XIII. THE BENEVOLENCE OF M. DE BEAUJEU XIV. THE GALLANTRY OF M. DE BEAUJEU XV. "A WOMAN WHOSE NAME WAS DELILA XVI. THE SYMPATHY OF M. DE BEAUJEU XXV. M. DE BEAUJEU LEAVES BY THE WINDOW XXVI. M. DE BEAUJEU COMES IN BY THE DOOR. XXVII. M. DE BEAUJEU FIGHTS FOR ANOTHER XL. M. DE BEAUJEU RETURNS IN TRIUMPH XLI. M. DE BEAUJEU RECEIVES HIS REWARD BEAUJEU CHAPTER I KING CHARLES II. CHRISTENS HIS DOGS My Lord Sunderland halted behind the hedge and, invisible, surveyed his King. It was a morning of St Martin's summer, and the sun silvered the big bare elms and made the lawn gleam and glisten before his Majesty's purple shoes. King Charles II. leant upon the shoulder of the Vicomte de Vallorbes and spoke softly, swiftly, earnestly. So my Lord Sunderland remained invisible and strained his ears and shivered. For the dew was chill, and he feared vastly for his health. But my lord with Roman virtue endured. Great matters were at stake, and he dared a cold in his head. In two hours the House of Lords would vote (it was my lord's conviction) that James, Duke of York, being a Papist, might never come to the English throne. And behold, in the Dean's garden King Charles II. held private parley with M. de Vallorbes, who was of the suite of the French Ambassador, who was to leave Oxford that morning for Versailles A and Louis le Grand. My lord's educated nose scented base dealings with France to thwart the Protestant cause. My lord suspected his King "of treachery untoward his people," of a villainous desire to preserve the throne for his brother and heir, and was virtuously wroth behind the hedge. For my Lord Sunderland was at the moment a furious Whig. Titus Oates and his Popish plot yet loomed large over the land, and to be anything less than ardently Whig was rash. There in Oxford the Whig nobles and gentlemen walked the streets with retainers in martial array, and his Majesty's Horse Guards Blue would only go out from their quarters in pairs. That last had profoundly impressed my Lord Sunderland. By great majorities the Commons had voted that the Duke of York should not be the heir. The people for certain were mightily stirred. King Charles II. must bow to their will or go on his travels again. Yet my Lord Sunderland had marked for two days that the King bore his troubles lightly. The King, with a smile, declined to fear the imminent deluge. From behind the hedge my Lord Sunderland descried the reason. The King was building an ark for the Protestant deluge, and Louis of France was supplying the timber. Hence the King's gaiety; hence this early, lonely talk with M. de Vallorbes. My Lord Sunderland, standing on one leg in the dew, strained his ears vainly to catch the words, for the King and Vallorbes kept far away, and only the spaniels favoured my Lord Sunderland's |