Traitor or patriot? : $b A tale of the Rye-House PlotRowsell, Mary C. (Mary Catherine)
History
Traitor or patriot? : $b A tale of the Rye-House Plot
Rowsell, Mary C. (Mary Catherine)
Great Britain -- History -- Charles II, 1660-1685 -- Fiction; Rye House Plot, 1683 -- Fiction
High aloft in the greenish blue sky the young May moon rose and
mingled her mild beams with the fiery westward glow, and still he
slept on; but restlessly now, and muttering hurried but inarticulate
words, as if he was dreaming uneasy dreams. How much longer he would
have drowsed the precious hours away, it is hard to guess, had it not
been for a sudden and deafening blare of French horns and all kinds
of music, mingled with shouts of gay laughter and voices which broke
just beneath the window, sending Lee to his feet with a start and a
cry of terror. "Fire! Fire!" he shouted, staggering to the middle
of the floor and gazing in wild distraction round the pavilion, while
he gasped for breath in its stifling atmosphere. Could it be that he
was dreaming still? Strange ugly visions of--Nay, now, but see what
things are dreams! and what is it after all but the setting-sun
blaze? And as Lee stumbled tremblingly back against the trellised
doorway, greedily drinking in the cool evening air, his senses dawned
upon him.
"Ay, ay," he said to himself, with a faint smile of amusement at his
own fancies, as he stretched his neck over the wall, just in time to
obtain a glimpse of the brilliant cavalcade turning the street corner
in a cloud of white dust, and caught the shouts of the little crowd
collected to see the king pass. "Come back, has he? Yes, yes, God
save him, with all my heart and soul--God save the king! But the
question is, you see, good people. The question is--" and then
Lawrence Lee came to a dead pause, and fell into a deep reverie.
"How was he to be saved?" pondered on the young man, his brows
knitting painfully. This happy-go-lucky Charles, who suspected no
foul play, because he would persist in judging others by himself,
despite all his harsh experiences, and thought no one capable of
taking so much trouble as to contrive it. This good-natured
gentleman, whose manner of speaking, far more than the words he
spoke, had won Lawrence Lee's heart, as they were apt to win all who
approached him. How--so the young man now asked himself, could he
ever have been brought to nurse one traitorous thought towards him?
Ay, now indeed he understood, as never he had before, his mother's
glowing look, when with the proud tears glistening star-bright in her
eyes, she would say: "Thy father died for his king, lad."
[Sidenote: What is to be done?]
The last shout sank to silence. The birds' song ceased. The last
ray of the sunset glory faded, and only the plash of the fountain
broke the silence, and still Lawrence Lee stood leaning against the
ivied wall so motionless, and his face showing so white and fixed in
the dazzling moonlight, that he might have been taken for one of the
garden's statues; but at last, as eight o'clock struck in the town
belfries, and far-off village church towers chimed it back, he
stirred, and slowly descended the little rustic steps.
[Sidenote: A deep resolve.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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