"The man is not sae doited as we supposed
him."
"He is not sane enough to keep his neck from the halter," rejoined
Archee. "Your Majesty should spare him, since you are indirectly the
cause of his malady."
"Intercede not for me," cried Hugh Calveley. "I would not accept any
grace at the tyrant's hands. Let him hew me in pieces, and my blood
shall cry out for vengeance upon his head."
"By our halidame! a dangerous traitor!" exclaimed James.
"Hear me, O King!" thundered the Puritan. "For the third and last time I
lift up my voice to warn thee. Visions have appeared to me in the night,
and mysterious voices have whispered in mine ear. They have revealed to
me strange and terrible things--but not more strange and terrible than
true. They have told me how thy posterity shall suffer for the injustice
thou doest to thy people. They have shown me a scaffold which a King
shall mount--and a block whereon a royal head shall be laid. But it
shall be better for that unfortunate monarch, though he be brought to
judgment by his people, than for him who shall be brought to judgment by
his God. Yet more. I have seen in my visions two Kings in exile: one of
whom shall be recalled, but the other shall die in a foreign land. As to
thee, thou mayst live on yet awhile in fancied security. But destruction
shall suddenly overtake thee. Thou shalt be stung to death by the
serpent thou nourishest in thy bosom."
Whatever credit might be attached to them, the Puritan's prophetic
forebodings produced, from the manner in which they were delivered, a
strong impression upon all his auditors.
Pages:
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195