oncello, if your Majesty is pleased to remember," said
the little jealous man, "not a common fiddle; though, for your Majesty's
service, I would have crept even into a kit."

"Whatever of that nature could have been performed by any subject of
ours, thou wouldst have enacted in our behalf--of that we hold ourselves
certain. Withdraw for a little; and hark ye, for the present, beware
what you say about this matter. Let your appearance be considered--do
you mark me--as a frolic of the Duke of Buckingham; and not a word of
conspiracy."

"Were it not better to put him under some restraint, sire?" said the
Duke of Ormond, when Hudson had left the room.

"It is unnecessary," said the King. "I remember the little wretch of
old. Fortune, to make him the model of absurdity, has closed a most
lofty soul within that little miserable carcass. For wielding his sword
and keeping his word, he is a perfect Don Quixote in decimo-octavo. He
shall be taken care of.--But, oddsfish, my lords, is not this freak of
Buckingham too villainous and ungrateful?"

"He had not had the means of being so, had your Majesty," said the Duke
of Ormond, "been less lenient on other occasions."

"My lord, my lord," said Charles hastily--"your lordship is Buckingham's
known enemy--we will take other and more impartial counsel--Arlington,
what think you of all this?"

"May it please your Majesty," said Arlington, "I think the thing is
absolutely impossible, unless the Duke has had some quarrel with your
Majesty, of which we know nothing. His Grace is very flighty, doubtless,
but this seems actual insanity."

"Why, faith," said the King, "some words passed betwixt us this
morning--his Duchess it seems is dead--and to lose no time, his Grace
had cast his eyes about for means of repairing the loss, and had the
assurance to ask our consent to woo my niece Lady Anne."

"Which your Majesty of course rejected?" said the statesman.

"And not without rebuking his assurance," added the King.

"In private, sire, or before any witnesses?" said the Duke of Ormond.

"Before no one," said the King,--"excepting, indeed, little Chiffinch;
and he, you know, is no one."

"_Hinc illae lachrymae_," said Ormond. "I know his Grace well. While the
rebuke of his aspiring petulance was a matter betwixt your Majesty and
him, he might have let it pass by; but a check before a fellow from whom
it was likely enough to travel through the Court, was a matter to be
revenged."