The King's Minion by Rafael Sabatini

Author:Rafael Sabatini
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Endymion Press

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CHAPTER XVIII

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THE COMEDY AT CHARTLEY

IN THE PERSON OF THE young Earl of Essex there was repeated now at Chartley the unpleasant experience that lately he had undergone in London, and this time without the aid of the skilful Dr. Mayerne to help him through it.

Thus the respite to her ladyship endured for some weeks; wretched, lonely, anxious weeks of yearnings holy and unholy, and at moments almost of despair. If the illness of my Lord of Essex once more sustained her hopes of redemption, at the same time these hopes were now shot with a certain horror that if he died it would be as a result of the powders she had given him, although in giving them she had no cause to suppose that they would slay anything more than his obnoxious love.

Nevertheless, in a measure as he improved under the ministrations of Craven, her despair increased.

This is reflected in letters which she wrote at the time—letters which survive—to Anne Turner and also to Dr. Forman.

In these she expounds the situation. She has not seen her lord since his sickness, but is apprehensive of what may happen when he recovers. Those apprehensions, we must suppose, would be founded upon the fear that Craven’s physic, like Mayerne’s, would interfere with the action of the warlock’s powders. She begs Forman to supply her with galls in case of need, and implores him to ensure her the continuance of Rochester’s love. ‘Keep the lord still to me!’ is her cry.

You perceive the double fear by which the unfortunate girl was haunted in those days at Chartley: of being possessed by a man whom she detested, and of losing the man whom she so passionately loved.

By March, when the first buds were beginning to appear on the trees in Chartley Park as a result of winter’s final dismissal in a week of sunshine and premature warmth, my Lord of Essex was well again and lusty; and then came for her ladyship the great trial of strength which she had been dreading. She had spent a fortune in powders, spells, and incantations to avert the evil moment. Nevertheless, it overtook her, and found her armed only with her own weak strength of body, her stronger will, her wit, and the iron determination which she gathered from her love for Rochester.

One sunny morning, as she sat in the room over the porch which she had made her bower, his lordship entered unannounced, and drove her women out by the expression of a wish to be alone with her.

He was a little haggard, and again he had lost some weight. But he was still ponderous enough in body as in manner, and he heightened the effect of it by the rigidly fashioned sombre garments in which he arrayed himself like the Puritan he was at heart.

He came in a wooing mood, having resolved upon winning her by gentleness, bearing in mind the fable of the Sun, the Wind, and the Traveller, which his tutor,

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