The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1903-06-17
"YOM arc too late"

half his blood to serve Inc. AS If any
body wanted II drop Of his wrctchcd
blood. Poor Master Brandon. His
blood IL tears came. choking her
words for the moment. 80 l told the
duke j had promised you and Jane to
procure Master Brandon's liberty, and
asked him to do 1t for me. He gladly
consented and gave me his knightly
word that 1t should be attended to
without an hours delay. He said it
might have to be done secretly in the
way of an e~scapc-not officially-as the
Londoncrs were very jealous of their
rights and much aroused on account of
the killing. Especially, he said, that ut
that time great caution must be used,
rs the king was anxious to conciliate
the city In order to procure n oan for
some purpose-my dover, / suppose.
"The duke said it should be as l
wished; that Master Brandon should
escape and remain away from London
for II few weeks until the king pro.
royal proclamation.
81 saw buckingham the next day, for
L was very anxious, you may be sure,
and he said the keeper of Newgate had
told him 1T had been arranged the
night before as desired. / had come
to Windsor because it was more quiet,
and my heart was full. 1t Is quite n
distance from London, and L thought
1t might afford n better opportunity to
to eel thought, perhaps Master
Brandon might come-might want to
to-Scc Jane and me. In fact, L wrote
him before / left Greenwich that /
should be here. Then | heard he had
gone to Now Spain. Now YOU see how
all my troublcs have come upon me at
once, and this the greatest of them,
because 1t is my fault. l can ask no
forgiveness from any one for / cannot
forgive myself"
She then inquired about Brandon's
health and spirits, ana l left out no
distressing detail, YOU may be sure.
During my recital she sat with down
cast eyes and tear stained face playing
with the rebons of her hat.
When l was ready to go, she said,
please say To Master Brandon / should
likc-to-See-him If he cares to come,
IL only that | may tell him how it hap
pencd."
81 greatly fear, in fact. / know he
will not come" said /. "The cruelest
blow of all, worse even than the dun
geon or the sentence OF death, was
your failure to save him. He trusted
you so implicitly. At the time Of his
arrest he refused to allow me to tell
the king, saying he knew you would
see to it-thnt YOU were pure gold"
,kb ,ltI lr 80, tl,a%g ~ .l.N t.- 90.
a sad little smile lighted her face.
"His faith was so entirely without
doubt that his rccoil from you is cor
respondingly great. lie goes to New
Spain as soon as his health is recovered
sufficiently for him to travel"
This sent the last ncck of color from
her face, and with the words almost
choking her throat, "Then tell him
what 1 have said to you and perhaps
he will not feel So
~ cannot do that either, Lady Mary.
When l mentioned your name the other
day, he said he would curse me If 1 ev-
er spoke it again in his hearing
as 1t so bad as that?" Then, medita-
lively: "And at his trial he did not tell
the reason for the killing? Would not
compromise me, who had served him
SO Ill, ven to ave his own life? Noble,
noble" And her lips went together as
she rose to her feet. No tears now;
nothing but glowing, determined wo-
manhood.
"Then | will go to him wherever he
may be. He shall forgive me, no mat
ter what my fault"
Soon after this we We're or or. way
to London at n brisk gallop.
We were all very silent, but at one
time Mary spoke up from the midst of
n reveric: During the moment when |
thought Master Brandon had been exc
cuted-when you said 1t was too late
1t seemed that I was born again and all
made over; that I was changed in the
very texture of my nature by the
shock, as they say the grain of the iron
cannon is sometimes changed by too
violent an explosion" And this proved
to be true In some respects.
We rode on rapidly and did not stop
in London except to give the horses
drink.
After crossing the bridge Mary said,
half to Jane and half to HERSELF, ~ will
never marry the French A'ng-ncvcr."
Mary was but a girl pitttd against n
body of brutal men, two of them rulers
Of the two greatest nations on earth
rather heavy odds for one woman.
We rode down to Greenwich and en-
tered the palace without exciting com
ment, as the princess wrH in the habit
OF coming and going at Will.
The king and queen and most Of the
courtiers were In London at Bridewell
House and Baynard's castle, where
Henry was vigorously pushing the
loan OF 100000 crowns for Mary's dow
CT, the only business of state In which
at that time he took any active inter
est. Subsequently, as you know, he be-
came Interested In the divorce laws
g. the various methods whereby q
man, especially n king, might rid him
self of Il distasteful wife, and after he
saw the truth in Anne Boleyn's eyes he
adopted n combined policy of church
and state craft that has brought us a
deal of senseless trouble ever since and
is like to keep 1t up.
AS to Mary's dover, Henry was to
pay Louis only 100000 crowns, but he
made the marriage an excuse for an
extra 100000 to be devoted to his w
private use.
When we arrived Mt the palace the
girls went to their apartments and /
to mine, where / found Brandon read
Ing. There was only one window to