"Not here," said the King with a smile; "at some further time, sir, you shall know the impression your speech to-day hath made on me. Now I must think a little on what you have said. A good night, Mr. Pym."
The commoner bowed, and the King, blowing a little silver whistle which he carried, brought up an attendant whom he told to conduct Mr. Pym to the gates of the palace.
And so the interview from which Lord Falkland and the moderate royalists had hoped so much ended.
Charles, trembling with emotion, spurned with the light cane he carried the spot of earth on which John Pym had stood.
"Thou damnable Puritan!" he muttered, "must I not only swallow thee but all thy brood of heretics! Too much, by Christ, too much!"
CHAPTER X
LORD FALKLAND'S ADVICE
Half an hour later the Queen and Rupert found the King standing by the sundial; the sun had faded from the heavens, leaving them faintly purple, the trees were intertwining shapes, grey avenues of darkness, the scent of the violets by the dial was rich and strong, the air blew chilly, and in the palace windows the yellow lights were springing up, one by one.
The Queen in her dark careless garments and Rupert in his brilliant bravery alike gloomed up out of the twilight as indistinct shapes.