THE MESSENGER FROM ENGLAND
Madame de Marsac, one time Miss Basilea Gage and maid of honour to the
Queen of England, sat in the window-place of an inn in The Hague and
looked down into the street. There was an expression of indifference on
her face and of listlessness in her attitude, though a man in black
velvet was standing near to her and speaking with an appearance of great
energy, and he was M. D'Avaux, minister of King Louis XIV to the States
General.
Basilea was Romanist, of a family who had held that faith since the days
of Queen Mary Tudor; her husband, two years dead, an officer in the
French Army, had left her with a small fortune and no regrets, since she
was yet undecided as to whether she had liked him or no; though too
clever to be unhappy she was miserably idle, and had drifted from Paris
back to London, and from London to Amsterdam, where her late lord's
people were prominent among the powerful French faction, and still
without finding any interest in life.
It was M. D'Avaux, with whom she had some former acquaintance, who had
urgently requested her to come to The Hague, and she was here, listening
to him, but without enthusiasm, being more engaged in watching the great
number of well-dressed people who passed up and down the wide, clean
street.
M. D'Avaux perhaps noticed her inattention, for he broke his discourse
with an abrupt question.
"Would you care to see a revolution in your country--'49 over again with
the Prince of Orange in place of Cromwell?"
She turned quickly, obviously startled. Though so indifferent to actual
happenings, she was tenacious of tradition, and she felt a vast, though
passive, admiration for the action of King James in re-establishing in
his kingdoms the ancient faith that was hers.
"Why--you mean----" she began, and paused, searching his face with
puzzled dark eyes.
"I mean, Madame," said M. D'Avaux strongly, "that your King is cutting
away the supports that prop his throne--you must know something of the
feeling in England."
"Yes," she assented; "the trouble with the colleges, the declaration of
Indulgence, and some rare malicious talk of the Prince of Wales--but
nothing like--a revolution!"
The Frenchman smiled.
"Let me tell you some facts. When Henry Sidney was Envoy here he was in
reality the channel of communication between the Opposition in England
and His Highness--even since his recall he hath served the same
turn--and these last months Edward Russell hath been coming and going
with messages between the Prince and those great Protestants whom the
King hath put out of office."
"If this is known," cried Basilea, "surely it can be prevented--it is
treason!"
"What is treason in England, Madame, is loyalty at The Hague--and do you
imagine that I have any influence with the States, who are entirely
under the rule of the Prince?"
"I have noticed," answered Basilea, "a monstrous number of English and
French Protestants at The Hague, but thought they came here for a mere
refuge."
"They come here," said M. D'Avaux drily, "for revenge--since the Edict
of Nantes was revoked all the Huguenots look to the Prince, and since he
refused his assent to the declaration of Indulgence every Englishman who
is not a Romanist looketh to him also."
Basilea rose; the sunshine was over her curls and blue dress, and shook
a red light from the garnets at her wrist; her eyes narrowed; she was
interested by this clear talk of important events.
"What could the Prince do?" she asked quietly.
M. D'Avaux replied with some passion.
"This is the tenth year of the uneasy peace forced on His Highness by
His Majesty and the late King Charles, and not a month of that time that
he hath not been working to be avenged on us for the terms we obtained
then--he hath combined powers in secret leagues against us, he hath
vexed and defied us at every turn, and he hath never, for one moment,
ceased to intrigue for the help of England against us--in some final
issue."
"But England," said Basilea quickly, "is entirely bound to France----"
"Yes; and because of that, and because the Prince of Orange knoweth it,
King James is in a desperate strait----"
"Why?"
"Madame, I know the Prince tolerably well--he never relinquishes any
idea that hath a firm hold on his mind, and what he cannot accomplish by
diplomacy he will assay by force."
"By force!" echoed Basilea, staring at the Ambassador.
He came a little nearer to her and lowered his voice.
"What is the business that keepeth Edward Russell on messenger duty to
and fro The Hague and London? What is the business that keepeth the
Prince for ever riding from his villa to the States? Why are all the
harness makers of the Provinces making bridles, bits, and spurs? Why is
the Prince, if there is not some great design afoot, buying up load
after load of hay--why are new ships being built, fresh troops being
raised?"
"Surely," answered Basilea, "I have heard it said that the States were
making ready in case the dispute between King Louis and the Pope anent
Cologne should involve attack on their frontiers."
"I do not believe it," said M. D'Avaux. "But King James and Lord
Sunderland take your view--they will not be roused, they will not see,
and daily they further rouse that loyalty which is their sole support.
I am well informed from England that not one man in ten believeth the
Prince of Wales to be the King's son, and that they regard the producing
of him as a mere fraud to cheat the Princesses of their birthright."
"What do you mean, what do you think?" asked Basilea. "It is not
possible that the Prince should claim his wife's inheritance by force of
arms?"
"You put it very succinctly," said M. D'Avaux. "That is exactly what I
think he will do."
Basilea was silent. The, to her, amazing aspect of international
politics disclosed in M. D'Avaux's brief and troubled summary filled her
with dismay and anger. The domestic government of England did not
concern her, since she did not live under it, and her family, being
Romanist, were more prosperous under King James than they had ever been.
She had not given much thought to the justice or wisdom of the means the
King had taken to convert his kingdom, but she approved of the
principle. She had no admiration for the Prince of Orange, and no
sympathy for the cause he upheld.
"He would never," she remarked, continuing her thoughts aloud, "dare the
scandal of an open rupture betwixt himself and His Majesty, who is both
his uncle and his wife's father----"
"There is nothing but dislike between them since the King recalled
Sidney and the Prince refused his assent to the repeal of the Test
Act----"
"But the Princess," interrupted Basilea. "Why, I used to know her, and
I dare assure you she is not one to forget her duty----"
"Her duty!" repeated M. D'Avaux.
He looked at her intently.
"You have touched the reason why I asked you to come to The Hague," he
said. "I want you to wait on the Princess and obtain from her some
assurance that she would never countenance any menace to her father----"
"I am sure she would not," answered Basilea at once.
"I do hope it, for if she will not support her husband his design is as
good as hopeless, since it is her claim, not his own, he must put
forward."
Basilea smiled.
"She is a Stewart, must be a little ambitious, if nothing else, and hers
was not a love-match that she should sacrifice everything to her
husband."
She glanced quickly at M. D'Avaux, and added--
"But you still look doubtful----"
"Madame," he replied earnestly, "the Princess is a very ardent
Protestant----"
"She was not at Whitehall."
"--She hath," he continued, "lived ten years with the Prince----"
"They say in England that he doth not treat her kindly----"
"His Majesty hath done his best to put discord between them--when Her
Highness discovered that her Chaplain and one of her women, Anne
Trelawney, were working on His Majesty's orders to make mischief betwixt
the Prince and herself, she dismissed them. I thought that looked ill
for us."
Basilea shook her head, still smiling.
"An English princess will not be so soon subdued--I'll undertake to get
assurances from Her Highness that she is ignorant of these tales of the
designs of the Prince, and that she would never support them if she knew
of them."
Basilea spoke with some animation; she felt sure of what she said, and
was not ill pleased to be of service to her own and her adopted country
in this, as she thought it, pleasant fashion.
She remembered Mary Stewart as a lively, laughing girl, who had detested
and opposed her marriage with much spirit, and she had no fear that she
would find that wilful gay Princess difficult to manage.
M. D'Avaux was not so confident.
"You do not know the Prince," he remarked, and Basilea laughed.
"He is not so redoubtable where women are concerned, I think," she
answered; "at least allow me to try."
"I ask it of you," he said gravely; "for more hangs on this than I dare
think."
"Sure, you need not fear the Prince," she returned, "if he had the most
wicked will in the world--the difficulties in his way are
unsurmountable."
"France," he replied, "must make them so."
On that he took his leave, and left Basilea with more busy thoughts than
had been hers for some while since.
She returned to the window-seat, propped her chin on her palm, and
looked down the street. She was a pretty seeming woman, slender, dusky
brown in the hair and eyes, of a just height and proportion, and her
person was shown to advantage by the plain French style of her gown and
ringlets, which had a graceful simplicity wholly wanting in the stiff
fashions prevailing in England and the Low Countries.
Her window looked upon an end of the Buitenhof, one of the two great
squares that formed the centre of The Hague so admired by strangers; it
was planted with lime trees, now past their flowering time, but still
fragrant and softly green in the gentle air of July.
A great number of people of both sexes, finely dressed, were passing up
and down, on foot, on horseback, and in little open chariots and sedans.
Basilea noticed many unmistakeably English, Scotch, and French of
varying degrees of qualities--soldiers, divines, gentlemen, and women
mingling with the crowd, hastening past with intent faces or lounging
with idle glances at each other in hopes to detect a friend or patron.
She opened the window and leaned out so that she could see the Buitenhof
with the straight lines and arches of the government buildings of the
States, the trees that shaded the great fish-pond called the Vyver, and
the open square where the carriages passed on their way to the
fashionable promenade of the Voorhout and Toorviveld.
Among all the varying figures that caught her glance was that of a tall
man in the garb of an English seaman--red breeches, a tarred coat, a
cocked hat with his captain's colours, and a heavy sword.
She noticed him first because he stopped to ask directions of two
passers-by, English also, and because he was, even among so many, of a
fine and showy appearance.
He turned at first towards the arches that led through to the Binnenhof
and the Hall of the Knights, then hesitated, turned back, and retraced
his steps until he was just under Basilea's window.
Here he paused again, and accosted a stout gentleman in the dress of an
Anglican priest, who was dashing through the press with a great air of
importance and hurry.
On seeing the tarpaulin he greeted him with noisy surprise and pleasure,
and drew him a little out of the crowd, and proceeded to converse
eagerly with the unction of the inveterate talker.
Basilea laughed to herself as she observed the seaman's efforts to
escape, and to obtain some answer to a question first.
At last he seemed to accomplish both, for he wrenched himself from the
powerful presence of the priest, and hastened towards the Stadhuis,
while the other called after him in a voice meant to be subdued, but
still so resonant that Basilea could hear every word: "The Prince will
be back to-morrow evening!"
The seaman waved his hat, nodded, and hastened on.
Basilea wondered why a common sailor should be concerned as to when His
Highness returned to The Hague, and concluded, rather angrily, that here
was evidence of one of the manifold intrigues which the Whigs, M.
D'Avaux had assured her, carried on almost openly in Holland.