Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-04-03

on a couche for weakenes.
 | So Mary was twice married to Louis,
 and, although she was his queen fast and sure enough, she was not his wife.
 You may say what you will, but 1 like fighting woman, one with touch
 of the savage in her when the occasion arises, one who can fight for what she | loves as well as against what she hates.
 She usually loves as she ights-with all her heart.
 l So Mary was crowned and was now
 queen and hedged about by the tim
 seled divinity that hedgeth royalty.
 It seemed that she was climbing
 higher and higher all the time from
 Brandon, but in her heart every day she was brought nearer to him. | There was one thing that troubled her greatly, and all the time. Henry had given his word that Brandon should
 be liberated as soon as Mary had left the shores of England, but we had
 heard nothing of this matter, although
 we had received several letters from home A doubt of her brother, in
 whom she had little faith at best, made an ache at her heart which seemed at times likely to break-so she said. One night she dreamed that she had
 witnessed Brandon's execution, her brother standing by in excellent hu-
 nor at the prank he was playing her, ! and it So worked upon her waking
 hours that by evening she was i'll. At 1 last I received letter from Brandon,
 which had been delayed along the road, containing one for Mary. 1t told of his full pardon and restoration
 to favor, greater even than before, and her joy was so sweet and quiet and yet so softly delirious that tell you plain ly it brought tears to my eyes, and l could not hold them back.
 The marriage, when once determined
 upon, had not cast her down nearly so
 deep as I had expected, and soon she
 grew to be quite cheerful and happy. This filled me with regret, for I thought Of how Brandon must suffer, and felt that her heart was poor, f1imsy thing to take this trouble so lightly. spoke to Jane about it, but she only
 laughed. Mary Is all right" said she.
 Do not fear. Matters will turn out
 better than you think, perhaps. You know she generally manages to have her own way in the end"
 If you have any comfort to give, please give it, Jane. feel most keenly for Brandon, heart tied to such a will ful. changeable creature as Mary"
 "sir Edwin Caskoden, you need not take the trouble to speak to me at all
 unless you can use language more re-. spectful concerning my mistress. The
 queen knows what she is about, but it appears that you cannot see it. I see ] 1t plainly though, although no word has ever been spoken to me on the sub | ject. As to Brandon being tied to her, 1 it seems to me she is tied to him and that he holds the reins. He could drive | her into the mouth of purgatory."
 Do you think so?
 q know it.''
 remained in thought a moment or two and concluded that she was right. In truth, the time had come to me when I believed that Jane, with her
 good sense and acute discernment, 1 could not be wrong in anything, and think so yet. So I took comfort on 1 faith from her and asked, "Do you re-
 member what you said should happen l before we return to EnglandT' Jane hung her head. ''I remember" "WellY'
 She then put her hand in mine and ! murmured, T am ready any time you Wish.'' ..... Great heaven! I thought should go out of my senses. She should have | told me gradually. I had to do some- thing to express my exultation, so I ! walked oyer to a bronze statue of Bacchus, about my size-that is, height put my hat, which had been carry 1 ing under my arm, on his head, cut few capers in an entirely new and l equally antic step, and then drew back and knocked that Bacchus down. Jane thought had gone stark mad, 1 and her eyes grew big with wonder, but walked proudly back to her after my victory over Bacchus and reassured 1 her-with few of Mary's messages 1 that had still left over, if the truth
 must be told. Then we made arrange
 ments that resulted in our marriage next morning.
 Accordingly Queen Mary and one or two others went with us down to lit tie church, where, as fortune would have it, there was a little priest ready
 to join together in thee holy bonds of
 wedlock little Jane ana little me-ev- erything so appropriate, you see. I suppose in the whole world we couldn't
 have found another set of conditions so harmonious. Mary laughed and cried 1 and laughed again, and clapped her hands over and over, and said it was ''like play wedding" and, as she kissed Jane, quietly slippedcoyer her head beautiful diamond nectlace that
 was worth full G1O, ,OO0-aside, that is, from the millions of actual value be-
 cause it came from Mary. "A play
 wedding" it was, and play Mfe it has been ever since.
 We were barely settled at court in Paris when Mary began to put her plans in motion and unsettle things generally. I could not but recall Hen
 ry's sympathy toward Louis, for the young queen soon took it upon herself
 to make life a burden to ''the Father of
 His People" and in that particular line
 suppose she had no equal in all the length and breadth of Christendom.