"Go and see; go and see," cried the King, "and let us have instant tidings of what you discover. Present yourself to-morrow at ten before the Council, and bring all whom you may judge to have participated in this conspiracy along with you. Call a clerk, my Lord of Rochester; we will ourselves immediately dictate a proclamation."
"What is to be done with this young gentlewoman, sire?' asked the Earl of Northampton.
"Grey and Bradshaw will be very happy to take care of her," said Lord Rochester; "they have long wanted an opportunity of showing her their devotion."
"Hout, hold your silly tongue, with your gibing," cried James, "this is a serious affair, young man. Where can the girl be bestowed, Northampton?"
"May it please your majesty," said Ida Mara, "I would fain retire to the house of Sir Harry West, who is my first friend in this country. I can then wait your majesty's commands, if you should have anything else to require of me."
"That is right; that is right," replied James; "you are a wise and well-spoken young woman, and shall not be forgotten. The very fact of their having you conveyed out of the way, when the conspirators were about to execute the plot, is a proof that you did your duty faithfully to your King. You may retire. Now, send that man to the Fleet. By God's will, he shall stand on the pillory, unless he makes full confession. Hold your tongue, sir! We have no time to deal with you now. Sit down there, master clerk, and write."
The King then proceeded to dictate a proclamation, which was afterwards modified by the advice of Cecil, but which in the first draft displayed, in a most ludicrous manner, the trepidation into which he was thrown by Arabella's escape. He worked himself into the belief, and even contrived to impress the same idea upon the minds of most of his councillors, that the flight of his kinswoman, instead of being the mere effect of her attachment to her husband, originated in some dark and sinister design against his throne and family. His excited imagination pictured her throwing herself into the arms of some inimical power, and, supported by fleets and armies, contesting with him the Crown of England. He saw Papists and Protestants alike in revolt against his authority, rebellion spreading over the land, and his very person in danger. In fact, all the wild images that could suggest themselves to the mind of a weak, cowardly, and tyrannical prince, rose up before him in an instant, and displayed their effect in every word and action.
Nor did his terrors fail to be greatly increased when information was brought from the Tower, that William Seymour was no longer to be found within its walls; and the whole Court was in a state of movement and agitation during the greater part of that night and the succeeding morning. Letters were despatched to every port of the kingdom, with orders to stop the fugitives, and to send out vessels for their pursuit, if already at sea. Each of these despatches was marked with the superscription, common in those days on occasions of great importance, "With haste--post haste! Ride for your life--your life!" And one of them, still in existence, bears the figure of a gallows and a halter, as an emblem of the King's wrath against any one who should dare to disobey.
[CHAPTER XLI.]
It is a strange and terrible ordination that the vices and passions, the follies and prejudices, the wickedness and the iniquity of man, which run in threads through the whole web of society, spoiling a fair and otherwise beautiful fabric, should chequer the fate of the most virtuous and good with the dark lines of sorrow and misfortune, and that in this strangely constituted world, the best feelings of the best hearts, operated upon by the baseness of others, should be very frequently the causes of disaster and distress to those who, if this earth were the soul's abiding-place, might claim the brightest lot that falls to the portion of humanity.