The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1903-06-03

The ambassador you need not know.
Make ready at once. The embassy
will leave London from the Tabard inn
one hour hence"
Could u command to duty nave como
at u more %inopportune timer / was
distracted, n upon leaving the king
went at once to seek the Lady Mary
where 1 had left her In the anteroom.
She had gone, so 1 went to her apart
mcnts, but could not find her. 1 went
to the queens salon, but she was not
there, and I %traversed that old ram
bling palace from one end to the other
without finding her or Lady Jane.
The king had told me the embassy
would be a secret one and that 1 was
to speak of 1t TO nobody, least of all to
the Lady Mary. No one was to know
that I was leaving England. and I was
to communicate with nc one at home
while i'm France.
The kings command was not to be
dlsobcyed. 10 do so would be as much
as my life vas worth; but, besides that,
the command of the king l served was
my highest duty, and no Caskoden ever
failed in that. i may not be rs tall as
some men, but my fidelity and honor
but You will say l boast.
l was to make ready my bundle and
ride six miles to London In one hour,
md almost half that time was spent
already. 1 was sure to be late, so 1
could not waste another minute.
1 wen to my room and got together
a few things necessary for my journey,
but did not take much In the way Of
clothing, prefcrrlng to buy that new
In Paris, where l could find the latest
styles In pattern md fabric.
/ tried to assure myself hat Mary
would see the king at once and tell him
all and not allow M dear friend Bran
don to lie i'm hat terrible place another
pight, yet Il persistent fear gnawed at
my heart, and n sort Of intuition that
seemed to have the very breath of GER
tainty In its ~foreboding made me doubt
her.
AS 1 could find neither Mary nor
Jane, I did the next best thing-I
wrote n letter to each OF them, urging
immediate action and left them to be
delivered by my man Thomas, who
was one of those trusty souls hat new
CIR fail. / did not tell the girls i was
about to start for France, but intimat-
ed that / was compelled to leave Lon
don for Il time and said. 81 leave the
fate of this man, to whom we all w
SO much, I'm your hands, knowing full
we'll how tender you will be of him."
1 was away from home nearly o
month, and MS i dared not write. and
even Jane did not know where 1 was,
l did not receive nor expect any let
tiers. The king had ordered secrecy,
and II I have mingled with oil my
faults n single virtue 1t Is that of
~faithfulness to my trust. So 1 had no
news from England and sent non
home.
During oil that time the same old
fear lived In my heart that Mary
might fail to liberato Brandon. She
knew of the negotiations concerning
the French marriage, as we all did, al
though only by an indefinite sort of
hearsay, and 1 was sure the half found
cd rumors that had reached her ears
had long since become certainties and
that her heart was full of trouble and
fear Of her violent brother. She would
certainly be at her coaxing and vince
ding again and on her best behavior,
and 1 feared she might refrain from
tCiiibS Gil VI Z UP W SkouChC "
knowing how severe he was In such
matters and how furious he was sure
to become at the discovery. I was cor
tain it was this fear which had pre-
vented Mary from going directly to
the king Oh our return to Greenwich
from Scotland palace, and I knew that
her eating, bathing and dressing were
but al excuse for a breathing spell be-
fore the dreaded interview.
This fear remained with me ali the
time 1 was away, but when I reasoned
with myself 1 would smother 1t as well
as I could with argumentative attempts
at self assurance. I would say over
and owe to myself that Mary could
not full and that even IL she did there
was ~Jane-dear, sweet, thoughtful, un-
selfish Jane!-who would not allow her
to do so. But, as far Is they go, our
intuitions-our feelings" MS we cali
them-are worth all the logic in the
world, and you may say what you will,
but my presentiments-I speak for no
one elSe-are we'll to be minded. Thexo
Is another sense hidden about us THAT
Will develop as the race grows older.
1 speak to posterity.
LII proof Oh luis statement L now tell
you hat when I returned to London I
found Brandon still In the terrible dun
gcon, and, worse still, he had been
tried for murder and had been con-
demned TO be hanged, drawn and quar-
tered on the second Friday following.
Hanged! Drawn! CHARTERED! 1t Is
time we were doing away with sue
%barbarity.
We Will now so back n month for
the purpose Of looking up the loings of
n friend of ours, his grace the Duke OF
buckingham.
On the morning after the fatal battle
Of Billingsgate the barber who had
treated B%randon's wounds had been
called to London to dress a bruised
knee for his grace the duke. In tho
course of the operation an immense
deal of information oozed out of the
barber, one Item of which was that Ia
had the night before dressed nine
wounds, great and small, for Master
Brandon, the kings friend. This es-
tabllshed the identity of the man who
had rescued the girls, a fact Of which
Buckingham had had his suspicious all
along. SO Brandon's arrest followed,
as have already related to you.
nftcrward learned from various