St. George and St. Michael, Volume 3MacDonald, George
History
St. George and St. Michael, Volume 3
MacDonald, George
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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