St. George's Cross Part 6

"Go, Major," he said, with an expressive look and gesture. "Let Messieurs les Etats know of our Mother's message. Sir George! be pleased to bring Major Querto into your a.s.sembly. And, I pray you, bid some one send me here Tom Elliott," added the King, in a more natural tone of voice. "_A bientot!_ Sir George." He waved his visitors out and resumed the care of his finger-ends, neglected in the excitement of the discussion.

Carteret, accompanied by Major Querto, repaired to the mainland. They proceeded together to the Market-place (now the Royal Square) and entered the newly-built _Cohue_ or Court-house, where the States were a.s.sembling. Seven of the Jurats (or Justices) were already collected, in their scarlet robes of office: Sir Philip de Carteret, Seigneur of S.

Owen (the Lieutenant-Bailiff); Amice de Carteret, Seigneur of Trinity; Francis de Carteret, Joshua de Carteret, Elias Dumaresq, Philip le Geyt, and John Pipon. These, in official tranquillity--as became their high dignity--took seats on the dais, to the right and left of the Governor's chair. Below them gradually gathered the officers of the Crown, the Procureur du Roy, or Attorney-General (another de Carteret), and the Viscount, or Sheriff, Mr. Lawrence Hamptonne. In the body of the hall sate the Constables of the parishes, and some of the Rectors. The townsmen swarmed into the unoccupied s.p.a.ce beyond the gangway. When the hall was full, the usher, having placed the silver mace on the table, thrice proclaimed silence. Then Sir George--who united the little-compatible offices of Bailiff and Lieutenant-Governor--arose from his central seat and presented the Major who stood beside it.

"M. le Lieutenant-Bailly, and Messieurs les Etats!" he said, "I have called you together to consider a message from the Queen: this gentleman here will impart it to you, Major Querto, of his Majesty's army."

The Major's face a.s.sumed the colour of his nose.

"I am a rough soldier," he muttered, in English, "and little used to address such an august a.s.sembly as I see here; least of all in a foreign language."

"English, English," cried a dozen voices. But Querto was silent, and looked at the Governor with a scared and anxious gaze.

"Since our guest is so modest," resumed Carteret, "it is necessary that I should speak for him. The question is simple. Her Majesty, with her constant care for the subjects of her son, has heard with dismay that the rebels in England are projecting a descent upon Jersey. At the same time, Castle Cornet, in Guernsey, will be attacked by sea. Sir Baldwin Wake, with your active aid, has. .h.i.therto held out against the Roundheads of that island; and surely since the time of Troy has seldom been so long a siege, so stout a defence. But, with the Roundheads a.s.saulting him by land, and Blake's squadron by sea--Gentlemen, I know Blake and his brave seamen--what can Wake and a hundred half-starved men avail? To guard us against all these dangers, and against the loss of all the profits that we now have from our letters-of-marque in the Channel, her Majesty has been pleased to devise a means of succour."

Here the Governor's speech was interrupted by cries of "Vive la Reine,"

led by the Constable of S. Brelade, in whose parish was situated the town of S. Aubin, the princ.i.p.al port and residence of the corsairs.

"Nay, but hear her Majesty's gracious project. Nothing doubting your good affection or your courage, the Queen is persuaded that her royal son's person (to say little of the other small matters already named by me) cannot be safe in your hands against a serious attempt such as can be made as soon as General Cromwell returns victorious--as he doubtless will--from the Irish war. She therefore intends--and here, Gentlemen, I come to the main purpose of our present meeting--she intends, I say, to send over a strong force of French troops to occupy the island."

Consternation kept the a.s.sembly silent.

"You are not ignorant of the history of your country," pursued the Governor. "When a former Queen sought the aid of France you know on what terms that aid was given. You know the name of Maulevrier; how for six years he held the Castle of Gorey with the Eastern half of our island.

'We have heard with our ears, and our fathers have declared to us' what things the Papists did in those days, and how the Lord delivered you by the hands of my own ancestor and of the sailors of England. Are we to do it again; it is to be France or England?"

The hall was in an uproar. With startling unanimity the last word was echoed from all sides: "England for ever! England above all!"

Returning to his quarters in the part of the Castle called by the name of the late King, Carteret found Sir Edward Nicholas--who was ageing and felt the cold of sunset--in a mantle and with a black silk skullcap on his head, pacing up and down the little esplanade by the faint light of a waning moon. There was an old friendliness between the two: Nicholas having been long loved and favoured by Hyde, now in Spain, but formerly the cherished guest of the Carterets. Hence the Secretary was both willing and able to give sympathy and counsel to his host almost as well as could have been done by the author of the famous _History of the Rebellion_, had himself been once more in the Castle.

"I hear by letter from Prynne, this day received," said the Lieutenant-Governor, "to the effect that our giving harbour here to his Majesty is a cause of umbrage to yonder cuckoldy knaves in London.

Meanwhile I have grave doubts as to the young man himself--under your favour, Sir Edward. We are undergoing so many and great dangers and distresses for him that we might well hope to have no renewal of the old dealings to our disadvantage. Yet it seems that things are coming to that pa.s.s that we may ere long have to choose between England and France."

"As for France," answered the Secretary, "we may expect due provision from his Majesty who is--believe me--a true lover of his own country; as also from your Honour, whose n.o.ble house has done well-known service in bye-gone times. For England, we know what her power is; but that power lies in the collection of her organs (as Sir Edward Hyde hath often taught us) by no means in the hypertrophe of one organ, and that one mutilated. The Church, Lords, Commons, are Three Estates--"

"Alack, Sir Edward," interrupted the impatient sailor, "this is that whereto Prynne would lead us. Bethink you of Will Shakspeare's saying, 'If two men ride on a horse one must go behind.' How much more if there be three of them. Here, in Jersey, where there is but one organ of Government--I mean the States--we may have labour, but we have none of these confusions. But in England, look you--"

"If it were as you suppose," cried Nicholas, "the King must needs ride before and the Parliament behind. But let me hear more of Mr. Prynne.

Barring his sourness in regard of stage-plays and Bishops--which seemed strangely coupled in his mind--he was ever a wise and moderate man."

"Marry," replied Carteret, "I will show you what he hath writ. He would persuade us--I will be plain with you--to send Charles packing, and to yield ourselves wholly to the present Government in England. He argues that might is right, and that it is to that a weak state like ours must needs bow;--Here be your three organs of Government--or rather were--yet one hath ever the last word, the casting vote; and that it is which in very truth governs: the others are but baubles. For, put case it were otherwise, then how would it fare with the public weal when one organ says, 'This shall be so, while another saith, 'Nay, but it shall be _so_;' and a third perhaps is divided. It is put to the touch, as hath been lately seen in this nation, where the King came forth on one side with his cavaliers, followed by tapsters, serving-men and clodhoppers; officers and men for the most part broken in fortune, debauched in body and mind. Against him were ranged the citizens, the gentry, many even of the lords and the sober well-informed part of the yeomen. Your Royal tapsters are scattered in almost every encounter, your King is taken, dethroned, slain. Where be then your joint-organs, your paper-balance?

Is it not the merest audit of a bankrupt's books?' So far Mr. Prynne, of whose wisdom you perhaps will make short work."

"I do not say that he is wrong," answered the Secretary, with a puzzled look. "I must own that we are beaten for the nonce. And it may be that if we were uppermost we should equally destroy the balance. But who will judge a man's const.i.tution by the symptoms of calenture? The nation is sick, yet it is not like to die."

"My faith!" said Sir George, after a brief pause of reflection, "I think thou must be right, Sir Edward. This present condition of things cannot endure: but England will not die. When once men are earnestly disposed upon a way of reconciliation there must be give-and-take on either side until we get to work again. Mr. Prynne's own tyranny, that of the Parliament, hath been already encountered by a stronger tyranny, that of the army. But that is a regimen to which Englishmen will not submit."

"Then you are for the English, Sir George, rather than for the French."

"Aye, aye, Sir," answered the other. "For the King of England, if possible. But for the Gaul we are not. We are of the old blood of the Franks and Normans. We have served our Dukes ever since the battle of Hastings; but when they became English, why, we became English too. We beat the French under Du Guesclin, we beat them under Maulevrier. From England we have had none but good and honest handling. We are English above all."

"Well said!" cried the Secretary. "I am no boaster, neither do I claim the gift of prophecy, like some of our saints yonder. But I am persuaded that a day will come when your words will be put to the proof. You will have to choose not between King and Commons, but between England and France you yourself said so but now."

"_Mon Dieu_! the choice will be soon made," cried Carteret. "And now let us to table. For albeit Dame Carteret is lying-in, it will be hard but I can furnish a friend some junk and biscuit."

ACT IV.

THE DUEL.

Tom Elliot was a very bad sample of the cavalier party. Trained in camps, he had learned betimes to seek his happiness in wine, dice, loose speech, and morals to match. As in France, the successors of the Sullys and Du Plessis Mornays had become the c.o.xcombs of the Fronde, and the grandson of Bras-de-Fer was known as Bras-de-Laine, so the character and conduct of men like Hyde, Ormonde, and Falkland furnished no example to such as Villiers and Wilmot, whose only ideal of imitation was scurrilous mimicry. Where the elder cavaliers had been proud to serve their king, the rising generation was content if it could amuse him; and with that Charles was satisfied.

Thus Elliot had learned that for such an escapade as his last he might easily obtain forgiveness. It was not that Charles was, even in youth, a sincere or warm friend. His easy good nature had its root in self-indulgence. Clarendon, who knew him and his family _intus et in cute_, has pointed this out in one of his best character sentences.

"They were too much inclined to love men at first sight," so writes the faithful servant of the Stuarts. "They did not love the conversation of men of more years than themselves. They did not love to deny, ... not out of bounty or generosity, which was a flower that did never grow naturally in the heart of either family--that of Stuart or the other of Bourbon--and when they prevailed with themselves to make some pause rather than to deny, importunity removed all resolution." [_Continuation of Life_, p. 339, fol. ed.]

And there were not wanting particular reasons to dispose Charles to favour and forgiveness in this instance. Though Elliot had concealed the fact at Maufant, he was in fact a married man. His wife was the daughter of the Mrs. Wyndham who had been the king's nurse. To this family connection he owed his first introduction to the royal household, which had been constantly improved by his lawless and pushing nature. A contemporary remarked of Elliot that "he was not one who would receive any injury from his modesty." The late king's grave and virtuous mind had been greatly alienated by these things, and he had once dismissed him from his family. The pa.s.sionate youth had recovered his position owing to the Wyndham influence, but he came back with illwill in his heart. The memory of the royal martyr inspired him with scant reverence, nor did he feel either respect or compa.s.sion for the queen-mother. From these sentiments, however, one advantage flowed. Elliot was bitterly opposed to Jermyn and the French interest, and made use of his opportunities about the king's person to strengthen him in a like opposition. So it came to pa.s.s that, after sulking an hour, the facile master not only pardoned the petulant servant, but promoted him to be a groom of the bedchamber; and the return was made in an increased persistence in efforts on Elliot's part to amuse the king and flatter all his propensities, whether political or personal.

The "Indian summer," or _ete de S. Martin_, was at its height in Jersey, when Carteret, obtaining Charles's ready acquiescence, resolved on ordering a general review of the militia. Soon after daybreak on the 30th October the population began streaming in from all parishes, under the mild splendour of a cloudless heaven. The scene was on the sands of S. Aubin's Bay, between the Mont Patibulaire and Millbrook. On the right wing stood two squadrons of mounted infantry, with their standards displayed in the morning breeze. On the left were the parish batteries, with their guns, caissons, and tumbrils. In the centre were the Cornish body guard and the militia infantry in battalion six deep, while the reserve and recruits brought up the rear. All but the last-named carried matches for their firearms, which were loaded with blank cartridge. The supports carried pikes. The drums beat, the colours flew, as Charles and his staff, surrounded by an escort of the mounted infantry, emerging from the south gate of the castle, rode along the low-water causeway.

Mme. de Maufant and her sister, mounted on sober but well-bred nags, and accompanied by some of their farm hands in gala costume, occupied a foremost place among the spectators. But the appearance of the castle _cortege_ threatened their comfort, if not their safety. For the public excitement grew from moment to moment, "and those behind cried forward!

and those before cried back!" The younger and more excitable especially, spurred by the fine weather and the novel spectacle, pressed eagerly to the front, mixed with mothers of scrofulous children, desirous of gaining for them the healing virtue of the royal touch. The king's horse, short of work, and partic.i.p.ating in the general excitement, reared and curvetted in the crowd, but was reined in by his skillful rider.

Charles was in his purple velvet, with no token of a military purpose.

But on his left rode a gigantic guardsman in full panoply, while Elliot came on the right (but with his horse half a length behind) in gorgeous array, though more for show than for service. In his silver helmet fluttered a lissom ostrich plume, his shining cuira.s.s was damascened with gold, which metal also glittered on the hilt of his sword. The tops of his buff boots and gauntlets were fringed with costly Brussels point.

As they approached the crushed and alarmed ladies, a militia officer rushing to their aid from his place between the guns and the nearest company of foot, came into involuntary contact with the glistening groom of the chamber. The lace of the later's boot caught in the steel shoulder piece of the infantry officer, and was torn. Irritated and excited Elliot brought down his hand upon the unconscious offender, and dealt him a heavy blow on the side of the face. At this sight--with nerves already overstrung--Marguerite became unable to control her usually placid steed; and Alain le Gallais--for he was the militia officer--was diverted from his instinctive but imprudent impulse of immediate retaliation, by seeing the young lady slip from her saddle into his arms.

The little incident was over in an instant, and the king pa.s.sed on, but not without taking it all in with the observation natural to him.

"A comely wench, Tom!" he said to his companion, "and one that seemeth to know thee. But it seems that others gather what thou fellest."

"Faith, sir," answered Elliot, smilingly, "I have given him his wage beforehand. It is well that he should do my work."

There was no time for longer or plainer speech. The guns began a royal salute, their muzzles fortunately directed towards the sea--for many of the pieces had been charged for ball practice. This somewhat dangerous demonstration was followed by a dropping fire of blank cartridge from the matchlocks of the foot, and then by general acclamations of "Vive le Roi" from all ranks. Then Philip de Carteret, Seigneur of S. Ouen, being called to the front, received the congratulations of the king on the appearance of the forces, in which, under the lieutenant-governor, his uncle, he held the chief command. He was then bidden to kneel, touched with the royal sword, and told to "Rise, Sir Philip de Carteret." The eighteen stand of colours were displayed on the outer sides of the columns. Again the drums beat, the trumpets blew, and with the same state as that in which he had arrived, the king was escorted back to the castle.

As soon as Charles and his followers had been relieved of their full dress they renewed the conversation in which they had been interrupted on the sands, Elliot first endeavouring to improve the occasion into an argument against the king's remaining in Jersey.

"That malapert b.u.mpkin will be no friend either to me or to your majesty," he said. "At himself I snap my fingers. But it seems to me there are some two thousand of them who cry 'Vive le Roi' for half a pistole, but would cry 'Vivent nous autres' for nothing. If the French land here they will turn against you at once. If the Parliament prevail they will submit, w.i.l.l.y nilly. And your majesty may feel no ailment, yet have to be attended by the surgeon who cured your father."

"Whither should I go hence?" asked the other. "The news of Ireland is hardly such as to give colour to Ormonde's invitation."

"I have told you what to do, sir, but got small thanks for my pains.

Think on it well. Now, by your leave I must attend to affairs of my own.

May I find you in a wiser mood when I return!"

"Farewell, then, Tom," said Charles. "But beware of poaching on a Jersey manor!"

"There are no game laws here, or if there be the keeper is away." With these words Elliot retired with a careless bow, and the king waved his hand gaily as he disappeared.