The Historical Nights Entertainment, Second Series

's Courtship o

solence i

rs is to be read in a series of acts of violent and ever-increasing arrogance, expressing the vanity and levity inherent in his nature. Scarcely was he established in the royal favour than he distinguished himself by striking an offen

plied the main planks of that scaffold in Whitehall whereupon Charles Stuart came to lose his head. Charles was indeed a martyr; a martyr chiefly to the reckless, insolent, irresponsi

He lost the sense of proportion, and was without respect for anybody or anything. The Commons of England and the immensely dignified Court of Spain-during that disgraceful, pseudo-romantic adventure at Madrid-were ali

assador Extra-ordinary, charged with the task of conducting to England the King of France's

ing to the Louvre he literally blazed. He wore a suit of white satin velvet with a short cloak in the Spanish fashion, the whole powdered over with diamonds to the value of some ten thousand pounds. An enormous diamond clasped the heron's plume in his hat; diamonds flashed in the hilt of his sword; diamonds studded his very spurs, which

hundred people made up his train. There were musicians, watermen, grooms of the chamber, thirty chief yeomen, a score of cooks, as many grooms, a dozen pages

ad set the fashion to the world, stared mouth-agape, dazzled

scious only that what he did could not be better done, and he ruffled it with an air of easy insouciance, as if in all this costly display there was nothing that was not normal. He treated with princes

skin and hair, whilst a look of wistfulness had come to invest with an indefinable tenderness her splendid eyes. Her childless marriage to the young King of France, which had endured now for ten years, had ha

irresponsible young girl, had encouraged him, merely to betray him to a ridicule which his proud spirit had never been able to forgive. Be that or another the reason, the fact that Richelieu hated he

d in them, when they rested upon the dazzling figure of my Lord of Buckingham

led in his madness by the thought of the peril that would spice such an adventure. Into that adventure he plunged forthwith. He wooed her during the eight days that he abode in Paris, flagrantly, openly, contemptuo

wn caliber-for other business beside the marriage had brought Buckingham to Paris-suggested to the King that the Duke's manner in approaching the Queen lacked a proper deference, and the Queen's manner of receiving him a proper circumspec

d Paris to accompany Henrietta Maria, now Queen of England, on the first stage of her journey to her new home. The King was not

d that his place should be beside the carriage of Henrietta Maria. But duty did not apply to His Insolence

red. Whilst Amiens was thus honoured by the presence of three queens at one and the same time within its walls, the Duc de Chaulnes gave an

nded by her Mistress of the Household, the beautiful, witty Marie de Rohan, Duchess of Chevreuse, and by her equerry, Monsieur de Putange. Madame de Chevreuse had for cavalier that handsome coxcomb, Lord Holland, who was one of Buckingham's creatu

wards the affair of gallantry upon which their mistress almost seemed to wish to be embarked. They forgot, it would seem, that she was a queen, and remembered sympathetically that she was a woman, and that she

ecured them from observation, than, piling audacity up on audacity, he determined to accomplish here and now the

ight! How exqui

how still, but for the ge

at is no gentle murmur. The river laughs,

checked in his step, and t

sea that soon shall divide me from you, and it mocks me,

o answer him, scarce knew whether she took pleasure or offense in his daring encroachment upon that ro

ur, you will be with us again

stion, his lips so near her face that she

u, of your pity, say but that you wish it, and I will

he displeasure was perhaps but a passing emotion, the result of early training. Yet she contrived to

Queen of France does not listen to

there is a man, under the queen a woman-our real selves, not the titles with which Fate seeks to dissemble our true natures. And with

this manner, no one had ever so much as suggested that her existence could matter greatly, that in her woman's nature there was the magic power of awakening passion and devotion. He was so splendidly magnificent, so masterful

s sake! You must not talk

wounded, for she clung to that as to the anchor of salvation

her. "Because you resist it, because you fight against the commands o

outraged rebellion. A scream, loud and piercing, broke from her and rang through the still garden. It bro

unning up in alarm, his hand upon his sword, those two stood with the width of the avenue between them, Buckingham e

ange's cry, as he sprang forwa

m, looking from one to the othe

l have wondered whether presently he would be receiving M. de Putange's swo

rove to render calm. "I confess that I was startled to find myself a

no illusions as to what must have happened. But he was relieved there were to be no complications. The others now c

e way beyond Amiens the Court took its leave of Henrietta Maria, entrusting her

came now to Anne of Austria as she sat in her coa

d, "I am come to

he said, and her voice was warm and gentle

r pardon, madame," he

looked down; her hands were trembling,

, so that none might see him from outside, and l

drawing breath. I obeyed an instinct stronger than the will to live. I gave expression to something that dominates my whole being, and will ever dominate it as long as I have life. Adieu, madame! At n

he Princesse de Conti, watching her furt

"but I cannot speak so positively for the hardness of her hea

had not thriven with Louis and Richelieu, possibly because the ambassador was ill-chosen. The instructions came too late to be of use, but in time to serve as a pretext for Buckingham's return to Amiens. There he sought an audience of the Queen-Mother, and deliver

erefore, amazing that he should have been admitted to her presence. She was alone save for her lady-in-waiting, Madame de Lannoi, who was, we are told, aged, prudent and virtuous. Conceive, ther

fused and agitated, Madame de Lan

not customary in France to kne

of France, madame," he answere

ess. "Nevertheless, whilst in France perhaps monsieur will perceive the convenie

want a cha

nnot expect anything else in a foreigner," and let him kneel as he in

. It was unthinkable that he should be so near to her Majesty and not hasten to cast himself at her feet; and whilst gladdening the eyes of his body with the sight of her matchless perfection, the image of which was ever before the eyes of his soul

ine tale for Court gossips, and for the King's ears, a tale that must hopelessly compromise the Queen. For that, Buckingham, in his self-sufficiency and ar

her tong

as not necessary, it was not worth while, to have a

party to which himself he had been so indifferent. He kissed the coverlet again, stumbled to his

id he in tragic ton

conditions was enough to set the tongue of gossip wagging. An echo of it reached the King, together with the story of that other business in the garden, and

ill have asked. "What did M. de B

it was, she was no party t

ad his agents in London and elsewhere, and he desired of them a close report upon

zar Gerbier. It is to be presumed that they served the Duke's interests well, and it is no less to be presumed from that which followed that they found her Majesty willing enough to hear news of that amazingly romantic fellow who had flashed across the path of her grey life, touching it for a moment

to journey to London and bear the Duke a trifling memento of her-a set of diamond studs. That

nected with Spain. But Richelieu had heard from the French ambassador in London that portraits of the Queen of France were excessively abundant at York House, the Duke's residence, and he had considered it his duty to inform the King. Louis was angry, but not with the Qu

this, the vainglorious Buckingham was loud in proclaiming the reason ("well known to himself") and in protesting that he would go to France to see the Queen with the French King's consent or without it. Th

yed him, that when considered in addition to his undying rancour against Anne of Austria, it is easily believed he spared

dence he managed her so craftily-says La Rochefoucauld-that very soon she was, whilst hardly realizing it, his Eminence's most valuable spy near Buckingham. Richelieu informed her that he was mainly concerned with information that would throw light upon the real relations of Buckingharn and the Queen of France, and he persuaded her that nothing was too insignificant to be communicated. Her resentment of the treatment sh

, indeed, was news. Here was a weapon by which the Queen might be destroyed. Richelieu considered. If he could but obtain possession of the studs, the rest would be easy. There would be an end-and

t she seemed at pains to show him that it was his to take up again the affair at the point at which it had been dropped. She was gay, arch, provoking and irresistible. So irresistible that presently, yielding to the lure of her, the Duke slipped away from his guests with the lady on his arm, and they found themselves at the foot of the garden in the shadow of the water-gate that Inigo Jones had just completed for him. My lady languis

s. His questing eyes could discern her nowhere. Presently he made inquiries, to be told that she had

tradictory that she should have taken offense at that which she had so obviously invited. But then

Cogitating it, he sat in his room, his fingers combing his fine, pointed, auburn beard. At last, with a shrug and a half-laugh, he rose

staring, and moist of brow. It was no ordinary theft. There were upon his person a dozen ornaments of greater value, any one of which c

le's oddly contradictory behaviour. The jade had fooled him. It was she who had stolen the riband. He

st boundless power. That power he would exert to the full this very night to thwart those enemies of his own and of the Queen's, who worked so subtly in concert. Many would be wronged, much harm

ouse Lacy and Thom, and send them to me at once, and leave word that I shall requ

ken in all southern ports-so that no vessel of any kind should leave the island until the King's further pleasure were made known. Startled, the people wondered was this enactment the forerunner of war. Had they known the truth, they might have been more startled still, though in a

ided the work. Soon it was accomplished, and a vessel slipped down the Thames, allowed to pass by those who kept close watch to enforce the royal decree, and made sail for Calais, which was beginning to manifest surprise

re. But it was twenty-four hours too late for Richelieu and his agent, the Countess of Carlisle. His Emi

, he would force a way into it, the red way of war. Blood should flow, ruin and misery desolate the land, but in the end he would go to Paris to negotiate a peace, and that should be his opportunity. Other reasons

in disgrace to England, and the Duke found himself more detested by the people than he had been already-which is saying mu

s hostility, indifferent to the mutinies and mutterings about him. What signified to him the will of a nation? He desired to win to the woman whom he love

aring that soon it would pass from words to deeds, urged him to take p

eringly, ever arro

no Roman spirits left," w

h, where he lodged whilst superintending the final preparations for that unpopular expedition, John Fel

ation with which the slayer struck home. And, in all the cir