brutal in manner, as I had thought,
but liker to a very bright sword, at once sharp and heavy: and sharp and
heavy indeed men found him when they looked at him from the dock. It was
in Mr. Chiffinch's closet that I was made known to him. I had spoken too
with my Lord Halifax--another brilliant fellow, very satirical and
witty, for which the King loved him, though all the world guessed, and
the King, I think knew, that his opposition to our cause was so hot as
even to keep him in correspondence with the Duke of Monmouth, safe away
in Holland. At least that was the talk in the coffee-houses. He, like
the Lord Keeper North, hated a Papist like the Devil, and all his ways
and wishes. He said of my Lord Rochester, now made president of the
Council--a post of immense dignity and no power at all--that "he was
kicked upstairs," which was a very precise description of the matter.

* * * * *

I was taken straight through into the Duke's private closet, where he
awaited me; and, by the rarest chance His Majesty was just about to take
his leave, and they had me in before he was gone.

I was very deeply shocked by His Majesty's appearance. He was standing
below a pair of candles when I came in, and his face was all in shadow;
but when, after I had saluted the two, he moved out presently, I could
see how fallen his face was, and how heavily lined. Since it was evening
too, and he had not shaved since morning I could see a little
frostiness, as it were, upon his chin. He dyed his eyebrows and
moustaches, I suppose, for these were as black as ever. His melancholy
eyes had a twinkle in them, as he looked at me.

"Well," said he, "so here is our hero back again--come to pay his
respects to the rising sun, I suppose." (But he said it very pleasantly,
without any irony.)

"Why, Sir," said I, "I have always understood that there is neither
rising nor setting with England's sun; but that it is always in
mid-heaven. The King never dies; and the King can do no wrong."

(Such was the manner in which we spoke at Court in those days--very
foolish and bombastic, no doubt.)

"Hark to that, brother," said the King; "there is a pretty compliment to
us both! It is to neither of us that Mr. Mallock is loyal; but to the
Crown only."

"It is that which we all serve, Sir," said I; "even Your Majesty."

The King smiled.

"Well," he said, "I must be off while you two plot, I suppose. Come and
see me too, Mr. Malloc