London Pride - Or When the World Was Younger by M. E. (Mary Elizabeth) Braddon
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page 6 of 537 (01%)
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"It does not become a man to shed tears in the daylight, little maid," her father answered gently. "Is it for the poor King you are crying--the King those wicked men murdered?" "Ay, Angela, for the King; and for the Queen and her fatherless children still more than for the King, for he has crowned himself with a crown of glory, the diadem of martyrs, and is resting from labour and sorrow, to rise victorious at the great day, when his enemies and his murderers shall stand ashamed before him. I weep for that once so lovely lady--widowed, discrowned, needy, desolate--a beggar in the land where her father was a great king. A hard fate, Angela, father and husband both murdered." "Was the Queen's father murdered too?" asked the silver-sweet voice out of darkness, a pretty piping note like the song of a bird. "Yes, love." "Did Bradshaw murder him?" "No, dearest, 'twas in France he was slain--in Paris; stabbed to death by a madman." "And was the Queen sorry?" "Ay, sweetheart, she has drained the cup of sorrow. She was but a child when her father died. She can but dimly remember that dreadful day. And now she sits, banished and widowed, to hear of her husband's martyrdom; her |
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