Part 20 (1/2)
The man bulked larger in her eyes than he had ever done, and she struggled with herself to keep the vow she had made to the Duke's Daughter the night that Angele had been found in De la Foret's rooms.
He had been the immediate cause, fated or accidental, of the destined breach between Leicester and herself; he had played a significant part in her own life. Glancing at her courtiers, she saw none that might compare with him, the form and being of calm boldness and courage. She sighed she knew scarce why.
When De la Foret first opened his mouth and essayed to call the wors.h.i.+ppers to prayer no words came forth--only a dry whisper. Some ladies simpered, and more than one courtier laughed silently. Michel saw, and his face flamed up. But he laid a hand on himself, and a moment afterwards his voice came forth, clear, musical, and resonant, speaking simple words, direct and unlacquered sentences, pa.s.sionately earnest withal. He stilled the people to a unison of sentiment, none the less interested and absorbed because it was known that he had been the cause of the great breach between the Queen and the favorite. Ere he had spoken far, flippant gallants had ceased to flutter handkerchiefs, to idly move their swords upon the floor.
[Ill.u.s.tration: ”'AND WHAT MATTER WHICH IT IS WE WIELD'”]
He took for his text, ”_Stand and search for the old paths_.” The beginning of all systems of religion, the coming of the Nazarene, the rise and growth of Christianity, the martyrdoms of the early Church, the invasion of the truth by false doctrine, the abuses of the Church, the Reformation, the martyrdom of the Huguenots for the return to the early principles of Christianity, the ”search for the old paths,” he set forth in a tone generous but not fiery, presently powerful and searching, yet not declamatory. At the last he raised the sword that hung by his side and the book that lay before him, and said:
”And what matter which it is we wield--this steel that strikes for G.o.d or this book which speaks of Him? For the book is the sword of the Spirit, and the sword is the life of humanity; for all faith must be fought for and all that is has been won by strife. But the paths wherein ye go to battle must be the old paths; your sword shall be your staff by day and the book your lantern by night. That which ye love ye shall teach, and that which ye teach ye shall defend; and if your love be a true love your teaching shall be a great teaching and your sword a strong sword which none may withstand. It shall be the pride of sovereign and of people; and so neither 'height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of G.o.d.'”
Ere he had ended some of the ladies were overcome, the eyes of the Duke's Daughter were full of tears, and Elizabeth said, audibly, when he ceased speaking: ”On my soul, I have no bishop with a tongue like his. Would that my lord of Ely were here to learn how truth should be spoke. Henceforth my bishops shall first be Camisards.”
Of that hour's joyful business the Queen wrote thus to the Medici before the day was done:
”Cancelling all other letters on the matter, this M. de la Foret shall stay in my kingdom. I may not be the headsman of one of my faith--as eloquent a preacher as he was a brave soldier. Abiding by the strict terms of our treaty with my brother of France, he shall stay with us in peace and in our own care. He hath not the eloquence of a Knox, but he hath the true thing in him, and that speaks.”
To the Duke's Daughter the Queen said, ”On my soul, he shall be married instantly, or my ladies will carry him off and murder him for love.”
And so it was that the heart of Elizabeth the Queen warmed again, and dearly, towards two Huguenot exiles, and showed that in doing justice she also had not so sour a heart towards her s.e.x as was set down to her credit. Yet she made one further effort to keep De la Foret in her service. When Michel, once again, declined, dwelt earnestly on his duty towards the widow of his dead chief, and begged leave to share her exile in Jersey, Elizabeth said, ”On my soul, but I did not think there was any man on earth so careless of princes' honors!”
To this De la Foret replied that he had given his heart and life to one cause, and since Montgomery had lost all, even life, the least Michel de la Foret could do was to see that the woman who loved him be not unprotected in the world. Also, since he might not at this present fight for the cause, he could speak for it; and he thanked the Queen of England for having shown him his duty. All that he desired was to be quiet for a s.p.a.ce somewhere in ”her high Majesty's good realm” till his way was clear to him.
”You would return to Jersey, then, with our friend of Rozel?”
Elizabeth said, with a gesture towards Lempriere, who, now recovered from his wound, was present at the audience.
De la Foret inclined his head. ”If it be your high Majesty's pleasure.”
And Lempriere of Rozel said, ”He would return with myself your n.o.ble Majesty's friend before all the world, and Buonespoir his s.h.i.+p the _Honeyflower_.”
Elizabeth's lips parted in a smile, for she was warmed with the luxury of doing good, and she answered:
”I know not what the end of this will be, whether our loyal Lempriere will become a pirate or Buonespoir a butler to my court; but it is too pretty a hazard to forego in a world of chance. By the rood, but I have never, since I sat on my father's throne, seen black so white as I have done this past three months. You shall have your Buonespoir, good Rozel; but if he plays pirate any more--tell him this from his Queen--upon an English s.h.i.+p, I will have his head, if I must needs send Drake of Devon to overhaul him.”
That same hour the Queen sent for Angele, and by no leave, save her own, arranged the wedding-day, and ordained that it should take place at Southampton, whither the Comtesse de Montgomery had come on her way to Greenwich to plead for the life of Michel de la Foret and to beg Elizabeth to save her poverty, both of which things Elizabeth did, as the annals of her life record.
After Elizabeth--ever self-willed--had declared her way about the marriage ceremony, looking for no reply save that of silent obedience, she made Angele sit at her feet and tell her whole story again from first to last. They were alone, and Elizabeth showed to this young refugee more of her own heart than any other woman had ever seen. Not by words alone, for she made no long story; but once she stooped and kissed Angele upon the cheek, and once her eyes filled up with tears, and they dropped upon her lap unheeded. All the devotion shown herself as a woman had come to naught; and it may be that this thought stirred in her now. She remembered how Leicester and herself had parted, and how she was denied all those soft resources of regret which were the right of the meanest women in her realm. For, whatever she might say to her Parliament and people, she knew that all was too late--that she would never marry, and must go childless and uncomforted to her grave. Years upon years of delusion of her people, of sacrifice to policy, had at last become a self-delusion, to which her eyes were not full opened yet--she sought to shut them tight. But these refugees, coming at the moment of her own struggle, had changed her heart from an ever-growing bitterness to human sympathy. When Angele had ended her tale once more the Queen said:
”G.o.d knows ye shall not linger in my court. Such lives have no place here. Get you back to my Isle of Jersey, where ye may live in peace.
Here all is noise, self-seeking, and time-service. If ye twain are not happy I will say the world should never have been made.”
Before they left Greenwich Palace--M. Aubert and Angele, De la Foret, Lempriere, and Buonespoir--the Queen made Michel de la Foret the gift of a chaplaincy to the crown. To Monsieur Aubert she gave a small pension, and in Angele's hands she placed a deed of dower worthy of a generosity greater than her own.
At Southampton Michel and Angele were married by royal license, and with the Comtesse de Montgomery set sail in Buonespoir's boat, the _Honeyflower_, which brought them safe to St. Helier's, in the Isle of Jersey.
XX