Great Britain -- History -- Civil War, 1642-1649 -- Fiction
'Though money came from him,' that is, the marquis, 'like drops of
blood,' says Dr. Bayly, 'yet was he contented that every drop within his
body should be let out,' if only he might be the instrument of bringing
his majesty back to the bosom of the catholic church--a bosom which no
doubt the marquis found as soft as it was capacious, but which the king
regarded as a good deal resembling that of a careless nurse rather than
mother--frized with pins, and here and there a cruel needle. Therefore,
expecting every hour that the king would apply to him for more money,
the marquis had resolved that, at such time as he should do so, he would
make an attempt to lead the stray sheep within the fold--for the marquis
was not one of those who regarded a protestant as necessarily a goat.
But the king shrank from making the request in person, and having
learned that the marquis had been at one point in his history under the
deepest obligation to Dr. Bayly, who having then preserved both his
lordship's life and a large sum of money he carried with him, by
'concealing both for the space that the moon useth to be twice in riding
of her circuit,' had thereafter become a member of his family and a
sharer in his deepest confidence, greatly desired that the doctor should
take the office of mediator between him and the marquis.
The king's will having been already conveyed to the doctor, in the
king's presence colonel Lingen came up to him and said,
'Dr. Bayly, the king, much wishing your aid in this matter, saith he
delights not to be a beggar, and yet is constrained thereunto.'
'I am at his majesty's disposal,' returned the doctor, 'although I
confess myself somewhat loath to be the beetle-head that must drive this
wedge.'
'Nay,' said the colonel, 'they tell me that no man can make a divorce
between the Babylonish garment and the wedge of gold sooner than
thyself, good doctor.'
The end was that he undertook the business, though with
reluctance--unwilling to be 'made an instrument to let the same horse
bleed whom the king himself had found so free'--and sought the marquis
in his study.
'My lord,' he said, 'the thing that I feared is now fallen upon me. I am
made the unwelcome messenger of bad news: the king wants money.'
'Hold, sir! that's no news,' interrupted the marquis. 'Go on with your
business.'
'My lord,' said the doctor, 'there is one comfort yet, that, as the king
is brought low, so are his demands, and, like his army, are come down
from thousands to hundreds, and from paying the soldiers of his army to
buying bread for himself and his followers. My lord, it is the king's
own expression, and his desire is but three hundred pound.'
Lord Worcester remained a long time silent, and Dr. Bayly waited,
'knowing by experience that in such cases it was best leaving him to
himself, and to let that nature that was so good work itself into an act
of the highest charity, like the diamond which is only polished with its
own dust.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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