Mistress Nell: A Merry Tale of a Merry Time
by George Cochrane Hazelton · English · Gutenberg #31370 · 325,460 chars · public domain (US)
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Title: Mistress Nell: A Merry Tale of a Merry Time
Author: George Cochrane Hazelton
Release date: February 23, 2010 [eBook #31370]
Most recently updated: February 10, 2011
Language: English
Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/31370
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MISTRESS NELL: A MERRY TALE OF A MERRY TIME ***
Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
MISTRESS NELL
The Illustrations Shown in this Edition are Reproductions of
Scenes from the Photo-Play of "Mistress Nell," Produced and
Copyrighted by the Famous Players Film Company, Adolf Zukor,
President, to whom the Publishers Desire to Express their
Thanks and Appreciation for Permission to use the Pictures.
[Illustration: Nell Gwyn the King's Favorite.]
MISTRESS NELL
A MERRY TALE OF A MERRY TIME
(T'wixt Fact and Fancy)
BY
GEORGE C. HAZELTON, Jr.
Author of the Play
"Let not poor Nelly starve."
ILLUSTRATED WITH SCENES FROM THE PHOTO-PLAY
PRODUCED AND COPYRIGHTED BY THE FAMOUS PLAYERS FILM COMPANY,
ADOLPH ZUKOR, PRESIDENT.
NEW YORK
GROSSET & DUNLAP
PUBLISHERS
Copyright, 1901, by Charles Scribner's Sons
All rights reserved
A WORD
It is the vogue to dramatize successful novels. The author of the
present Nell Gwyn story has pursued the contrary course. His "merry"
play of the same name was written and produced before he undertook to
compose this tale, suggested by the same historic sources.
A word of tribute is gratefully given to the _comedienne_, Miss
Crosman, whose courage and exquisite art introduced the "Mistress Nell"
of the play to the public.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I 1
"And once Nell Gwyn, a frail young sprite,
Looked kindly when I met her;
I shook my head perhaps--but quite
Forgot to quite forget her."
CHAPTER II 10
It's near your cue, Mistress Nell!
CHAPTER III 41
He took them from Castlemaine's hand
yo throw to you.
CHAPTER IV 62
Flowers and Music feed naught but Love.
CHAPTER V 87
It was never treason to steal a King's kisses.
CHAPTER VI 101
Softly on tiptoe;
Here Nell doth lie.
CHAPTER VII 111
Come down!
Come up!
CHAPTER VIII 126
"And the man that is drunk is as
great as a king."
CHAPTER IX 142
Three chickens!
CHAPTER X 168
Arrest him yourself!
CHAPTER XI 182
In the field, men; at court, women!
CHAPTER XII 195
Beau Adair is my name.
CHAPTER XIII 232
For the glory of England?
CHAPTER XIV 240
He loves me! He loves me!
CHAPTER XV 259
I come, my love; I come.
CHAPTER XVI 276
Ods-pitikins, my own reflection!
CHAPTER XVII 290
The day will be so happy; for I've seen
you at the dawn.
MISTRESS NELL
A MERRY TALE OF A MERRY TIME
MISTRESS NELL
"And once Nell Gwyn, a frail young sprite,
Look'd kindly when I met her;
I shook my head perhaps--but quite
Forgot to quite forget her."
It was a merry time in merry old England; for King Charles II. was on
the throne.
Not that the wines were better or the ladies fairer in his day, but the
renaissance of carelessness and good-living had set in. True Roundheads
again sought quiet abodes in which to worship in their gray and sombre
way. Cromwell, their uncrowned king, was dead; and there was no place
for his followers at court or in tavern. Even the austere and Catholic
smile of brother James of York, one day to be the ruler of the land,
could not cast a gloom over the assemblies at Whitehall. There were
those to laugh merrily at the King's wit, and at the players' wit. There
were those in abundance to enjoy to-day--to-day only,--to drink to the
glorious joys of to-day, with no care for the morrow.
It was, indeed, merry old England; for, when the King has no cares, and
assumes no cares, the people likewise have no cares. The state may be
rent, the court a nest of intrigue, King and Parliament at odds, the
treasury bankrupt: but what care they; for the King cares not. Is not
the day prosperous? Are not the taverns in remotest London filled with
roistering spirits who drink and sing to their hearts' content of their
deeds in the wars just done? Can they not steal when hungry and demand
when dry?
Aye, the worldly ones are cavaliers now--for a cavalier is King--e'en
though the sword once followed Cromwell and the gay cloak and the big
flying plume do not quite hide the not-yet-discarded cuirass of an
Ironside.
Cockpits and theatres! It is the Restoration! The maypole is up again at
Maypole Lane, and the milk-maids bedecked with garlands dance to the
tunes of the fiddle. Boys no longer serve for heroines at the play, as
was the misfortune in Shakespeare's day. The air is full of hilarity and
joy.
Let us too for a little hour forget responsibility and fall in with the
spirit of the times; while we tipple and toast, and vainly boast: "The
King! Long live the King!"
Old Drury Lane was alive as the sun was setting, on the day of our visit
to London Town, with loungers and loafers; busy-bodies and hawkers;
traffickers of sweets and other petty wares; swaggering soldiers,
roistering by, stopping forsooth to throw kisses to inviting eyes at the
windows above.
As we turn into Little Russell Street from the Lane, passing many chairs
richly made, awaiting their fair occupants, we come upon the main
entrance to the King's House. Not an imposing or spacious structure to
be sure, it nevertheless was suited to the managerial purposes of the
day, which were, as now, to spend as little and get as much as may be.
The pit was barely protected from the weather by a glazed cupola; so
that the audience could not always hear the sweetest song to a finish
without a drenching, or dwell upon the shapeliness of the prettiest
ankle, that revealed itself in the dance by means of candles set on
cressets, which in those days sadly served the purposes of foot-lights.
It was Dryden's night. His play was on--"The Conquest of Granada." The
best of London were there; for a first night then was as attractive as a
first night now. In the balcony were draped boxes, in which lovely gowns
were seen--lovely hair and lovely gems; but the fair faces were often
masked.
The King sat listless in the royal box, watching the people and the play
or passing pretty compliments with the fair favourites by his side,
diverted, perchance, by the ill-begotten quarrel of some fellow with a
saucy orange-wench over the cost of her golden wares. The true gallants
preferred being robbed to haggling--for the shame of it.
A knowing one in the crowd was heard to say: "'Tis Castlemaine to the
King's left."
"No, 'tis Madame Carwell; curse her," snarled a more vulgar companion.
"Madame Querouaille, knave, Duchess of Portsmouth," irritably exclaimed
a handsome gallant, himself stumbling somewhat over the French name,
though making a bold play for it, as he passed toward his box, pushing
the fellow aside. He added a moment later, but so that no one heard:
"Portsmouth is far from here."
It was the Duke of Buckingham--the great Duke of Buckingham, in the pit
of the King's House! Truly, we see strange things in these strange
times! Indeed, William Penn himself did not hesitate to gossip with the
orange-wenches, unless Pepys lied--and Pepys never lied.
"What said he?" asked a stander-by, a butcher, who, with apron on and
sleeves to elbow, had hastily left his stall at one of the afternoon and
still stood with mouth agape and fingers widespread waiting for the
play. Before, however, his sooty companion could answer, they were
jostled far apart.
The crowd struggled for places in eager expectation, amid banter none
too virtuous, whistlings and jostlings. The time for the play had
arrived. "Nell! Nell! Nell!" was on every lip.
And who was "Nell"?
From amidst the players, lords and coxcombs crowded on the stage stepped
forth Nell Gwyn--the prettiest rogue in merry England.
A cheer went up from every throat; for the little vixen who stood before
them had long reigned in the hearts of Drury Lane and the habitues of
the King's House.
Yea, all eyes were upon the pretty, witty Nell; the one-time
orange-girl; now queen of the theatre, and the idol of the Lane. Her
curls were flowing and her big eyes dancing beneath a huge hat--more,
indeed, a canopy than a hat--so large that the audience screamed with
delight at the incongruity of it and the pretty face beneath.
This pace in foolery had been set at the Duke's House, but Nell out-did
them, with her broad-brimmed hat as large as a cart-wheel and her quaint
waist-belt; for was not her hat larger by half than that at the rival
house and her waist-belt quainter?
As she came forward to speak the prologue, her laugh too was merrier and
more roguish:
_"This jest was first of the other house's making,
And, five times tried, has never fail'd of taking;_
* * * * *
_This is that hat, whose very sight did win ye
To laugh and clap as though the devil were in ye,_
* * * * *
_I'll write a play, says one, for I have got
A broad-brimm'd hat, and waist-belt, towards a plot.
Says the other, I have one more large than that,
Thus they out-write each other with a hat!
The brims still grew with every play they writ;
And grew so large, they cover'd all the wit.
Hat was the play; 't was language, wit, and tale:
Like them that find meat, drink, and cloth in ale."_
The King leaned well out over the box-rail, his dark eyes intent upon
Nell's face.
A fair hand, however, was placed impatiently upon his shoulder and drew
him gently back. "Lest you fall, my liege."
"Thanks, Castlemaine," he replied, kindly but knowingly. "You are always
thoughtful."
The play went on. The actors came and went. Hart appeared in Oriental
robes as Almanzor--a dress which mayhap had served its purposes for
Othello, and mayhap had not; for cast-off court-dresses, without regard
to fitness, were the players' favourite costumes in those days, the
richness more than the style mattering.
With mighty force, he read from the centre of the stage, with elocution
true and syllable precise, Dryden's ponderous lines. The King nodded
approvingly to the poet. The poet glowed with pride at the patronage of
the King. The old-time audience were enchanted. Dryden sat with a
triumphant smile as he dwelt upon his poetic lines and heard the
cherished syllables receive rounds of applause from the Londoners.
Was it the thought, dear Dryden; or was it Nell's pretty ways that
bewitched the most of it? Nell's laugh still echoes in the world; but
where are your plays, dear Dryden?
CHAPTER II
_It's near your cue, Mistress Nell!_
The greenroom of the King's House was scarcely a prepossessing place or
inviting. A door led to the stage; another to the street. On the
remaining doors might have been deciphered from the Old English of a
scene-artist's daub "Mistress Gwyn" and "Mr. Hart." These doors led
respectively to the tiring-room of the sweet sprite who had but now set
the pit wild with a hat over a sparkling eye and to that of the
actor-manager of the House. A rough table, a few chairs, a mirror which
had evidently seen better days in some grand mansion and a large
throne-chair which might equally well have satisfied the royalty of
Macbeth or Christopher Sly--its royalty, forsooth, being in its size,
for thus only could it lord-it over its mates--stood in the corner. Old
armour hung upon the wall, grim in the light of candles fixed in
braziers. Rushes were strewn about the floor.
Ah! Pepys, Pepys, was it here that you recalled "specially kissing of
Nell"? Mayhap; for we read in your book: "I kissed her, and so did my
wife, and a mighty pretty soul she is." Be that as it may, however, you
must have found Nell's lips very agreeable; for a great wit has
suggested that it was well that Mrs. Pepys was present on the occasion.
On great play-nights, however, this most unroyal room assumed the
proportions of royalty. Gallants and even lords sought entrance here and
elbowed their way about; and none dared say them nay. They forced a way
even upon the stage during the play, though not so commonly as before
the Restoration, yet still too much; and the players played as best they
could, and where best they could. _Billets-doux_ passed, sweet
words were said,--all in this dilapidated, unpretentious, candle-lighted
room.
At the moment of which we speak, the greenroom was deserted save for a
lad of twelve or fourteen years, who stood before the mirror, posing to
his personal satisfaction and occasionally delivering bits from
"Hamlet." He was none other than "Dick," the call-boy of the King's
House.
The lad struck a final attitude, his brow clouded. He assumed what
seemed to him the proper pose for the royal Dane. His meditations and
his pose, however, were broken in upon by the sudden entrance of Manager
Hart, flushed and in an unusual state of excitement.
"Where is my dagger, Dick?" he exclaimed, pacing the room.
The boy came to himself but slowly.
"What are you doing? Get my dagger, boy," wildly reiterated the irate
manager. "Don't you see there will be a stage-wait?" He cast an anxious
glance in the direction of the door which led to the stage.
"Where did you leave it, sir?" asked the lad, finally realizing that it
would be wise not to trifle at such a time.
"Never mind where I left it. Get it, get it; do you hear! Nell's on the
stage already." Hart rushed to the door and looked off in an increasing
state of excitement.
"Why, you've got your dagger on, sir," hesitatingly suggested the lad,
as he caught the gleam of a small scimiter among the folds of Almanzor's
tunic.
Hart's face flushed.
"Devil take you, boy," he exclaimed; "you are too stupid ever to make an
actor!"
With this speech, the manager strode out of the greenroom toward the
stage.
Poor Dick sank back in an attitude of resignation. "How long, O Rome,
must I endure this bondage?" he said, sadly.
He again observed his boyish figure in the mirror, and the pretty face
brightened as he realized that there might still be hope in life,
despite Manager Hart's assertion that he would never be able to act. His
features slowly sank into a set expression of tremendous gloom, such as
he thought should characterize his conception of himself as Hamlet when
in days to come the mantles of Burbage and of Betterton should be his
and Manager Hart must bow to him. He stood transfixed before the glass
in a day-dream, forgetful of his ills. His pretty lips moved, and one
close by might have heard again, "To be or not to be" in well-modulated
phrase.
"Ah, boy; here!"
Dick started.
It was a richly dressed gallant, in old-rose with royal orders, who had
entered the room quietly but authoritatively from the street--the same
lordly personage we observed in the pit. His manner was that of one
accustomed to be obeyed and quickly too. The lad knew him and bowed low.
"Tell Mistress Nell, Buckingham would speak with her. Lively, lad;
lively," he said.
"She is on the stage, my lord," replied Dick, respectfully.
"Gad, I thought otherwise and stepped about from my box. Here; put these
flowers in her tiring-room."
The boy took the beautiful bouquet of white roses. "Yes, my lord," he
replied, and turned to do the bidding.
"Flowers strewn in ladies' ways oft' lead to princely favours," muttered
his lordship, thoughtfully, as he removed his gloves and vainly adjusted
his hat and sword. "Portsmouth at Dover told me that."
It was apparent from his face that much passed before his mind, in that
little second, of days when, at Dover Castle not long since, he had been
a part--and no small part--of the intrigue well planned by Louis of
France, and well executed by the Duchess of Orleans assisted by the fair
Louise, now Duchess of Portsmouth, in which his own purse and power had
waxed mightily. Whatever his lordship thought, however, it was gone like
the panorama before a drowning brain.
He stopped the lad as he was entering Nell's tiring-room, with an
exclamation. The boy returned.
"You gave Mistress Nell my note bidding her to supper?" he asked,
questioningly.
"I did, my lord," answered Dick.
"'Sheart, a madrigal worthy of Bacchus! She smiled delightedly?"
continued his lordship, in a jocular mood.
"No, my lord; quite serious."
His lordship's face changed slightly. "Read it eagerly?" he ventured,
where he might have commanded, further to draw out the lad.
"Yes, my lord," added Dick, respectfully, "after a time." The boy's lids
dropped to avoid revealing his amused recollection of the incident; and
his lordship's quick eye noted it.
"Good!" he exclaimed, with an assumed triumphant air. "She folded it
carefully and placed it in her bosom next her heart?"
"She threw it on the floor, my lord!" meekly answered Dick, hiding his
face in the flowers to avoid revealing disrespect.
"My _billet-doux_ upon the floor!" angrily exclaimed his lordship.
"Plague on't, she said something, made some answer, boy?" The diplomat
was growing earnest despite himself, as diplomats often do in the cause
of women.
Dick trembled.
"She said your dinners made amends for your company, my lord," he said,
meekly.
Buckingham's eyes snapped; but he was too clever to reveal his feelings
further to a call-boy, whom he dismissed with a wave of the hand. He
then swaggered to the table and complacently exclaimed: "The rogue!
Nelly, Nelly, your lips shall pay tribute for that. Rosy impudence!
Buckingham's dinners make amends for his company? Minx!" He threw
himself into a chair, filled with deep reflections of supper and wine,
wit and beauty, rather than state-craft.
Thus lost in selfish reflection, he did not observe, or, if he did,
cared not for, the frail figure and sweet face of one who cautiously
tiptoed into the greenroom. It was Orange Moll, whose sad countenance
and tattered garments betokened a sadder story. Her place was in the
pit, with her back to the stage, vending her oranges to artisans, girls
with vizards or foolish gallants. She had no right behind the scenes.
"I am 'most afraid to enter here without Nell," she thought,
faint-heartedly, as she glanced about the room and her eyes fell upon
the great Lord Buckingham.
"Oranges? Will you have my oranges? Only sixpence, my lord," she
ventured at length, then hesitatingly advanced and offered her wares;
but his lordship's thoughts were far away.
"What shall we have for supper?" was his sole concern. "I think Nelly
would like spiced tongue." Instantly his hands and eyes were raised in
mock invocation of the intervention of the Powers that Be, and so
suddenly that Moll drew back. "Ye Gods," he exclaimed aloud, "she has
enough of that already! Ah, the vintage of----"
It was more habit than courage which brought to Moll's trembling lips
the familiar orange-cry, which again interrupted him: "Oranges; only
sixpence. Here is one picked for you, my lord."
Buckingham's eyes flashed with anger; he was not wont to have his way,
much less his pleasure, disturbed by the lowly. "Oh, hang you, you
disturb me. I am thinking; don't you perceive I am thinking? Begone!"
"Only sixpence, my lord; I have not sold one to-night," pleaded the
girl, sadly.
His lordship rose irritably. "I have no pauper's pence," he exclaimed.
"Out of my way! Ragbag!" He pushed the girl roughly aside and crossed
the room.
At the same instant, there was confusion at the stage-door, the climax
of which was the re-entrance of Hart into the greenroom.
"How can a man play when he trembles for his life lest he step upon a
lord?" cried the angry manager. "They should be horsewhipped off the
stage, and"--his eyes falling upon Buckingham--"out of the greenroom."
"Ah, Hart," began his lordship, with a patronizing air, "why is Nelly so
long? I desire to see her."
Hart's lips trembled, but he controlled his passion. "Indeed? His
Majesty and the good folk in front would doubtless gladly await your
interview with Mistress Eleanor Gwyn. Shall I announce your will, my
lord, unto his Majesty and stop the play?"
"You grow ironical, friend Hart," replied his lordship.
"Not so," said the actor, bowing low; "I am your lordship's most
obedient servant."
Buckingham's lip curled and his eyes revealed that he would have said
more, but the room was meantime filling with players from the stage,
some exchanging compliments, some strutting before the glass, and he
would not so degrade his dignity before them. Dick, foil in hand even in
the manager's room, was testing the steel's strength to his utmost, in
boyish fashion.
This confusion lent Moll courage, and forth came again the cry:
"Oranges? Will you have my oranges? Only sixpence, sir."
She boldly offered her wares to Almanzor, but started and paled when
the hero turned and revealed Manager Hart.
"What are you doing here, you little imp? Back to the pit, where you
belong." The manager's voice was full of meaning.
"Nell told me I might come here, sir," said the girl, faintly excusing
herself.
Hart's temper got the better of him. To admit before all that Nell ruled
the theatre was an affront to his managerial dignity which he could not
brook.
"Oh, Nell did, did she?" he almost shrieked, as he angrily paced the
room like some caged beast, gesticulating wildly.
The actors gathered in groups and looked askant.
"Gadso," he continued, "who is manager, I should like to know! Nell
would introduce her whole trade here if she could. Every orange-peddler
in London will set up a stand in the greenroom at the King's, next we
know. Out with you! This is a temple of art, not a marketplace. Out with
you!"
He seized Moll roughly in his anger and almost hurled her out at the
door. He would have done so, indeed, had not Nell entered at this moment
from the stage. Her eye caught the situation at a glance.
"Oh, blood, Iago, blood!" she exclaimed, mock-heroically, then burst
into the merriest laugh that one could care to hear. "How now, a tragedy
in the greenroom! What lamb is being sacrificed?"
Hart stood confused; the players whispered in expectation; and an amused
smile played upon the features of my Lord Buckingham at the manager's
discomfiture. Finally Hart found his tongue.
"An old comrade of yours at orange-vending before you lost the art of
acting," he suggested, with a glance at Moll.
[Illustration: "ENEMIES TO THE KING--BEWARE!"]
"By association with you, Jack?" replied the witch of the theatre in a
way which bespoke more answers that wisdom best not bring forth.
Nell's whole heart went out to the subject of the controversy. Poor
little tattered Orange Moll! She was carried back in an instant to her
own bitter life and bitter struggles when an orange-girl. Throwing an
arm about the child, she kissed away the tears with, "What is the
matter, dear Moll?"
"They are all mocking me, and sent me back to the pit," replied the
girl, hysterically.
"Shame on you all," said Nell; and the eyes that were so full of comedy
revealed tragic fire.
"Fy, fy," pleaded Hart; "I'll be charitable to-morrow, Nell, after this
strain is off--but a first night--"
"You need charity yourself?" suggested Nell; and she burst into a merry
laugh, in which many joined.
Buckingham instantly took up the gauntlet for a bold play, for a _coup
d'etat_ in flattery. "Pshaw!" he cried, waving aside the players in a
princely fashion. "When Nell plays, we have no time to munch oranges.
Let the wench bawl in the street."
Poor Moll's tears flowed again with each harsh word. Nell was not so
easily affected.
"Odso, my lord! It is a pity your lordship is not a player. Then the
orange-trade would flourish," she said.
Buckingham bowed, amused and curious. "Say you so, i' faith! Pray, why,
mad minx?"
"Your lordship would make such a good mark for the peel," retorted Nell,
tossing a bit of orange-peel in his face, to the infinite delight of
Hart and his fellow-players.
"Devil!" angrily exclaimed his lordship as he realized the insult. "I
would kill a man for this; a woman, I can only love." His hand left his
sword-hilt; and he bowed low to the vixen of the theatre, picked from
the floor the bit of peel which had fallen, kissed it, tossed it over
his shoulder and turned away.
Nell was not done, however; her revenge was incomplete. "There! dry your
eyes, Moll," she exclaimed. "Give me your basket, child. You shall be
avenged still further."
The greenroom had now filled from the stage and the tiring-rooms; and
all gathered gleefully about to see what next the impish Nell would do,
for avenged she would be they all knew, though the course of her
vengeance none could guess.
The manager, catching at the probable outcome when Nell seized from
Moll's trembling arm the basket heaped with golden fruit, gave the first
warning: "Great Heavens! Flee for your lives! I'faith, here comes the
veteran robber at such traffic."
There was a sudden rush for the stage, but Nell cried: "Guard the door,
Moll; don't let a rascal out. I'll do the rest."
It was not Moll's strength, however, which kept the greenroom filled,
but expectation of Nell. All gathered about with the suspense of a
drama; for Nell herself was a whole play as she stood in the centre of
that little group of lords and players, dressed for Almahyde, Dryden's
heroine, with a basket of oranges on her dimpled arm. What a pretty
picture she was too--prettier here even than on the stage! The nearer,
the prettier! A band of roses, one end of which formed a garland falling
to the floor, circled and bound in her curls. What a figure in her
Oriental garb, hiding and revealing. Indeed, the greenroom seemed
bewitched by her cry: "Oranges, will you have my oranges?"
She lifted the basket high and offered the fruit in her enchanting
old-time way, a way which had won for her the place of first actress in
England. Could it not now dispose of Moll's wares and make the child
happy? Almahyde's royal train was caught up most unroyally, revealing
two dainty ankles; and she laughed and danced and disposed of her wares
all in a breath. Listen and love:
_Sweet as love-lips, dearest mine,
Picked by Spanish maids divine,
Black-eyed beauties, who, like Eve,
With golden fruit their loves deceive!
Buy oranges; buy oranges!_
_Close your eyes, when these you taste;
Think your arm about her waist:
Thus with sixpence may you win
Happiness unstained with sin.
Buy oranges; buy oranges!_
_As the luscious fruit you sip,
You will wager 'tis her lip;
Nothing sweeter since the rise
Of wickedness in Paradise.
Buy oranges; buy oranges!_
There were cries of "Brava!" "Another jig!" and "Hurrah for Nelly!" It
was one of those bits of acting behind the scenes which are so rare and
exquisite and which the audience never see.
"Marry, gallants, deny me after that, if you dare"; and Nell's little
foot came down firmly in the last step of a triumphant jig, indicating a
determination that Moll's oranges should be sold and quickly too.
"Last act! All ready for the last act," rang out in Dick's familiar
voice from the stage-door as she ended. It was well some one thought of
the play and of the audience in waiting.
Many of the players hastily departed to take up their cues; but not so
Nell. Her eyes were upon the lordly Buckingham, who was endeavouring to
effect a crafty exit.
"Not so fast, my lord," she said as she caught his handsome cloak and
drew him back into the room. "I want you with me." She looked coyly into
his lordship's face as though he were the one man in all the world she
loved, and her curls and cheek almost nestled against his rich cloak. "A
dozen, did you say? What a heart you have, my lord. A bountiful heart!"
Buckingham was dazed; his eyes sought Nell, then looked aghast at the
oranges she would force upon him. The impudence of it!
"A dozen!" he exclaimed in awe. "'Slife, Nelly; what would I do with a
dozen oranges?"
"Pay for them, in sooth," promptly replied the vixen. "I never give a
lord credit."
The player-folk gathered closer to watch the scene; for there was
evidently more fun brewing, and that too at the expense of a very royal
gentleman.
"A player talk of credit!" replied his lordship, quite ironically, as he
straightened up proudly for a wit-encounter. "What would become of the
mummers, if the lords did not fill their empty pockets?" he said,
crushingly.
"What would become of the lords, if the players' brains did not try to
fill their empty skulls with wits?" quickly retorted Nell.
"If you were a man, sweet Nelly, I should answer: 'The lords first had
fools at court; then supplanted them with players!'"
"And, being a woman, I do answer," replied the irrepressible Nell,
"'--and played the fools themselves, my lord!'"
The players tried to smother their feelings; but the retort was too apt,
and the greenroom rang with laughter.
Buckingham turned fiercely upon them; but their faces were instantly
mummified.
"Gad, I would sooner face the Dutch fleet, Nelly. Up go my hands, fair
robber," he said. He had decided to succumb for the present. In his
finger-tips glistened a golden guinea.
Nell eyed the coin dubiously.
"Nay, keep this and your wares too," added his lordship, in hope of
peace, as he placed it in her hand.
"Do you think me a beggar?" replied Nell, indignantly. "Take your
possessions, every one--every orange." She filled his hands and arms to
overflowing with her golden wares.
His lordship winced, but stood subdued.
"What am I to do with them?" he asked, falteringly.
"Eat them; eat them," promptly and forcefully retorted the quondam
orange-vender.
"All?" asked his lordship.
"All!" replied her ladyship.
"Damme, I cannot hold a dozen," he exclaimed, aghast.
"A chair! A chair!" cried Nell. "Would your lordship stand at the feast
of gold?"
Before Buckingham had time to reflect upon the outrage to his dignity,
Nell forced him into a chair, to the great glee of the by-standers,
especially of Manager Hart, who chuckled to an actor by his side:
"She'll pluck his fine feathers; curse his arrogance."
"Your knees together, my lord! What, have they never united in prayer?"
gleefully laughed Nell as she further humbled his lordship by forcing
his knees together to form a lap upon which to pile more oranges.
Buckingham did not relish the scene; but he was clever enough to humour
the vixen, both from fear of her tongue and from hope of favours as well
as words from her rosy lips.
"They'll unite to hold _thee_, wench," he suggested, with a sickly
laugh, as he observed his knees well laden with oranges. "I trow not,"
retorted Nell; "they can scarce hold their own. There!" and she
roguishly capped the pyramid which burdened his lordship's knees with
the largest in her basket.
"I'll barter these back for my change, sweet Nell," he pleaded.
"What change?" quickly cried the merry imp of Satan.
"I gave you a golden guinea," answered his lordship, woefully.
"I gave you a golden dozen, my lord!" replied Nell, gleefully.
"Oranges, who will have my oranges?"
She was done with Buckingham and had turned about for other prey.
Hart could not allow the opportunity to escape without a shot at his
hated lordship.
"Fleeced," he whispered grimly over his lordship's shoulder, with a
merry chuckle.
Buckingham rose angrily.
"A plague on the wench and her dealings," he said. His oranges rolled
far and wide over the floor of the greenroom.
"You should be proud, my lord, to be robbed by so fair a hand,"
continued Hart, consolingly. "'Tis an honour, I assure you; we all envy
you."
Buckingham did not relish the consolation.
"'Tis an old saw, Master Hart," he replied: "'He laughs best who laughs
last.'"
As he spoke, Nell's orange-cry rang out again above the confusion and
the fun. She was still at it. Moll was finding vengeance and money,
indeed, though she dwelt upon her accumulating possessions through
eyelashes dim with tears.
"It's near your cue, Mistress Nell," cried out the watchful Dick at the
stage-door.
"Six oranges left; see me sell them, Moll," cried the unheeding vender.
"It's near your cue, Mistress Nell!" again shouted the call-boy, in
anxious tones.
"Marry, my cue will await my coming, pretty one," laughed Nell.
The boy was not so sure of that. "Oh, don't be late, Mistress Nell," he
pleaded. "I'll buy the oranges rather than have you make a stage-wait."
"Dear heart," replied Nell, touched by the lad's solicitude. "Keep your
pennies, Dick, and you and I will have a lark with them some fine day.
Six oranges, left; going--going--" She sprang into the throne-chair,
placed one of the smallest feet in England impudently on one of its arms
and proceeded to vend her remaining wares from on high, to the huge
satisfaction of her admirers.
The situation was growing serious. Nell was not to be trifled with. The
actors stood breathless. Hart grew wild as he realized the difficulty
and the fact that she was uncontrollable. King and Parliament, he well
knew, could not move her from her whimsical purpose, much less the
manager of the King's.
"What are you doing, Nell?" he pleaded, wildly. "You will ruin the first
night. His Majesty in front, too! Dryden will never forgive us if
'Granada' goes wrong through our fault."
"Heyday! What care I for 'Granada'?" and Nell swung the basket of
oranges high in air and calmly awaited bids. "Not a step on the stage
till the basket is empty."
It was Buckingham's turn now. "Here's music for our manager," he
chuckled. "Our deepest sympathy, friend Hart."
This was more than Hart could bear. The manager of the King's House was
forced into profanity. "Damn your sympathy," exclaimed he; and few would
criticise him for it. He apologized as quickly, however, and turned to
Nell. "There goes your scene, Nell. I'll buy your oranges, when you come
off," he continued to plead, in desperation, scarcely less fearful of
offending her than of offending the great Lord Buckingham.
"Now or never," calmly replied the vender from her chair-top.
"The devil take the women," muttered Hart, frantically, as he rushed
headlong into his tiring-room.
"Marry, Heaven defend," laughed Nell; "for he's got the men already."
She sprang lightly from the chair to the floor.
Hart was back on the instant, well out of breath but purse in hand.
"Here, here," he exclaimed. "Never mind the oranges, wench. The audience
will be waiting."
"Faith and troth, and is not Nell worth waiting for?" she cried, her
eyes shining radiantly. Indeed, the audience would have gladly waited,
could they have but seen her pretty, winsome way! "These are
yours--all--all!" she continued, as she gleefully emptied the basket of
its remaining fruit over Prince Almanzor's head.
Hart protested vainly.
Then rushing back to Moll, Nell threw both arms about the girl
triumphantly. "There, Moll," she said, "is your basket and all the
trophies"; and she gave Moll the basket with the glittering coins
jangling in it.
"Your cue--your cue is spoken, Mistress Nell," shrieked Dick from the
stage-door.
Nell heeded not. Her eyes happening upon an orange which had fallen near
the throne-chair, she caught it up eagerly and hurled it at Manager
Hart.
"Forsooth, here's another orange, Master Manager."
He succeeded in catching it despite his excitement.
"Your cue--your cue--Mistress Nell!" came from every throat as one.
Nell tossed back her head indifferently. "Let them wait; let them wait,"
she said, defiantly.
The stage-beauty crossed leisurely to the glass and carelessly arranged
her drapery and the band of roses encircling her hair.
Then the hoyden was gone. In an instant, Nell was transformed into the
princess, Almahyde. The room had been filled with breathless suspense;
but what seemed to the players an endless period of time was but a
minute. Nell turned to the manager, and with all the suavity of a
princess of tragedy kissed her hand tantalizingly to him and said: "Now,
Jack, I'll teach you how to act."
She passed out, and, in a moment, rounds of applause from the
amphitheatre filled the room. She was right; the audience would wait for
her.
A moment later, the greenroom was deserted except for Manager Hart and
Lord Buckingham. Hart had thrown the call-boy almost bodily through the
door that led to the stage, thus venting his anger upon the unoffending
lad, who had been unfortunate enough to happen in his way ill betimes.
He now stood vainly contemplating himself before the glass and awaiting
his cue. Buckingham leaned upon a chair-top, uncertain as to his course.
"Damme! She shall rue this work," he muttered at length. "A man might as
well make love to a wind-mill. I forgot to tell her how her gown becomes
her. That is a careless thing to forget." The reflection forthwith
determined his course. "Nelly, Nelly, Nelly," he called as he quickly
crossed the room after the departed Nell, "you are divine to-night. Your
gown is simply--"
The manager's voice stayed him at the stage-door. "My lord, come back;
my lord--"
Buckingham's hand had gone so far, indeed, as to push open the door. He
stood entranced as he looked out upon the object of his adoration upon
the stage. "Perfection!" he exclaimed. "Your eyes--"
"My lord, my lord, you forget--"
Buckingham turned indignantly at the voice which dared to interrupt him
in the midst of his rhapsody.
"You forget--your oranges, my lord," mildly suggested Hart, as he
pointed to the fruit scattered upon the floor.
Buckingham's face crimsoned. "Plague on't! They are sour, Master Hart."
With a glance of contempt, he turned on his heel and left the room.
A triumphant smile played upon the manager's face. He felt that he had
annoyed his lordship without his intention being apparent. "A good exit,
on my honour," he muttered, as he stood contemplating the door through
which Buckingham had passed; "but, by Heaven, he shall better it unless
he takes his eyes from Nell. Great men believe themselves resistless
with the fair; more often, the fair are resistless with great men."
He took a final look at himself in the glass, adjusted his scimiter;
and, well satisfied with himself and the conceit of his epigram unheard
save by himself, he also departed, to take up his cue.
CHAPTER III
_He took them from Castlemaine's hand to throw to you._
The greenroom seemed like some old forest rent by a storm. Its
furniture, which was none too regular at best, either in carving or
arrangement, had the irregularity which comes only with a tempest, human
or divine. The table, it is true, still stood on its four oaken legs;
but even it was well awry. The chairs were scattered here and there,
some resting upon their backs. To add to all this, oranges in confusion
were strewn broadcast upon the floor.
A storm in fact had visited the greenroom. The storm was Nell.
In the midst of the confusion, a jolly old face peeped cautiously in at
the door which led to the street. At the sound of Manager Hart's
thunderous tones coming from the stage, however, it as promptly
disappeared, only to return when the apparent danger ceased. It was a
rare old figure and a rare old dress and a rare old man. Yet, not an old
man either. His face was red; for he was a tavern spirit, well known and
well beloved,--a lover of good ale! Across his back hung a fiddle which
too had the appearance of being the worse for wear, if fiddles can ever
be said to be the worse for wear.
The intruder took off his dilapidated hat, hugged his fiddle closely
under his arm and looked about the room, more cautiously than
respectfully.
"Oons, here is a scattering of props; a warfare of the orange-wenches!"
he exclaimed. "A wise head comes into battle after the last shot is
fired."
He proceeded forthwith to fill his pockets, of which there seemed to be
an abundance of infinite depth, with oranges. This done, he calmly made
a hole in the next orange which came to his hand and began to suck it
loudly and persistently, boy-fashion, meanwhile smacking his lips. His
face was one wreath of unctuous smiles. "There is but one way to eat an
orange," he chuckled; "that's through a hole."
At this moment, Hart's voice was heard again upon the stage, and the
new-comer to the greenroom liked to have dropped his orange. "Odsbud,
that's one of Master Hart's love-tones," he thought. "I must see Nell
before he sees me, or it will be farewell Strings." He hastened to
Nell's tiring-room and rapped lightly on the door. "Mistress Nell!
Mistress Nell!" he called.
The door opened, but it was not Nell. Her maid pointed toward the stage.
Strings--for Strings was his name, or at least none knew him by a
better--accordingly hobbled across the room--for the wars too had left
their mark on him--and peeped off in the direction indicated.
"Gad," he exclaimed, gleefully clapping his hands, "there she goes on
the stage as a Moorish princess."
There was a storm of applause without.
"Bravo, Nelly, bravo!" he continued. "She's caught the lads in the pit.
They worship Nell out there." The old fellow straightened up as if he
felt a personal pride in the audience for evincing such good taste.
"Oons! Jack Hart struts about like a young game-cock at his first
fight," he observed. He broke into an infectious laugh, which would have
been a fine basso for Nell's laugh.
From the manager, his eye turned toward the place which he himself had
once occupied among the musicians. He began to dance up and down with
both feet, his knees well bent, boy-fashion, and to clap his hands
wildly. "Look ye, little Tompkins got my old place with the fiddle.
Whack, de-doodle-de-do! Whack, de-doodle, de-doodle-de-do!" he cried,
giving grotesque imitations to his own great glee of his successor as
leader of the orchestra.
Then, shaking his head, confident of his own superiority with the bow,
he turned back into the greenroom and, with his mouth half full of
orange, uttered the droll dictum: "It will take more than catgut and
horse-hair to make you a fiddler, Tommy, my boy."
Thus Strings stood blandly sucking his orange with personal satisfaction
in the centre of the room, when Dick entered from the stage. The
call-boy paused as if he could not believe his eyes. He looked and
looked again.
"Heigh-ho!" he exclaimed at last, and then rushed across the room to
greet the old fiddler. "Why, Strings, I thought we would never see you
again; how fares it with you?"
Strings placed the orange which he had been eating and which he knew
full well was none of his own well behind him; and, assuming an
unconcerned and serious air, he replied: "Odd! A little the worse for
wear, Dickey, me and the old fiddle, but still smiling with the world."
There was a bit of a twinkle in his eye as he spoke.
Dick, ever mindful of the welfare and appearance of the theatre,
unhooked from the wall a huge shield, which mayhap had served some
favourite knight of yore, and, using it as a tray, proceeded to gather
the scattered fruit.
"Have an orange?" he inquired of Strings, who still stood in a
reflective mood in the centre of the room, as he rested in his labours
by him.
"How; do they belong to you?" demanded Strings.
"Oh, no," admitted Dick, "but--"
The fiddler instantly assumed an air of injured innocence.
"How dare you," he cried, "offer me what don't belong to you?" He turned
upon the boy almost ferociously at the bare thought. "Honesty is the
best policy," he continued, seriously. "I have tried both, lad"; and, in
his eagerness to impress upon the boy the seriousness of taking that
which does not belong to you, he gestured inadvertently with the hand
which till now had held the stolen orange well behind him.
[Illustration: A FRIEND EVEN UNTO HER WORST ENEMY.]
Dick's eye fell upon it, and so did Strings's. There was a moment's
awkwardness, and then both burst into a peal of joyous laughter.
"Oh, well, egad,--I _will_ join you, Dick," said Strings, with more
patronage still than apology. He seated himself upon the table and began
anew to suck his orange in philosophic fashion.
"But, mind you, lad; never again offer that which is not your own, for
there you are twice cursed," he discoursed pompously. "You make him who
receives guilty of your larceny. Oons, my old wound." He winced from
pain. "He becomes an accomplice in your crime. So says the King's law.
Hush, lad, I am devouring the evidence of your guilt."
The boy by this time had placed the shield of oranges in the corner of
the room and had returned to listen to Strings's discourse. "You speak
with the learning of a solicitor," he said, as he looked respectfully
into the old fiddler's face.
Strings met the glance with due dignity.
"Marry, I've often been in the presence of a judge," he replied, with
great solemnity. His face reflected the ups and downs in his career as
he made the confession.
"Is that where you have been, Strings, all these long days?" asked Dick,
innocently.
"Heaven forbid!" exclaimed Strings, with sadly retrospective
countenance. "Travelling, lad--contemplating the world, from the King's
highways. Take note, my boy,--a prosperous man! I came into the world
without a rag that I could call my own, and now I have an abundance.
Saith the philosopher: Some men are born to rags, some achieve rags and
some have rags thrust upon them."
"I wish you were back with us, Strings," said the boy, sympathetically,
as he put a hand upon Strings's broad shoulder and looked admiringly up
into his face.
"I wish so myself," replied the fiddler. "Thrice a day, I grow lonesome
here." A weather-beaten hand indicated the spot where good dinners
should be.
"They haven't all forgot you, Strings," continued his companion,
consolingly.
"Right, lad!" said Strings, musingly, as he lifted the old viol close
against his cheek and tenderly picked it. "The old fiddle is true to me
yet, though there is but one string left to its dear old neck." There
was a sob in his voice as he spoke. "I tell you, a fiddle's human, Dick!
It laughs at my jokes alone now; it weeps at my sorrows." He sighed
deeply and the tears glistened in his eyes. "The fiddle is the only
friend left me and the little ones at home now, my lad."
"--And Dick!" the boy suggested, somewhat hurt. He too was weeping.
"It's a shame; that's what it is!" he broke out, indignantly. "Tompkins
can't play the music like you used to, Strings."
"Oons!" exclaimed the fiddler, the humour in his nature bubbling again
to the surface. "It's only now and then the Lord has time to make a
fiddler, Dickey, my boy."
As he spoke, the greenroom shook with the rounds of applause from the
pit and galleries without.
"Hurrah!" he shouted, following Dick to the stage-door--his own sorrows
melting before the sunshine of his joy at the success of his favourite.
"Nell has caught them with the epilogue." He danced gleefully about,
entering heartily into the applause and totally forgetful of the fact
that he was on dangerous ground.
Dick was more watchful. "Manager Hart's coming!" he exclaimed in
startled voice, fearful for the welfare of his friend.
Strings collapsed. "Oh, Lord, let me be gone," he said, as he remembered
the bitter quarrel he had had with the manager of the King's House,
which ended in the employment of Tompkins. He did not yearn for another
interview; for Hart had forbidden him the theatre on pain of whipping.
"Where can you hide?" whispered Dick, woefully, as the manager's voice
indicated that he was approaching the greenroom, and that too in far
from the best of humour.
"Behind Richard's throne-chair! It has held sinners before now," added
the fiddler as he glided well out of sight.
Dick was more cautious. In a twinkling, he was out of the door which led
to the street.
The greenroom walls looked grim in the sputtering candle-light, but they
had naught to say.
The door from the stage opened, and in came Nell. There was something
sadly beautiful and pathetic in her face. She had enjoyed but now one of
the grandest triumphs known to the theatre, and yet she seemed oblivious
to the applause and bravas, to the lights and to the royalty.
A large bouquet of flowers was in her arms--a bouquet of red roses. Her
lips touched them reverently. Her eyes, however, were far away in a
dream of the past.
"From the hand of the King of England!" she mused softly to herself.
"The King? How like his face to the youthful cavalier, who weary and
worn reined in his steed a summer's day, now long ago, and took a gourd
of water from my hand. Could he have been the King? Pooh, pooh! I dream
again."
She turned away, as from herself, with a heart-heavy laugh. The manager
entered from the stage.
"See, Jack, my flowers," she said, again in an ecstasy of happiness.
"Are they not exquisite?"
"He took them from Castlemaine's hand to throw to you," snarled Hart,
jealously.
"The sweeter, then!" and Nell broke into a tantalizing laugh. "Mayhap he
was teaching the player-king to do likewise, Jack," she added,
roguishly, as she arranged the flowers in a vase.
"I am in no mood for wit-thrusts," replied Hart as he fretfully paced
the room. "You played that scene like an icicle."
"In sooth, your acting froze me," slyly retorted Nell, kindly but
pointedly. She took the sweetest roses from the bunch, kissed them and
arranged them in her bosom.
This did not improve Hart's temper.
Strings seized the opportunity to escape from his hiding-place to the
stage.
"I say, you completely ruined my work," said Hart. "The audience were
rightly displeased."
"With you, perhaps," suggested Nell. "I did not observe the feeling."
Hart could no longer control himself. "You vilely read those glorious
lines:
_"See how the gazing People crowd the Place;
All gaping to be fill'd with my Disgrace.
That Shout, like the hoarse Peals of Vultures rings,
When, over fighting Fields they beat their wings."_
"And how should I read them, dear master?" she asked demurely of her
vainglorious preceptor.
"Like I read them, in sooth," replied he, well convinced that his
reading could not be bettered.
"Like you read them, in sooth," replied Nell, meekly. She took the floor
and repeated the lines with the precise action and trick of voice which
Hart had used. Every "r" was well trilled; "gaping" was pronounced with
an anaconda-look, as though she were about to swallow the theatre,
audience and all; and, as she spoke the line, "When, over fighting
Fields they beat their wings," she raised her arms and shoulders in
imitation of some barn-yard fowl vainly essaying flight and swept across
the room, the picture of grace in ungracefulness.
"'Tis monstrous!" exclaimed Hart, bitterly, as he realized the travesty.
"You cannot act and never could. I was a fool to engage you."
Nell was back by the vase, toying with the flowers. "London applauds my
acting," she suggested, indifferently.
"London applauds the face and figure; not the art," replied Hart.
"London is wise; for the art is in the face and figure, Master Jack. You
told me so yourself," she added, sharply, pointing her finger at her
adversary in quick condemnation. She turned away triumphant.
"I was a fool like the rest," replied Hart, visibly irritated that he
could not get the better of the argument.
"Come, don't be angry," said Nell. Her manner had changed; for her heart
had made her fearful lest her tongue had been unkind. "Mayhap Almahyde
is the last part Nell will ever play." She looked thoughtfully into the
bunch of roses. Did she see a prophecy there?
He approached the table where she stood. "Your head is turned by the
flowers," he said, bitterly. "An honest motive, no doubt, prompted the
royal gift."
Nell turned sharply upon him. Her lips trembled, but one word only came
to them--"Jack!"
Hart's eyes fell under the rebuke; for he knew that only anger prompted
what he had said. He would have struck another for the same words.
"Pardon, Nell," he said, softly. "My heart rebukes my tongue. I love
you!"
Nell stepped back to the mirror, contemplating herself, bedecked as she
was with the flowers. In an instant she forgot all, and replied
playfully to Hart's confession of love: "Of course, you do. How could
you help it? So do others."
"I love you better than the rest," he added, vehemently, "better than my
life." He tried to put his arms about her.
Nell, however, was by him like a flash.
"Not so fast, dear sir," she said, coyly; and she tiptoed across the
room and ensconced herself high in the throne-chair.
Hart followed and knelt below her, adoring.
"Admit that I can act--a little--just a little--dear Hart, or tell me no
more of love." She spoke with the half-amused, half-indifferent air of a
beautiful princess to some servant-suitor; and she was, indeed, most
lovable as she leaned back in the great throne-chair. She seemed a queen
and the theatre her realm. Her beautiful arms shone white in the
flickering candle-light. Her sceptre was a rose which the King of
England had given her.
Hart stepped back and looked upon the picture. "By heaven, Nell," he
cried, "I spoke in anger. You are the most marvellous actress in the
world. Nature, art and genius crown your work."
Nell smiled at his vehemence. "I begin to think that you have taste most
excellent," she said.
Hart sprang to her side, filled with hope. As the stage-lover he ne'er
spoke in tenderer tones. "Sweet Nell, when I found you in the pit, a
ragged orange-girl, I saw the sparkle in your eye, the bright
intelligence, the magic genius, which artists love. I claimed you for my
art, which is the art of arts--for it embraces all. I had the theatre. I
gave it you. You captured the Lane--then London. You captured my soul as
well, and held it slave."
"Did I do all that, dear Jack?" she asked, wistfully.
"And more," said Hart, rapturously. "You captured my years to come, my
hope, ambition, love--all. All centred in your heart and eyes, sweet
Nell, from the hour I first beheld you."
Nell's look was far away. "Is love so beautiful?" she murmured softly.
Her eye fell upon her sceptre-rose. "Yea, I begin to think it is." She
mused a moment, until the silence seemed to awaken her. She looked into
Hart's eyes again, sadly but firmly, then spoke as with an effort: "You
paint the picture well, dear Jack. Paint on." Her hand waved
commandingly.
"I could not paint ill with such a model," said he, his voice full of
adoration.
"Well said," she replied; "and by my troth, I have relented like you,
dear Jack. I admit you too can act--and marvellously well." She took his
trembling hand and descended from the throne. He tried once again to
embrace her, but she avoided him as before.
"Is't true?" he asked, eagerly, without observing the hidden meaning in
her voice.
"'Tis true, indeed--with proper emphasis and proper art and proper
intonation." She crossed the room, Hart following her.
"I scarce can live for joy," he breathed.
Nell leaned back upon the table and looked knowingly and deeply into
Hart's eyes. Her voice grew very low, but clear and full of meaning.
"In faith," she said, "I trow and sadly speak but true; for I am sad at
times--yea--very sad--when I observe, with all my woman's wiles and
arts, I cannot act the hypocrite like men."
"What mean you, darling cynic?" asked he, jocosely.
"Darling!" she cried, repeating the word, with a peculiar look. "To tell
two girls within the hour you love each to the death would be in me
hypocrisy, I admit, beyond my art; but you men can do such things with
conscience clear."
Hart turned away his face. "She's found me out," he thought.
"Nell, I never loved the Spanish dancing-girl. You know I love but you."
"Oh, ho!" laughed Nell. "Then why did you tell her so?--to break her
heart or mine?"
The manager stood confused. He scarce knew what to say.
"You are cruel, Nell," he pleaded, fretfully. "You never loved me,
never."
"Did I ever say I did?"
Hart shook his head sadly.
"Come, don't pout, Jack. An armistice in this, my friend, for you were
my friend in the old days when I needed one, and I love you for that."
She placed her hands kindly on the manager's shoulders, then turned and
began to arrange anew the gift-flowers in the vase.
"I'll win your life's love, Nell, in spite of you," he said,
determinedly.
She turned her honest eyes upon him. "Nay, do not try; believe me, do
not try," she said softly.
"Nell, you do not mean--?" His voice faltered.
"You must not love me," she said, firmly; "believe me, you must not."
"I must not love you!" His voice scarcely breathed the words.
"There, there; we are growing sentimental, Jack,--and at our age," she
replied. She laughed gaily and started for her tiring-room.
He followed her.
"Sup with me, Nell," he pleaded. "No word of this, I promise you."
"Heyday, I'll see how good you are, Jack," she answered, cordially.
"My second bid to sup to-night," she thought. "Who sets the better
feast?"
The tiring-room door was open; and the little candles danced gleefully
about the make-up mirror, for even candles seemed happy when Nell came
near. The maid stood ready to assist her to a gown and wrap, that she
might leave the theatre.
Nell turned. Hart still stood waiting. The spirit of kindness
o'er-mastered her.
"Your hand, friend, your hand," she said, taking the manager's hand.
"When next you try to win a woman's love, don't throw away her
confidence; for you will never get it back again entire."
Hart bowed his head under the rebuke; and she entered her room.
CHAPTER IV
_Flowers and Music feed naught but Love._
The manager stood a moment looking through the half-closed door at Nell.
There was a strange mingling of contending forces at work in his nature.
To be sure, he had trifled with the affections of the Spanish
dancing-girl, a new arrival from Madrid and one of the latest
attractions of the King's House; but it was his pride, when he
discovered that Nell's sharp eyes had found him out, that suffered, not
his conscience. Was he not the fascinating actor-manager of the House?
Could he prevent the ladies loving him? Must he be accused of not loving
Nell, simply because his charms had edified the shapely new-comer?
Nell's rebuke had depressed him, but there was a smouldering fire
within. "'Slife!" he muttered. "If I do not steal my way into Nell's
heart, I'll abandon the rouge-box and till the soil."
As he approached his tiring-room, he bethought him that it would be well
first to have an oversight of the theatre. He turned accordingly and
pulled open the door that led to the stage.
As he did so, a figure fell into the greenroom, grasping devotedly a
violin, lest his fall might injure it. Strings had been biding his time,
waiting an opportunity to see Nell, and had fallen asleep behind the
door.
"How now, dog!" exclaimed the manager when he saw who the intruder was.
Strings hastened to his feet and hobbled across the room.
"I told you not to set foot here again," shouted Hart, following him
virulently.
Strings bowed meekly. "I thought the King's House in need of a player;
so I came back, sir," said he.
Hart was instantly beside himself. "Zounds!" he stormed. "I have had
enough impudence to contend with to-night. Begone; or up you go for a
vagrant."
"I called on Mistress Gwyn, sir," explained Strings.
"Mistress Gwyn does not receive drunkards," fiercely retorted Hart; and
he started hastily to the stage-door and called loudly for his force of
men to put the fiddler out.
Nell's door was still ajar. She had removed the roses from her hair and
dress. She caught at once her name. Indeed, there was little that went
on which Nell did not see or hear, even though walls intervened. "Who
takes my name in vain?" she called. Her head popped through the opening
left by the door, and she scanned the room.
As her eye fell upon the old fiddler, who had often played songs and
dances for her in days gone by, a cry of joy came from her lips. She
rushed into the greenroom and threw both arms about Strings's neck. "My
old comrade, as I live," she cried, dancing about him. "I am joyed to
see you, Strings!"
Turning, she saw the manager eying them with fiery glances. She knew the
situation and the feeling. "Jack, is it not good to have Strings back?"
she asked, sweetly.
Hart's face grew livid with anger. He could see the merry devil dancing
in her eye and on her tongue. He knew the hoyden well. "Gad, I will
resign management." He turned on his heel, entered his tiring-room and
closed the door, none too gently. He feared to tarry longer, lest he
might say too much.
Nell broke into a merry laugh; and the fiddler chuckled.
"You desert me these days, Strings," she said, as she leaned against the
table and fondly eyed the wayfarer of the tattered garments and
convivial spirits.
"I don't love your lackey-in-waiting, Mistress Nell," said he, with a
wink in the direction of the departed manager.
"Poor Jack. Never mind him," she said, with a roguish laugh, though with
no touch of malice in it, for there was devil without malice in Nell's
soul.
As she again sought the eyes of the fiddler, her face grew thoughtful.
She spoke--hesitated--and then spoke again, as if the thought gave her
pain. "Have you kept your word to me, Strings, and stopped--drinking?"
she asked. The last word fell faintly, tremblingly, from her
lips--almost inaudibly.
"Mistress Nell, I--I--" Strings's eyes fell quickly.
Nell's arm was lovingly about him in an instant. "There, there; don't
tell me, Strings. Try again, and come and see me often." There was a
delicacy in her voice and way more beautiful than the finest acting. The
words had hurt her more than him. She changed her manner in an instant.
Not so with Strings. The tears were in his eyes. "Mistress Nell, you are
so good to me," he said; "and I am such a wretch."
"So you are, Strings," and she laughed merrily.
"I have taught my little ones at home who it is that keeps the wolf from
our door," he continued.
"Not a word of that!" she exclaimed, reprovingly. "Poor old fellow!" Her
eyes grew big and bright as she reflected on the days she had visited
the fiddler's home and on the happiness her gifts had brought his
children. For her, giving was better than receiving. The feeling sprang
from the fulness of her own joy at seeing those about her happy, and not
from the teachings of priests or prelates. Dame Nature was her sole
preceptor in this.
"I'll bring the babes another sugar plum to-morrow. I haven't a farthing
to-night. Moll ran away with the earnings, and there is no one left to
rob," she said.
"Heyday," and she ran lightly to the vase and caught up the flowers.
"Take the flowers to the bright eyes, to make them brighter." They would
at least add cheerfulness to the room where Strings lived until she
could bring something better.
As she looked at the roses, she began to realize how dear they were
becoming to herself, for they were the King's gift; and her heart beat
quickly and she touched the great red petals lovingly with her lips.
Strings took the flowers awkwardly; and, as he did so, something fell
upon the floor. He knelt and picked it up, in his eagerness letting the
roses fall.
"A ring among the flowers, Mistress Nell," he cried.
"A ring!" she exclaimed, taking the jewel quickly. Her lips pressed the
setting. "Bless his heart! A ring from his finger," she continued half
aloud. "Is it not handsome, Strings?" Her eyes sparkled brightly and
there was a triumphant smile upon her lips.
The fiddler's face, however, was grave; his eyes were on the floor.
"How many have rings like that, while others starve," he mused,
seriously.
Nell held the jewel at arm's length and watched its varying brightness
in the candle-light. "We can moralize, now we have the ring," she said,
by way of rejoinder, then broke into a ringing laugh at her own
way-of-the-world philosophizing. "Bless the giver!" she added, in a mood
of rhapsody.
She turned, only again to observe the sad countenance of Strings.
"Alack-a-day! Why do you not take the nosegay?" she asked, wonderingly;
for she herself was so very happy that she could not see why Strings too
should not be so.
"It will not feed my little ones, Mistress Nell," he answered, sadly.
Nell's heart was touched in an instant. "Too true!" she said,
sympathetically, falling on her knee and lovingly gathering up the
roses. "Flowers and Music feed naught but Love, and often then Love goes
hungry--very hungry." Her voice was so sweet and tender that it seemed
as though the old viol had caught the notes.
"Last night, Mistress Nell," said Strings, "the old fiddle played its
sweetest melody for them, but they cried as if their tiny hearts would
break. They were starving, and I had nothing but music for them."
"Starving!" Nell listened to the word as though at first she did not
realize its meaning. "What can I send?" she cried, looking about in vain
and into her tiring-room.
Her eyes fell suddenly upon the rich jewel upon her finger. "No, no; I
cannot think of that," she thought.
Then the word "starving" came back to her again with all its force.
"Starving!" Her imagination pictured all its horrors. "Starving" seemed
written on every wall and on the ceiling. It pierced her heart and
brain. "Yes, I will," she exclaimed, wildly. "Here, Strings, old fellow,
take the ring to the babes, to cut their teeth on."
Strings stood aghast. "No, Mistress Nell; it is a present. You must
not," he protested.
"There are others where that came from," generously laughed Nell.
"You must not; you are too kind," he continued, firmly.
[Illustration: NELL PREVENTS A QUARREL.]
"Pooh, pooh! I insist," said Nell as she forced the jewel upon him. "It
will make a pretty mouthful; and, besides, I do not want my jewels to
outshine me."
Strings would have followed her and insisted upon her taking back the
beautiful gift, but Nell was gone in an instant and her door closed.
"To cut their teeth on!" he repeated as he placed the jewelled ring
wonderingly upon his bow-finger and watched it sparkle and laugh in the
light as he pretended to play a tune. "She is always joking like that;
Heaven reward her."
He stood lost in the realization of sudden affluence.
Buckingham entered the room from the stage-door. His eyes were full of
excitement. "The audience are wild over Nell, simply wild," he exclaimed
in his enthusiasm, unconscious of the fact that he had an auditor, who
was equally oblivious of his lordship's presence. "Gad," he continued,
rapturously, half aloud, half to himself, "when they are stumbling home
through London fog, the great _comedienne_ will be playing o'er the
love-scenes with Buckingham in a cosy corner of an inn. She will not
dare deny my bid to supper, with all her impudence. _Un petit
souper!_" He broke into a laugh. "Tis well Old Rowley was too engaged
to look twice at Nelly's eyes," he thought. "His Majesty shall never
meet the wench at arm's length, an I can help it."
He observed or rather became aware for the first time that there was
another occupant of the room.
"Ah, sirrah," he called, without noting the character of his companion,
"inform Mistress Nell, Buckingham is waiting."
Strings looked up. He seemed to have grown a foot in contemplation of
his sudden wealth. Indeed, each particular tatter on his back seemed to
have assumed an independent air.
"Inform her yourself!" he declared; and his manner might well have
become the dress of Buckingham. "Lord Strings is not your lackey this
season."
Buckingham gazed at him in astonishment, followed by amusement. "Lord
Strings!" he observed. "Lord Rags!"
Strings approached his lordship with a familiar, princely air. "How does
that look on my bow-finger, my lord?" and he flourished his hand wearing
the ring where Buckingham could well observe it.
His lordship started. "The King's ring!" he would have exclaimed, had
not the diplomat in his nature restrained him. "A fine stone!" he said
merely. "How came you by it?"
"Nell gave it to me," Strings answered.
Buckingham nearly revealed himself in his astonishment. "Nell!" he
muttered; and his face grew black as he wondered if his Majesty had
out-generalled him. "Damme," he observed aloud, inspecting the ring
closely, "I have taken a fancy to this gem."
"So have I," ejaculated Strings, as he avoided his lordship and strutted
across the room.
"I'll give you fifty guineas for it," said Buckingham, following him
more eagerly than the driver of a good bargain is wont.
Strings stood nonplussed. "Fifty guineas!" he exclaimed, aghast. This
was more money than the fiddler had ever thought existed. "Now?" he
asked, wonderingly.
"Now," replied his lordship, who proceeded at once to produce the
glittering coins and toss them temptingly before the fiddler's eyes.
"Oons, Nell surely meant me to sell it," he cried as he eagerly seized
the gold and fed his eyes upon it. "Odsbud, I always did love yellow."
He tossed some of the coins in the air and caught them with the
dexterity of a juggler.
Buckingham grew impatient. He desired a delivery. "Give me the ring," he
demanded.
Strings looked once more at the glittering gold; and visions of the
plenty which it insured to his little home, to say nothing of a flagon
or two of good brown ale which could be had by himself and his boon
comrades without disparagement to the dinners of the little ones, came
before him. If he had ever possessed moral courage, it was gone upon the
instant. "Done!" he exclaimed. "Oons, fifty guineas!" and he handed the
ring to Buckingham.
The fiddler was still absorbed in his possessions, whispering again and
again to the round bits of yellow: "My little bright-eyes will not go to
bed hungry to-night!" when Manager Hart entered proudly from his
tiring-room, dressed to leave the theatre.
Buckingham nodded significantly. "Not a word of this," he said,
indicating the ring, which he had quickly transferred to his own finger,
turning the jewel so that it could not be observed.
"'Sdeath, you still here?" said Hart, sharply, as his eyes fell upon the
fiddler.
Strings straightened up and puffed with the pomposity and pride of a
landed proprietor. He shook his newly acquired possessions until the
clinking of the gold was plainly audible to the manager.
"Still here, Master Hart, negotiating. When you are pressed for coin,
call on me, Master Hart. I run the Exchequer," he said, patronizingly.
It was humorous to see his air of sweeping condescension toward the tall
and dignified manager of the theatre who easily overtopped him by a
head.
"Gold!" exclaimed Hart, as he observed the glitter of the guineas in the
candle-light. His eyes turned quickly and suspiciously upon the lordly
Buckingham.
There was nothing, however, in his lordship's face to indicate that he
was aware even of the existence of the fiddler or of his gold. He sat by
the table, leaning carelessly upon it, his face filled with an
expression of supreme satisfaction. He had the attitude of one who was
waiting for somebody or something and confidently expected not to be
disappointed.
"Sup with me, Hart," continued Strings, with the air of a boon comrade.
"Sup with me--venison, capons, and--Epsom water."
"Thank you, I am engaged to supper," replied Hart, contemptuously,
brushing his cloak where it had been touched by the fiddler, as if his
fingers had contaminated it.
The insult clearly observable in the manager's tone, however, had no
effect whatever upon Strings. He tossed his head proudly and said
indifferently: "Oh, very well. Strings will sup with Strings. My coach,
my coach, I say. Drive me to my bonnie babes!"
He pushed open the door with a lordly air and passed out; and, for some
seconds, they heard a mingling of repeated demands for the coach and a
strain of music which sounded like "Away dull care; prythee away from
me."
Buckingham had observed the fiddler's tilt with the manager and the
royal exit of the ragged fellow with much amusement. "A merry wag! Who
is that?" he asked, as Strings's voice grew faint in the entry-way.
Hart was strutting actor-fashion before the mirror, arranging his curls
to hang gracefully over his forehead and tilting now and again the big
plumed hat. "A knave of fortune, it seems," he answered coolly and still
suspiciously.
"Family?" asked Buckingham, indifferently.
"Twins, I warrant," replied Hart, in an irritated tone.
Buckingham chuckled softly.
"No wonder he's tattered and gray," he declared, humorously
philosophizing upon Hart's reply, though it was evident that Hart
himself was too much chafed by the presence of his lordship in the
greenroom after the play to know what he really had said.
An ominous coolness now pervaded the atmosphere. Buckingham sat by the
table, impatiently tapping the floor with his boot, his eyes growing
dark at the delay. Hart still plumed himself before the mirror. His
dress was rich; his sword was well balanced, a Damascus blade; his cloak
hung gracefully; his big black hat and plumes were jaunty. He had, too,
vigour in his step. With it all, however, he was a social outcast, and
he felt it, while his companion, whose faults of nature were none the
less glaring than his own, was almost the equal of a king.
There was a tap at Nell's door. It was the call-boy, who had slipped
unobserved into the room.
"What is it, Dick?" asked Nell, sweetly, as she opened the door slightly
to inspect her visitor.
"A message,--very important," whispered Dick, softly, as he passed a
note within.
"Thank you," replied the actress; and the door closed again.
Dick was about to depart, when the alert Buckingham, rising hastily from
his seat, called him.
"That was Nell's voice?" he asked.
"Yes, my lord. She's dressing," answered Dick. "Good night, Master
Hart," he added, as he saw the manager.
Hart, however, was not in a good humour and turned sharply upon him.
Dick vanished.
"She will be out shortly, my lord," the manager observed to Buckingham,
somewhat coldly. "But it will do you little good," he thought, as he
reflected upon his conversation with Nell.
Buckingham leaned lazily over the back of a chair and replied
confidently, knowing that his speech would be no balm to the irate
manager: "Nell always keeps her engagements religiously with me. We are
to sup together to-night, Hart."
"Odso!" retorted the other, drawing himself up to his full height. "You
will be disappointed, methinks."
"I trow not," Buckingham observed, with a smile which made Hart wince.
"Pepys's wife has him mewed up at home when Nelly plays, and the King is
tied to other apron-strings." His lordship chuckled as he bethought him
how cleverly he had managed that his Majesty be under the proper
influence. "What danger else?" he inquired, cuttingly.
Though the words were mild, the feelings of the two men were at
white-heat.
"Your lordship's hours are too valuable to waste," politely suggested
the manager. "I happen to know Mistress Gwyn sups with another
to-night."
"Another?" sneered his lordship.
"Another!" hotly repeated the actor.
"We shall see, friend Hart," said Buckingham, in a tone no less
agreeable, with difficulty restraining his feelings.
He threw himself impatiently into a big arm-chair, which he had swung
around angrily, so that its back was to the manager.
The insult was more than Hart could bear. He also seized a chair, and
vented his vengeance upon it. Almost hurled from its place, it fell back
to back with Buckingham's.
"We shall see, my lord," he said as he likewise angrily took his seat
and folded his arms.
It was like "The Schism" of Vibert.
It is difficult to tell what would have been the result, had the place
been different. Each knew that Nell was just beyond her door; each
hesitated; and each, with bitterness in his heart, held on to himself.
They sat like sphinxes.
Suddenly, Nell's door slightly opened. She was dressed to leave the
theatre. In her hand she held a note.
"A fair message, on my honour! Worth reading twice or even thrice," she
roguishly exclaimed unto her maid as she directed her to hold a candle
nearer that she might once again spell out its words. "'To England's
idol, the divine Eleanor Gwyn.' A holy apt beginning, by the mass! 'My
coach awaits you at the stage-door. We will toast you to-night at
Whitehall.'"
Nell's eyes seemed to drink in the words, and it was her heart which
said: "Long live his Majesty."
She took the King's roses in her arms; the Duke's roses, she tossed upon
the floor.
The manager awoke as from a trance. "You will not believe me," he said
to Buckingham, confidently. "Here comes the arbiter of your woes, my
lord." He arose quickly.
"It will not be hard, methinks, sir, to decide between a coronet and a
player's tinsel crown," observed his princely rival, with a sneer, as he
too arose and assumed an attitude of waiting.
"Have a care, my lord. I may forget--" Hart's fingers played upon his
sword-hilt.
"Your occupation, sir?" jeered Buckingham.
"Aye; my former occupation of a soldier"; and Hart's sword sprang from
its scabbard, with a dexterity that proved that he had not forgotten the
trick of war.
Buckingham too would have drawn, but a merry voice stayed him.
"How now, gentlemen?" sprang from Nell's rosy lips, as she came between
them, a picture of roguish beauty.
Hart's pose in an instant was that of apology. "Pardon, Nell," he
exclaimed, lifting his hat and bowing in courtly fashion. "A small
difference of opinion; naught else."
"Between friends," replied Nell, reprovingly.
"By the Gods," cried Buckingham,--and his hat too was in the air and his
knee too was bent before the theatre-queen,--"the rewards are worth more
than word-combats."
"Pshaw!" said Nell, as she hugged the King's roses tighter in her arms.
"True Englishmen fight shoulder to shoulder, not face to face."
"In this case," replied his lordship, with the air of a conqueror, "the
booty cannot be amicably distributed."
"Oh, ho!" cried Nell. "Brave generals, quarrelling over the spoils.
Pooh! There is no girl worth fighting for--that is, not over one!
Buckingham! Jack! For shame! What coquette kindles this hot blood?"
"The fairest maid in England," said Hart, with all the earnestness of
conviction, and with all the courtesy of the theatre, which teaches
courtesy.
"The dearest girl in all this world," said Buckingham as quickly; for he
too must bow if he would win.
"How stupid!" lisped Nell, with a look of baby-innocence. "You must mean
me! Who else could answer the description? A quarrel over poor me! This
is delicious. I love a fight. Out with your swords and to't like men! To
the victor! Come, name the quarrel."
"This player--" began his lordship, hotly. He caught the quick gleam in
Nell's eyes and hesitated. "I mean," he substituted, apologetically,
"Master Hart--labours under the misapprehension that you sup with him
to-night."
"Nell," asserted the manager, defensively, "it is his lordship who
suffers from the delusion that the first actress of England sups with
him to-night."
"My arm and coach are yours, madame," pleaded his lordship, as he
gallantly offered an arm.
"Pardon, my lord; Nell, my arm!" said Hart.
"Heyday!" cried the witch, bewitchingly. "Was ever maid so nobly
squired? This is an embarrassment of riches." She looked longingly at
the two attending gallants. There was something in her voice that might
be mockery or that might be love. Only the devil in her eyes could tell.
"Gentlemen, you tear my heart-strings," she continued. "How can I choose
between such loves? To-night, I sup at Whitehall!" and she darted
quickly toward the door.
"Whitehall!" the rivals cried, aghast.
"Aye, Whitehall--_with the King_!"
There was a wild, hilarious laugh, and she was gone.
[Illustration: MISTRESS NELL IS TOLD OF THE KING'S DANGER.]
Buckingham and Hart stood looking into each other's face. They heard the
sound of coach-wheels rapidly departing in the street.
CHAPTER V
_It was never treason to steal a King's kisses._
A year and more had flown.
It was one of those glorious moon-lit nights in the early fall when
there is a crispness in the air which lends an edge to life.
St. James's Park was particularly beautiful. The giant oaks with their
hundreds of years of story written in their rings lifted high their
spreading branches, laden with leaves, which shimmered in the light. The
historic old park seemed to be made up of patches of day and night. In
the open, one might read in the mellow glow of the harvest-moon; in the
shade of one of its oaks, a thief might safely hide.
Facing on the park, there stood a house of Elizabethan architecture.
Along its wrinkled, ivy-mantled wall ran a terrace-like balustrade,
where one might walk and enjoy the night without fear.
The house was well defined by the rays of the moon, which seemed to
dance upon it in a halo of mirth; and from the park, below the terrace,
came the soft notes of a violin, tenderly picked.
None other than Strings was sitting astride of a low branch of an oak,
looking up at a window, like some guardian spirit from the devil-land,
singing in his quaintly unctuous way:
_"Four and twenty fiddlers all in a row,
And there was fiddle-fiddle, and twice fiddle-fiddle."_
"How's that for a serenade to Mistress Nell?" he asked himself as he
secured a firm footing on the ground and slung his fiddle over his back.
"She don't know it's for her, but the old viol and old Strings know." He
came to a stand-still and winced. "Oons, my old wound again," he said,
with a sharp cry, followed as quickly by a laugh. His eyes still
wandered along the balustrade, as eagerly as some young Romeo at the
balcony of his Juliet. "I wish she'd walk her terrace to-night," he
sighed, "where we could see her--the lovely lady!"
His rhapsody was suddenly broken in upon by the approach of some one
down the path. He glided into the shadow of an oak and none too quickly.
From the obscurity of the trees, into the open, a chair was swiftly
borne, by the side of which ran a pretty page of tender years, yet well
schooled in courtly wisdom. The lovely occupant leaned forward and
motioned to the chairmen, who obediently rested and assisted her to
alight.
"Retire beneath the shadow of the trees," she whispered. "Have a care;
no noise."
The chairmen withdrew quietly, but within convenient distance, to await
her bidding.
Strings's heart quite stopped beating. "The Duchess of Portsmouth at
Mistress Nell's!" he said, almost aloud in his excitement. "Then the
devil must be to pay!" and he slipped well behind the oak-trunk again.
Portsmouth's eyes snapped with French fire as she glanced up at Nell's
terrace. Then she turned to the page by her side. "His Majesty came this
path before?" she asked, with quick, French accent.
"Yes, your grace," replied the page.
"And up this trellis?"
"Yes, your grace."
"Again to-night?"
"I cannot tell, your grace," replied the lad. "I followed as you bade
me; but the King's legs were so long, you see, I lost him."
Portsmouth smiled. "Softly, pretty one," she said. "Watch if he comes
and warn me; for we may have passed him."
The lad ran gaily down the path to perform her bidding.
"State-business!" she muttered, as she reflected bitterly upon the
King's late excuses to her. "_Mon Dieu_, does he think me a country
wench? I was schooled at Louis's court." Her eyes searched the house
from various points of advantage. "A light!" she exclaimed, as a candle
burned brightly from a window, like a spark of gold set in the silver of
the night. "Would I had an invisible cloak." She tiptoed about a corner
of the wall--woman-like, to see if she could see, not Nell, but Charles.
Scarcely had she disappeared when a second figure started up in the
moonlight, and a gallant figure, too. It was the Duke of Buckingham.
"Not a mouse stirring," he reflected, glancing at the terrace. "Fair
minx, you will not long refuse Buckingham's overtures. Come, Nelly, thy
King is already half stolen away by Portsmouth of France, and Portsmouth
of France is our dear ally in the great cause and shall be more so."
To his astonishment, as he drew nearer, he observed a lady, richly
dressed, gliding between himself and the terrace. He rubbed his eyes to
see that he was not dreaming. She was there, however, and a pretty
armful, too.
"Nell," he chuckled, as he stole up behind her.
Portsmouth meanwhile had learned that the window was too high to allow
her to gain a view within the dwelling. She started--observing, more by
intuition than by sight, that she was watched--and drew her veil closely
about her handsome features.
"Nelly, Nelly," laughed Buckingham, "I have thee, wench. Come, a
kiss!--a kiss! Nay, love; it was never treason to steal a King's
kisses."
He seized her by the arm and was about to kiss her when she turned and
threw back her veil.
"Buckingham!" she said, suavely.
"Portsmouth!" he exclaimed, awestruck.
He gathered himself together, however, in an instant, and added, as if
nothing in the world had happened: "An unexpected pleasure, your grace."
"Yes," said she, with a pretty shrug. "I did not know I was so honoured,
my lord."
"Or you would not have refused the little kiss?" he asked, suggestively.
"You called me 'Nelly,' my lord. I do not respond to that name."
"Damme, I was never good at names, Louise," said he, with mock-apology,
"especially by moonlight."
"Buz, buz!" she answered, with a knowing gesture and a knowing look.
Then, pointing toward the terrace, she added: "A pretty nest! A pretty
bird within, I warrant. Her name?"
"Ignorance well feigned," he thought. He replied, however, most
graciously: "Nell Gwyn."
"Oh, ho! The King's favourite, who has more power, they say, than great
statesmen--like my lord."
Her speech was well defined to draw out his lordship; but he was wary.
"Unless my lord is guided by my lady, as formerly," he replied,
diplomatically.
A look of suspicion crept into Portsmouth's face: but it was not visible
for want of contrast; for all things have a perverted look by the light
of the moon.
She had known Buckingham well at Dover. Their interests there had been
one in securing privileges from England for her French King. Both had
been well rewarded too for their pains. There were no proofs, however,
of this; and where his lordship stood to-day, and which cause he would
espouse, she did not know. His eyes at Dover had fallen fondly upon her,
but men's eyes fall fondly upon many women, and she would not trust too
much until she knew more.
"My chairmen have set me down at the wrong door-step," she said, most
sweetly. "My lord longs for his kiss. _Au revoir!_"
She bowed and turned to depart.
Buckingham was alert in an instant. He knew not when the opportunity
might come again to deal so happily with Louis's emissary and the place
and time of meeting had its advantages.
"Prythee stay, Duchess. I left the merry hunters, returning from
Hounslow Heath, all in Portsmouth's interest," he said. "Is this to be
my thanks?"
She approached him earnestly. "My lord must explain. I am stupid in
fitting English facts to English words."
"Have you forgotten Dover?" he asked, intensely, but subdued in voice,
"and my pledges sworn to?--the treaty at the Castle?--the Duchess of
Orleans?--the Grand Monarch?"
"Hush!" exclaimed Portsmouth, clutching his arm and looking cautiously
about.
"If my services to you there were known," he continued, excitedly, "and
to the great cause--the first step in making England pensioner of France
and Holland the vassal of Louis--my head would pay the penalty. Can you
not trust me still?"
"You are on strange ground to-night," suggested Portsmouth, tossing her
head impatiently to indicate the terrace, as she tried to fathom the
real man.
"I thought the King might pass this way, and came to see," hastily
explained his lordship, observing that she was reflecting upon the
incongruity of his friendship for her and of his visit to Madame Gwyn.
"And if he did?" she asked, dubiously, not seeing the connection.
"I have a plan to make his visits less frequent, Louise,--for your sweet
sake and mine."
The man was becoming master. He had pleased her, and she was beginning
to believe.
"Yes?" she said, in a way which might mean anything, but certainly that
she was listening, and intently listening too.
"You have servants you can trust?" he asked.
"I have," she replied as quickly; and she gloried in the thought that
some at least were as faithful as Louis's court afforded.
"They must watch Nell's terrace here, night and day," he almost
commanded in his eagerness, "who comes out, who goes in and the hour.
She may forget her royal lover; and--well--we shall have witnesses in
waiting. We owe this kindness--to his Majesty."
Portsmouth shrugged her shoulders impatiently. "_Mon Dieu!_" she
said. "My servants have watched, my lord, already. The despatches would
have been signed and Louis's army on the march against the Dutch but for
this vulgar player-girl, whom I have never seen. The King forgets all
else."
The beautiful Duchess was piqued, indeed, that the English King should
be so swayed. She felt that it was a personal disgrace--an insult to her
charms and to her culture. She felt that the court knew it and laughed,
and she feared that Louis soon would know. Nell Gwyn! How she hated
her--scarce less than she loved Louis and her France.
"Be of good cheer," suggested Buckingham, soothingly; and he half
embraced her. "My messenger shall await your signal, to carry the news
to Louis and his army."
"There is no news," replied she, and turned upon him bitterly. "Charles
evades me. Promise after promise to sup with me broken. I expected him
to-night. My spies warned me he would not come; that he is hereabouts
again. I followed myself to see. I have the papers with me always. If I
can but see the King alone, it will not take long to dethrone this
up-start queen; wine, sweet words--England's sign-manual."
There was a confident smile on her lips as she reflected upon her
personal powers, which had led Louis XIV. of France to entrust a great
mission to her. His lordship saw his growing advantage. He would make
the most of it.
"In the last event you have the ball!" he suggested, hopefully.
"Aye, and we shall be prepared," she cried. "But Louis is impatient to
strike the blow for Empire unhampered by British sympathy for the Dutch,
and the ball is--"
"A fortnight off," interrupted Buckingham, with a smile.
"And my messenger should be gone to-night," she continued, irritably.
She approached him and whispered cautiously: "I have to-day received
another note from Bouillon. Louis relies upon me to win from Charles his
consent to the withdrawal of the British troops from Holland. This will
insure the fall of Luxembourg--the key to our success. You see,
Buckingham, I must not fail. England's debasement shall be won."
There was a whistle down the path.
"Some one comes!" she exclaimed. "My chair!"
The page, who had given the signal, came running to her. Her chairmen
too were prompt.
"Join me," she whispered to Buckingham, as he assisted her to her seat
within.
"Later, Louise, later," he replied. "I must back to the neighbouring
inn, before the huntsmen miss me."
Portsmouth waved to the chairmen, who moved silently away among the
trees.
Buckingham stood looking after them, laughing.
"King Charles, a French girl from Louis's court will give me the keys to
England's heart and her best honours," he muttered.
He glanced once again quickly at the windows of the house, and then,
with altered purpose, swaggered away down a side path. He was well
pleased with his thoughts, well pleased with his chance interview with
the beautiful Duchess and well pleased with himself. His brain wove and
wove moonbeam webs of intrigue as he passed through the light and shadow
of the night, wherein he would lend a helping hand to France and secure
gold and power for his pains. He had no qualms of conscience; for must
not his estates be kept, his dignity maintained? His purpose was clear.
He would bring Portsmouth and the King closer together: and what England
lost, he would gain--and, therefore, England; for was not he himself a
part of England, and a great part?
Then too he must and would have Nell.
CHAPTER VI
Softly on tiptoe;
Here Nell doth lie.
As often happens in life, when one suitor departs, another suitor
knocks; and so it happened on this glorious night. The belated suitor
was none other than Charles, the Stuart King. He seemed in the moonlight
the picture of royalty, of romance, of dignity, of carelessness, of
indifference--the royal vagabond of wit, of humour and of love. A
well-thumbed "Hudibras" bulged from his pocket. He was alone, save for
some pretty spaniels that played about him. He heeded them not. His
thoughts were of Nell.
"Methought I heard voices tuned to love," he mused, as he glanced about.
"What knave has spied out the secret of her bower? Ho, Rosamond, my
Rosamond! Why came I here again to-night? What is there in this girl,
this Nell? And yet her eyes, how like the pretty maid's who passed me
the cup that day at the cottage where we rested. Have I lived really to
love--I, Solomon's rival in the entertainment of the fair,--to have my
heart-strings torn by this roguish player?"
His reflections were broken in upon by the hunters' song in the
distance. The music was so in harmony with the night that the forest
seemed enchanted.
"Hush; music!" he exclaimed, softly, as he lent himself reluctantly to
the spell, which pervaded everything as in a fairyland. "Odds, moonlight
was once for me as well the light for revels, bacchanals and frolics;
yet now I linger another evening by Nell's terrace, mooning like a lover
o'er the memory of her eyes and entranced by the hunters' song."
[Illustration: THE KING PROFESSES HIS LOVE FOR NELL.]
The singers were approaching. The King stepped quickly beneath the
trellis, in an angle of the wall, and waited. Their song grew richer, as
melodious as the night, but it struck a discord in his soul. He was
thinking of a pair of eyes.
"Cease those discordant jangles," he exclaimed impatiently to himself;
"cease, I say! No song except for Nell! Nell! Pour forth your sweetest
melody for Nell!"
The hunters stopped as by intuition before the terrace. A goodly company
they were, indeed; there were James and Rochester and others of the
court returning from the day's hunt. There was Buckingham too, who had
rejoined them as they left the inn. The music died away.
"Whose voice was that?" asked James, as he caught the sound of the
King's impatient exclamation from the corner of the wall.
"Some dreamer of the night," laughed Buckingham. "Yon love-sick fellow,
methinks," he continued, pointing to a figure, well aloof beneath the
trees, who was watching the scene most jealously. It was none other than
Hart, who rarely failed to have an eye on Nell's terrace and who
instantly stole away in the darkness.
"This is the home of Eleanor Gwyn we are passing," said Rochester,
superfluously; for all knew full well that it was Nelly's terrace.
"The love-lorn seer is wise," cried the Duke of York, quite forgetting
his frigid self as he bethought him of Nell, and becoming quite
lover-like, as he, sighing, said: "It were well to make peace with
Nelly. Sing, hunters, sing!"
The command was quickly obeyed and the voices well attuned; for none
were there but worshipped Nelly.
Hail to the moonbeams'
Crystal spray,
Nestling in Heaven
All the day,
Falling by night-time,
Silvery showers,
Twining with love-rhyme
Nell's fair bowers.
Sing, hunters, sing,
Gently carolling,
Here lies our hart--
Sleeping, sleeping, sleeping.
Hail to the King's oaks,
Sentries blest,
Spreading their branches,
Guarding her rest,
Telling the breezes,
Hastening by:
"Softly on tiptoe;
Here Nell doth lie."
Sing, hunters, sing,
Gently carolling,
Here lies our hart--
Sleeping, sleeping, sleeping.
The King heard the serenade to the end, then stepped gaily from his
hiding-place.
"Brother James under Nelly's window!" he said, with a merry laugh.
"The King!" exclaimed James, in startled accents, as he realized the
presence of his Majesty and the awkward position in which he and his
followers were placed.
"The King!" repeated the courtiers. Hats were off and knees were bent
respectfully.
"Brother," saluted Charles, as he embraced the Duke of York
good-naturedly.
Buckingham withdrew a few steps. He was the most disturbed at the
presence of the King at Nelly's bower. "As I feared," he thought. "Devil
take his Majesty's meandering heart."
"Odsfish," laughed Charles, "we must guard our Nelly, or James and his
saintly followers will rob her bower by moonlight."
The Duke of York assumed a devout and dignified mien. "Sire," he
attempted to explain, but was interrupted quickly by his Majesty.
"No apologies, pious brother. God never damned a man for a little
irregular pleasure."
There was a tittering among the courtiers as the King's words fell upon
their ears.
James continued to apologize. "In faith, we were simply passing--" he
said.
Again he was interrupted by his Majesty, who was in the best of humour
and much pleased at the discomfiture of his over-religious brother.
"Lorenzo too was simply passing," he observed, "but the fair Jessica and
some odd ducats stuck to his girdle; and the Jew will still be tearing
his hair long after we are dust. Ah, Buckingham, they tell me you too
have a taste for roguish Nelly. Have a care!"
The King strode across to Buckingham as he spoke; and while there was
humour in his tone, there was injunction also.
Buckingham was too great a courtier not to see and feel it. He bowed
respectfully, replying to his Majesty, "Sire, I would not presume to
follow the King's eyes, however much I admire their taste."
"'T'is well," replied his Majesty, pointedly, "lest they lead thee
abroad on a sleeveless mission."
Others had travelled upon such missions; Buckingham knew it well.
"But what does your Majesty here to-night, if we dare ask?" questioned
James, who had just bethought him how to turn the tables upon the King.
Charles looked at his brother quizzically. "Humph!" he exclaimed, in his
peculiar way. "Feeding my ducks in yonder pond." His staff swept
indefinitely toward the park.
"Hunting with us were nobler business, Sire," suggested James,
decisively.
"Not so," replied the King, quite seriously. "My way--I learn to
legislate for ducks."
"'T'were wiser," preached York, "to study your subjects' needs."
The King's eyes twinkled. "I go among them," he said, "and learn their
needs, while you are praying, brother."
At this sally, Rochester became convulsed, though he hid it well; for
Rochester was not as pious as brother James.
York, feeling that the sympathy was against him, grew more earnest
still. "I wish your Majesty would have more care," he pleaded. "'Tis a
crime against yourself, a crime against the state, a crime against the
cavaliers who fought and died for you, to walk these paths alone in such
uncertain times. Perchance, 'tis courting lurking murder!"
"No kind of danger, James," answered the King, with equal seriousness,
laying a hand kindly on his brother's shoulder; "for I am sure no man in
England would take away my life to make you King."
There was general laughter from the assembled party; for all dared
laugh, even at the expense of the Duke of York, when the jest was of the
King's making. Indeed, not to laugh at a king's jest has been in every
age, in or out of statutes, the greatest crime. Fortunately, King
Charles's wit warranted its observation.
James himself grew mellow under the influence of the gaiety, and almost
affectionately replied, "God grant it be ever so, brother." He then
turned the thought. "We heard but now an ambassador from Morocco's court
is lately landed. He brings your Majesty two lions and thirty
ostriches."
"Odsfish, but he is kind," replied the King, reflecting on the gift. "I
know of nothing more proper to send by way of return than a flock of
geese."
His brow arched quizzically, as he glanced over the circle of inert
courtiers ranged about him. "Methinks I can count them out at
Whitehall," he thought.
"He seeks an audience to-night. Will you grant it, Sire?" besought
James.
"'Sheart!" replied the King. "Most cheerfully, I'll lead you from
Nelly's terrace, brother. Hey! Tune up your throats. On to the palace."
CHAPTER VII
Come down!
Come up!
The music died away among the old oaks in the park. Before its final
notes were lost on the air, however, hasty steps and a chatter of
women's voices came from the house. The door leading to the terrace was
thrown quickly open, and Nell appeared. Her eyes had the bewildered look
of one who has been suddenly awakened from a sleep gilded with a
delightful dream.
She had, indeed, been dreaming--dreaming of the King and of his coming.
As she lay upon her couch, where she had thrown herself after the
evening meal, she had seemed to hear his serenade.
Then the music ceased and she started up and rubbed her eyes. It was
only to see the moonlight falling through the latticed windows on to the
floor of her dainty chamber. She was alone and she bethought herself
sadly that dreams go by contraries.
Once again, however, the hunters' song had arisen on her startled
ear--and had died away in sweet cadences in the distance. It was not a
dream!
As she rushed out upon the terrace, she called Moll reprovingly; and, in
an instant, Moll was at her side. The faithful girl had already seen the
hunters and had started a search for Nell; but the revellers had gone
before she could find her.
"What is it, dear Nell?" asked her companion, well out of breath.
"Why did you not call me, cruel girl?" answered Nell, impatiently. "To
miss seeing so many handsome cavaliers! Where is my kerchief?"
Nell leaned over the balustrade and waved wildly to the departing
hunters. A pretty picture she was too, in her white flowing gown,
silvered by the moonlight.
"See, see," she exclaimed to Moll, with wild enthusiasm, "some one waves
back. It may be he, sweet mouse. Heigh-ho! Why don't you wave, Moll?"
Before Moll could answer, a rich bugle-horn rang out across the park.
"The hunters' horn!" cried Nell, gleefully. "Oh, I wish I were a
man--except when one is with me"; and she threw both arms about Moll,
for the want of one better to embrace. She was in her varying mood,
which was one 'twixt the laughter of the lip and the tear in the eye.
"I have lost my brother!" ejaculated some one; but she heard him not.
This laconic speech came from none other than the King, who in a
bantering mood had returned.
"I went one side a tree and pious James t'other; and here I am by
Nelly's terrace once again," he muttered. "Oh, ho! wench!" His eyes had
caught sight of Nell upon the terrace.
He stepped back quickly into the shadow and watched her playfully.
Nell looked longingly out into the night, and sighed heavily. She was at
her wit's end. The evening was waning, and the King, as she thought, had
not come.
"Why do you sigh?" asked Moll, consolingly.
"I was only looking down the path, dear heart," replied Nell, sadly.
"He will come," hopefully suggested Moll, whose little heart sympathized
deeply with her benefactress.
"Nay, sweet," said Nell, and she shook her curls while the moonbeams
danced among them, "he is as false as yonder moon--as changeable of
face."
She withdrew her eyes from the path and they fell upon the King. His
Majesty's curiosity had quite over-mastered him, and he had
inadvertently stepped well into the light. The novelty of hearing
himself derided by such pretty lips was a delicious experience, indeed.
"The King!" she cried, in joyous surprise.
Moll's diplomatic effort to escape at the sight of his Majesty was not
half quick enough for Nell, who forthwith forced her companion into the
house, and closed the door sharply behind her, much to the delight of
the humour-loving King.
Nell then turned to the balustrade and, somewhat confused, looked down
at his Majesty, who now stood below, calmly gazing up at her, an amused
expression on his face.
"Pardon, your Majesty," she explained, falteringly, "I did not see you."
"You overlooked me merely," slyly suggested Charles, swinging his stick
in the direction of the departed hunters.
"I'faith, I thought it was you waved answer, Sire," quickly replied
Nell, whose confusion was gone and who was now mistress of the situation
and of herself.
"No, Nell; I hunt alone for my hart."
"You hunt the right park, Sire."
"Yea, a good preserve, truly," observed the King. "I find my game, as I
expected, flirting, waving kerchiefs, making eyes and throwing kisses to
the latest passer-by."
"I was encouraging the soldiers, my liege. That is every woman's duty to
her country."
"And her country_men_," said he, smiling. "You are very loyal,
Nell. Come down!" It was irritating, indeed, to be kept so at arm's
length.
She gazed down at him with impish sweetness--down at the King of
England!
"Come up!" she said, leaning over the balustrade.
"Nay; come down if you love me," pleaded the King.
"Nay; come up if you love me," said Nell, enticingly.
"Egad! I am too old to climb," exclaimed the Merry Monarch.
"Egad! I am too young yet for the downward path, your Majesty," retorted
Nell.
The King shrugged his shoulders indifferently.
"You will fall if we give you time," he said.
"To the King's level?" she asked, slyly, then answered herself:
"Mayhap."
Thus they stood like knights after the first tilt. Charles looked up at
Nell, and Nell looked down at Charles. There was a moment's silence.
Nell broke it.
"I am surprised you happen this way, Sire."
"With such eyes to lure me?" asked the King, and he asked earnestly too.
"Tush," answered Nell, coyly, "your tongue will lead you to perdition,
Sire."
"No fear!" replied he, dryly. "I knelt in church with brother James but
yesterday."
"In sooth, quite true!" said Nell, approvingly, as she leaned back
against the door and raised her eyes innocently toward the moon. "I sat
in the next pew, Sire, afraid to move for fear I might awake your
Majesty."
The King chuckled softly to himself. Nell picked one of the flowers that
grew upon the balustrade.
"Ah, you come a long-forgotten path to-night," she said abruptly.
The King was alert in an instant. He felt that he had placed himself in
a false light. He loved the witch above despite himself.
"I saw thee twa evenings ago, lass," he hastily asserted, in good Scotch
accents, somewhat impatiently.
"And is not that a long time, Sire," questioned Nell, "or did Portsmouth
make it fly?"
"Portsmouth!" exclaimed Charles. He turned his face away. "Can it be my
conscience pricks me?" he thought. "You know more of her than I, sweet
Nell," he then asserted, with open manner.
"Marry, I know her not at all and never saw her," said Nell. "I shall
feel better when I do," she thought.
"It were well for England's peace you have not met," laughed Charles.
"Faith and troth," said Nell, "I am happy to know our King has lost his
heart."
"Odso! And why?" asked Charles; and he gazed at Nell in his curious
uncertain way, as he thought it was never possible to tell quite what
she meant or what she next would think or say or do.
"We feared he had not one to lose," she slyly suggested. "It gives us
hope."
"To have it in another's hand as you allege?" asked Charles.
"Marry, truly!" answered Nell, decisively. "The Duchess may find it more
than she can hold and toss it over."
"How now, wench!" exclaimed the King, with assumption of wounded
dignity. "My heart a ball for women to bat about!"
"Sire, two women often play at rackets even with a king's heart," softly
suggested Nell.
"Odsfish," cried the King, with hands and eyes raised in mock
supplication. "Heaven help me then."
Again the hunters' horn rang clearly on the night.
"The horn! The horn!" said Nell, with forced indifference. "They call
you, Sire."
There was a triumphantly bewitching look in her eyes, however, as she
realized the discomfiture of the King. He was annoyed, indeed. His
manner plainly betokened his desire to stay and his irritation at the
interruption.
"'Tis so!" he said at last, resignedly. "The King is lost."
The horn sounded clearer. The hunters were returning.
"Again--nearer!" exclaimed Charles, fretfully. His mind reverted to his
pious brother; and he laughed as he continued: "Poor brother James and
his ostriches!"
He could almost touch Nell's finger-tips.
"Farewell, sweet," he said; "I must help them find his Majesty or they
will swarm here like bees. Yet I must see my Nell again to-night. You
have bewitched me, wench. Sup with me within the hour--at--Ye Blue Boar
Inn. Can you find the place?"
There was mischief in Nell's voice as she leaned upon the balustrade.
She dropped a flower; he caught it.
"Sire, I can always find a rendezvous," she answered.
"You're the biggest rogue in England," laughed Charles.
"Of a _subject_, perhaps, Sire," replied Nell, pointedly.
"That is treason, sly wench," rejoined the King; but his voice grew
tender as he added: "but treason of the tongue and not the heart. Adieu!
Let that seal thy lips, until we meet."
He threw a kiss to the waiting lips upon the balcony.
"Alack-a-day," sighed Nell, sadly, as she caught the kiss. "Some one may
break the seal, my liege; who knows?"
"How now?" questioned Charles, jealously.
Nell hugged herself as she saw his fitful mood; for beneath mock
jealousy she thought she saw the germ of true jealousy. She laughed
wistfully as she explained: "It were better to come up and seal them
tighter, Sire."
"Minx!" he chuckled, and tossed another kiss.
The horn again echoed through the woods. He started.
"Now we'll despatch the affairs of England, brother; then we'll sup with
pretty Nelly. Poor brother James! Heaven bless him and his ostriches."
He turned and strode quickly through the trees and down the path; but,
as he went, ever and anon he called: "Ye Blue Boar Inn, within the
hour!"
Each time from the balcony in Nell's sweet voice came back--"Ye Blue
Boar Inn, within the hour! I will not fail you, Sire!"
Then she too disappeared. There was again a slamming of doors and much
confusion within the house. There were calls and sounds of running feet.
The door below the terrace opened suddenly, and Nell appeared breathless
upon the lawn--at her heels the constant Moll. Nell ran some steps down
the path, peering vainly through the woods after the departing King. Her
bosom rose and fell in agitation.
"Oh, Moll, Moll, Moll!" she exclaimed, fearfully. "He has been at
Portsmouth's since high noon. I could see it in his eyes." Her own eyes
snapped as she thought of the hated French rival, whom she had not yet
seen, but whose relation to the royal household, as she thought, gave
her the King's ear almost at will.
She walked nervously back and forth, then turned quickly upon her
companion, asking her, who knew nothing, a hundred questions, all in one
little breath. "What is she? How looks she? What is her charm, her
fascination, the magic of her art? Is she short, tall, fat, lean, joyous
or sombre? I must know."
"Oh, Nell, what will you do?" cried Moll in fearful accents as she
watched her beautiful mistress standing passion-swayed before her like a
queen in the moonlight, the little toe of her slipper nervously beating
the sward as she general-like marshalled her wits for the battle.
"See her, see her,--from top to toe!" Nell at length exclaimed. "Oh,
there will be sport, sweet mouse. France again against England--the
stake, a King!"
She glanced in the direction of the house and cried joyously as she saw
Strings hobbling toward her.
"Heaven ever gave me a man in waiting," she said, gleefully. "Poor
fellow, he limps from youthful, war-met wounds. Comrade, are you still
strong enough for service?"
"To the death for you, Mistress Nell!" he faithfully replied.
"You know the Duchess of Portsmouth, and where she lives?" artfully
inquired Nell.
"Portsmouth!" he repeated, excitedly. "She was here but now, peeping at
your windows."
Nell stood aghast. Her face grew pale, and her lips trembled.
"Here, here!" she exclaimed, incredulously. "The imported hussy!"
She turned hotly upon Strings, as she had upon poor Moll, with an array
of questions which almost paralyzed the old fiddler's wits. "How looks
she? What colour eyes? Does her lip arch? How many inches span her
waist?"
Strings looked cautiously about, then whispered in Nell's ear. He might
as well have talked to all London; for Nell, in her excitement, repeated
his words at the top of her voice.
"You overheard? Great Heavens! Drug the King and win the rights of
England while he is in his cups? Bouillon--the army--Louis--the Dutch! A
conspiracy!"
"Oh, dear; oh, dear," came from Moll's trembling lips.
Nell's wits were like lightning playing with the clouds. Her plans were
formed at once.
"Fly, fly, comrade," she commanded Strings. "Overtake her chair. Tell
the Duchess that her beloved Charles--she will understand--entreats her
to sup at Ye Blue Boar Inn, within the hour. Nay, she will be glad
enough to come. Say he awaits her alone. Run, run, good Strings, and you
shall have a hospital to nurse these wounds, as big as Noah's ark; and
the King shall build it for the message."
Strings hastened down the path, fired by Nell's inspiration, with almost
the eagerness of a boy.
"Run, run!" cried Nell, in ecstasy, as she looked after him and dwelt
gleefully upon the outcome of her plans.
He disappeared through the trees.
"Heigh-ho!" she said, with a light-hearted step. "Now, Moll, we'll get
our first sight of the enemy."
She darted into the house, dragging poor Moll after her.
CHAPTER VIII
_"And the man that is drunk is as great as a king."_
An old English inn! What spot on earth is more hospitable, even though
its floor be bare and its tables wooden? There is a homely atmosphere
about it, with its cobwebbed rafters, its dingy windows, its big
fireplace, where the rough logs crackle, and its musty ale. It has ever
been a home for the belated traveller, where the viands, steaming hot,
have filled his soul with joy. Oh, the Southdown mutton and the roasts
of beef!
If England has given us naught else, she should be beloved for her
wealth of inns, with their jolly landlords and their pert bar-maids and
their lawns for the game of bowls. May our children's children find them
still unchanged.
In a quaint corner of London, there stood such an inn, in the days of
which we speak; and it lives in our story. When it was built, no one
knew and none cared. Tradition said that it had been a rendezvous for
convivial spirits for ages that had gone. A sign hung from the door, on
which was a boar's head; and under it, in Old English lettering, might
have been deciphered, if the reader had the wit to read, "Ye Blue Boar
Inn."
It was the evening of a certain day, known to us all, in the reign of
good King Charles. Three yesty spirits sat convivially enjoying the
warmth of the fire upon the huge hearth. A keg was braced in the centre
of the room. One of the merry crew--none other, indeed, than Swallow, a
constable to the King--sat astride the cask, Don Quixote-like. In place
of the dauntless lance, he was armed with a sturdy mug of good old ale.
He sang gaily to a tune of his own, turning ever and anon for
approbation to Buzzard, another spirit of like guild, who sat in a
semi-maudlin condition by the table, and also to the moon-faced landlord
of the inn, who encouraged the joviality of his guests--not forgetting
to count the cups which they demolished.
Swallow sang:
_"Here's a health unto his Majesty, with a fa, la, fa,
Conversion to his enemies with a fa, la, fa,
And he that will not pledge his health,
I wish him neither wit nor wealth,
Nor yet a rope to hang himself--
With a fa, la, fa,
With a fa, la, fa."_
The song ended in a triumphant wave of glory. The singer turned toward
the fellow, Buzzard, and demanded indignantly:
"Why don't ye sing, knave, to the tune of the spigot?"
"My gullet's dry, Master Constable," stupidly explained his companion,
as he too buried his face in the ale.
"Odsbud, thou knowest not the art, thou clod," retorted the constable,
wisely.
"Nay; I can sing as well as any man," answered Buzzard, indignantly, "an
I know when to go up and when to come down." He pointed stupidly,
contrary to the phrase, first to the floor and then to the ceiling.
The landlord chuckled merrily, imitating him. "When to go up and when to
come down!" he repeated with the same idiotic drawl and contradictory
gesture.
"Go to, simple," replied Swallow, with tremendous condescension of
manner. "Thy mother gave thee a gullet but no ear. Pass the schnapps."
He arose and staggered to the table.
"Good Master Constable, how singest thou?" sheepishly inquired Buzzard,
as he filled Swallow's tankard for the twentieth time.
"Marry, by main force, thou jack-pudding; how else?" demanded Swallow,
pompously. He reseated himself with much effort astride the cask. "Oh,
bury me here," he continued, looking into the foaming mug, and then
buried his face deep in the ale.
His companions were well pleased with the toast; for each repeated it
after him, each in his turn emphasizing the "me" and the "here"--"Oh,
bury _me here!"_ "Oh, bury _me here!_"--Buzzard in a voice
many tones deeper than that of Swallow and the landlord in a voice many
tones deeper than that of Buzzard. Indeed, the guttural tones of the
landlord bespoke the grave-yard.
The three faces were lost in the foam; the three sets of lips smacked in
unison; and the world might have wagged as it would for these three
jolly topers but for a woman's voice, calling sharply from the kitchen:
"Jenkins, love!"
"Body o' me!" exclaimed the landlord, almost dropping his empty tankard.
"Coming, coming, my dear!" and he departed hastily.
The constable poked Buzzard in the ribs; Buzzard poked the constable in
the ribs.
"Jenkins, love!" they exclaimed in one breath as the landlord returned,
much to his discomfiture; and their eyes twinkled and wrinkled as they
poked fun at the taverner.
"Body o' me! Thou sly dog!" said the constable, as he continued to twit
him. "Whence came the saucy wench in the kitchen, landlord? A dimpled
cook, eh?"
The landlord's face grew serious with offended dignity as he attempted
to explain.
"'Tis my wife, Master Constable," he said.
"Marry, the new one?" inquired Swallow.
"'Tis not the old one, Master Swallow," replied the old hypocrite,
wiping away a forced tear. "Poor soul, she's gone, I know not where."
"I' faith, I trow she's still cooking, landlord," consolingly replied
the constable, with tearful mien, pointing slyly downward for the
benefit of Buzzard and steadying himself with difficulty on the cask.
"Bless Matilde," said the landlord as he wiped his eyes again, "I had a
hard time to fill her place."
"Yea, truly," chuckled Swallow in Buzzard's ear, between draughts,
"three long months from grave to altar."
"A good soul, a good soul, Master Swallow," continued the landlord, with
the appearance of deep affliction.
"And a better cook, landlord," said Swallow, sadly. "Odsbud, she knew a
gooseberry tart. Patch your old wife's soul to your new wife's face, and
you'll be a happy man, landlord. Here's a drop to her."
"Thank ye, Master Constable," replied the landlord, much affected. He
looked well to the filling of the flagon in his hand, again wiped a tear
from his eye and took a deep draught to the pledge of
"The old one!"
Swallow, with equal reverence, and with some diplomacy, placed his
flagon to his lips with the pledge of
"The new one!"
Buzzard, who had not been heard from for some time, roused sufficiently
to realize the situation, and broke out noisily on his part with
"The next one!"
A startled expression pervaded the landlord's face as he realized the
meaning of Buzzard's words. He glanced woefully toward the kitchen-door,
lest the new wife might have overheard.
"Peace, Buzzard!" Swallow hastened to command, reprovingly. "Would ye
raise a man's dead wife? Learn discretion from thy elders, an thou
hop'st to be a married man."
"Marry, I do not hope," declared Buzzard, striking the table with his
clenched hand. He had no time for matrimony while the cups were
overflowing.
There was a quick, imperative knock at the door. The constable, Buzzard
and the landlord, all started up in confusion and fear.
"Thieves," stammered Swallow, faintly, from behind the cask, from which
he had dismounted at the first sign of danger. "They are making off with
thy tit-bit-of-a-wife, landlord."
"Be there thieves in the neighbourhood, Master Constable?" whispered the
landlord, in consternation.
"Why should his Majesty's constable be here else?" said Swallow,
reaching for a pike, which trembled in his hand as if he had the ague.
"The country about's o'er-run with them; and I warrant 'tis thy new
wife's blue eyes they are after." He steadied himself with the pike and
took a deep draught of ale to steady his courage as well.
Buzzard started to crawl beneath the table, but the wary constable
caught him by his belt and made a shield for the nonce of his trembling
body.
The landlord's eyes bulged from their sockets as if a spirit from the
nether regions had confronted him. The corners of his mouth, which
ascended in harmony with his moon-face, twitched nervously. "Mercy me,
sayest thou so?" he asked.
[Illustration: MISTRESS NELL FINDS HAPPINESS.]
"And in thine ear," continued Swallow, consolingly, "and if thou see'st
Old Rowley within a ten league, put thy new huswife's face under lock
and key and Constable Swallow on the door to guard thy treasure."
It was not quite clear, however, what the constable meant; for "Old
Rowley" was the name of the King's favourite racehorse, of Newmarket
fame, and had also come to be the nickname of the King himself. Charles
assumed it good-naturedly. Assuredly, neither might be expected as a
visitor to Ye Blue Boar.
There came a more spirited knock at the door. The constable sought a
niche in the fireplace, whence he endeavoured to exclude Buzzard, who
was loath to be excluded.
"Pass the Dutch-courage, good landlord," entreated Swallow, in a hoarse
whisper.
The landlord started boldly toward the door, but his courage failed him.
"Go thou, Master Constable," he exclaimed.
"Go thou thyself," wisely commanded Swallow, with the appearance of much
bravery, though one eye twitched nervously in the direction of the
kitchen-door in the rear, as a possible means of exit. "There's no need
of his Majesty's constable till the battery be complete. There must be
an action and intent, saith the law."
"Old Rowley!" muttered the landlord, fearfully. "Good Master
Constable--" he pleaded. His face, which was usually like a roast of
beef, grew livid with fear.
Swallow, however, gave him no encouragement, and the landlord once more
started for the door.
On the way his eye lighted on a full cask which was propped up in the
corner. Instinct was strong in him, even in death. It had been tapped,
and it would be unsafe to leave it even for an instant within reach of
such guests. He stopped and quickly replaced the spigot with a plug.
There was a third knock at the door--louder than before.
"Anon, anon!" he called, hastily turning and catching up the half-filled
flagon from the table. He disappeared in the entry-way.
The brave representatives of the King's law craned their necks, but they
could hear nothing. As the silence continued, courage was gradually
restored to them; and, with the return of courage, came the desire for
further drink.
Swallow again seized his pike and staggered toward the entry-way to
impress his companion with his bravery.
Buzzard caught the spirit of the action. "Marry, I'd be a constable,
too, an it were to sit by the fire and guard a pretty wench," he said.
His face glowed in anticipation of such happiness as he glanced through
the half-open door to the kitchen, where the landlord's wife reigned.
"Egad, thou a constable!" ejaculated Swallow, contemptuously, throwing a
withering glance in the direction of his comrade. "Thou ignoramamus! Old
Rowley wants naught but brave men and sober men like me to guard the
law. Thou art a drunken Roundhead. One of Old Noll's vile ruffians. I
can tell it by the wart on thy nose, knave."
"Nay, Master Constable," explained Buzzard, with an injured look at the
mention of the wart, "it will soon away. Mother says, when I was a rosy
babe, Master Wart was all in all; now I'm a man, Master Nose is crowding
Neighbour Wart."
Swallow put his hands on his knees and laughed deeply. He contemplated
the nose and person of his companion with a curious air and grew mellow
with patronage.
"Thy fool's pate is not so dull," he said, half aloud, as he lighted a
long pipe and puffed violently. "Thy wit would crack a quarter-staff.
'Sbud, would'st be my _posse?_
This was, indeed, a concession on the part of the constable, who was
over-weighted with the dignity of the law which he upheld.
"Would'st be at my command," he continued, "to execute the King's
_Statu quos_ on rogues?"
"Marry, Constable Buzzard!" exclaimed the toper, gleefully. "Nay, and I
would!"
"Marry, 'Constable' Buzzard!" replied Swallow, with tremendous
indignation at the assumption of the fellow. "Nay, and thou would'st
not, ass! By my patron saint--"
As the constable spoke, Buzzard's eye, with a leer, lighted on the cask
in the corner. He bethought him that it had a vent-hole even though the
landlord had removed the spigot. He tiptoed unsteadily across the room,
and proceeded with much difficulty to insert a straw in the small
opening. He had thus already added materially to his maudlin condition,
before Swallow discovered, with consternation and anger, the temporary
advantage which the newly appointed _posse_ had secured.
The cunning constable held carefully on to his tongue, however. He
quietly produced a knife and staggered in his turn to the cask,
unobserved by the unsuspecting Buzzard, whose eyes were tightly closed
in the realization of a dream of his highest earthly bliss.
In an instant, the straw was clipped mid-way and the constable was
enjoying the contents of the cask through the lower half, while Buzzard
slowly awakened to the fact that his dream of bliss had vanished and
that he was sucking a bit of straw which yielded naught.
"Here, knave," commanded Swallow, between breaths, pushing the other
roughly aside, "thou hast had enough for a _posse_. Fill my mug,
thou ignoranshibus."
Buzzard staggered toward the table to perform the bidding. "The flagon's
empty, Master Constable," he replied, and forthwith loudly called out,
"Landlord! Landlord!"
The constable dropped his straw and raised himself with difficulty to
his full height, one hand firmly resting on the cask.
"Silence, fool of a _posse_" he commanded, when he had poised
himself; "look ye, I have other eggs on the spit. To thy knee, sirrah;
to thy knee, knave!"
Buzzard with difficulty and with many groans unsuspectingly obeyed the
command. Swallow lifted the cask which not long since he had been riding
and which had not as yet been tapped upon the shoulder of his kneeling
companion. There was another groan.
"'Tis too heavy, good Master Constable," cried Buzzard, in sore
distress.
"Thou clodhopper'" yelled Swallow, unsympathetically. "An thou cannot
master a cask of wine, thou wilt never master the King's law. To the
kitchen with thee; and keep thy eyes shut, thou knave of a
_posse_." The constable made a dive for his pike and lantern, and
enforced his authority by punctuating his remarks with jabs of the pike
from behind at his powerless friend, who could scarce keep his legs
under the weight of the cask.
As Buzzard tottered through the kitchen-door and made his exit, the
constable, finding his orders faithfully obeyed, steadied himself with
the pike to secure a good start; and then, with long staggering strides,
he himself made his way after the _posse_, singing loudly to his
heart's content:
_"Good store of good claret supplies everything
And the man that is drunk is as great as a king."_
CHAPTER IX
_Three chickens!_
The door opened quickly, and in came King Charles; but who would have
known him? The royal monarch had assumed the mien and garb of a ragged
cavalier.
His eyes swept the inn quickly and approvingly. He turned upon the
landlord, who followed him with dubious glances.
"Cook the chickens to a turn; and, mark you, have the turbot and sauce
hot, and plenty of wine," he said. "Look to't; the vintage I named,
Master Landlord. I know the bouquet and sparkle and the ripple o'er the
palate."
"Who is to pay for all this, sir?" asked the landlord, aghast at the
order.
"Insolent!" replied Charles. "I command it, sirrah."
"Pardon, sir," humbly suggested the landlord; "guineas, and not words,
command here."
"Odso!" muttered the King, remembering his disguise. "My temper will
reveal me. Never fear, landlord," he boasted loudly. "You shall be paid,
amply paid. I will pledge myself you shall be paid."
"Pardon, sir," falteringly repeated the landlord, rubbing his hands
together graciously; "but the order is a costly one and you--"
"Do not look flourishing?" said Charles, as he laughingly finished the
sentence, glancing somewhat dubiously himself at his own dress. "Never
judge a man by his rags. Plague on't, though; I would not become my own
creditor upon inspection. Take courage, good Master Landlord; England's
debt is in my pocket."
"How many to supper, sir?" asked the landlord, fearful lest he might
offend.
"Two! Two! Only two!" decisively exclaimed Charles. "A man is an
extravagant fool who dines more. The third is expensive and in the way.
Eh, landlord?"
The King winked gaily at the landlord, who grinned in response and
dropped his eyes more respectfully.
"Two, sir," acquiesced the landlord.
"Aye, mine host, thou art favoured beyond thy kind," laughed Charles,
knowingly, as he dwelt upon the joys of a feast incognito alone with
Nell. "A belated goddess would sup at thy hostelry." The landlord's eyes
grew big with astonishment. "I will return. Obey her every wish, dost
hear, her every wish, and leave the bill religiously to me." Charles
swaggered gaily up the steps to the entry-way and out the door.
The moon-face of the inn-keeper grew slowly serious. He could not
reconcile the shabby, road-bespattered garments of the strange cavalier
with his princely commands.
"Body o' me!" he muttered, lighting one by one the candles in the room,
till the rafters fairly glowed in expectation of the feast.
"Roundhead-beggar, on my life! Turbot and capons and the best vintage!
The King could not have better than this rogue. Marry, he shall have the
best in the larder; but Constable Swallow shall toast his feet in the
kitchen, with a mug of musty ale to make him linger."
The corners of the mouth in the moon-face ascended in a chuckle.
"His ragged lordship'll settle the bill very religiously," he thought,
"or sleep off his swollen Roundhead behind the bars."
He passed into the kitchen and gave the order for the repast. As he
returned, there was a tap at the door; and he hastened to the window.
"Bless me, a petticoat!" he cried. "Well, he's told the truth for once.
She's veiled. Ashamed of her face or ashamed of him."
He opened the door and ushered in a lady dressed in white; across her
face and eyes was thrown a scarf of lace.
"Not here?" questioned the new-comer, glancing eagerly about the room and
peeping into every nook and corner without the asking, to the
astonishment of the inn-keeper.
"Not here?" she asked herself again, excitedly. "Tell me, tell me, is
this Ye Blue Boar Inn?"
"Yes, lady--" replied the landlord, graciously.
"Good, good! Has she been here? Have you seen her?"
"Who, the goddess?" asked the landlord, stupidly.
"The goddess!" retorted Nell, for it was none other, with humorous irony
of lip. "How can you so belie the Duchess?" She laughed merrily at the
thought.
There was a second knock; and the landlord again hastened to the window.
"'Tis she; 'tis she!" exclaimed Nell, excitedly. "Haste ye, man; I am in
waiting! What has she on? How is she dressed?"
"Body o' me!" exclaimed the landlord, in awe, as he craned his neck at
the sash. "'Tis a lady of quality."
"Bad quality," ejaculated Nell.
"She has come in a chair of silver," cried the landlord.
"My chair shall be of beaten gold, then," thought Nell, with a twinkle
of the eye. "Charles, you must raise the taxes."
"Mercy me, the great lady's coming in," continued the landlord, beside
himself in his excitement.
"She shall be welcome, most welcome, landlord," observed Nell promptly.
"Body o' me! What shall I say?" asked the landlord, in trembling
accents.
"Faith and troth," replied Nell, coming to his rescue, "I will do the
parlez-vousing with her ladyship. Haste thee, thou grinning fat man."
She glided quickly into a corner of the old fireplace, where she could
not be observed so readily.
The Duchess of Portsmouth entered, with all the haughty grandeur of a
queen. She glanced about contemptuously, and her lip could be seen to
curl, even through the veil which partially hid her face.
"This _bourgeois_ place," she said, "to sup with the King! It
cannot be! _Garcon!_"
"What a voice," reflected Nell, in her hiding-place, "in which to sigh,
'I love you.'"
"Barbarous place!" exclaimed Portsmouth. "His Majesty must have lost
his wits."
She smiled complacently, however, as she reflected that the King might
consent even within these walls and that his sign-manual, if so secured,
would be as binding as if given in a palace.
"_Garcon!_" again she called, irritably.
Nell was meanwhile inspecting her rival from top to toe. Nothing escaped
her quick eye. "I'll wager her complexion needs a veil," she muttered,
with vixenish glee. "That gown is an insult to her native France."
"_Garcon_; answer me," commanded Portsmouth, fretfully.
The landlord had danced about her grace in such anxiety to please that
he had displeased. He had not learned the courtier's art of being ever
present, yet never in the way.
"Yes, your ladyship," he stupidly repeated again and again. "What would
your ladyship?"
"Did a prince leave commands for supper?" she asked, impatiently.
"No, your ladyship," he replied, obsequiously. "A ragged rogue ordered a
banquet and then ran away, your ladyship."
"How, sirrah?" she questioned, angrily, though the poor landlord had
meant no discourtesy.
"If he knew his guests, he would ne'er return," softly laughed Nell.
"_Parbleu_," continued Portsmouth, in her French, impatient way,
now quite incensed by the stupidity of the landlord, "a cavalier would
meet me at Ye Blue Boar Inn; so said the messenger."
She suddenly caught sight of Nell, whose biting curiosity had led her
from her hiding-place. "This is not the rendezvous," she reflected
quickly. "We were to sup alone."
The landlord still bowed and still uttered the meaningless phrase: "Yes,
your ladyship."
The Duchess was at the end of her patience. "_Mon Dieu_," she
exclaimed, "do you know nothing, sirrah?"
The moon-face beamed. The head bowed and bowed and bowed; the hands were
rubbed together graciously.
"Good lack, I know not; a supper for a king was ordered by a ragged
Roundhead," he replied. "Here are two petticoats, your ladyship. When I
know which petticoat is which petticoat, your ladyship, I will serve the
dinner."
The tavern-keeper sidled toward the kitchen-door. As he went out, he
muttered, judiciously low: "I wouldn't give a ha'penny for the choice."
"Beggar!" snapped Portsmouth. "Musty place, musty furniture, musty
_garcon_, musty everything!"
She stood aloof in the centre of the room as if fearful lest she might
be contaminated by her surroundings.
Nell approached her respectfully.
"You may like it better after supper, madame," she suggested, mildly. "A
good spread, sparkling wine and most congenial company have cast a halo
o'er more time-begrimed rafters than these."
"Who are you, madame?" inquired the Duchess, haughtily.
"A fellow-passenger on the earth," gently replied Nell, "and a lover of
good company, and--some wine."
"Yes?" said the Duchess, in a way that only a woman can ask and answer a
question with a "yes" and with a look such as only a woman can give
another woman when she asks and answers that little question with a
"yes."
There was a moment's pause.
The Duchess continued: "Perhaps you have seen the cavalier I await."
"Marry, not I," replied Nell, promptly; and she bethought her that she
had kept a pretty sharp lookout for him, too.
"Is this a proper place for a lady to visit?" pompously inquired the
Duchess.
"You raise the first doubt," said Nell quickly.
"Madame!" exclaimed Portsmouth, interrupting her, with fiery
indignation.
"I say, you are the first to question the propriety of the place,"
explained Nell, apologetically, though she delighted inwardly at the
intended shot which she had given her grace.
"I came by appointment," continued the Duchess; "but it seems I was
misled. _Garcon_, my chair!"
The Duchess made a move toward the door, but Nell's words stopped her.
"Be patient, Duchess! He is too gallant to desert you."
"She knows me!" thought Portsmouth. She turned sharply upon the
stranger. "I have not the pleasure of your acquaintance, madame."
"Such is my loss, not yours," replied Nell, suavely.
"Remove your veil," commanded the Duchess; and her eyes flashed through
her own.
"I dare not before the beauty of Versailles," continued Nell, sweetly.
"Remove yours first. Then I may take mine off unseen."
"Do I know you?" suspiciously inquired Portsmouth.
"I fear not," said Nell, meekly, and she courtesied low. "I am but an
humble player--called Nell Gwyn."
The Duchess raised herself to her full height.
"Nell Gwyn!" she hissed, and she fairly tore off her veil.
"Your grace's most humble servant," said Nell, again courtesying low and
gracefully removing her veil.
"This is a trap," exclaimed the Duchess, as she realized the situation.
"Heaven bless the brain that set it then," sweetly suggested Nell.
"Your own, minx," snapped Portsmouth. "I'll not look at the hussy!" she
muttered. She crossed the room and seated herself upon the bench, back
to Nell.
"Your grace would be more kind if you knew my joy at seeing you."
"And why?" asked the Duchess, ironically.
"I would emulate your warmth and amiability," tenderly responded Nell.
"Yes?" said Portsmouth; but how much again there was in her little
"yes," accented as it was with a French shrug.
"I adore a beautiful woman," continued Nell, "especially when I know her
to be--"
"A successful rival?" triumphantly asked the Duchess.
"A rival!" exclaimed Nell, in well-feigned astonishment, still toying
with the Duchess's temper. "Is the poor actress so honoured in a
duchess's thought? Your grace is generous."
If all the angels had united, they could not have made her speech more
sweet or her manner more enticing.
"I presumed you might conceive it so," replied Portsmouth, with mocking,
condescending mien.
Nell approached her timidly and spoke softly, lovingly, subserviently.
"A rival to the great Duchess of Portsmouth!" she said. "Perish the
thought! It is with trepidation I look upon your glorious face, madame;
a figure that would tempt St. Anthony; a foot so small it makes us swear
the gods have lent invisible wings to waft you to your conquest. Nay, do
not turn your rosy lip in scorn; I am in earnest, so in earnest, that,
were I but a man, I would bow me down your constant slave--unless
perchance you should grow fat."
The turn was delicious: Nell's face was a study; and so was
Portsmouth's.
The Duchess sprang to her feet, realizing fully for the first time that
she had been trapped and trifled with. "Hussy! Beware your own lacings,"
she angrily exclaimed, turning now full face upon her adversary.
Nell was leaning against the table across the room, quietly observing
Portsmouth upon the word-wrack. Her whole manner had changed. She
watched with evident delight the play of discomfiture, mingled with
contempt, upon the beautiful Duchess's face.
"_Me_ fat!" she derisively laughed. "Be sure I shall never grow too
much so. And have not the stars said I shall ne'er grow old?"
"Your stars are falser than yourself," tartly snapped the Duchess.
"Mayhap," said Nell, still gleeful; "but mark you this truth: I shall
reign queen of Love and Laughter while I live, and die with the first
wrinkle."
She was interrupted by his Majesty, who, unsuspecting, swaggered into
the room in buoyant spirits.
"The King!" exclaimed Nell, as she slyly glanced over her shoulder.
The King looked at one woman and then at the other in dismay and horror.
"Scylla and Charybdis!" he muttered, nervously, glancing about for means
of escape. "All my patron-saints protect me!"
Nell was by his side in an instant.
"Good even' to your Majesty," she roguishly exclaimed. "How can I ever
thank you, Sire, for inviting the Duchess to sup with me! I have been
eager to meet her ladyship."
"Ods-pitikins," he thought, "a loophole for me."
"Well,--you see--" he said, "a little surprise, Nelly,--a little
surprise--for me." The last two words were not audible to his hearers.
He looked at the beautiful rivals an instant, then ventured, "I hoped to
be in time to introduce you, ladies."
"Oh, your Majesty," asserted Nell, consolingly, "we are already quite
well acquainted. I knew her grace through her veil."
"No doubt on't," observed the King, knowingly.
"Yes, Sire," said the Duchess, haughtily, casting a frigid glance at
Nell, "I warrant we understand each other perfectly."
"Better and better," said Charles, with a sickly laugh.
His Majesty saw rocks and shoals ahead, and his wits could find no
channel of escape. He turned in dire distress upon Nell, who stood
aloof. She looked up into his face with the innocence of a babe in every
feature.
"Minx, this is your work!" he whispered.
"Yes, Sire!" she answered, mock-reprovingly, bending quite to the floor
as she courtesied low.
"'Yes, Sire.' Baggage!" he exclaimed good-naturedly despite himself.
As he turned away, praying Heaven to see him out of the difficulty, he
observed the landlord, who had just entered with bread and cups,
muttering some dubious invocations to himself. He clutched at this piece
of human stupidity--like a drowning man clutching at a straw: "Ah,
landlord, bring in what we live for; and haste ye, sirrah. The wine! The
wine!"
"It is ready, sir," obsequiously replied the landlord, who had just
sense enough in his dull cranium to reflect also, by way of complement,
"So is Constable Swallow."
"Good news, good news!" cried Charles; and he tossed his plumed hat upon
the sideboard, preparatory to the feast. "D'ye hear, my fair and loving
friends? Come, it is impolite to keep the capons waiting. My arms; my
arms!"
The King stepped gallantly between the ladies, making a bold play for
peace. The Duchess took one arm formally. Nell seized the remaining arm
and almost hugged his Majesty, nestling her head affectionately against
his shoulder. Charles observed the decorum of due dignity. He was
impartial to a fault; for he realized that there only lay his salvation.
The phalanx approached the feast in solemn march. The King tossed his
head proudly and observed: "Who would not play the thorn with two such
buds to blush on either side?"
There was a halt. The Duchess looked coldly at the table, then coldly at
the King, then more coldly at Nell. The King looked at each inquiringly.
"I thought your Majesty ordered supper for three," she said. "It is set
for two."
"Odsfish, for two!" cried Charles, glancing, anxiously, for the first
time at the collation.
Nell had taken her place at the feast, regardless of formality. She was
looking out for herself, irrespective of King or Duchess. She believed
that a dinner, like the grave, renders all equal.
"Egad!" she exclaimed, as she dwelt upon the force of the Duchess's
observation. "Our host is teaching us the virtues of economy."
The unsuspecting landlord re-entered at this moment, wine in hand, which
he proceeded to place upon the table.
"What do you mean, knave, by this treachery!" almost shrieked the King
at sight of him. "Another plate, dost hear; another plate, dog!"
"Bless me," explained the landlord, in confusion, "you said supper for
two, sir; that a man was a fool who dined more; that the third was
expensive and in the way."
"Villain!" cried Charles, in a hopeless effort to suppress the fellow,
"I said two-two--beside myself. I never count myself in the presence of
these ladies."
The landlord beat a hasty retreat.
The Duchess smiled a chilling smile, and asked complacently:
"Which one of us did you expect, Sire?"
"Yes, which did you expect, Sire?" laughed Nell.
"Oh, my head," groaned Charles; "well, well,--you see--Duchess, the
matter lies in this wise--"
"Let me help your Majesty," generously interrupted Nell. "Her ladyship
is ill at figures. You see, Charles and I are one, and you make two,
Duchess."
"I spoke to the King," haughtily replied the Duchess, not deigning to
glance at Nell.
The King placed his hands upon his forehead in bewilderment.
"This is a question for the Prime Minister and sages of the realm in
council."
"There are but two chairs, Sire," continued Portsmouth, coldly.
"Two chairs!" exclaimed the Merry Monarch, aghast, as he saw the breach
hopelessly widening. "I am lost."
"That is serious, Sire," said Nell, sadly; and then her eye twinkled as
she suggested, "but perhaps we might make out with one, for the
Duchess's sake. I am so little."
She turned her head and laughed gaily, while she watched the Duchess's
face out of the corner of her eye.
"'Sheart," sighed the King, "I have construed grave controversies of
state in my time, but ne'er drew the line yet betwixt black eyes and
blue, brunette and blonde, when both were present. Another chair,
landlord! Come, my sweethearts; eat, drink and forget."
The King threw himself carelessly into a chair in the hope that, in meat
and drink, he might find peace.
"Aye," acquiesced Nell, who was already at work, irrespective of
ceremony, "eat, drink and forget! I prefer to quarrel after supper."
"I do not," said the Duchess, who still stood indignant in the centre of
the room.
Nell could scarce speak, for her mouthful; but she replied gaily, with a
French shrug, in imitation of the Duchess:
"Oh, very well! I have a solution. Let's play sphinx, Sire."
Charles looked up hopefully.
"Anything for peace," he exclaimed. "How is't?"
"Why," explained Nell, with the philosophical air of a learned doctor,
"some years before you and I thought much about the ways and means of
this wicked world, your Majesty, the Sphinx spent her leisure asking
people riddles; and if they could not answer, she ate them alive. Give
me some of that turbot. Don't stand on ceremony, Sire; for the Duchess
is waiting."
The King hastened to refill Nell's plate.
"Thank you," laughed the vixen; "that will do for now. Let the Duchess
propound a riddle from the depths of her subtle brain; and if I do not
fathom it upon the instant, Sire, 't is the Duchess's--not
Nell's--evening with the King."
"Odsfish, a great stake!" cried Charles. He arose with a serio-comic
air, much pleased at the turn things were taking.
"Don't be too confident, madame," ironically suggested the Duchess; "you
are cleverer in making riddles than in solving them."
As she spoke, the room was suddenly filled with savoury odour. The
moon-faced landlord had again appeared, flourishing a platter containing
two finely roasted chickens. His face glowed with pride and ale.
"The court's famished," exclaimed Charles, as he greeted the inn-keeper;
"proceed!"
"Two capons! I have it," triumphantly thought Portsmouth, as she
reflected upon a riddle she had once heard in far-off France. It could
not be known in England. Nothing so clever could be known in England.
She looked contemptuously at Nell, and then at the two chickens, as she
propounded it.
"Let your wits find then three capons on this plate."
"Three chickens!" cried Charles, in wonderment, closely scrutinizing the
two fowl upon the plate and then looking up inquiringly at the Duchess.
"There are but two."
Nell only gurgled.
"Another glass, landlord, and I'll see four," she said. "Here's to you
two, and to me too." She drank gaily to her toast.
"That is not the answer, madame," coldly retorted the Duchess.
"Are we come to blows over two innocent chickens?" asked Charles,
somewhat concerned still for the outcome. "Bring on your witnesses."
"This is one chicken, your Majesty," declared the Duchess. "Another's
two; and two and one make three."
With much formality and something of the air of a conjurer, she counted
the first chicken and the second chicken and then recounted the first
chicken, in such a way as to make it appear that there were three birds
in all.
The King, who was ill at figures, like all true spendthrifts, sat
confused by her speech. Nell laughed again. The landlord, who was in and
out, stopped long enough to enter upon his bill, in rambling characters,
"3 chickens." This was all his dull ear had comprehended. He then
piously proceeded on his way.
"Gadso!" exclaimed the King, woefully. "It is too much for me."
"Pooh, pooh, 'tis too simple for you, Sire," laughed Nell. "I solved it
when a child. Here is my bird; and here is your bird; and our dearest
Duchess shall sup on her third bird!"
Nell quickly spitted one chicken upon a huge fork and so removed it to
her own plate. The second chicken, she likewise conveyed to his
Majesty's. Then, with all the politeness which she only could summon,
she bowed low and offered the empty platter to the Duchess.
Portsmouth struck it to the board angrily with her gloved hand and
steadied herself against the table.
"Hussy!" she hissed, and forthwith pretended to grow faint.
Charles was at her elbow in an instant, supporting her.
"Oh,--Sire, I--" she continued, in her efforts to speak.
"What is it?" cried Charles, seriously, endeavouring to assist her. "You
are pale, Louise."
"I am faint," replied she, with much difficulty. "Pardon my longer
audience, Sire; I am not well. _Garcon_, my chair. Assist me to the
door."
The fat landlord made a hasty exit, for him, toward the street, in his
desire to help the great lady. Charles supported her to the threshold.
"Call a leech, Sire," cried Nell after them, with mock sympathy. "Her
grace has choked on a chicken-bone."
"Be still, wench," commanded the King. "Do not leave us, Louise; it
breaks the sport."
"Nay," pleaded Nell also, "do not go because of this little
merry-making, Duchess. I desire we may become better friends."
Her voice revived the Duchess.
"_Sans doute_, we shall, madame," Portsmouth replied, coldly. "_A
mon bal! Pas adieu, mais au revoir_."
The great Duchess courtesied low, kissed the King's hand, arose to her
full height and, with an eye-shot at Nell, took her departure.
CHAPTER X
_Arrest him yourself!_
The King stood at the door, thoughtfully reflecting on the temper of the
departing Duchess. She was a maid of honour and, more than that, an
emissary from his brother Louis of France. Gossip said he loved her, but
it was not true, though he liked her company exceeding well when the
mood suited. He regretted only the evening's incident, with the harsher
feeling it was sure to engender.
Nell stood by the fireplace, muttering French phrases in humorous
imitation of her grace. Observing the King's preoccupation, she tossed a
_serviette_ merrily at his head.
This brought his Majesty to himself again. He turned, and laughed as he
saw her; for his brain and heart delighted in her merry-making. He loved
her.
"What means this vile French?" she asked, with delicious suggestion of
the shrug, accent and manner of her vanquished rival.
"The Duchess means," explained the King, "that she gives a royal ball--"
"And invites me?" broke in Nell, quickly, placing her elbows upon a cask
and looking over it impishly at Charles.
"And invites you _not_" said the King, "and so outwits you."
"By her porters' wits and not her own," retorted Nell.
She threw herself into a chair and became oblivious for the moment of
her surroundings.
"The French hussy! So she gives a ball?" she thought. "Well, well, I'll
be there! I'll teach her much. Oh, I'll be pretty, too, aye, very
pretty. No fear yet of rivalry or harm for England."
Charles watched her amusedly, earnestly, lovingly. The vixen had fallen
unconsciously into imitating again the Duchess's foreign ways, as an
accompaniment even for her thoughts.
"_Sans doute_, we shall, _madame_" Nell muttered audibly, with
much gesticulating and a mocking accent. "_A mon bal! Pas adieu, mais
au revoir_."
The King came closer.
"Are you ill," he asked, "that you do mutter so and wildly act?"
"I was only thinking that, if I were a man," she said, turning toward
him playfully, "I would love your Duchess to devotion. Her wit is so
original, her repartee so sturdy. Your Majesty's taste in horses--and
some women--is excellent."
She crossed the room gaily and threw herself laughing upon the bench.
The King followed her.
"Heaven help the being, naughty Nell," he said, "who offends thy merry
tongue; but I love thee for it." He sat down beside her in earnest
adoration, then caught her lovingly in his arms.
"Love me?" sighed Nell, scarce mindful of the embrace. "Ah, Sire, I am
but a plaything for the King at best, a caprice, a fancy--naught else."
"Nay, sweet," said Charles, "you have not read this heart."
"I have read it too deeply," replied Nell, with much meaning in her
voice. "It is this one to-day, that one to-morrow, with King Charles.
Ah, Sire, your love for the poor player-girl is summed up in three
little words: 'I amuse you!'"
"Amuse me!" exclaimed Charles, thoughtfully. "Hark ye, Nell! States may
marry us; they cannot make us love. Ye Gods, the humblest peasant in my
realm is monarch of a heart of his own choice. Would I were such a
king!"
"What buxom country lass," asked Nell, sadly but wistfully, "teaches
your fancy to follow the plough, my truant master?"
"You forget: I too," continued Charles, "have been an outcast, like
Orange Nell, seeking a crust and bed."
He arose and turned away sadly to suppress his emotion. He was not the
King of England now: he was a man who had suffered; he was a man among
men.
"Forgive me, Sire," said Nell, tenderly, as a woman only can speak, "if
I recall unhappy times."
"Unhappy!" echoed Charles, while Fancy toyed with Recollection. "Nell,
in those dark days, I learned to read the human heart. God taught me
then the distinction 'twixt friend and enemy. When a misled rabble had
dethroned my father, girl, and murdered him before our palace gate, and
bequeathed the glorious arts and progressive sciences to religious
bigots and fanatics, to trample under foot and burn--when, if a little
bird sang overjoyously, they cut out his tongue for daring to be
merry--in some lonely home by some stranger's hearth, a banished prince,
called Charles Stuart, oft found an asylum of plenty and repose; and in
your eyes, my Nell, I read the self-same, loyal, English heart."
There was all the sadness of great music in his speech. Nell fell upon
her knee, and kissed his hand, reverently.
"My King!" she said; and her voice trembled with passionate love.
He raised her tenderly and kissed her upon the lips.
"My queen," he said; and his voice too trembled with passionate love.
"And Milton says that Paradise is lost," whispered Nell. Her head rested
on the King's shoulder. She looked up--the picture of perfect
happiness--into his eyes.
"Not while Nell loves Charles," he said.
"And Charles remembers Nell," her voice answered, softly.
Meanwhile, the rotund landlord had entered unobserved; and a contrast he
made, indeed, to the endearing words of the lovers as at this instant he
unceremoniously burst forth in guttural accents with:
"The bill! The bill for supper, sir!"
Nell looked at the King and the King looked at Nell; then both looked at
the landlord. The lovers' sense of humour was boundless. That was their
first tie; the second, their hearts.
"The bill!" repeated Nell, smothering a laugh. "Yes, we were just
speaking of the bill."
"How opportune!" exclaimed Charles, taking the cue. "We feared you would
forget it, sirrah."
"See that it is right," ejaculated Nell.
The King glanced at the bill indifferently, but still could not fail to
see "3 chickens" in unschooled hand. His eyes twinkled and he glanced at
the landlord, but the latter avoided his look with a pretence of
innocence.
[Illustration: THE DECEPTION.]
"Gad," said Charles, with a swagger, "what are a few extra shillings to
Parliament? Here, my man." He placed a hand in a pocket, but found it
empty. "No; it is in the other pocket." He placed his hand in another,
only to find it also empty. Then he went through the remaining pockets,
one by one, turning them each out for inspection--his face assuming an
air of mirthful hopelessness as he proceeded. He had changed his garb
for a merry lark, but had neglected to change his purse. "Devil on't,
I--have--forgotten--Odsfish, where is my treasurer?" he exclaimed at
last.
"Your treasurer!" shrieked the landlord, who had watched Charles's
search, with twitching eyes. "Want your treasurer, do ye? Constable
Swallow'll find him for ye. Constable Swallow! I knew you were a rascal,
by your face."
Charles laughed.
This exasperated the landlord still further. He began to flutter about
the room aimlessly, bill in hand. He presented it to Charles and he
presented it to Nell, who would have none of it; while at intervals he
called loudly for the constable.
"Peace, my man," entreated Nell; "be still for mercy's sake."
"Good lack, my lady," pleaded the landlord, in despair, "good lack, but
you would not see a poor man robbed by a vagabond, would ye? Constable
Swallow!"
The situation was growing serious indeed. The King was mirthful still,
but Nell was fearful.
"Nell, have you no money to stop this heathen's mouth?" he finally
ejaculated, as he caught up his bonnet and tossed it jauntily upon his
head.
"Not a farthing," replied she, sharply. "I was invited to sup, not pay
the bill."
"If the King knew this rascal," yelled the landlord at the top of his
voice, pointing to Charles, "he would be behind the bars long ago."
This was too much for his Majesty, who broke into the merriest of
laughs.
"Verily, I believe you," he admitted. Then he fell to laughing again,
almost rolling off the bench in his glee.
"Master Constable," wildly repeated the landlord, at the kitchen-door.
"Let my new wife alone; they are making off with the house."
Nell was filled with consternation.
"He'll raise the neighbourhood, Sire," she whispered to Charles. "Have
you no money to stop this heathen's mouth?"
"Not even holes in my pockets," calmly replied the Merry Monarch.
"Odsfish, what company am I got into!" sighed Nell. She ran to the
landlord and seized his arm in her endeavour to quiet him.
The landlord, however, was beside himself. He stood at the kitchen-door
gesticulating ferociously and still shouting at the top of his voice:
"Constable Swallow! Help, help; thieves; Constable Swallow!"
Swallow staggered into the room with all his dignity aboard. Tankard in
hand, he made a dive for the table, and catching it firmly, surveyed the
scene.
Nell turned to her lover for protection.
"Murder, hic!" ejaculated the constable. "Thieves! What's the
row?--Hic!"
"Arrest this blackguard," commanded the landlord, nervously, "this
perfiler of honest men."
"Arrest!--You drunken idiot!" indignantly exclaimed Charles; and his
sword cut the air before the constable's eyes.
Nell seized his arm. Her woman's intuition showed her the better course.
"You will raise a nest of them," she whispered. "You need your wits,
Sire; not your sword."
"Nay; come on, I say," cried Charles, fearlessly. "We'll see what his
Majesty's constables are made of."
"You rogue--_Posse!_" exclaimed Swallow, starting boldly for the
King, then making a brilliant retreat, calling loudly for help, as the
rapier tickled him in the ribs.
"You ruffian--_Posse!_" he continued to call, alternately, first to
one and then to the other; for his fear paralyzed all but his tongue.
"You outlaw--_Posse commi-ti-titous_--hic!"
Buzzard also now entered from his warm nest in the kitchen, so
intoxicated that he vented his enthusiasm in song, which in this case
seemed apt:
_"The man that is drunk is as great as a king."_
"Another champion of the King's law!" ejaculated Charles, not without a
shadow of contempt in his voice, once more assuming an attitude of
defence.
"Oh, Charles!" pleaded Nell, again catching his arm.
"_Posse_, arrest that vagabond," commanded the constable, from a
point of safety behind the table.
"Aye, aye, sir," replied the obedient Buzzard. "On what charge--hic?"
"He's a law-breaker and a robber!" yelled the watchful landlord.
"He called the law a drunken idiot. Hic--hic!" woefully wailed Swallow.
"Odsbud, that's treason! Arrest him, _posse_--hic!"
"Knave, I arrest--hic!" asserted Buzzard.
The _posse_ started boldly enough for his game, but was suddenly
brought to a stand-still in his reeling course by the sharp point of the
rapier playing about his legs. He made several indignant efforts to
overcome the obstacle. The point of the blade was none too gentle with
him, even as he beat a retreat; and his enthusiasm waned.
"Arrest him yourself--hic!" he exclaimed.
Swallow's face grew red with rage. To have his orders disobeyed fired
him with much more indignation of soul than the escape of the ruffian,
who was simply defrauding the landlord of a dinner. He turned hotly upon
the insubordinate _posse_, crying:
"I'll arrest you, you Buzzard--hic!"
"I'll arrest you, you Swallow--hic!" with equal dignity retorted
Buzzard.
"I'm his Majesty's constable--hic!" hissed Swallow, from lips charged
with air, bellows-like.
"I'm his Majesty's _posse_--hic!" hissed Buzzard in reply.
The two drunken representatives of the law seized each other angrily.
The landlord, in despair, endeavoured hopelessly to separate them.
"A wrangle of the generals," laughed Charles. "Now is our time." He
looked about quickly for an exit.
"Body o' me! The vagabonds'll escape," shouted the landlord.
"Fly, fly!" said Nell. "This way, Charles."
She ran hastily toward the steps leading to the entry-way; the King
assisted her.
"Stop, thief! Stop, thief!" screamed the landlord. "The bill! The bill!"
"Send it to the Duchess!" replied Nell, gaily, as she and the Merry
Monarch darted into the night.
The landlord turned in despair, to find the drunken champions of the
King's law in a struggling heap upon the floor. He raised his foot and
took out vengeance where vengeance could be found.
CHAPTER XI
_In the field, men; at court, women!_
It was the evening of Portsmouth's long-awaited _bal masque_. Music
filled her palace with rhythmic sound. In the gardens, its mellowing
strains died away among the shrubs and over-hanging boughs. In every
nook and corner wandered at will the nobility--the richest--the
greatest--in the land.
None entertain like the French; and the Duchess had, indeed, exhausted
French art in turning the grand old place into a land of ravishing
enchantment, with its many lights, its flowers, its works of art. Her
abode was truly an enlivening scene, with its variety of maskers, bright
dominoes and vizards.
The King was there and took a merry part in all the sport, although,
beneath his swaggering abandon, there lurked a vein of sadness. He
laughed heartily, he danced gaily, he jested with one and all; but his
manner was assumed. The shrewdest woman's eye could not have seen it;
though she might have felt it. Brother James too enjoyed the dance,
despite his piety; and Buckingham, Rochester and a score of courtiers
beloved by the King entered mirthfully into the scene, applauding the
Duchess's entertainment heartily.
As the evening wore apace, the merry maskers grew merrier and merrier.
In a drawing-room adjoining the great ball-room, a robber-band, none
other than several gallants, whose identity was concealed by silken
vizards, created huge amusement by endeavouring to steal a kiss from
Lady Hamilton. She feigned shyness, then haughtiness, then anger; then
she ran. They were after her and about her in an instant. There were
cries of "A kiss!" "A kiss!" "This way!" "Make a circle or she'll escape
us!"
A dozen kisses so were stolen by the eager gallants before my lady broke
away, stamping her foot in indignation, as she exclaimed:
"Nay, I am very angry, very--"
"That there were no more, wench!" laughed Buckingham. "Marry, 'tis a
merry night when Portsmouth reigns. Long live the Duchess in the King's
heart!"
"So you may capture its fairer favourite, friend Buckingham?" suggested
the King, softly; and there was no hidden meaning in his speech, for the
King suspected that Buckingham's heart as well was not at Portsmouth's
and Buckingham knew that the King suspected it.
Buckingham was the prince of courtiers; he bowed low and, saying much
without saying anything, replied respectfully:
"So I may console her, Sire, that she is out-beautied by France
to-night."
"Out-beautied! Not bidden, thou mean'st," exclaimed the King, his
thoughts roving toward Nelly's terrace. Ah, how he longed to be there!
"The room is close," he fretted. "Come, gallants, to the promenade!"
He was dressed in white and gold; and a princely prince he looked,
indeed, as the courtiers separated for him to pass out between them.
All followed save Buckingham, whom Portsmouth's eye detained.
She broke into a joyous laugh as she turned from the tapestry-curtains,
through which she could see his Majesty--the centre of a mirthful scene
without.
"What say you now, my lord?" she asked, triumphantly, of Buckingham. "I
am half avenged already, and the articles half signed. The King is here
despite his Madame Gwyn, and in a playful mood that may be tuned to
love."
Buckingham's ardour did not kindle as she hoped.
"Merriment is oft but Sadness's mask, Louise," he replied, thoughtfully.
"What meanest thou?" she asked, in her nervous, Gallic way, and as
quickly, her mind anticipating, answered: "This trifle of the gossips
that Charles advances the player's whim to found a hospital at Chelsea,
for broken-down old soldiers? _Ce n'est rien!"_
She broke into a mocking laugh.
"Aye!" replied Buckingham, quietly but significantly. "The orders are
issued for its building and the people are cheering Nell throughout the
realm."
"_Ma foi!_" came from the Duchess's contemptuous lips. "And what
say the rabble of Portsmouth?"
"That she is Louis's pensioner sent here from France--a spy!" he
answered, quickly and forcefully too. "The hawkers cry it in the
streets."
"Fools! Fools!" she mused. Then, making sure that no arras had ears, she
continued: "Before the night is done, thou shalt hear that Luxembourg
has fallen to the French--Mark!--Luxembourg! Feed the rabble on that, my
lord. Heaven preserve King Louis!"
The Duke started incredulously. When had Portsmouth seen the King? and
by what arts had she won the royal consent? A score of questions
trembled on his lips--and yet were checked before the utterance. Not an
intimation before of her success had reached his ear, though he had
advised with the Duchess almost daily since their accidental meeting
below Nell's terrace. Indeed, in his heart, he had never believed that
she would be able so to dupe the King. The shadow from the axe which
fell upon Charles I. still cast its warning gloom athwart the walls of
Whitehall; and, in the face of the temper of the English people and of
well-known treaties, the acquiescence of Charles II. in Louis's project
would be but madness. Luxembourg was the key strategetically to the
Netherlands and the states beyond. Its fall meant the augmentation of
the Empire of Louis, the personal ignominy of Charles!
"Luxembourg!" He repeated the word cautiously. "King Charles did not
consent--"
"Nay," replied the Duchess, in her sweetest way, "but I knew he would;
and so I sent the message in advance."
"Forgery! 'Twas boldly done, Louise," cried Buckingham, in tones of
admiration mixed with fear.
"I knew my power, my lord," she said confidently; and her eyes glistened
with womanly pride as she added: "The consent will come."
Buckingham's eyes--usually so frank--fell; and, for some seconds, he
stood seemingly lost in abstraction over the revelations made by the
Duchess. He was, however, playing a deeper game than he appeared to
play. Apparently in thoughtlessness, he began to toy with a ring which
hung upon a ribbon about his neck and which till then had been
cautiously concealed.
"Nay, what have you there?" questioned Portsmouth.
Buckingham's face assumed an expression of surprise. He pretended not to
comprehend the import of her words.
She pointed to the ring.
He glanced at it as though he regretted it had been seen, then added
carelessly, apparently to appease but really to whet the Duchess's
curiosity:
"Merely a ring the King gave Nell."
There was more than curiosity now in Portsmouth's eyes.
"I borrowed it to show it you," continued Buckingham, indifferently,
then asked, with tantalizing calmness: "Is your mission quite complete?"
With difficulty, the Duchess mastered herself. Without replying, she
walked slowly toward the table, in troubled thought. The mask of crime
revealed itself in her beautiful features, as she said, half to herself:
"I have a potion I brought from France."
She was of the Latin race and poison was a heritage.
Buckingham caught the words not meant for him, and realized too well
their sinister meaning. Poison Nell! His eyes swept the room fearfully
and he shuddered. He hastened to Portsmouth's side, and in cold whispers
importuned her:
"For Heaven's mercy, woman, as you love yourself and me--poison is an
unhealthy diet to administer in England."
The Duchess turned upon him impatiently. The black lines faded slowly
from her face; but they still were there, beneath the beauty-lines.
"My servants have watched her house without avail," she sneered. "Your
plan is useless; my plan will work."
"Stay!" pleaded Buckingham, still fearful. "We can ourselves entice some
adventurous spirit up Nell's terrace, then trap him. So our end is
reached."
"Aye," replied the Duchess, in milder mood, realizing that she had been
over-hasty at least in speech, "the minx presumes to love the King, and
so is honest! But of her later. The treaties! He shall sign
to-night--to-night, I say."
With a triumphant air, she pointed to the quills and sand upon a table
in readiness for his signing.
Buckingham smiled approvingly; and in his smile lurked flattery so
adroit that it pleased the Duchess despite herself.
"Lord Hyde, St. Albans and the rest," said he, "are here to aid the
cause."
"Bah!" answered Portsmouth, with a shrug. "In the field, men; at court,
women! This girl has outwitted you all. I must accomplish my mission
alone. Charles must be Louis's pensioner in full; England the slave of
France! My fortune--_Le Grand Roi's_ regard--hang upon it."
Buckingham cautioned her with a startled gesture.
"Nay," smiled Portsmouth, complacently, "I may speak frankly, my lord;
for your head is on the same block still with mine."
"And my heart, Louise," he said, in admiration. "Back to the King! Do
nothing rash. We will banish thy rival, dear hostess."
He did not add, save in thought, that Nell's banishment, if left to him,
would be to his own country estate.
There was almost a touch of affection in the Duchess's voice as she
prepared to join the King.
"Leave all to me, my lord," she said, then courtesied low.
"Yea, all but Nell!" reflected his lordship, as he watched her depart.
"With this ring, I'll keep thee wedded to jealous interest, and so
enrich my purse and power. Thou art a great woman, fair France; I half
love thee myself. But thou knowest only a moiety of my purpose. The
other half is Nell!"
He stood absorbed in his own thoughts.
The draperies at the further doorway, on which was worked in Gobelin
tapestry a forest with its grand, imposing oaks, were pushed nervously
aside. Jack Hart entered, mask in hand, and scanned the room with
skeptic eye.
"A happy meeting," mused Buckingham, reflecting upon Hart's one-time
ardour for Mistress Nell and upon the possibility that that ardour, if
directed by himself, might yet compromise Nell in the King's eyes and
lead to the realization of his own fond dreams of greater wealth and
power and, still more sweet, to the possession of his choice among all
the beauties of the realm.
"It is a sad hour," thought Hart, glancing at the merry dancers through
the arch, "when all the world, like players, wear masks."
Buckingham assumed an air of bonhomie.
"Whither away, Master Hart?" he called after the player, who started
perceptibly at his voice. "Let not thy fancy play truant to this gay
assemblage, to mope in St. James's Park."
"My lord!" exclaimed Hart, hotly. The fire, however, was gone in an
instant; and he added, evidently under strong constraint: "Pardon; but
we prefer to change the subject."
"The drift's the same," chuckled the shrewd Buckingham; "we may turn it
to advantage." He approached the player in a friendly manner. "Be not
angry," he exclaimed soothingly; "for there's a rift even in the clouds
of love. Brighter, man; for King Charles was seeking your wits but now."
"He'd have me play court-fool for him?" asked the melancholy mime, who
had in his nature somewhat of the cynicism of Jaques, without his grand
imaginings of soul. "There are many off the stage, my lord, in better
practice." "True, most true," acquiesced Buckingham; "I could point them
out."
He would have continued in this vein but beyond the door, whence Hart
had just appeared, leading by a stair-way of cupids to the entrance to
the palace, arose the sound of many voices in noisy altercation.
"Hark ye, hark!" he exclaimed, in an alarmed tone. "What is't? Confusion
in the great hallway below. We'll see to't."
He had assumed a certain supervision of the palace for the night. With
the player as a body-guard, he accordingly made a hasty exit.
CHAPTER XII
_Beau Adair is my name._
The room was not long vacant. The hostess herself returned. She was
radiant.
As she crossed the threshold, she glanced back proudly at the revellers,
who, led by his Majesty, were turning night into day with their
merry-making. She had the right, indeed, to be proud; for the evening,
though scarce half spent, bespoke a complete triumph for her
entertainment. This was the more gratifying too, in that she knew that
there were many at court who did not wish the "imported" Duchess, as
they called her, or her function well, though they always smiled sweetly
at each meeting and at each parting and deigned now to feast beyond the
limit of gentility upon her rich wines and collations.
The _bal masque_, however, as we have seen, was with the Duchess
but a means to an end. She took from the hand of a pretty page the
treaties, lately re-drawn by Bouillon, and glanced hastily over the
parchments to see that her instructions from Louis were covered by their
words. A smile played on her arching lips as she read and re-read and
realized how near she was to victory.
"'Tis Portsmouth's night to-night!" she mused. "My great mission to
England is nearly ended. Dear France, I feel that I was born for thy
advancement."
She seated herself by the table, where the materials for writing had
been placed, and further dwelt upon the outcome of the royal agreements,
their contingencies and triumphs. She could write Charles Rex almost as
well as the King, she thought, as her eye caught the places left for his
signature.
"Bouillon never fails me," she muttered. "Drawn by King Charles's
consent, except perchance some trifling articles which I have had
interlined for Louis's sake. We need not speak of them. It would be
troublesome to Charles. A little name and seal will make these papers
history."
Her reflections were interrupted by the return of Buckingham, who was
laughing so that he could scarcely speak.
"What is 't?" she asked, petulantly.
"The guard have stayed but now a gallant, Irish youth," replied he, as
best he could for laughter, "who swore that he had letters to your
highness. Oh, he swore, indeed; then pleaded; then threatened that he
would fight them all with single hand. Of course, he won the ladies'
hearts, as they entered the great hall, by his boyish swagger; but not
the guards. Your orders were imperative--that none unbidden to the ball
could enter."
"'Tis well," cried Portsmouth. "None, none! Letters to me! Did he say
from whom?"
"He said," continued Buckingham, still laughing, "that he was under
orders of his master to place them only in the Duchess's hands. Oh, he
is a very lordly youth."
The Duke throughout made a sad attempt at amusing imitations of the
brogue of the strange, youthful, Irish visitor who, with so much
importunity, sought a hearing.
Portsmouth reflected a moment and then said: "I will see him,
Buckingham, but briefly."
Buckingham, not a little surprised, bowed and departed graciously to
convey the bidding.
The Duchess lost herself again in thought. "His message may have
import," she reflected. "Louis sends strange messengers ofttimes."
In the midst of her reverie, the tapestry at the door was again pushed
back, cautiously this time, then eagerly. There entered the prettiest
spark that ever graced a kingdom or trod a measure.
It was Nell, accoutred as a youth; and a bold play truly she was making.
Her face revealed that she herself was none too sure of the outcome.
"By my troth," she thought, as she glanced uncomfortably about the great
room, "I feel as though I were all breeches." She shivered. "It is such
a little way through these braveries to me."
Her eyes turned involuntarily to the corner where Portsmouth sat, now
dreaming of far-off France.
"The Duchess!" her lips breathed, almost aloud, in her excitement. "So
you'd play hostess to his Majesty," she thought, "give a royal ball and
leave poor Nelly home, would you?"
The Duchess was conscious only of a presence.
"_Garcon!_" she called, without looking up.
Nell jumped a foot.
"That shook me to the boots," she ejaculated, softly.
"_Garcon!_" again called the impatient Duchess.
"Madame," answered Nell, fearfully, the words seeming to stick in her
fair throat, as she hastily removed her hat and bethought her that she
must have a care or she would lose her head as well, by forgetting that
she was an Irishman with a brogue.
"Who are you?" asked Portsmouth, haughtily, as, rising, with surprised
eyes, she became aware of the presence of a stranger.
Indeed, it is not strange that she was surprised. The youth who stood
before her was dressed from top to toe in gray--the silver-gray which
lends a colour to the cheek and piquancy to the form. The dress was of
the latest cut. The hat had the longest plume. The cloak hung gracefully
save where the glistening sword broke its falling lines. The boots were
neat, well rounded and well cut, encasing a jaunty leg. The dress was
edged with silver.
Ah, the strange youth was a love, indeed, with his bright, sparkling
eyes, his lips radiant with smiles, his curls falling to his shoulders.
"Well," stammered Nell, in awkward hesitation but in the richest brogue,
as the Duchess repeated her inquiry, "I'm just I, madame."
The Duchess smiled despite herself.
"You're just you," she said. "That's very clear."
"Yes, that's very clear," reiterated Nell, still fearful of her ground.
"A modest masker, possibly," suggested Portsmouth, observing the youth's
embarrassment and wishing to assist him.
"Yea, very modest," replied Nell, her speech still stumbling, "almost
ashamed."
Portsmouth's eyes looked sharply at her.
"She suspects me," thought Nell, and her heart leaped into her throat.
"I am lost--boots and all."
"Your name?" demanded the Duchess again, impatiently.
For the life of her Nell could not think of it.
"You see," she replied evasively, "I'm in London for the first time in
my present self, madame, and--"
"Your name and mission, sir?" The tone was imperative.
Nell's wits returned to her.
"Beau Adair is my name," she stammered, "and your service my mission."
It was out, though it had like to have choked her, and Nell was more
herself again. The worst she had feared was that the Duchess might
discover her identity and so turn the tables and make her the
laughing-stock at court. She grew, indeed, quite hopeful as she observed
a kindly smile play upon the Duchess's lips and caught the observation:
"Beau Adair! A pretty name, and quite a pretty fellow."
A smile of self-satisfaction and a low bow were Nell's reply.
"Vain coxcomb!" cried Portsmouth, reprovingly, though she was highly
amused and even pleased with the strange youth's conceit.
"Nay; if I admire not myself," wistfully suggested Nell, in reply, with
pretence of much modesty, "who will praise poor me in this great
palace?"
"You are new at court?" asked Portsmouth, doubtingly.
"Quite new," asserted Nell, gaining confidence with each speech. "My
London tailor made a man of me only to-day."
"A man of you only to-day!" cried the Duchess, in wonderment.
"He assured me, madame," Nell hastened to explain, "that the fashion
makes the man. He did not like my former fashion. It hid too much that
was good, he said. I am the bearer of this letter to the great Duchess
of Portsmouth; that you are she, I know by your royalty."
She bowed with a jaunty, boyish bow, sweeping the floor with her plumed
hat, as she offered the letter.
"Oh, you are the gentleman," said Portsmouth, recalling her request to
Buckingham, which for the instant had quite escaped her. She took the
letter and broke the seal eagerly.
"She does not suspect," thought Nell; and she crossed quickly to the
curtained arch, leading to the music and the dancing, in the hope that
she might see the King.
Portsmouth, who was absorbed in the letter, did not observe her.
"From Rochet! Dear Rochet!" mused the Duchess, as she read aloud the
lines: "'The bearer of this letter is a young gallant, very modest and
very little versed in the sins of court.'"
"Very little," muttered Nell, with a mischievous wink, still intent upon
the whereabouts and doings of the King.
"'He is of excellent birth,'" continued the Duchess, reading, "'brave,
young and to be trusted--_to be trusted_. I commend him to your
kindness, protection and service, during his stay in town.'"
She reflected a moment intently upon the letter, then looked up quickly.
Nell returned, somewhat confused, to her side.
"This is a very strong letter, sir," said Portsmouth, with an inquiring
look.
"Yes, very strong," promptly acquiesced Nell; and she chuckled as she
recalled that she had written it herself, taking near a fortnight in the
composition. Her fingers ached at the memory.
"Where did you leave Rochet?" inquired the Duchess, almost
incredulously.
"Leave Rochet?" thought Nell, aghast. "I knew she would ask me something
like that."
There was a moment's awkwardness--Nell was on difficult ground. She
feared lest she might make a misstep which would reveal her identity.
The Duchess grew impatient. Finally, Nell mustered courage and made a
bold play for it, as ever true to her brogue.
"Where did I leave Rochet?" she said, as if she had but then realized
the Duchess's meaning, then boldly answered: "In Cork."
"In Cork!" cried Portsmouth, in blank surprise. "I thought his mission
took him to Dublin." She eyed the youth closely and wondered if he
really knew the mission.
"Nay; Cork!" firmly repeated Nell; for she dared not retract, lest she
awaken suspicion. "I am quite sure it was Cork I left him in."
"Quite sure?" exclaimed the Duchess, her astonishment increasing with
each confused reply.
"Well, you see, Duchess," said Nell, "we had an adventure. It was dark;
and we were more solicitous to know whither the way than whence."
The Duchess broke into a merry laugh. The youth had captured her, with
his wistful, Irish eyes, his brogue and his roguish ways.
"We give a ball to-night," she said, gaily. "You shall stay and see the
King."
"The King!" cried Nell, feigning fright. "I should tremble so to see the
King."
"You need not fear," laughed the hostess. "He will not know you."
"I trust not, truly," sighed Nell, with much meaning, as she scanned her
scanty masculine attire.
"Take my mask," said the Duchess, graciously. "As hostess, I cannot wear
it."
Nell seized it eagerly. She would be safe with this little band of black
across her eyes. Even the King would not know her.
"I shall feel more comfortable behind this," she said, naively.
"Did you ever mask?" inquired Portsmouth, gaily.
[Illustration: AS A CAVALIER MISTRESS NELL DECEIVES EVEN THE KING.]
"Nay, I am too honest to deceive," answered Nell; and her eyes grew so
round and so big, who would not believe her?
"But you are at court now," laughed the Duchess, patronizingly. "Masking
is the first sin at court."
"Then I'll begin with the first sin," said Nell, slyly, raising the
Duchess's fingers to her lips, "and run the gamut."
They passed together into the great ball-room, Nell exercising all her
arts of fascination--and they were many. The music ceased as they
entered. The dancers, and more especially the ladies, eyed curiously the
jaunty figure of the new-comer. There were merry whisperings among them.
"Who can he be?" asked one, eagerly. "What a pretty fellow!" exclaimed a
second, in admiration. "I've been eying him," said a third,
complacently.
The men too caught the infection.
"Who can he be?" inquired Rochester.
"Marry, I'll find out," said Lady Hamilton, with an air of confidence,
having recovered by this time from the kisses which had been thrust upon
her and being now ready for a new flirtation.
She approached Adair, artfully, and inquired: "Who art thou, my
butterfly? Tell me now, e'er I die." Her attitude was a credit to the
extremes of euphuism.
There was general laughter at her presumptuous and effete pose and
phrase.
The ladies had gathered about the new hero, like bees about new clover.
The gallants stood, or sat as wall-flowers in a row, deserted. The King
too had been abandoned for the lion of the hour and sat disconsolate.
"Peace, jealous ones!" cried Lady Hamilton, reprovingly, then continued,
with a winning way: "I know thou art Apollo himself, good sir."
Nell smiled complacently, though she felt her mask, to assure herself
that it was firm.
"Apollo, truly," she said, jauntily, "if thou art his lyre, sweet lady."
Lady Hamilton turned to the Duchess.
"Oh, your grace," she asked, languishingly, "tell us in a breath, tell
us, who is this dainty beau of the ball?"
"How am I to know my guests," answered Portsmouth, feigning innocence,
"with their vizors down? Nay, sweet sir, unmask and please the ladies.
I'faith, who art thou?"
The hostess was delighted. The popularity of the new-comer was lending a
unique novelty to her entertainment. She was well pleased that she had
detained Monsieur Adair. She thought she saw a jealous look in the
King's usually carelessly indifferent gaze when she encouraged the
affectionate glances of the Irish youth.
"I'faith," laughed Nell, in reply, "I know not, Duchess."
"D'ye hear?" said Portsmouth. "He knows not himself."
"But I have a suspicion, Duchess," sighed Nell.
"Hark ye," laughed Portsmouth, with a very pretty pout, "he has a
suspicion, ladies."
"Nay, you will tell?" protested Nell, as the ladies gathered closer
about her in eager expectation.
There was a unison of voices to the contrary.
"Trust us, fair sir," said one. "Oh, we are good at keeping secrets."
"Then, 'twixt you and me, I am--" began Nell; and she hesitated,
teasingly.
The group about grew more eager, more wild with curiosity.
"Yes, yes--" they exclaimed together.
"I am," said Nell, "the Pied Piper of Hamlin Town."
"The rat-catcher," cried Portsmouth. "Oh, oh, oh!"
There was a lifting of skirts, revealing many high-born insteps, and a
scramble for chairs, as the ladies reflected upon the long lines of rats
in the train of the mesmeric Pied Piper.
"Flee, flee!" screamed Lady Hamilton, playfully. "He may pipe us into
the mountains after the children."
"You fill me with laughter, ladies," said Portsmouth to her guests. "The
man does not live who can entrap me."
"The woman does," thought Nell, as, mock-heroically, she placed near her
lips a reed-pipe which she had snatched from a musician in the midst of
the fun; and, whistling a merry tune which the pipe took no part in, she
circled about the room, making quite a wizard's exit.
The ladies, heart and soul in the fun, fell into line and followed, as
if spell-bound by the magic of the Piper.
Charles, James, Rochester and the gallants, who remained, each of whom
had been in turn deserted by his fair lady, unmasked and looked at one
another in wonderment. Of one accord, they burst into a peal of
laughter.
"Sublime audacity," exclaimed Charles. "Who is this curled darling--this
ball-room Adonis? Ods-pitikins, we are in the sear and yellow leaf."
"Truly, Sire," said James, dryly, "I myself prefer a gathering of men
only."
"Brother James," forthwith importuned the King, waggishly, "will you
favour me with your lily-white hand for the next dance? I am driven to
extremity."
"Pardon, Sire," replied James, quite humorously for him, "I am engaged
to a handsomer man."
"Odsfish," laughed Charles, "King Charles of England a wall-flower.
Come, Rochester, my epitaph."
The King threw himself into a chair, in an attitude of hopeless
resignation, quite delicious.
Rochester perked up with the conceit and humour of the situation. With
the utmost dignity, and with the quizzical, pinched brow of the
labouring muse, halting at each line, he said:
_"Here lies our sovereign lord, the King,
Whose word no man relies on;
Who never said a foolish thing,
And never did a wise one!"_
The post-mortem verse was sufficiently subtle and clever to revive the
King's drooping spirits; and he joined heartily in the applause.
"The matter," he said, approvingly, "is easily accounted for--my
discourse is my own, my actions are my Ministry's."
There was a _frou-frou_ of petticoats. The hostess entered gaily.
"The King! The courtiers! Unmasked!" she exclaimed, in coy reproof. "Fy,
fy, your Majesty! For shame! Gallants! Are you children that I must pair
you off?"
"We are seeking consolation," suggested Charles, dryly; "for modest
souls have small chance to-night, Louise."
He nodded significantly in the direction of the great ball-room, where
the chatter of women's voices betokened the unrivalled popularity of
Nell.
"When did you turn modest, Sire?" slyly inquired Portsmouth, with a look
of love.
"When I was out-stripped in audacity by yon Hibernian youth," replied
the King, seriously. "Who is this peacock you are introducing?"
A peal of laughter from without punctuated the King's speech. It was the
reward of a wit-thrust from Nell.
"The Piper the maids would now unmask?" queried Portsmouth, rapturously.
"Marry, 'tis the fascinating Beau Adair of Cork, entertaining the
ladies. Oh, he is a love, Sire; he does not sulk in corners. See! See!"
She pointed toward the archway, through which Nell was plainly visible.
She was strutting jauntily back and forth upon the promenade. It is
unnecessary to say that she was escorted by the assembled fair ones.
As Nell caught the eye of the hostess in the distance, she gaily tossed
a kiss to her.
"'Sdeath, that I were a woman to hope for one of his languishing
smiles," observed Buckingham.
"Even the old hens run at his call," sneered the pious James, in
discontent; for he too had been deserted by his ladylove and even before
the others.
The King looked at his brother with an air of bantering seriousness, to
the delight of all assembled.
"Brother James is jealous of the old ones only," he observed. "You know
his favourites are given him by his priests for penance."
A merry ripple ran through the group.
The hostess took advantage of the King's speech to make a point.
"And you are jealous of the young ones only," she said, slyly, quickly
adding as a bid for jealousy: "Pooh, pooh! _Le Beau_ had letters to
me, Sire. Nay, we do not love him very much. We have not as yet had
time."
"Alas, alas," sighed Charles, with drooping countenance, "that it should
come to this."
"My liege, I protest--" cried Portsmouth, hastily, fearful lest she
might have gone too far. "To-night is the first I ever saw the youth. I
adore you, Sire."
"Not a word!" commanded Charles, with mock-heroic mien. He waved his
hand imperatively to his followers. "Friends," he continued, "we will
mix masks and dominoes and to't again to drown our sorrow."
"In the Thames?" inquired James, facetiously for him.
"Tush! In the punch-bowl, pious brother!" protested the Merry Monarch,
with great dignity. "You know, a very little water will drown even a
king."
The gallants mixed masks and dominoes in obedience to the royal wish.
The King, sighing deeply, cast a hopeless glance at Portsmouth, not
without its tinge of humour. He then sauntered slowly toward the windows
of the great ball-room, followed subserviently by all the courtiers,
save Buckingham, who was lost in converse with player Hart.
"Hark ye," suddenly broke off Buckingham, observing the approach of
Adair and his adorers, "here come again the merry maskers. By Bacchus,
the little bantam still reigns supreme. The King and his gallants in
tears. Let us join the mourners, Master Hart."
As the Duke and the player, the former assuming a fraternal air for an
end of his own, joined the royal group, Nell re-entered gaily, every
inch the man. She was still surrounded by the ladies, who, fluttering,
flattering and chattering, hung upon her every word. With one hand she
toyed with her mask, which she had good-naturedly dropped as none were
about who knew her. She clapped it, however, quickly to her eyes at
sight of the King.
"You overwhelm me, my fair ones," she said, with spirit, as she held
court in the centre of the room. "I assure you, I am not used to such
attention--from the ladies."
"Our hospitality is beggarly to your deserts," sighed Portsmouth, who
had joined the bevy, but loud enough for the King to hear.
"You quite o'erpower me, Duchess," answered Nell, modestly, adding for
the satisfaction of her own sense of humour: "No wonder we men are
fools, if you women talk like this."
While she was speaking, Lady Hamilton whispered facetiously in
Portsmouth's ear.
"Beau Adair married!" exclaimed the Duchess, in response. "It cannot be.
He looks too gay for a married man."
"No confidences, my pretty ones," observed Nell, reprovingly.
The hostess hesitated; then she out with it in a merry strain.
"Lady Hamilton asks after the wife you left at home."
"My wife!" cried Nell, in astonishment; for this phase of her
masquerading had not presented itself to her before. "Great Heavens, I
have no wife--I assure you, ladies!"
"So?" observed Portsmouth, her curiosity awakened. "Modest--for a
bachelor."
"A bachelor!" exclaimed Nell, now fully _en rapport_ with the
spirit of the situation. "Well,--not exactly a bachelor
either,--ladies."
"Alack-a-day," sighed Lady Hamilton, with a knowing glance at her
companions, "neither a bachelor nor a married man!"
"Well, you see--" explained Nell, adroitly, "that might seem a trifle
queer, but--I'm in mourning--deeply in mourning, ladies."
She drew a kerchief from her dress and feigned bitter tears.
"A widower!" tittered Lady Hamilton, heartlessly. "Our united
congratulations, sir."
The other ladies one by one sobbed with affected sympathy, wiping their
eyes tenderly, however, lest they might remove the rich colour from
their cheeks.
"Mesdames," said Nell, reprovingly, "the memory is sacred. Believe me,
very sacred."
She fell apparently once again to weeping bitterly.
"The memory is always sacred--with men," observed Portsmouth, for the
benefit of her guests, not excepting the Irish youth. "Nay, tell us the
name of the fair one who left you so young. My heart goes out to you,
dear Beau."
"Kind hostess," replied Nell, assuming her tenderest tones, "the name of
my departed self is--Nell!"
Hart caught the word. The player was standing near, reflecting on the
scene and on the honeyed words of the Duke of Buckingham, who was
preparing the way that he might use him.
"Nell!" he muttered. "Who spoke that name?"
The hostess too was startled.
"Nell!" she exclaimed, with contending emotions. "Strange! Another
cavalier who graces _mon bal masque_ to-night has lost a loved one
whose name is Nell. Ah, but she was unworthy of his noble love."
She spoke pointedly at the masked King, who started perceptibly.
"Yes," he thought; for his conscience smote him, "unworthy--he of her."
"Unworthy, truly, if he dances so soon and his own Nell dead," added
Nell, reflectively, but so that all might hear, more especially Charles.
"Perchance Nell too thinks so," thought he, as he restlessly walked
away, sighing: "I wish I were with her on the terrace."
"'Sdeath, Duchess," continued Nell abruptly, in assumed horror at the
sudden thought, "the lady's spirit may visit the ball, to the confusion
of us all. Such things have been."
"The Nell I mean," said Portsmouth, with a confident smile, "will not
venture here, e'en in spirit."
Nell assumed a baby-innocence of face.
"She has not been bidden, I presume?" she queried.
"The vixen would not stop for asking," declared Portsmouth, almost
fiercely.
"Come without asking?" cried Nell, as if she could not believe that
there could be such people upon the earth. "How ill-bred! Thine ear,
loved one. My Nell revisits the world again at midnight. The
rendezvous--St. James's Park."
Hart brushed close enough t
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