CHAPTER XIV.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume III, Issue 128, 15 October 1875, Page 7

CHAPTER XIV.

CUAILLOT— THE EXILES. " But," replied the abbess, " with regard to Ashton, it does appear that he had really loft London. Then let me beg your majesty to hope the best." The poor queen shook her head sadly, saying : " Alas, my good mother, I cannot divest myself of the idea that I shall never more see my brave, good Ashton. I fear that the fury of Mary may he the means of stopping him before he has made way sufficiently to escape emissaries doubtless on his track. If so, death for himself, Lord Preston, and others concerned in this rising, must pay the penalty of their loyalty. It does, indeed, seem as if the will of God were against us. That Florence, too, should have fallen into the power of the queen fills my heart with How little did I think when I suffered her to leave me she would ever incur such a risk." " That young lady has committed an act of imprudence, no doubt," said the abbess. "L wonder, was she aware that Sir Reginald had become one of the king's adherents at the time she placed herself in Mary's power ? " " Certainly not." That knowledge, if, indeed, she be acquainted with it, will of itself increase what she must now be suffering." " Was not Sir Reginald one of William's favorites ; will not his property suffer for his defection ? " "Yes, undoubtedly, with all whose loyalty leads them to follow o\xt fortunes/ replied the queen ; " his property will be confiscated to the crown. Many havefollowed us to France, and William has, in every instance, outlawed them and confiscated their property. Yet they have preferred exile rather than transfer their allegiance to William and Mary, whilst amongst those who have remained in England many have rendered proofs of their friendship by refuting the slanders heaped upon my name." The vile calumnies disseminated by the king's worthless daughters, respecting the legitimacy of her son, the Prince of Wales, filled the thoughts of the queen, and those full dark eyes, which Madame de Maintenon desei-ibed as being always tearful, overflowed as she alluded to this scandal. " There are times," she added, after a pause, " when we have very little hope ; for such is the temper of the nation, my good mother, that it was impossible for the king to do anything in favor of religion and fail to give disgust. The time was ripe for the invasion of William ; the aspersions cast on the birth of the prince by his half-sisters all means to the same end, and those who call the king a weak man, because that he abdicated the throne— if that were the only proof of his weakness — do forget that it wanted some courage to go to rest as calmly as he did that night at Whitehall, with the Dutch guard of his traitor son-in-law and nephew about him. It is but a step for kings from the palace to an untimely end. Had he not the fate of his own father present to him ? Who shall dare say," said the queen, for a time carried away by her feelings, tvho shall dare say that private assassination, or imprisonment for life, in one of William's Dutch castles, might not have been his fate ? But, my dear mother, I have rambled on without fully replying to your question. Sir Reginald's property will all be confiscated. At present, Florence has nothing to lose, hni she is the heiress of her uncle, the Sir Charles de Gray, of whom you have heard me speak. He is far advanced in years, and it appears healso has managed to get introduced at court. She is also the heiress of the O'Neill's so that one way or another, should she give offence, no small gum will fall into the hands of William and Mary, as well as landed property, to bestow on their parasites. But hark ; there is the bell for vespers. I will follow you," she added, as the nun rose. " I beg you, in your orisons, not to forget to offer up your prayers for the success of the king's arms at Limerick, and for the welfare of all my family." " That is an unnecessary injunction, your majesty," and the abbess pressed the queen's hand to her lips as she spoke " Nowhere are more fervent prayers offered for your prosperity and welfare than by our humble Community of Chaiilot. It is growing dark ; I will hasten and send a sister with lights for your majesty." For a few moments after the nun had departed, the queen still lingered lost m melancholy thought. The embers of the wood fire had burned low in the ample stove, leaving the further end of the apartment enveloped in obscurity, save wheu ever and again a ruddy glow broie iorth, playing for a while on the dark oaken wainscoat and flooring, and then fading away, leaving the obscurity deeper than before. She walked to the casemont and looked out on the scenery beyond the abbey. The whole earth was covered with a snowy garment, the evening wild and stormy, the boughs of the trees around the abbey bent beneath- the weight of the snow, which %vas drifted from their leafless, branches by the wind, the sullen sough of which was audible between each peal of the vesper bell. The wintry nccne wus gloomy in the extreme, and the queen, whose henrl wus sorely oppressed at the news she had received from England, turned away with a weary sigh, and almost in her present depression of spirits, experienced a feeling akin to fear, as she aga-> sealed herself in the large dimly-lighted room, the further .ent oi which she could not distin j-'uish in the fast increasing darkness. It was with a feeling of intense relief, that, a few moments later, .she heard the i'oot^tcp of the Sister Mary Augustine, who had come with lights. She replenished the fire, and bearing a lamp in her hand, conducted the queen to her own apartments, ijei'ore she wont to the abbey chapel, for she was a constant attendant at the dcvutionaJ. exercise 1 ? of the nuns when at Chaiilot.