offered him to come hither to find the man upon whom now
depends the fate of royalty and of England; and I have come,
and placed myself under the eye of this man, and have placed
myself naked and unarmed in his hands, saying: -- `My lord,
here are the last resources of a prince whom God made your
master, whom his birth made your king; upon you, and you
alone, depend his life and his future. Will you employ this
money in consoling England for the evils it must have
suffered from anarchy; that is to say, will you aid, and if
not aid, will you allow King Charles II. to act? You are
master, you are king, all-powerful master and king, for
chance sometimes defeats the work of time and God. I am here
alone with you, my lord: if divided success alarms you, if
my complicity annoys you, you are armed, my lord, and here
is a grave ready dug; if, on the contrary, the enthusiasm of
your cause carries you away, if you are what you appear to
be, if your hand in what it undertakes obeys your mind, .and
your mind your heart, here are the means of ruining forever
the cause of your enemy, Charles Stuart. Kill, then, the man
you have before you, for that man will never return to him
who has sent him without bearing with him the deposit which
Charles I., his father, confided to him, and keep the gold
which may assist in carrying on the civil war. Alas! my
lord, it is the fate of this unfortunate prince. He must
either corrupt or kill, for everything resists him,
everything repulses him, everything is hostile to him; and
yet he is marked with the divine seal, and he must, not to
belie his blood, reascend the throne, or die upon the sacred
soil of his country.'