Between Two Kings by Lawrence Ellsworth & Alexandre Dumas

Author:Lawrence Ellsworth & Alexandre Dumas
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pegasus Books
Published: 2021-07-06T00:00:00+00:00

XXVI Heart and Mind

“Milord,” said the Comte de La Fère, “you are a noble Englishman and man of integrity, and you speak with a noble Frenchman who is a man of heart. The gold contained in these two barrels, when I told you it was mine, that was wrong; it’s the first deliberate lie I’ve ever told, though it’s true it was only temporary. This gold belongs to King Charles II, exiled from his country, driven from his palace, orphaned at the same time of his father and his throne, and deprived of everything, even the sad consolation of kissing on his knees that stone on which the hands of his murderers inscribed the simple epitaph that cries out for eternal vengeance against them, ‘Here lies King Charles I.’ ”

Monck paled slightly, and an imperceptible shiver rippled his skin and bristled his mustache.

“I,” continued Athos, “the Comte de La Fère, the sole and final remaining loyalist of that poor abandoned prince, have offered to come find the man upon whom the fate of royalty in England today depends. I came and stood in this man’s gaze, placed myself naked and unarmed in his hands, and now I say to him, ‘Milord, here is the last resource of a prince whom God made your master, as his birth made him your king, but upon you and you alone depend his life and his future. Will you use this money to console England for the evils she’s suffered under anarchy—that is to say, will you help, or at least not hinder King Charles II in doing it?’

“Here you are the master, you are the king, the all-powerful master and king, because sometimes chance defeats the work of time and God. I am here alone with you, Milord; if the thought of sharing power alarms you, if my complicity disturbs you, you are armed, Milord, and here is a grave already dug. If, on the other hand, the enthusiasm of your cause elevates you, if you are what you seem to be, if your hand, in what it undertakes, obeys your mind, and your mind follows your heart, here is the means of destroying forever the cause of your enemy, Charles Stuart. Kill therefore the man who stands before you, for that man won’t return to the one who sent him without that fortune that Charles I, his father, confided to him, kill him and keep the gold that might be used to carry on the civil war. Alas, Milord, that is the fatal situation of that unhappy prince, that he must either corrupt or kill; for everything resists him, all are against him, yet he is marked with the divine seal of royalty, and to be true to his blood, he must retake the throne or die trying on the sacred soil of his fatherland.

“Milord, you have heard what I have to say. To anyone other than the illustrious man whom I address, I would have said, ‘Milord, you are poor; Milord, the

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