“Will be richer for my kiss,” the Duchess interrupted, wooingly, “and their King, by divine right and heritage, will rule untrammelled by country clowns, court knaves and foolish lords, who now make up a silly Parliament. With such a King, England will be better with no Parliament to hinder. Think, Sire, think!”
“I have thought of this before,” said Charles, who had often found Parliament troublesome and, therefore, useless. “The taxes will be less and contention saved.”
“Why hesitate then?” she asked. “This hour’s as good for a good deed as any.”
BETWEEN TWO FIRES
“For England’s sake?” reflected Charles, inquiringly, as he took the second parchment from her hands. “Heaven direct my judgment for my people’s good. I sign.”
The treaties which Louis XIV. of France had sent the artful beauty to procure lay signed upon her desk.
Nell almost pulled the portières from their hangings in her excitement.
“I must see those papers,” she thought. “There’s no good brewing.”