CHAPTER XVII
_The day will be so happy; for I've seen you at the dawn._
The room was quickly cleared, the King's courtiers jostling one anotherin their efforts to carry out the royal bidding.
Charles turned with a merry laugh and seized Nell in his arms almostfiercely.
"A subterfuge!" he cried eagerly. "Nell, quick; one kiss!"
"Nay; you question my constancy to-night," said Nell, sadly, as shelooked into his eyes, with the look of perfect love. "You do not trustme."
"I do, sweet Nell," protested the King, earnestly.
"You bring me Portsmouth's lips," said Nell, with sad reproof.
"I left her dance for you," replied the King, drawing her closer to him.
"At near sunrise, Sire," sighed Nell, reprovingly, as she drew back thecurtain and revealed the first gray streaks of the breaking light ofday.
"Nay, do not tantalize me, Nell," besought the King, throwing himselfupon the couch. "I am sad to-night."
The woman's forgiving heart was touched with sympathy. Her eyes soughthis sadly beautiful face. She ran to him, fell upon her knees and kissedhis hand tenderly.
"Tantalize my King!" she cried. "The day will be so happy; for I've seenyou at the dawn." There was all the emotional fervour and pathetictenderness which the great composer has compressed into the love-musicof "Tristan and Isolde" in her voice.
"My crown is heavy, Nell," he continued. "Heaven gives us crowns, butnot the eye to see the ending of our deeds."
"God sees them," said Nell. "Ah, Sire, I thank the Maker of the worldfor giving a crown to one whom I respect and love."
"And I curse it," cried the King, with earnest eyes; "for 'tis the onlybarrier to our united love. It is the sparkling spider in the centre ofa great web of intrigue and infamy."
"You make me bold to speak. Cut the web, Sire, which binds thy crown toFrance. There is the only danger."
"Thou art wrong, Nelly, wrong!" He spoke in deep, firm accents. "I havedecided otherwise."
He rose abruptly, his brow clouded with thought. She took his handtenderly.
"Then, change your mind, Sire," she pleaded; "for I can prove--"
"What, girl?" he asked eagerly, his curiosity awakened by her manner.
Nell did not respond. To continue would reveal Adair, and she could notthink of that.
"What, I say?" again asked Charles, impatiently.
"To-morrow, Sire," laughed Nell, evasively.
"Aye, to-morrow and to-morrow!" petulantly repeated the King.
He was about to demand a direct reply but was stayed by the sound of astruggle without.
It befell in the nick of time for Nell, as all things, indeed, in lifeseemed to befall in the nick of time for her. The impious huswives shooktheir heads and attributed it to the evil influence; the pious huswivesasserted it was providential; Nell herself laughingly declared it washer lucky star.
"Ho, without there!" Charles cried, impatiently--almost angrily--at theinterruption. "Whence comes this noisy riot?"
James, Rochester and the others unceremoniously re-entered.
"Pardon, Sire," explained the Duke of York; "the guard caught but now anarmed ruffian prowling by the house. They report they stayed him onsuspicion of his looks and insolence."
"Adair! Adair! My life upon't!" laughed the King, ever ready for sport."Set him before us."
An officer of the guard departed quickly to bring in the offender. Thecourtiers took up the King's cry most readily; and there was a generalcackle of "Adair!" "Adair!" "A trial!" "Sire!" "Bring in the coward!"
Nell stood in the midst of the scene, the picture of demure innocence.
"They've caught Adair!" she whispered to Moll, mischievously.
"Aye, gallants," cried the Merry Monarch, approvingly, "we'll form aCourt of Inquiry. This table shall be our bench, on which we'll hem andhaw and puff and look judicial. Odsfish, we will teach Radamanthus andJudge Jeffreys ways of terrorizing."
He sprang upon the table, which creaked somewhat beneath the royalburden, and assumed the austere, frowning brow of worldly justice.
"_Oyer, oyer_, all ye who have grievances--" cried the garrulousRochester in the husky tones of the crier, who most generally assumesthat he is the whole court and oftentimes should be.
"Mistress Nell," commanded the royal judge, summoning Nell to the bar,"thou shalt be counsel for the prisoner; Adair's life hangs upon thyskill to outwit the law."
"Or bribe the judge, Sire?" suggested Nell, demurely.
"Not with thy traitor lips," retorted Charles, with the injured dignityof a petty justice about to commit a flash of true wit for contempt ofcourt.
"Traitor lips?" cried Nell, sadly. "By my troth, I never kissed Adair. Iconfess, I tried, your Majesty; but I could not."
"Have a care," replied the King, in a tone which indicated that thefires of suspicion still smouldered in his breast; "I am growingjealous."
Nell fell upon one knee and stretched forth her arms suppliantly.
"Adair is in such a tight place, Sire, he can scarcely breathe," shepleaded, with the zeal of a barrister hard-working for his first fee inher voice, "much less speak for himself. Mercy!"
"We will have justice; not mercy," replied the court, with a sly wink atRochester. "Guilty or not guilty, wench?"
"Not guilty, Sire! Did you ever see the man who was?"
The King laughed despite himself, followed by his ever-aping courtiers.
"I'll plead for the Crown," asserted the grim James, with greatvehemence, "to rid the realm of this dancing-Jack."
"Thou hast cause, brother," laughed the King. "Rochester, thou shalt sitby us here."
Rochester sprang, with a contented chuckle, into a chair on the oppositeside of the table to that upon which his Majesty was holding hismock-court and seated himself upon its high back, so poised as not tofall. From this lofty bench, with a queer gurgle, to say nothing of aswelling of the chest, and with an approving glance from his Majesty, headded his mite to the all-inspiring dignity of the revellers' court.
"Judge Rochester!" continued the King, slapping him with his glove,across the table. "Judge--of good ale. We'll confer with the cups,imbibe the statutes and drink in the law. Set the rascal before us."
In obedience to the command, a man well muffled with a cloak was forcedinto the room, a guard at either arm.
Behind them, taking advantage of the open door to appease theircuriosity, crowded many hangers-on of courtdom, among whom was Strings,who had met the revellers some distance from the house and had returnedwith them.
"Hold off your hands, knaves," commanded the prisoner, who was noneother than Hart, the player, indignant at the detention.
"Silence, rogue!" commanded the King. "Thy name?"
"Sire!" cried Hart, throwing off his mantle and glancing for the firsttime at the judge's face. He sank immediately upon one knee, bowingrespectfully.
"Jack Hart!" cried one and all, craning their necks in surprise andexpectation.
"'Slife, a spy upon our merry-making!" exclaimed the displeased monarch."What means this prowling, sir?"
"Pardon, pardon, my reply, your Majesty," humbly importuned the player."Blinded by passion, I might say that I should regret."
"Your strange behaviour and stranger looks have meaning, sir," cried theKing, impatiently. "Out with it! These are too dangerous times towithhold your thoughts from your King."
"No need for commands, Sire," entreated Hart. "The words are tremblingon my lips and will out themselves in spite of me. At Portsmouth's ball,an hour past, I o'erheard that fop Adair boast to-night a midnightrendezvous here with Nell."
Nell placed her hands upon her heart.
"This--my old friend," she reflected sadly.
"Our jest turned earnest," cried Charles. "Well? Well?" he questioned,in peremptory tones.
"I could not believe my ears, Sire," the prisoner continued, faltering."I watched to refute the lie--"
"Yes--yes--" exhorted the King,
in expectation.
"I cannot go on."
"Knave, I command!"
"I saw Adair enter this abode at midnight." Hart's head fell, full ofshame, upon his breast.
"'Sblood," muttered the King, scarce mindful that his words might beaudible to those about him, "my heart stands still as if't were knifed.My pretty golden-head, my bonnie Nell!" He turned sharply toward theplayer. "Your words are false, false, sir! Kind Heaven, they must be."
"Pardon, Sire," pleaded Hart; "I know not what I do or say. Only lovefor Nell led me to this spot."
"Love!" cried Nell, with the irony of sadness. "Oh, inhuman, to spy outmy ways, resort to mean device, involve my honour, and call the motivelove!"
"You are cruel, cruel, Nell," sobbed Hart; and he turned away his eyes.He could not look at her.
"Love!" continued Nell, bitterly. "True love would come alone, filledwith gentle admonition. I pity you, friend Hart, that God has made youthus!"
"No more, no more!" Hart quite broke beneath the strain.
"Dost hear, dost hear?" cried Charles, in ecstasy, deeply affected byNell's exposition of true love. "Sir, you are the second to-night tobelie the dearest name in England. You shall answer well to me."
"Ask the lady, Sire," pleaded Hart, in desperation. "I'll stake my lifeupon her reply."
"Nell?--Nell?" questioned the King; for he could scarce refuse to accepther word when a player had placed unquestioned faith in it.
Nell hid her face in her silken kerchief and burst into seemingspasmodic sobs of grief. "Sire!" was all the response the King couldhear. He trembled violently and his face grew white. He did not knowthat Nell's tears were merry laughs.
"Her tears convict her," exclaimed Hart, triumphantly.
"I'll not believe it," cried the King.
Nell became more hysterical. She sobbed and sobbed, as though her heartwould break, her face buried in her hands and her flying curls fallingover and hiding all.
"Adair's sides are aching," she chuckled, in apparent convulsions ofsorrow. "He's laughing through Nell's tears."
Meanwhile, Moll had been standing by the window; and, though she waswatching eagerly the exciting scene within the room, she could not failto note the sound of galloping horses and the rattling of a heavy coachon the roadway without.
"A coach and six at break-neck speed," she cried, "have landed at thedoor. A cavalier alights."
"Time some one arrived," thought Nell, as she glanced at herself in themirror, to see that Adair was well hidden, and to arrange her curls, tobewitch the new arrivals, whosoever they might be.
As the cavalier dashed up the path, in the moonlight, Moll recognizedthe Duke of Buckingham, and at once announced his name.
"Ods-pitikins!" exclaimed Charles, angrily. "No leisure for Buckinghamnow. We have other business."
He had scarce spoken, however, when Buckingham, unceremoniously andalmost breathless, entered the room.
"How now?" cried the King, fiercely, as the Duke fell on his knee beforehim; for his temper had been wrought to a high pitch.
"Pardon, your Majesty," besought his lordship, in nervous accents. "Mymission will excuse my haste and interruption. Your ear I crave onemoment. Sire, I am told Nell has to-night secreted in this house alover!"
"Another one!" whispered Nell to Moll.
"'Tis hearsay," cried the King, now at fever-heat, "the give-and-take ofgossips! I'll none of it."
"My witness, Sire!" answered Buckingham.
He turned toward the door; and there, to the astonishment of all, stoodthe Duchess of Portsmouth, who had followed him from the coach, a lacemantilla, caught up in her excitement, protecting her shapely shouldersand head.
As the assembled courtiers looked upon the beautiful rivals, standing,as they did, face to face before the King, and realized the situation,their faces grew grave, indeed.
The suspense became intense.
"The day of reckoning's come," thought Nell, as she met with burningglances the Duchess's eyes.
"Speak, your grace," exhorted Buckingham. "The King attends you."
"Nay, before all, my lord?" protested Portsmouth, with pretendeddelicacy. "I could not do Madame Gwyn so much injustice."
"If your speech concerns me," observed Nell, mildly, "out with itboldly. My friends will consider the source."
"Speak, and quickly!" commanded Charles.
"I would rather lose my tongue," still protested the Duchess, "thanspeak such words of any one; but my duty to your Majesty--"
"No preludes," interrupted the King; and he meant it, too. He was donewith trifling, and the Duchess saw it.
"My servants," she said, with a virtuous look, "passing this abode bychance, this very night, saw at a questionable hour a strange cavalierentering the boudoir of Madame Gwyn!"
"She would make my honour the price of her revenge," thought Nell, hereyes flashing. "She shall rue those words, or Adair's head and mine areone for naught."
"What say you to this, Nell?" asked the King, the words choking in histhroat.
"Sire,--I--I--" answered Nell, evasively. "There's some mistake orknavery!"
"She hesitates," interpolated the Duchess, eagerly.
"You change colour, wench," cried Charles, his heart, indeed, again uponthe rack. "Ho, without there! Search the house."
An officer entered quickly to obey the mandate.
"Stay, Sire," exclaimed Nell, raising herself to her full height, herhot, trembling lips compressed, her cheeks aflame. "My oath, I have notseen Adair's face this night."
Her words fell upon the assemblage like thunder from a June-day sky. TheKing's face brightened. The Duchess's countenance grew pale as death.
"_Mon Dieu!_ Adair!" she gasped in startled accents to LordBuckingham, attendant at her side. "Could it be he my servants saw? Thepacket! Fool! Why did I give it him?"
Buckingham trembled violently. He was even more startled thanPortsmouth; for he had more to lose. England was his home and France washers.
"The scales are turning against us," he whispered. "Throw in this ringfor safety. Nell's gift to Adair; you understand."
He slipped, unobserved, upon the Duchess's finger the jewelled ring theKing had given to Almahyde among the roses at the performance of"Granada."
"Yes! Yes! 'Tis my only chance," she answered, catching at his meaning;for her wits were of the sharpest in intrigue and cunning, and shepossessed the boldness too to execute her plans.
She approached the King, with the confident air possessed by great womenwho have been bred at court.
"Your Majesty recognizes this ring?" she asked in mildest accents.
"The one I gave to Nell!" answered the astonished King.
"The one Adair this night gave to me," said Portsmouth, calmly.
"'Tis false!" cried Nell, who could restrain her tongue no longer. "Igave that ring to dear old Strings."
"A rare jewel to bestow upon a fiddler," said the Duchess,sarcastically.
"It is true," said Strings, who had wormed his way through the group atmention of his name and now stood the meek central figure at the strangehearing. "My little ones were starving, Sire; and Nell gave me thering--all she had. They could not eat the gold; so I sold it to the Dukeof Buckingham!"
"We are lost," whispered Buckingham to Portsmouth, scarce audibly.
"Coward!" sneered the Duchess, contemptuously. "I am not ready to sailfor France so soon."
The King stood irresolute. Events had transpired so quickly that hescarce knew what it was best to do. His troubled spirit longed for afurther hearing, while his heart demanded the ending of the scene with aperemptory word.
Before he could decide upon his course, the Duchess had swept across theroom, with queenly grace.
"Our hostess will pardon my eyes for wandering," she said, undaunted;"but her abode is filled with pleasant surprises. Sire, here is a pieceof handiwork."
She knelt by the couch, and drew from under it a coat of gray, onesleeve of which had caught her eye.
&nbs
p; Nell looked at Moll with reproving glances.
"Marry, 'tis Strings's, of course," continued Portsmouth, dangling thecoat before the wondering eyes of all. "The lace, the ruffle, becomeshis complexion. He fits everything here so beautifully."
As she turned the garment slowly about, she caught sight of a package ofpapers protruding from its inner pocket, sealed with her own seal. Forthe first time, the significance of the colour of the coat came home toher.
"_Mon Dieu_," she cried, "Adair's coat.--The packet!"
Her fingers sought the papers eagerly; but Nell's eye and hand were tooquick for her.
"Not so fast, dear Duchess," said Nell, sweetly, passing the littlepacket to his Majesty. "Our King must read these papers--and between thelines as well."
"Enough of this!" commanded Charles. "What is it?"
"Some papers, Sire," said Nell, pointedly, "given for a kiss and takenwith a kiss. I have not had time to read them."
"Some family papers, Sire," asserted the Duchess, with assumedindifference, "stolen from my house."
She would have taken them from his Majesty, so great, indeed, was herboldness; but Nell again stayed her.
"Aye, stolen," said Nell, sharply; "but by the hostess herself--from herunsuspecting, royal guest. There, Sire, stands the only thief!" Shepointed accusingly at Portsmouth.
"My signature!" cried Charles, as he ran his eye down a parchment. "Thetreaties! No more Parliaments for England. I agreed to that."
"I agree to that myself," said Nell, roguishly. "England's King is toogreat to need Parliaments. The King should have a confidential adviser,however--not French," and she cast a defiant glance at Portsmouth, "butEnglish. Read on; read on."
She placed her pretty cheek as near as possible to the King's as shefollowed the letters over his shoulder.
"A note to Bouillon!" he said, perusing the parchments further. "Charlesconsents to the fall of Luxembourg. I did not sign all this. I see itall: Louis's ambition to rule the world, England's King debased bypromises won and royal contracts made with a clever woman--forgery mixedwith truth. Sweet Heaven, what have I done!"
"The papers have not gone, Sire," blandly remarked Nell.
"Thanks to you, my Nell," said Charles. He addressed Portsmouth sharply:"Madame, your coach awaits you."
"But, Sire," replied the Duchess, who was brave to the last, "MadameGwyn has yet Adair to answer for!"
"Adair will answer for himself!" cried Nell, triumphantly.
She threw aside the pink gown and stood as Adair before the astonishedeyes of all.
"At your service," she said, bowing sweetly to the Duchess.
"A player's trick!" cried Portsmouth, haughtily, as a parting shot ofcontempt.
"Yes, Portsmouth," replied Nell, still in sweetest accents, "to showwhere lies the true and where the false."
"You are a witch," hissed Portsmouth.
"ONCE MORE YOU HAVE SAVED ME."]"You are the King's true love," exclaimed the Merry Monarch. "To myarms, Nell, to my arms; for you first taught me the meaning of truelove! Buckingham, you forget your courtesy. Her grace wishes to beescorted to her coach."
"_Bon voyage_, madame," said Nell, demurely, as the Duchess tookBuckingham's arm and departed.
The King's eyes fell upon the player, Hart, who was still in custody.
"Away with this wretch!" he cried, incensed at his conduct. "I am notdone with him."
"Forgive him, Sire," interceded Nell. "He took his cue from Heaven, andgood has come of it."
"True, Nell," said the King, mercifully. Then he turned to Hart: "Youare free; but henceforth act the knave only on the stage." Hart bowedwith shame and withdrew.
"Sire, Sire," exclaimed Strings, forgetting his decorum in hiseagerness.
"Well, Strings?" inquired the King, good-humouredly; for there was nowno cloud in his sky.
"Let me play the exit for the villains?" he pleaded unctuously. "The oldfiddle is just bursting with tunes."
"You shall, Strings," replied his Majesty, "and on a Cremona. Fromto-day, you lead the royal orchestra."
"Odsbud," cried Strings, gleefully, "I can offer Jack Hart anengagement."
"Just retribution, Strings," laughed Nell, happily. "Can you do as muchfor Nell, and forgive her, Sire?"
"It is I who should ask your pardon, Nell," exclaimed the King,ecstatically, throwing both arms passionately about her. "You areCharles's queen; you should be England's."
_So the story ends, as all good stories should, in a perfect, unbrokendream of love._
EPILOGUE
Spoken by Miss Crosman for the first time in New York at the BijouTheatre on the evening of October 9, 1900:
_Good friends, before we end the play, I beg you all a moment stay: I warn my sex, by Nell's affair, Against a rascal called Adair!_
_If lovers' hearts you'd truly scan, Odsfish, perk up, and be a man!_
Mistress Nell: A Merry Tale of a Merry Time Page 18