Sir Richard Glendale,
threw himself into a seat at the upper end of the apartment, while they,
in much anxiety, stood together, at a distance from him, and conversed
in whispers.