So, very simply, moved this obscure love-affair of long ago. Yet the
thought that its consequences might involve the destinies of nations may
often have passed through its hero’s mind—a mind essentially intriguing
and filled with keen ambition untrammelled by doubt. Nor was the man’s
assurance without its legitimate base. Trusted, on the one hand with an
important mission in his country’s service, promised the care of affairs
of yet greater weight, and cognizant of a multitude of secrets of state,
Hynson wielded no inconsiderable power. And when, on the other hand, the
chief ministers of the throne completed the circle of his influence by
making him an object of flattering solicitations, he felt that his hour
was indeed come, and wrote, in frank exultation:
“I now think myself a man of consequence, and am very happy.”
And now for the bias of the man. In the matter of politics, Hynson, like
many a greater statesman, hoped for reconciliation without separation.
Colonial independence thrown into the scale, his respect for the
integrity of the kingdom weighed heavily against it, and this delicate
balance of his public principles gave to his private interests a
possibly decisive importance. England, the centre of royal government,
commanded his abstract veneration. England, Isabella’s home, held his
heart and his pleasure. “He hopes ... to entitle Himself to a Competence
and to sit down in England, where he has a Connection which he is
anxious to resume,” the King learned from his agents. To that tune the
royal money-bags forthwith jingled cunningly.