A Romance of the West Indies Part 42

"Bravery is in the blood of the Croustillacs, sir; as to being excellent, I do not know about that; if such be the case, it is not my fault; it is your wife's work, who has aroused in me the desire to be better that I really am. Ah, well, prince, time is precious; everything is in train to raise a county of England in your favor; Louis the XIV.

will support this insurrection. There is offered you the viceroyship of Ireland and Scotland, and all kinds of other favors."

"Never will I consent to profit by these offers. Civil wars have cost me too dear," cried Monmouth; "and"--looking at Angela, "I no longer have ambitions."

"Your highness! reflect well! If your heart counsels remove the bronze color from your face, and say to De Chemerant that reasons known only to yourself obliged you to guard your secret until now. You will prove to him who you are; I will return your duchy to you, and ask your permission to go and fight at your side in Cornwall, or elsewhere, in order to serve you, as they say, as a living armor. I am sure this will please the d.u.c.h.ess."

"And we have suspected him," said Angela, looking at her husband.

"He must forgive us," said the duke. "Men like him are so rare that it is not unnatural to doubt them when one encounters them."

"Hold on, my lord, you embarra.s.s me. Let us speak of other matters. Do you, or do you not, accept the viceroyship? After that, do not think I shall press you to speak in order to relieve me from your role; it pleases me, it amuses me. I have become quite accustomed to it.

Nevertheless, it will be somewhat unpleasant to no longer hear myself addressed as 'my lord duke,' to say nothing of my laughing in my sleeve when I think of all the absurdities which I have made that good De Chemerant, with his important air, swallow. If I persist, your highness, in praying that you resume your rank, as it seems they are terribly in need of you in England in order to secure the happiness of the people in general and that of Cornwall in particular; you must know that better than I do----"

"Ah! I know only too well the vain pretexts that one offers to ambition."

"But, your highness, all appears to be perfectly prepared. The frigate which has brought the good De Chemerant is filled with arms and ammunition; there is in it enough to arm and revolutionize all the Cornishmen in the world; moreover, you can count on a dozen of your partisans."

"Of my partisans! and where, then?" cried Monmouth.

"On board Chemerant's frigate. These brave men are waiting for me, that is to say, waiting for you, your highness, with great impatience. There is above all a madman named Mortimer, whom De Chemerant had the greatest difficulty in the world to keep on board, so much was he possessed with the desire to embrace me--I would say embrace you, for I confound us all the time."

Angela, seeing the troubled manner of her husband, said to him, "My G.o.d!

what ails you?"

"I can no longer hesitate," replied Monmouth, "I must tell De Chemerant the whole truth."

"Heavens, James! what are you saying?"

"You wish to be viceroy, your highness?" interposed Croustillac.

"No, sir, I desire to prevent your ruining yourself on my account. My grat.i.tude will be no less lasting for the service that you wished to do me."

"How, your highness? Is it not, then, to become viceroy that you would dispossess me of my princ.i.p.ality?"

"My partisans are on board the frigate; if I should accept your generous offer, sir, to-morrow you would be known--lost."

"But, your highness----"

"Except for this circ.u.mstance which, I repeat, would cause your discovery in a moment, I would, perhaps, have excepted your generous devotion, the mistake of De Chemerant might have continued for a few days, and I could have put you beyond the reach of his resentment; but to accept your offer, sir, knowing the presence of my friends on board the frigate, would be to expose you to certain danger. I can never consent to do that."

"Your highness forgets that it means perpetual imprisonment for you if you do not place yourself at the head of this movement?"

"It is because it means for me the escape from a danger that I do not choose to sacrifice you, sir. When I learned that you were taken prisoner by Rutler I was going to rush to your a.s.sistance in order to release you."

"My G.o.d, James! think of the prison! of eternal confinement! but it is not possible! and what will become of me, if I should be forbidden to accompany you? No, no! you will not reject the sacrifice which this generous man offers to make!"

"Angela!" said the duke, in a tone of reproach; "Angela! and this generous man, shall we abandon him shamefully when he is devoted to us--to escape imprisonment, shall we condemn him to an eternal captivity?"

"Him?"

"Doubtless! is he not the possessor of a state secret? Will not De Chemerant be furious at seeing himself tricked. I tell you, he cannot escape prison when the trick shall be discovered."

"Confound it! my duke, attend to your own affairs!" cried Croustillac, "and do not take the bread out of my mouth, as they say. Prisoner of state! that disgusts you, but do you not know that that would be an a.s.sured retreat for me, a refuge for my old days? To be frank, the life of an adventurer palls upon me; there must be an end to it. I would have something more sure; judge, then, if that would not suit me? Prisoner of state! can I not secure that? I beg of you not to take from me the last resource of my old age; do not destroy my future."

"Listen to me, you brave and worthy man," responded Monmouth, affectionately pressing his hand. "I am not deceived by your ingenious pretenses."

"Your highness, I swear----"

"Listen, I beg of you; when you have heard me you will no longer be surprised at my refusal. You will see that I cannot accept your generous offer without being doubly culpable. You will understand the sad memories, not to say remorse, that your devoted offer and the present chain of circ.u.mstances awake in me. And you, Angela, my dearly beloved, you shall at last learn a secret that until this present moment I have hidden from you; it needed circ.u.mstances as grave as these in which I am now placed to force me to make this sad revelation."

CHAPTER XXVII.

THE MARTYR.

"James! James! what are you saying? you terrify me!" exclaimed Angela, as she witnessed the duke's emotion.

"You know," said the duke to Croustillac, "in consequence of what political events I was arrested and confined to the Tower of London in 1685?"

"You will excuse me, your highness, if I know not a word of it; I am as ignorant as a fish of contemporaneous history, which, be it said in pa.s.sing, and without boasting, rendered my part outrageously difficult to play; for I was always afraid I should make some ridiculous statement, and thus compromise, not my reputation as a scholar--I am no priest--but your fortune which I so imprudently a.s.sumed."

"Very well then," said the duke; "after the death of my father; when the Duke of York, my uncle, ascended the throne under the t.i.tle of James II., I entered into a conspiracy against him. I shall not seek to justify my conduct; years of reflection have made things clear to me. I know now that I was as culpable as I was insane; the young Duke of Argyle was the soul in this plot. All this was carried on under the very eyes of the Prince of Orange, then a stadtholder, now King of England.

Argyle knew my views of the Protestant action, my ambition, my resentment against James II.; he had no trouble in a.s.sociating me with his plans. At once, owing to my name and influence, I was at the head of the conspiracy. I had news from England which only waited my presence there to overthrow the throne of the papist king to proclaim me king in his place. I departed from the Texel with three vessels transporting soldiers whom I had recruited. Argyle, having preceded me in Scotland, had paid with his head for the audacity of his attempt. I landed in England at the head of a number of devoted partisans. I realized then how greatly I had been deceived. Three or four thousand men at the most joined the handful of brave men who were pledged to my cause, and among others were Mortimer, Rothsay and Dudley. The son of Monck, the young Duke of Albemarle, advanced against me at the head of a royal army; and I, desiring to bring fortune to the point, made a decisive move. I attacked the enemy at Sedgemore, near Bridgewater; I was beaten in spite of the prodigies of valor shown by my little army, and, above all, by my cavalry, commanded by the brave Lord George Sidney." In p.r.o.nouncing this name, the voice of the prince failed him, and deep emotion was depicted upon his face.

"George Sidney! my second father! my benefactor!" cried Angela. "It was in fighting for you he was killed! it was at that battle, then, that he was killed? This is the secret you have hidden from me?"

The duke bent his head, and after a few minutes' silence, said, "You will know all, very soon, child! Our rout was complete. I wandered off at hazard; my head had a price upon it. I was seized the day after this fatal defeat and conducted to the Tower of London. My case was tried.

Convicted of high treason, I was condemned to death."

"Oh," cried Angela, throwing herself into the duke's arms; "you deceived me; I believed you to be only exiled."

"Be calm, Angela; yet I have hidden this from you, as much that you should not be troubled as--." Then, after a moment's hesitation, Monmouth continued, "you shall know all; it requires much courage to make this revelation."

"Why? What have you to fear?" said Angela.

"Alas! poor child, when you have heard me, perhaps you will regard me with horror!"

"You, James? do you believe that I can ever do that?"

"Well," said Monmouth, "whatever the result, I must speak, at the risk, perhaps, of separating us forever."

"Never, never!" cried Angela despairingly.

"Zounds! I will sooner throw De Chemerant from these cliffs at the least pretense," cried Croustillac. "And, as for that, with your slaves, we could furnish him a fine escort. But I think--will you try this method?

How many slaves can you arm, sir?"