no part betwixt prince and subject.'

'Sire,' said Redgauntlet, kneeling on one knee, 'I see from Sir
Richard's countenance he deems it my fault that your Majesty seems
ignorant of what your subjects desired that I should communicate to your
Majesty. For Heaven's sake! for the sake of all my past services and
sufferings, leave not such a stain upon my honour! The note, Number D,
of which this is a copy, referred to the painful subject to which Sir
Richard again directs your attention.'

'You press upon me, gentlemen,' said the prince, colouring highly,'
recollections, which, as I hold them most alien to your character, I
would willingly have banished from my memory. I did not suppose that
my loyal subjects would think so poorly of me, as to use my depressed
circumstances as a reason for forcing themselves into my domestic
privacies, and stipulating arrangements with their king regarding
matters in which the meanest minds claim the privilege of thinking for
themselves. In affairs of state and public policy, I will ever be guided
as becomes a prince, by the advice of my wisest counsellors; in those
which regard my private affections and my domestic arrangements, I claim
the same freedom of will which I allow to all my subjects, and without
which a crown were less worth wearing than a beggar's bonnet.'

'May it please your Majesty,' said Sir Richard Glendale, 'I see it must
be my lot to speak unwilling truths; but believe me, I do so with as
much profound respect as deep regret. It is true, we have called you to
head a mighty undertaking, and that your Majesty, preferring honour to
safety, and the love of your country to your own ease, has condescended
to become our leader. But we also pointed out as a necessary and
indispensable preparatory step to the achievement of our purpose--and,
I must say, as a positive condition of our engaging in it--that an
individual, supposed,--I presume not to guess how truly,--to have your
Majesty's more intimate confidence, and believed, I will not say on
absolute proof but upon the most pregnant suspicion, to be capable of
betraying that confidence to the Elector of Hanover, should be removed
from your royal household and society.'

'This is too insolent, Sir Richard!' said Charles Edward. 'Have you
inveigled me into your power to bait me in this unseemly manner? And
you, Redgauntlet, why did you suffer matters to come to such a point as
this, without making me more distinctly aware wh