You must set a glorious example to siast for ideals, and I am one for reality; | life. the Muses, and I love pretty girls wherever I "Oh, make haste, then, and save him!" So saying, the frivolous Davenant hastened into the adjoining room, from which the laughter and shouts of a merry carousal penetrated to Alice. The king sat in the midst of his boon companions at a table loaded with dishes and decanters. The beautiful Nell Gwynn filled his glass, while the overbearing Buckingham told one of his funny stories, and, to the delight of his august patron, imitated, in the most ludicrous manner, the pedantic bearing and peculiarities of Lord Clarendon, the worthy president of the Council of State. "Splendid! splendid!" cried Charles. "That is Clarendon to the life; only his big wig is wanting." "I suppose that is what I am," said the king, laughing, and imprinting a glowing kiss on Nell Gwynn's crimson lips. "Besides, it is incumbent on your majesty, by wise economy and a prudent administration, to bring order into the unsettled finances of the kingdom. I deem myself also in duty bound to warn your majesty of those dissolute and extravagant men who, I regret to say, are to be seen but too often around my august master, such as the vicious Earl of Rochester, who is wallowing in the mire of lust, and Grammont, the Frenchman, an incorrigible rake." "And, above all, the Duke of Buckingham," interposed Waller, the poet, a man destitute of honesty and virtue, who runs after every wench in the streets, and from whom no woman in the three kingdoms is safe; a pattern of voluptuousness, a colossus of lewdness, the most vicious man in England." "Better and better," laughed Charles, who liked nothing better than such coarse jests. "Long live the incorrigible Buckingham!" "Long live the incorrigible Buckingham!" cried the whole chorus. While the nobleman who had been cheered in so peculiar a manner returned thanks, in ludicrous words, levelling the shafts of his satire even at the king, Davenant entered the room. "Ah," said Charles to him, "where have you been so long? "With some wench, I bet," said the Earl of Rochester, a well-known profligate. "I do not like to hunt in your lordship's park," replied the poet, who was as witty as he was impudent. "Some harm might befall me there in the end." "Your majesty," said Buckingham, in the tone of his assumed rôle, "Providence has imposed on you the sublime task of making your people happy and contented. For this purpose you must, above all things, honor the Episcopal Church, and lead a virtuous and devout | carousal." "Then you have been at your mother's tavern, and tried to get sober after last night's "You are not very happy in your guesses | master has no memory for faithful services, nor ears for devoted friends." to-day. It would be advisable for you to send your wit to a cobbler and have it mended. It lacks point." "Then it fares no better than your nose." "Requiescat in pace," said the king, laughing. "Davenant, I want you to tell me where you have been so long." "In your majesty's anteroom, where I had an interview with a lady." "A lady who has had an interview with you loud murmurs. The swarthy face of the king is always suspicious to me." colored with indignation; he seemed to have "See her yourself and you will judge other-awakened from his indolence. wise. She is waiting in the anteroom, and insists on being admitted to your majesty." "Is she young and handsome?" asked the king, eagerly "And you really ask me to pardon that man?" he said, sternly. "Do you not know that he reviled my father even in his grave? "She no longer possesses the charms of first youth, but in return she is gifted with that beauty which is imperishable, because it indicates a noble heart and a lofty mind." "Davenant has gone mad," sneered Buckingham. "He must be confined in a lunatic asylum. In the interest of public security I move that he be sent thither." "Hush! hush!" said Charles II. "Davenant's intellectual beauty begins to excite my interest. And what does the Platonic lady want of me?" "She wants your majesty to pardon a prisoner, and I join my prayers to hers." "She wishes doubtless to intercede in behalf of some accursed Roundhead,” said Buckingham. "It is wrong in such supplicants to trouble his majesty during the most important hours of his life. The whole crowd should be hung at the same time, so that they may not disturb his majesty any longer." “Buckingham is right," said the lazy king. "I do not want to be disturbed, nor do I want "He was a republican, and acted according to his convictions, as I did according to mine. Besides, he saved my life at the time I returned to England in compliance with your august mother's request. I am still in his debt, and your majesty pledged me your royal word to pay all my debts on your return." "You are a rogue," said Charles, laughing at the witty pun. "But how does it come that Milton has not been arrested until now?" "His friends said he was dead, and caused an empty coffin to be buried in his stead in order to protect him from punishment." A very good joke," said the king, whose good-humor had been fully restored by what Davenant had told him. "Justice has nothing to do with the dead, and punishment ceases with the grave." "Your majesty, then, will pardon Milton? "Well, I believe I will." "And to save your majesty all further trouble, I have drawn up these lines; all you have to do, sire, is to sign them.” With a quick stroke of the pen Charles or to hear any thing about the lady and her pro-dered the immediate release of the prisoner, tégé. You are a tedious fellow, Davenant." for which Davenant thanked him very warmly. "But what about your lady?" asked the king, when Davenant was about to withdraw in order to convey the glad tidings to Alice. "You have not even told me her name. I am sure she is as bad a republican as your friend 'Milton, since she takes so lively an interest in his fate." "Your majesty is utterly mistaken. The lady was the most loyal adherent of your lamented father, for whom her husband gave up his life. She herself fought like a heroine for the good cause, and in consequence lost the largest part of her estates. There is no more loyal woman in all England than Lady Alice Carbury, the daughter of the Earl of Bridgewater, Lord President of Wales." "In that case it is my duty to see her. People in general reproach me with neglecting my old friends; but since my accession, God knows I have found so many old friends of my family that I could not satisfy their claims even though my treasury contained all the riches of the two Indies." "So far as I know, Lady Alice Carbury is one of those friends who ask for nothing but an affable word and a kindly smile from your majesty. It will not cost you any thing, sire, to vouchsafe these to them." "Well, we must display some gallantry toward ladies," said the king. "I will see her and pay my respects to her. Tell her that I shall await her in my cabinet to inform her in person that Milton's pardon has been granted. This room would not be a suitable place to give her an audience." Davenant hastened to inform Alice of the king's will. Her loyal heart was filled with the utmost joy by this intelligence; she adhered to the royal cause with a rare fidelity bordering almost on fanaticism. "All is well," whispered Davenant to her, "but his majesty is desirous of seeing you in person." have bowed her knee before him, but he prevented her doing so; he could not, however, prevent the kiss which she imprinted on his hand. The king, although he was not handsome, was able to display the most seductive amiability whenever he wished to do so. Full of disdain of human nature, although few monarchs ever received so many proofs of devotion at the hands of his subjects, he was yet naturally kind-hearted, and manifested on many occasions extreme affability and condescension. His frivolity was the source of his faults and virtues, if a certain indolent kindheartedness and a sympathetic though superficial cheerfulness deserve to bear this name. Susceptible of every new impression, Alice's unfeigned devotion, and still more the intellectual beauty which she had preserved in spite of her mature years, won his heart. "How does so devoted an adherent of the royal cause," he asked, in the course of the audience, "come to intercede in behalf of one of the most inflexible and dangerous republicans? Milton has injured our cause more than a legion of our other enemies, and yet you speak in his behalf." "Because I esteem his character, and above all his genius, which I believe to be equal to that of the greatest poets of ancient or modern times." "Very well. He shall live, then, and enter our service. We are fond of poets, and Davenant is aware that we know how to reward them." "I doubt if Milton will accept so generous an offer, though I gratefully appreciate the spirit which has dictated it." "And why should your protégé refuse to take a position at our court? Believe me, Lady Carbury, all men are venal, as soon as we know the price at which they will "God bless him for it!" she prayed, with themselves." fervent gratitude. In her loyalty, Alice did not venture to Charles II. came to meet her. She would combat an assertion which the king made |