"She is ailing," the queen said, "and she is rather young still for all the dissipations of court life. Let my Lord Orford wait till the scare of this plague is over. Patience Beaumont is going to take Agnes back to Westmorland to restore her health, which the heat of London has injured."
"I never saw a brighter face than the Lady Agnes's yesterday," said the king. "She was the star of your suite, ma mère. I do not think much ails her."
"Possibly she was flushed and excited," said the queen, "and Patience has my permission to take her away. I cannot go back upon my word."
"But I have not said the last word either," said Charles angrily, "and my Lord Orford has had no say in the matter at all."
"He had better let his suit drop for the present," said Henrietta; "when we come back from Oxford it will be time enough." And with that she left the room.
Charles shrugged his shoulders; he never opposed his mother's will.
When Lord Orford was informed of Agnes's defection he was in a white rage, but he gave no outward sign of it, only that night he was closeted for a long time with his man, Jefferson, and the next day he himself followed the king to Oxford.
The palace was very silent; indeed, the whole city of London was beginning to be what we should call hushed. The plague was gaining rapidly. The citizens stopped their trading, and every man looked with fear at his fellow.
In the gardens belonging to noblemen's houses, which in many cases sloped down towards the river, the flowers were in full bloom. It was the season for roses, and they had never been so plentiful, but no one gathered them, for fear of infection, no one dared even to inhale their sweet perfume; people went about with a bunch of rue and wormwood in their hands, for these herbs were thought to ward off contagion; and yet this was only the beginning of what was to be.
There was a certain cruelty in the egoistical way in which men strove to protect themselves. For example, if it was known that someone had died in a certain house of the plague, no matter the number of the inhabitants who were still resident there, a red cross was painted over the door with these words in great letters over it, "Lord, have mercy upon us!" and watchmen with halberds stood on guard before it to prevent anyone either leaving the house or entering it.