Part 10 (1/2)
These were fond hopes not destined to be realised. The courage and state-craft of William the Conqueror carried him safely through all the plots which a.s.sailed him during his stormy reign. Raoul de Gael knew where he was safe, and abandoned his claims upon English soil.
”I did well indeed to entrust my castle to the keeping of my bride!”
cried the proud husband, when he held her in his arms once more; and the answer that went up from a thousand throats was a shout of admiration and praise in honour of their lord's fair young wife, the brave Emma Fitz-Osborn.
ELIZABETH STUART
A princess, yet a captive in the hands of her father's foes; those foes who were already whispering their fell intention of putting him to death!
This was the situation of the youthful Elizabeth, the second daughter of the ill-fated monarch, Charles I. Her mother and her eldest brother were beyond the seas, having made good their escape from Cromwell and his Roundheads; but she, with her two brothers, James, Duke of York, and Henry, Duke of Gloucester, were captives in the power of the Parliament, and though treated with courtesy and a certain kindliness, they were permitted no liberty to come and go, or even to write to their friends.
Every action was carefully observed, and their persons were so closely guarded that there was little hope of evading the many watchful eyes that were ever bent upon them.
”If I could but reach my brother and our mother!” was the exclamation ever on the lips of James, when he and his sister were alone together.
It seemed to the high-spirited boy that once free from these encircling walls and the vigilance of his warders, once across the sea to join the others of his name and race, he must surely achieve some great thing for the deliverance of his father; his restless mind was ever pondering this theme. The thought of making good his escape was never absent from his mind night nor day.
Perhaps he plotted almost too much for his own success; for a day came when he was summoned to an interview with certain of the Parliamentary authorities, and he returned to his sister's apartments with flushed face and flas.h.i.+ng eyes. Elizabeth saw that he had been deeply angered by what had pa.s.sed, and she quickly got rid of her attendant, that she and her brother might speak in peace together. This liberty was the only one accorded to the Royal captives. Their rooms were guarded; they never went abroad unwatched and unattended; but within the precincts of the palace they had some privacy permitted to them, and they could speak together without being overheard, though never without a fear of possible eavesdroppers.
”Sister, I have been grossly insulted!” cried James, with flas.h.i.+ng eyes; ”they have intercepted my letter to our sister of Orange; they said they had discovered treasonable matter in it.”
”Treasonable matter!” echoed Elizabeth, her breath coming and going.
”They dare to talk of treason!--They!”
”Ay; that was the very word--treasonable matter! They saw, or thought they saw it, in my desire to quit the country--to escape to Holland----”
”But the letter was in cypher,” interrupted Elizabeth. ”How could they read it when they had it?”
A dark frown clouded the brow of James.
”That I did not condescend to inquire; but I heard some talk between those knaves themselves. I gathered that they had got the letter, and had then sent for the Earl of Northumberland, and had shown him how we had evaded his vigilance; had warned him, that if he could not find the key of the cypher in which it had been written, he should be committed to the Tower. Did I not tell you the other day that I was certain my effects had been ransacked? I did not miss the cypher key. I know it so well that I scarce ever have to look at it now. Doubtless they found and took it away; but I did not observe it.”
”And they were angry with you, James?”
”Angry? Ay, that they were. They dared to threaten me with the Tower, too, if they found me plotting escape again!”
Elizabeth clasped her hands closely together, her face worked with the emotion she strove to master. She came and stood beside James, and laid her soft cheek against his.
”Jamie, Jamie,” she cried piteously, ”if they were to take you from me, I think that I should die!”
He put his arm about her, and they stood together, looking out of the window, thinking and pondering deeply.
”But, sister, you would have to learn to live without me if I were to escape this thraldom, and win my liberty. Could you bear to let me go for that?”
A little tremor ran through the girl's slight frame. She was very frail and delicate, this gentle, young Elizabeth; little fit to bear the buffets of outrageous fortune, to stand alone in her strange captivity; cut off from father, mother, friends, and kindred, and beset with so many cruel anxieties and fears on behalf of those she loved best. Her greatest solace in these sorrowful days was the companions.h.i.+p of her brother James, who, being a year or more her senior, and endowed with robust health, seemed like a tower of strength to the frail girl, hardly more than a child in years, though misfortune had given a strange maturity to her mind and disposition. It could not but be a dismal thought to lose the constant companions.h.i.+p of this brother, to send him forth into the perils of the great world without, where so many foes awaited him. She might well have sought to keep him beside her, fearing the perils of any project of escape; but despite her natural fears and shrinkings, and the delicacy of her frame, the spirit of kings and warriors was within her, and that spirit rose to meet the sacrifice which might be required of her.
”I would bear to let you go for that, Jamie,” she answered. ”But it would break my heart were you taken from me to be immured within the walls of the Tower.”
”It may come to that one of these days,” said James, ”if I be not able to effect my escape. I cannot show the patience that you are able to command; and I am not a child like Harry, there, of whose words and acts no special note is taken. And did not our father bid me use every effort to regain my liberty, and reach the side of our mother and brother? It may be that already they are planning how to invade these sh.o.r.es, summon all loyal hearts to join them, and set my father on the throne once more! Oh! if such a thing were to happen, I must be there to help.”