en dining," answered the clergyman, "in company with the
Honourable Sir Edward Nicholas, Knight, Secretary of State to your
Majesty. Certain of your Majesty's affectionate servants and
well-wishers were of the party, as also the Lieutenant-Governor, who
was the host. The discourse was grave; and albeit without permission of
the gentlemen--yet, in virtue of mine office, I hope I but anticipate
their humble duty to your Majesty, if I take upon myself to lay their
thoughts before you."

"And for your own part, Sir, as a Jerseyman having, both by religion and
as a Member of the States, the means of knowing what the people think,
you would fain join your own private word to those who are refusing an
asylum to Charles Stuart in the dominions of his fathers. You had better
let them speak for themselves."

The clergyman shuffled in his uneasy seat. The perspicacity of the young
man--it is a part of a Prince's stock-in-trade--had taken him by
surprise.

"I am an old man," he faltered, "unversed in affairs of State. If it be
true, however, that the Lord Jermyn...."

"Our mother's trusted councillor, Mr. Rector! What of my Lord Jermyn?
Thou hast not said enough--or, by God! thou hast said too much."

The Chaplain's island temper hardened under menace, even from the Lord's
Anointed. What he felt he did not indeed care to lay bare: yet the
upshot he would tell. The King's recent exploit in the parish of which
he was Rector had come to his ears, garnished and exaggerated, perhaps;
and he was determined to get rid of such visitors if he could. The news
from France was an occasion, and he gladly used it. Lord Jermyn, it
seemed, had been talking openly--and not for the first time--of selling
the Channel Islands to France; and his connection with the Queen made
men suspect that he had not entertained such a design without high
sanction. On the other hand the Rector knew that Carteret would sooner
cede the Island over which he was set to Cromwell than see it occupied
by the French. The King would be in obvious danger, and he had
determined, under that excuse, to endeavour to dispose the King's mind
towards a removal which he himself, on other grounds, considered highly
desirable. Charles listened to all the clergyman had to say, with
impatience thinly veiled by good breeding. When the speaker came to a
pause, the King said, with a kinder manner, "Thou hast done well, and
hast given no just cause of offence to anyone. Mr. Secretary is