"Well, I go upon this," said Waldershare. "It is quite clear that Peel has nothing to offer the country, and the country will not rally round a negation. When he failed in "34 they said there had not been sufficient time for the reaction to work. Well, now, since then, it has had nearly three years, during which you fellows have done everything to outrage every prejudice of the const.i.tuency, and yet they have given you a majority."
"Yes, that is all very well," replied Mr. Wilton, "but we are the Liberal shop, and we have no Liberal goods on hand; we are the party of movement, and must perforce stand still. The fact is, all the great questions are settled. No one will burn his fingers with the Irish Church again, in this generation certainly not, probably in no other; you could not get ten men together in any part of the country to consider the corn laws; I must confess I regret it. I still retain my opinion that a moderate fixed duty would be a wise arrangement, but I quite despair in my time of any such advance of opinion; as for the ballot, it is hardly tolerated in debating societies. The present government, my dear George, will expire from inanition. I always told the cabinet they were going on too fast. They should have kept back munic.i.p.al reform. It would have carried us on for five years. It was our only _piece de resistance_."
"I look upon the House of Commons as a mere vestry," said Waldershare.
"I believe it to be completely used up. Reform has dished it. There are no men, and naturally, because the const.i.tuencies elect themselves, and the const.i.tuencies are the most mediocre of the nation. The House of Commons now is like a spendthrift living on his capital. The business is done and the speeches are made by men formed in the old school.
The influence of the House of Commons is mainly kept up by old social traditions. I believe if the eldest sons of peers now members would all accept the Chiltern hundreds, and the House thus cease to be fashionable, before a year was past, it would be as odious and as contemptible as the Rump Parliament."
"Well, you are now the eldest son of a peer," said Sidney Wilton, smiling. "Why do you not set an example, instead of spending your father"s substance and your own in fighting a corrupt borough?"
"I am _vox clamantis_," said Waldershare. "I do not despair of its being done. But what I want is some big guns to do it. Let the eldest son of a Tory duke and the eldest son of a Whig duke do the same thing on the same day, and give the reason why. If Saxmundham, for example, and Harlaxton would do it, the game would be up."
"On the contrary," said Mr. Wilton, "Saxmundham, I can tell you, will be the new cabinet minister."
"Degenerate land!" exclaimed Waldershare. "Ah! in the eighteenth century there was always a cause to sustain the political genius of the country,--the cause of the rightful dynasty."
"Well, thank G.o.d, we have got rid of all those troubles," said Mr.
Wilton.
"Rid of them! I do not know that. I saw a great deal of the Duke of Modena this year, and tried as well as I could to open his mind to the situation."
"You traitor!" exclaimed Mr. Wilton. "If I were Secretary of State, I would order the butler to arrest you immediately, and send you to the Tower in a hack cab; but as I am only a President of a Board and your uncle, you will escape."
"Well, I should think all sensible men," said Waldershare, "of all parties will agree, that before we try a republic, it would be better to give a chance to the rightful heir."
"Well, I am not a republican," said Mr. Wilton, "and I think Queen Victoria, particularly if she make a wise and happy marriage, need not much fear the Duke of Modena."
"He is our sovereign lord, all the same," said Waldershare. "I wish he were more aware of it himself. Instead of looking to a restoration to his throne, I found him always harping on the fear of French invasion. I could not make him understand that France was his natural ally, and that without her help, Charlie was not likely to have his own again."
"Well, as you admire pretenders, George, I wish you were in my shoes this morning, for I have got one of the most disagreeable interviews on hand which ever fell to my lot."
"How so, my dear uncle?" said Waldershare, in a tone of sympathy, for he saw that the countenance of Mr. Wilton was disturbed.
"My unhappy ward," said Mr. Wilton; "you know, of course, something about him."
"Well, I was at school and college," said Waldershare, "when it all happened. But I have just heard that you had relations with him."
"The most intimate; and there is the bitterness. There existed between his mother Queen Agrippina and myself ties of entire friendship. In her last years and in her greatest adversity she appealed to me to be the guardian of her son. He inherited all her beauty and apparently all her sweetness of disposition. I took the greatest pains with him. He was at Eton, and did well there. He was very popular; I never was so deceived in a boy in my life. I though him the most docile of human beings, and that I had gained over him an entire influence. I am sure it would have been exercised for his benefit. In short, I may say it now, I looked upon him as a son, and he certainly would have been my heir; and yet all this time, from his seventeenth year, he was immersed in political intrigue, and carrying on plots against the sovereign of his country, even under my own roof."
"How very interesting!" said Waldershare.
"It may be interesting to you; I know what it cost me. The greatest anxiety and sorrow, and even nearly compromised my honour. Had I not a large-hearted chief and a true man of the world to deal with, I must have retired from the government."
"How could he manage it?" said Waldershare.
"You have no conception of the devices and resources of the secret societies of Europe," said Mr. Wilton. "His drawing-master, his fencing-master, his dancing-master, all his professors of languages, who delighted me by their testimony to his accomplishments and their praises of his quickness and a.s.siduity, were active confederates in bringing about events which might have occasioned an European war. He left me avowedly to pay a visit in the country, and I even received letters from him with the postmark of the neighbouring town; letters all prepared beforehand. My first authentic information as to his movements was to learn, that he had headed an invading force, landed on the sh.o.r.es which he claimed as his own, was defeated and a prisoner."
"I remember it," said Waldershare. "I had just then gone up to St.
John"s, and I remember reading it with the greatest excitement."
"All this was bad enough," said Mr. Wilton, "but this is not my sorrow.
I saved him from death, or at least a dreadful imprisonment. He was permitted to sail to America on his parole that he would never return to Europe, and I was required, and on his solemn appeal I consented, to give my personal engagement that the compact should be sacred. Before two years had elapsed, supported all this time, too, by my bounty, there was an attempt, almost successful, to a.s.sa.s.sinate the king, and my ward was discovered and seized in the capital. This time he was immured, and for life, in the strongest fortress of the country; but secret societies laugh at governments, and though he endured a considerable imprisonment, the world has recently been astounded by hearing that he had escaped.
Yes; he is in London and has been here, though in studied obscurity, for some little time. He has never appealed to me until within these few days, and now only on the ground that there are some family affairs which cannot be arranged without my approval. I had great doubts whether I should receive him. I feel I ought not to have done so. But I hesitated, and I know not what may be the truth about women, but of this I am quite sure, the man who hesitates is lost."
"How I should like to present at the interview, my dear uncle!" said Waldershare.
"And I should not be sorry to have a witness," said Mr. Wilton, "but it is impossible. I am ashamed to say how unhinged I feel; no person, and no memories, ought to exercise such an influence over one. To tell you the truth, I encouraged your pleasant gossip at breakfast by way of distraction at this moment, and now"----
At this moment, the groom of the chambers entered and announced "His royal highness, Prince Florestan."
Mr. Wilton, who was too agitated to speak, waved his hand to Waldershare to retire, and his nephew vanished. As Waldershare was descending the staircase, he drew back on a landing-place to permit the prince to advance undisturbed. The prince apparently did not observe him, but when Waldershare caught the countenance of the visitor, he started.
CHAPTER XLI
"I know, sir, you are prejudiced against me," said Prince Florestan, bowing before Mr. Wilton with a sort of haughty humility, "and therefore I the more appreciate your condescension in receiving me."
"I have no wish to refer to the past," said Mr. Wilton somewhat sternly.
"You mentioned in your letter that my co-operation was necessary with reference to your private affairs, of which I once was a trustee, and under those circ.u.mstances I felt it my duty to accede to your request. I wish our communication to be limited to that business."
"It shall be so strictly," said the prince; "you may remember, sir, that at the unhappy period when we were deprived of our throne, the name of Queen Agrippina was inscribed on the great book of the state for a considerable sum, for which the credit of the state was pledged to her.
It was strictly her private property, and had mainly accrued through the sale of the estates of her ancestors. This sum was confiscated, and several other amounts, which belonged to members of our house and to our friends. It was an act of pure rapine, so gross, that as time revolved, and the sense of justice gradually returned to the hearts of men, rest.i.tution was made in every instance except my own, though I have reason to believe that individual claim was the strongest. My bankers, the house of Neuchatel, who have much interested themselves in this matter, and have considerable influence with the government that succeeded us, have brought things to this pa.s.s, that we have reason to believe our claim would be conceded, if some of the foreign governments, and especially the government of this country, would signify that the settlement would not be disagreeable to them." And the prince ceased, and raising his eyes, which were downcast as he spoke, looked Mr. Wilton straight in the face.
"Before such a proposal could even be considered by Her Majesty"s Government," said Mr. Wilton with a reddening cheek, "the intimation must be made to them by authority. If the minister of your country has such an intimation to make to ours, he should address himself to the proper quarter, to Lord Roehampton."
"I understand," said Prince Florestan; "but governments, like individuals, sometimes shrink from formality. The government of my country will act on the intimation, but they do not care to make it an affair of despatches."
"There is only one way of transacting business," said Mr. Wilton frigidly, and as if, so far as he was concerned, the interview was ended.
"I have been advised on high authority," said Prince Florestan, speaking very slowly, "that if any member of the present cabinet will mention in conversation to the representative of my country here, that the act of justice would not be disagreeable to the British Government, the affair is finished."
"I doubt whether any one of my colleagues would be prepared to undertake a personal interference of that kind with a foreign government," said Mr. Wilton stiffly. "For my own part, I have had quite enough of such interpositions never to venture on them again."
"The expression of feeling desired would involve no sort of engagement,"
said the imperturbable prince.
"That depends on the conscience of the individual who interferes. No man of honour would be justified in so interposing if he believed he was thus furnishing arms against the very government of which he solicited the favour."
"But why should he believe this?" asked the prince with great calmness.
"I think upon reflection," said Mr. Wilton, taking up at the same time an opened letter which was before him, as if he wished to resume the private business on which he had been previously engaged, "that your royal highness might find very adequate reasons for the belief."
"I would put this before you with great deference, sir," said the prince. "Take my own case; is it not more likely that I should lead that life of refined retirement, which I really desire, were I in possession of the means to maintain such a position with becoming dignity, than if I were distressed, and hara.s.sed, and disgusted, every day, with sights and incidents which alike outrage my taste and self-respect? It is not prosperity, according to common belief, that makes conspirators."
"You _were_ in a position, and a refined position," rejoined Mr. Wilton sharply; "you had means adequate to all that a gentleman could desire, and might have been a person of great consideration, and you wantonly destroyed all this."
"It might be remembered that I was young."