Charles the King by Evelyn Anthony Read Free Book Online

he would have tried to reconcile his mistress with her husband instead of constituting himself her advocate in all her grievances.
    â€œSire,” the ambassador came forward and bowed low. He was a dark distinguished-looking man with a very courteous manner which remained unruffled and enabled him to come again and again before the King and deliver his monotonous complaints. Charles stared at him, his blue eyes cold with dislike.
    â€œIf you have requested this audience to discuss my wife’s imaginary grievances, then I must tell you, Monsieur de Thouairs, that you are wasting your time. And what is more important, wasting mine!”
    â€œGod forbid,” the Duc said, “that I should inconvenience your Majesty. Your Majesty knows that you have no greater friend than my humble self and my only wish is to see the differences dividing you and the Queen settled peaceably and with honour. This could so easily be done if you would only permit her to visit her Chapel in the proper manner instead of insisting that she goes there in secret like a criminal.”
    â€œIn my country, sir, the Queen’s co-religionists are criminals!” Charles snapped at him. “Her religion is treason against the law and I need hardly remind you that every time the Queen encourages my subjects to join her at Mass and makes a public procession out of a private devotion, she is placing these same subjects under the penalty of the law! I cannot help feeling,” he continued icily, “that if she were better advised by you, sir, and by those surrounding her, she would remember that wifely obedience is a Christian virtue common to Catholics as well as Protestants.”
    â€œThe Queen owes allegiance to her Church as well as to you, Sire,” the Duc pointed out. “And she feels that you are not fulfilling the promises made in the marriage treaty. That treaty is also the concern of His Majesty the King of France. In it you undertook to ease the lot of your Catholic subjects, and I have had to inform His Majesty that the Penal Laws are still being enforced. He is disturbed, Sire, and disappointed.”
    â€œRepeal of these laws is impossible,” Charles said stiffly. “If I wished to do away with them, and I assure you I have no desire to persecute any man for his belief, I could not do so. My Parliament would not accept the proposal and the only result would be a stricter enforcement which might seriously endanger the safety of the Queen if she persisted in her present attitude. It is impossible, you understand.”
    The Duc shrugged slightly.
    â€œIt is difficult for His Majesty of France to appreciate that a subsidiary legislative body has the power to deflect a sovereign from his will; we have no such problems in France.”
    â€œYou are fortunate,” Charles said shortly. “In that case may I enquire why my brother of France has failed to carry out his part of the agreement and show some toleration to the Huguenots?”
    â€œHe sees no reason to do so, while Catholics in England are still persecuted,” de Thouairs answered. He judged by the furious expression on the face of the King of England that he had better revert to the original subject. Where the honour and laws of his own country were concerned, Charles was implacable; obstinate, imperious, sometimes threatening, but he had a fatal weakness where his relations with his wife were in question. He had blazed with anger on that subject before now, but it was more malleable than his hostility as a sovereign; it could be deflected and turned against himself until another concession had been wrung from him for the Queen. Privately de Thouairs thought him a perfect fool where Henrietta was concerned, and he thought that her conduct was inexcusably irritating and unreasonable. But his duty was to use the situation for his country’s advantage, and he encouraged her and reproached Charles without a qualm of