CHAPTER CCXIX.
[Chapter 236]
AN ADVENTURE. -THE CARBINE SHOT. -THE DEATH.
"Nay," I heard the king say, "they ought, and no doubt do, keep choice
wine here; drink, fair one."
The young girl shook her head.
"Nay, now," said Charles with a laugh, as he finished off himself the
glass that the young girl took so small a sip of, "I will convince you that I
think it good."
The lady with whom Rochester was conversing in a low tone, had no such
scruples, for she tossed off a couple of glasses as fast as they were tendered
to her, and talked quite at her ease, admiring the pavilion, the pictures, the
hangings and furniture, and wondering whether the king ever came there
himself.
Rochester began mystifying her, talking to her in a low tone, while I
turned my attention to the king, and the younger, and certainly more estimable
female of the two.
The king had been talking to her in a low tone, when she suddenly started
to her feet, her face flushed with anger and alarm.
"Louisa," she said, "I claim your protection; you were left in care of
me. Take me home, or I will tell my uncle how you basely betrayed your trust,
by pursuading me there was no harm in meeting those gentlemen."
"Pho! he child's mad," said Louisa.
"Quite mad," said the king, as he advanced towards her again; she fled to
the door of the pavilion. I knew not what impluse it was that urged me on,
but I left the window hastily, and met her, she fell into my arms, and the
light fell strongly upon me as I confronted the king.
"The guard. The guard," he shouted.
"Louisa pretended to faint, and the ngyon grl [young girl] clung to me as
her only protector, exclaiming, —
"Save me! save me; Oh save me!"
The garden door is open," I whispered to her, "follow me quickly, not a
moment is to be lost." We both fled together.
I was about to pass through the doorway, when a shot from one of the
guards struck me, and I fell to the ground as if the hand of a giant had
struck me down. There was a rush of blood from my heart to my head, a burning
sensation of pain for a moment or two, that was most horrible, and then a sea
of yellow light seemed to be all around me.
I remembered no more.
It was afterwards that I found this was my second death, and that the
favourite, Rochester, had actually directed that I should be shot rather than
permitted to escape, for he dreaded more than the monarch did the exposure of
his vices. I do not think that Charles, in like manner, had he been at hand,
would have had my life taken, although it is hard to say what kings will do or
what they will not when they are thwarted.
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