“I will do whatever your majesty enjoins,” replied Lord Derwentwater, greatly astonished by what he heard. “But it is my duty to tell you that you will run great risk, while I very much fear you will not accomplish your object. Did you consult the queen, your mother, before setting out on this expedition?”
“I did, cousin, and must frankly own that she endeavoured to dissuade me from the attempt; for, as you are aware, her majesty deems Anne an unnatural daughter, and destitute of all feeling for the brother whose throne she has usurped. It may be so. Yet, cold as she is, Anne cannot be insensible to the king, our father's dying message, which I propose to deliver to her.”
“Nothing will move her, sire, depend upon it,” said the earl. “Queen Anne is so strongly opposed to the Roman Catholic religion, that unless your majesty will consent to change your faith she will turn a deaf ear to your entreaties.”
“We shall see,” replied the Chevalier de Saint George. “At all events, I shall have an answer from her own lips, and shall then know how to act. As I have just told you, the queen, my mother, strove to combat my determination; but, finding I was not to be shaken, she entreated me to take you with me. To this I readily agreed, as I knew I could rely on your devotion. I embarked at Dunquerque without a single attendant, and in this disguise, and landed yesterday at Sunderland.”
“And right glad I am to welcome your majesty to Dilston,” said the earl. “But let me implore you to change your plans, and instead of supplicating Queen Anne for the crown, that of right belongs to yourself, snatch it from her brow! Should you decide thus—and I believe it will be for the best—I will undertake, within a week, to raise a large force—while thousands will flock to your standard in Scotland. Your majesty will do well to weigh my proposal ere setting out on a hazardous expedition to London. Here you have a mansion you can call your own—servants you can command—friends at your disposal—and in a few days you will have an army. Be advised by me, my gracious liege, and abandon this wild scheme. Suffer me to get together your adherents. Let me send off messengers without delay to Lord Widdring-ton, Tom Errington, of Beaufront, John Shaftoe, Swinbourn, Charleton, Clavering, and others in the county, to collect all their retainers.”
“But they are unprepared,” remarked the prince.
“Pardon me, my liege. The friends I have named are always prepared, and the news that your majesty is here would rouse them all to come at once. I ought to have added to the list Jack Hall, of Otterburn, and Tom Forster, of Bamborough. They are High Church Tories, and will bring many others with them.”
“No doubt they would prove an important acquisition,” said the prince. “But I will not try to dethrone Anne till I have given her the chance of acting fairly towards me. I am very sanguine as to the result of my interview with her.”
“Heaven grant your majesty may not be disappointed!” rejoined Lord Derwentwater. “I will say no more. Whenever it shall please you to set out to London, I shall be ready to attend you.”
“I will remain here till to-morrow, cousin,” said the prince. “On some future occasion I hope to be your guest for a longer time; but though Dilston is a charming place, and I should like to see all its beauties, it must not detain me now.”