Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-10-02

pect her 1acopite feanfngs are known.
and her peoples evidence would go for
little. That that should be the day-but
there, there. your grace must take cour-
age the duke continued kindly. .'AIl
that the party can do will be done. Within
the week Lord Portland will be he:e,
bringing his majesty's -nands. and we
shall then know what he proposes to do
about 1t. If know the king. and think
do"
But the picture which these words sug-
gested to my lords mind was too much
for his equanimity. To know for certain
that the king who had extended indulgence
to him once was in possession of this new
accusation and perhaps believed it-that
was bad enough. But to hear that Port
land also was in the secret, and grim,
faithful Dutchman as he was, might pres
emily, in support OF the low opinion of
English fidelity which he held, quote him,
the first minister of England, was too
much. In hoarse voice he cut the duke
short, asking to be set down before they
quarreled. and bis grace Fastening with
a hurried word of sympathy to comply, my
lord stepped out, and looking neither to
the right nor left, passed into his house,
and to the library. where, locking the door,
he shut himself in with his trouble.
CHAPTER XIII.
I have commonly reckoned 1t among nv
lords greatest misfortunes that in a crisis
of his affairs which demanded all the as
sistance that friendship the closest and
most intimate could afford he had neither
wife nor child to whom he could turn, and
from whom, without loss of dignity, he
might receive comfort and support. He
was solitary man, separated from such
near relations as he had by differences as
well religious as. political, and from the
world at large by the grandeur of posi-
ton which imposed burdens as onerous as
the privileges 1t conferred were rare.
10 d melancholy habit, which some at
tr1buted to the sad circumstances attend
ant on his fathers death. and others to the
change Of faith which he had been induced
10 make on reaching manhood. he added a
natural shyness and reserve, qualities
which, ordinarily yelled from observation
Dy manners and an address the most
charming and easy in the world were none
the less obstacles where friendship was In
question. Not that of friendship there was
much among the political men of that day;
the perils and uncertainties of the time
1nculcated a distrust which was only over
come where blood or marriage cemented
the tie, as in the case of Lords Sunderland,
Godolphin and Marlborough, and again of
the Russells and Cavendishes. But be that
as 1t may my lord stood outside these
bonds and enjoyed and rued splendid
isolation. AS if already selected by fortune
for that strange combination of great posts
with personal loneliness which was to be
more strikingly exhibited in the death
chamber of her late majesty, Queen Anne,
he lived, whether in his grand house in ST.
James square, at Ryford, among the
Worcestershire woids, as much apart as
any man in London or in England.
Withal. knew men called him the King
OF Hearts. But the popularity of which
that title seemed the sign and seal was fic-
t1tlouS and unreal; born, while they talked
with him, of his spontaneous kindness and
boundless address: doomed to perish an
hour later of spite and envy. or of sheer
hamilton. Since the duke was sensitive.
over proud for intimacy, fiattered no man.
ard gave no confidence.
Such an one bade fair, when in trouble
to eat out his heart. Prone to fancy all
mems hands against him. he doubled the
shame and outdid the most scandalous So
far, indeed, was he from deriving comfort
from things that would have restored such
men as my Lord Marlborough to perfect
and compoSure, that / believe
and, in fine, had it from himself that the
letter which the king wrote to him from
Loo land which came to his hands through
Lord Portlands three days after the inter-
view with his grace of Devonshire) panied
him more sensibiy than all that had gone
before.
You may judge of my establishment"
his majesty wrote, lat his effrontery in
accusing you. You are, I trust, too fully
convinced of the entire confidence which l
place in you to think that such stories can
make any impression on me. You will OBJ
serve this honest mans sincerity, who
only accuses those in my service, and not
one of his own party.
1t Will be understood that that in his
majesty's letter which touched my lord
home, was less the magnanimity displayed
in it than the remembrance that once be-
fore the sovereign had dealt with the sub
ject in the same spirit; and that now the
world must know this. OF the immediate
accusation. with all its details of time and
circumstance, he thought little, believing
not only that the truth must quickly
sweep it away, but that in the meantime
few would be found SO credulous as to put
faith in it. But he saw with painful clear
ness that the charge would rub the old sore
and gall the old raw: and he WINGED, seat
ed alone in his library in the silence of
the house, as if the iron already scared the
living flesh. With throes of shame he fore
saw what stanch wings, such as Somers
and Wharton. would say of him; what the
Postboy and Courant would print of him
what the rank and file of the party-ex-
posed to no danger in the event of a res
toraion, and consequently to few tempta-
tons. to make their peace abroad-would
think of their trusted leader when thew
learned the truth.
On Marlborough and Russell, Godolphia
and Sunderland the breath of suspicion had
blown; on him never. and he held his head
high. How could he meet them now? Nav.
If that We're all, how, he asked himself
could he face the honest nonjuror or the
honest jacobite or the honest tory: He,
who had taken the oaths to the new gov
eminent, and broken them; who had set