CHAPTER I
A WARRANT UPON DOUGLAS
Upon a massive chair of state within the private audience chamber,which adjoined the throne room in the venerable castle of Kenilworth,sat King Henry VII, gloomily brooding. An ermine trimmed robe ofsoftest velvet fell from his shoulders, rippling over the steps of theraised dais to the floor below; a golden, jeweled crown sat awry uponhis head.
Five years as reigning monarch of a discontented and rebellious peoplehad borne their weight more heavily upon him than had the whole of thetwenty-nine preceding them. Though yet young, as time relatively to theman is commonly measured, his hair and carefully pointed beard wereshot with premature gray. His countenance, deeply lined, was overspreadwith a sickly pallor. His hands, clutching upon the arms of thedamask-covered chair into which he had thrown himself, and in which hewas now half-sitting, half-reclining, trembled as though palsied withan enfeebled age.
His royal marriage with Elizabeth of York, daughter of Henry VI, hadmarked the consummation of his loftiest ambition. The omen of the whiterose mingling with the red had been pleasantly fulfilled. Outwardly hisposition seemed sufficiently secure. But beneath the surface there wereincessant ebullitions of seditious sentiment threatening momentarily toseethe to the top and engulf him. Always, must dissembling be met withkeen and smooth diplomacy; plot, with adroit and clever counter-plot.
Because of his open aversion to war, his appreciation of the advantagesof negotiation and arbitration, he was stigmatized by his secretenemies as being greedy and avaricious. Yet, on the other hand,had he amassed great armies and plunged them headlong into foreignconflict, thereby burdening his subjects with increased taxation, hewould doubtless have been regarded by these same malcontents as beingextravagant and needlessly cruel.
During the space of the greater part of an hour the King remainedseated in the precise attitude in which the opening of the presentchapter discovered him. His chin lowered upon his breast; his gazefixed straight before him; his fingers tapping ceaselessly upon thearms of his chair.
Then, after the manner of a draped lay-figure imbued with sudden life,he sprang to his feet, threw aside the purple robes enveloping him andpaced with nervous footfalls across the floor. Occasionally he wouldpause, incline his head, and pass his hand fretfully across his brow.Once he stopped, leaning heavily against a marble image of Kenelph,Saxon king of Mercia, from whom the castle had its name. The sun ofa September afternoon shining brilliantly through one of the westernwindows bathed them, the marble effigy and the man, in squares ofvari-colored light; affording thus a sharp contrast between the oldand the new. In the chiseled head of stone the stamp of an iron willwas predominant in every feature. Those of the living bespoke no lessthe possession of a will; but a will that would seek ever to achieveits purposes through the exercise of crafty cunning. The one had beengrimly determined, brave, and openly cruel and tyrannical. The otherwas a secret coward, masking his cruelties beneath the guise of virtue.
Suddenly, looking up into the stone face of the dead king, the livingking smiled.
"Yea," said he. "We will--rather we must--yea, we must command it to bedone. And by doing it in that way, 'twill be transfixing two bullockswith a single dart."
Thereupon, mounting the steps of the dais and reseating himself in hischair, he carefully donned his robes of state, composed his features,and gently pulled a golden tassel depending from a silken cord at hiselbow.
"Command my lord of Stanley instantly to attend me," was Henry's sternbehest to the court attendant, who bowed himself within one of thecurtained entrances.
Very soon thereafter Stanley came in. Approaching the dais, he kneltupon the lower step, touching with his lips the indifferent and coldhand extended to him.
"My lord of Stanley," said the King, "fetch yonder stool and disposethyself beside our knee. We would have speech of thee--and council."Then, to the attendant waiting near the entrance, "Ralston," he orderedtersely, "we would have it known that we will brook no interruptiontill this conference be ended. But hold! do thou lay commands uponlords Oxford and de Vere, and Sir Richard Rohan, to be ready andwaiting against our present summons. Thou mayst go, Ralston."
Silently the attendant withdrew. Folding his arms and looking steadilyinto Lord Stanley's eyes, the King resumed.
"Now, Stanley, to the business in hand. From what source hast thoudrawn thy information that secret emissaries are at this moment ontheir way hither to acquaint Sir Richard of the facts concerning hisnoble lineage?"
"Are they then facts, my liege?" queried Stanley, his arched eyebrowsplainly evidencing his surprise. "Is it indeed true that this youthful,fair-haired upstart may lay a true and proper claim to the title ofEarl of Warwick, and, through that title, a seat upon this very throne?"
"Presume not upon our indulgence, Lord Stanley," warned the King in amenacing tone. "Thou hast met question with question. Now, my lord,the source of thy information."
"I crave thy pardon, liege," Stanley hastened to return. "Full wellthou knowest, august highness, that every foul rebellion doth breed itsfouler traitors. From these coward turn-coats have I stumbled upon thisknowledge. The information thus gained I have supplemented and verifiedwith that gleaned by thine own honest and tireless servants. 'Tis, Ifear me much, unimpeachable."
"But under God's heaven, Stanley, how came these rag-tag rebels uponthe facts as to Rohan's lineage? Marry, my lord, methought 'twas hiddenas though sunken within the very entrails of the earth."
"Through one Michael Lidcote, a captain of ship in Duke Francis'sfleet. The same, I'll swear, who brought thee to England at MilfordHaven," Lord Stanley explained. "'Twas done, I hear, out of a certainlove for the young knight, and a desire to witness his elevation tohis--true position."
For a considerable space thereafter the King remained silent, his chinresting upon the fingers of his clasped hands, his pale blue eyesgazing straight ahead of him into space. In retrospect, his mind hadturned to the contemplation of some happy days in sunny Brittany whenhe and Sir Richard were being reared and disciplined together beneaththe eye of the stern but kind old Duke. The images materialized musthave been pleasing to him, for the hard lines of his face softened intothe semblance of a smile. Then, with a sudden, determined lowering ofhis head, a straightening of his thin lips beneath his sparse beard, heturned again toward Stanley.
"Ah! how true it is," said he, "that desire for fame and power is butan insatiate parasite which gluts and fattens upon the care-free joysof youth. What is this glittering panoply, pray, but a mask? A shiningveneer, shielding from view the process of decay within? And now, afteryielding nearly all--my health, my strength, my happiness--you ask ofme that I shall spill the blood of my dearest friend. The companion ofmy joyous youth. Him, say you, must I offer up on the gory altar ofpublic expediency. That I must perforce still the one brave heart thatbeats with an unselfish devotion to my cause and person."
"'Tis needless to tell thee, my liege," purred Stanley, who was evercareful to guard his precedence at the throne, "that the peace andintegrity of a nation depend upon thy secure hold upon this very seat.Even that which but remotely menaces should be rendered impotent. Theseexpressions of thy tender sentiment, your highness, are attuned inharmony with thy noble character as a man, but----"
"Yea, Stanley," interrupted Henry, making a show of partial surrenderto the flatterer's wiles, "but am I longer a man? There's the question,my lord. Dare I think as a man, and not as a fear-stricken, fetteredmonarch? Is it not true that the ruler hath swallowed up the mortal,leaving naught but an outward pageant? An effigy of cold and heartlessclay upon which to drape a tawdry robe; to set a jeweled crown; to hanga golden scepter?"
Stanley ventured no reply, and a somewhat prolonged interval of silencefollowed Henry's theatric outburst.
"Think not that I am mad, my lord of Stanley," the King at lengthresumed, and in a tone so low, melancholy, and sad, that its falsenote was scarcely to be perceived. "It is indeed true that my firstconcern must ever be to s
afeguard my beloved people. Hath these rumorsconcerning the young knight been spread broadcast, my lord? It were anill time to essay a cure of the malady, and it had festered over allEngland."
"It hath not done so, your majesty," Lord Stanley assured him. "Theaged seaman and all but two of the seditious leaders are now imprisonedwithin the tower. The pair who escaped the meshes of my net are nowjourneying hither from London in disguise. I have their names and knowwell what like they are."
"'Tis well. Thy station be the forfeit, an they elude thee. Still alltheir busy tongues, my lord. We lay upon thee royal warrant of theirdeath, and that speedily. Concerning the young knight's progenitors,Lord Stanley, it doth please us to make of thee our single confidant.This noble is in truth the son of the Duke of Clarence--the good Duke,who came to his untimely end at the gentle hands of our esteemedfather-in-law. Thou dost remember well that he was attainted of hightreason, and that we took measures accordingly to have his issuepronounced illegitimate. 'Twas done, as thou canst see, to guardagainst such a contingency as hath now arisen. But to my tale. SirRichard, when but a suckling infant, was carried secretly to Brittany,and enjoyed there, with me, the powerful protection of Duke Francis.Why the die of England's sovereignty was cast in my favor, I know not.God wot, Stanley, I wish that it had not been! Now, my lord, attend ourevery word. The weak stripling, whom base Richard the Third believedto be the true Earl of Warwick hath, under our command, for long beenimmured within the tower. It is perhaps the better part of wisdom thatwe should lesson thee that an exchange of infants was many years agocovertly effected by one Dame Tyrrell, wife of Sir James Tyrrell, thesame who was bribed by Richard to strangle his two nephews, the boydukes remaining betwixt himself and the throne. Within a fortnight,Stanley, do thou undertake to have the news of the death of thischangeling early published over all our kingdom. 'Twere the moreseemly, mayhap, and it appeared to have transpired through naturalcauses. A return of the sweating sickness, or some like subterfuge."
"And the young knight, Rohan; what of him, most mighty liege?"
"Him, we would have thee to know," said Henry, "we love and trust aboveany man, saving thyself, in all the length and breadth of England.
"Aye, marry, but----"
"Hold! have patience, my lord, and attend me. We know well what thouwouldst say. Him, too, must we sacrifice for the sake of the peace andsafety of a people who love us but little. Do thou this very hour issuewarrant under the Great Seal and give it into Sir Richard's hands to bedelivered by him upon Douglas, in Castle Yewe, in Scotland. Lay royalcommand upon Douglas that his courtiers shall engage the young knightin quarrel and honorable conflict to the end that he return not againinto England."
"By the rood, august highness! wouldst make him the bearer of his ownwarrant of death? 'Tis a parlous risky business."
"Yea, my lord. But a risk that we are happy to assume out of a spiritof fair play, and as a mark of our highest confidence. And know,too, Stanley," Henry said, smiling shrewdly, "'twill rid us of many aScottish enemy. The young man battles tremendously well. And, more infavor of this plan, 'twould be the death of Sir Richard's own choosing,mark you."
"Aye, marry, doth he fight well. I can see many a Scot's midriff lyingopen to his couched lance or drawn sword. My liege, shall I deliverwarrant here?"
"Here, and now. Let Oxford and de Vere be witnesses of its delivery.Though, we charge thee solemnly, hint not to either of its purport. Onyonder table thou wilt find parchment. Take point in hand and write.Send Ralston to me when thou hast done. The Queen doth await ourpresence within the Hall of Windows."
For an hour or more after the King had gone, the eagle's quill withinLord Stanley's fingers moved slowly back and forth across the sheetof parchment. When he had finished with the body of the document andsigned his name he lifted his head and looked keenly, furtively aboutthe room. Arising, he moved swiftly from curtain to curtain. Liftingeach, he peered hastily beneath its heavy folds. Whereupon, satisfiedthat he was alone, and resuming his seat at the table, he spread beforehim another sheet of parchment and proceeded to copy, word for word,that which he had written upon the first.
So intently did he engage himself upon this task that he failed tonotice the silent parting of a draped entrance, or the King's catliketread upon the thick pile of the carpet as he moved stealthily acrossthe floor. A long hand, very slender and very much be jeweled, movingacross the table before him and taking up the original document, gaveStanley his first hint of his sovereign's presence.
Without a moment's hesitation, and not the slightest quivering of aneyebrow, Lord Stanley arose and bowed low before Henry. He met the lookof stern inquiry on the King's face with a quiet smile.
"I crave thy pardon, liege, on the behalf of my sluggish fingers.Fitter are they to wield sword in thy cause than pen."
"So it would seem. What meaneth this second transcript, my lord ofStanley?"
"I bethought me that it would be well," replied Stanley upon theinstant, "because of the grave importance of the document, to issueit in duplicate. The one to give the young knight safe conduct to hisjourney's end, the other to secrete within the lining of his cloak ordoublet."
"'Tis a most excellent thought, by my faith!" exclaimed the King, theblack cloud passing from his brow. "Command Oxford, de Vere, and SirRichard to our presence. We would have done with the business, and withall speed dispatch the young knight upon his travels."