"May the Lord help him!" said Patience. "Has there not been bloodshed enough already, that they must be ever seeking for more!"
"I do not think it is a case of blood," said Reginald, with something approaching a sneer in his voice. "I think money will settle this;" and the words and manner of the young man revealed a bitterness which had been growing in his heart for some time past. He and Ann had been so eager for King Charles to come back, they had welcomed him with such unfeigned joy, such belief that he would bring back all that was noble, all the greatness, the courage, and the bravery, the high moral tone which had been his father's, that whatever errors there had been in the past would cease now, indeed were already forgotten. Had not the whole race of Stuarts been chastised? Had not the whole nation suffered? And therefore they welcomed the king back as their chief good. The crown was his by Right Divine and by the will of the people. He had come back, and made merry, but he had no thought of forgiveness in his soul, only a fierce desire for vengeance against those who had slain his father and sent him into exile. That father had been a saint, and they slew him. The son was a great sinner, and they bowed down before him.
Reginald thought, and others thought with him, of all the blood that had been shed. They had hoped that a great pardon would have sealed that homecoming, instead of which it was vengeance and blood; whilst in the very palace where they had witnessed the death of Charles I, there was revelry and evil living, and an ignoring of all sacred things.
Their idol was broken, and their ideals had faded into nothingness. For the young this is a terrible experience: it cuts them to the heart, it wounds them to the soul. As men and women grow older they become accustomed to the daily and hourly disappointments of life. The shadow of death has passed over them, the lights have gone out; either they have grown hard and self-contained, or they have learnt to look beyond this world and patiently abide in faith, hope, and charity, until they shall pass into the kingdom of everlasting life. But the lesson has to be learnt, the road has to be trodden, and the pricks hurt their feet. The nobler the girl or the youth, the harder it is for them to lose their ideals.
Reginald was passing through this phase. He had built so much on this home-coming of his king, he had thought of him almost as a god, from his youth upwards; the son of that blessed saint and martyr, how should he be less than a hero! The disillusion was great, the sorrow was greater. Had he been of a less sensitive, a less noble nature himself, he would have thrown all care to the wind, have joined the revellers, and been content to lead the wild life of the young Cavaliers who had returned with Charles from foreign lands, and who now thought of little else but of making up for the years which had been passed in poverty and exile. Those lean years had taught them no lesson of frugality or decorum; rather they had made them impatient of restraint, desirous of making up in folly and extravagances for the years they called wasted.
Truly they were wasted, for they had brought forth no fruit. The lesson God would have taught to the race of Stuarts and their adherents had been of no avail. These men were like the Israelites of old, they had neither ears to hear nor eyes to see, and the few faithful ones, who loyally in England had waited for and prayed for their coming, were now sick at heart.
Yet Reginald had no thought of throwing up his allegiance; it was based on too good a foundation--his God and his king. He could not serve one and forsake the other, and so, though his heart was sore within him, and he felt that dark days were coming both for him and his, as a brave man he looked straight before him, trusting in a higher power than his own to deliver them from evil.
CHAPTER VIII
Arrested
It was Patience who sought Mistress Newbolt in her chamber and told her in a few words what had happened. It was even with her as her children had thought it would be.