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

She brcathed n sigh Of relief, toe. for
she felt she had accomplished Bran
don's release and still retained her dan
gcrous secret, the d~ivulging Of which
She feared would harden Henry's heart
against her Establishments and strand
her upon the throne of France.
But she vas not entirely satisfied
with the arrangement. She knew that
her obligation to Brandon was such as
to demand of her that she should not
leave the matter of his release to any
other person, much less to an enemy
such as buckingham. Yet the cost Of
his freedom by n direct act Of her own
would be so great that she was tempt
ed to take whatever risk there might
be In the way that had opened itself to
her. Not that she would not have
made the sacrifice willingly or would
not have told Henry all IL that were
the only chance to save Brbndon's life,
but h other way, the one she had TAX
en- by Buckingham's help, seemed safe,
and, though not entirely satisfying, she
could not see how 1t could miscarry.
Buckingham was notably Jealous Of
his knightly word, and she had I'M
III III hSI lhhueuCS ONcI
him. In short, like many another per-
son, she was as wrong as possible Just
Mt the time when she thought she was
entirely right, and when the cost Of n
mistake was Mt Its maximum.
She recoiled also from the thought
Of Brandon's escape" and 1t hurt her
that he should be n fugitive from the
Justice that should reward him, yet
she quieted these disturbing sugges-
tons with the thought that IT would
be only for n short time, and Brandon,
h knew, would be only too glad to
make the sacrifice IL 1t purchased for
her freedom from the worse than dam
nation that lurked In tho French mar
riage.
All this ran quickly through Mary's
mind and brought relief, but 1t did not
cure the uneasy sense, weighing like
lead upon her heart, that she should
take no chance with this mans life and
should put no further weight Of sacr1-
fee upon him, but should go to the
king and tell him n straightforward
story, let 1t hurt where 1t would. With
n little meditation, however, came a
thought which decided the question and
absolutely made everything bright
again for her, so great was her capa-
billty for distiliing light. She would
go ut ice to Windsor with Jane and
would dispatch n note to Brandon at
Newgate telling him upon his escape
to come to her. He might remain In
hiding In the neighborhood Of Wind
sOr, and she could see him every day.
The time had come to Mary when to
see him every day" would turn Plu-
tonian shades into MONDAY brightness
and weave sunbeams out of utter dark
ness. With Mary, to resolve was to
act; SO the note was soon dispatched
by a page, and II hour later the girls
were on their road to Windsor.
Buckingham went to Newgate, ex-
pecting to make n virtue, with Mary,
out Of the necessity imposed by the
kings command in freeing Brandon.
He hnd hoped to induce Brandon to
leave London stealthily and Immediate
ly by representing to him the evil con-
sequences of n break between the citi-
Zcns and the king, liable to grow out
of his release, and relied OH Brandon's
generosity to help him out, but when
he found the note which Mary's pnge
had delivered to the keeper OF Newgate
he read 1t, and all his plans were
changed.
He caused the keeper to send the