It is still a
sorrow to me that I know what passed that morning only by report,
and had not the honor of bearing a part in it. Still, her Majesty
did not forget me, but remembered that I would have taken my
share, had fortune allowed. Indeed I would most eagerly.
CHAPTER V. AN AUDIENCE OF THE KING
Having come thus far in the story that I set out to tell, I have
half a mind to lay down my pen, and leave untold how from the
moment that Mr. Rassendyll came again to Zenda a fury of chance
seemed to catch us all in a whirlwind, carrying us whither we
would not, and ever driving us onwards to fresh enterprises,
breathing into us a recklessness that stood at no obstacle, and a
devotion to the queen and to the man she loved that swept away
all other feeling. The ancients held there to be a fate which
would have its fill, though women wept and men died, and none
could tell whose was the guilt nor who fell innocent. Thus did
they blindly wrong God's providence. Yet, save that we are taught
to believe that all is ruled, we are as blind as they, and are
still left wondering why all that is true and generous and love's
own fruit must turn so often to woe and shame, exacting tears and
blood.
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