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His object was to compel Riccabocca into assenting to the count's marriage with Violante, or, failing that, to ruin all chance of his kinsman's restoration. Quietly and secretly he had sought out, amongst the most needy and unprincipled of his own countrymen, those whom he could suborn to depose to Riccabocca's participation in plots and conspiracies against the Austrian dominion.
"If your father would dress you decently, and supply you with proper boots, I could almost bring myself to keep you for nothing," Priscilla had said to her reprobate kinsman's daughter; "but the more one does for that man the less he will do himself; so the long and the short of it is, that you will have to go back to him, for I cannot consent to have such an expensive establishment as mine degraded by the shabbiness of a relation."
Besides, when the Austrian Emperor, unwilling to raze from his Lombard domains a name and a House so illustrious as our kinsman's, and desirous, while punishing that kinsman's rebellion, to reward my adherence, forbore the peremptory confiscation of those vast possessions at which my mouth waters while we speak, but, annexing them to the crown during pleasure, allowed me, as the next of male kin, to retain the revenues of one half for the same very indefinite period, had I not every reason to suppose that before long I could so influence his Imperial Majesty, or his minister, as to obtain a decree that might transfer the whole, unconditionally and absolutely, to myself?
"And," continued the count, imperturbably, as he smoothed, with careless hand, the snowy plaits of his shirt front, "and that I should thus have the happiness of becoming myself the guarantee of my kinsman's loyalty, the agent for the restoration of his honours, while, in the eyes of the envious and malignant, I should clear up my own name from all suspicion that I had wronged him."
There all that was sweet, innocent, and beautiful was to be found; and there Malcolm, his royal kinsman's confidant, counsellor, and chaplain, was always welcome as one of the home circle and family, till he broke away from such delights to labour in his task of reviving religion in the land.
But at length he began to speak in a voice as keen and hard as his sword. "You know my temper, and that I must have my will. Always I have thought it shame that my kinsman's odal should lie in English hands, and now I have made up my mind to put an end to it. You know that I am in no way greedy for property.
Raynor Three looked at him curiously. "There's something you're not telling, Bart. Want to tell me?" Bart hesitated, then held out his hand and clasped his kinsman's. "Thanks but no." Raynor Three saw his hesitation and chuckled. "All right, son. Forget I asked. You've grown up."
If you had lived in Warwickshire instead of winning laurels in campaign you might have been my rival if you would and I a hopeless man and she a Duchess. But you two never met." My lord Duke held out his hand and grasped his kinsman's with friendly sympathy. "Until to-night we never met," he said. "'Twas Fate ordained it so and I would not be your rival, for we have loved each other too long.
But what puzzled me was a window in the first floor, very brightly lit, and certain sounds issuing therefrom that had no correspondence with my kinsman's reputation. "It was a frog leap'd into a pool Fol de riddle, went souse in the middle! Says he, This is better than moping in school. With a " " Your Royal Highness, have some pity! What hideous folly! Oh, dear, dear "
Rashleigh and I stared in silence at this unexpected intruder, who proceeded to exhort us alternately: "Do you, Maister Francis, opine that ye will re-establish your father's credit by cutting your kinsman's thrapple, or getting your ain sneckit instead thereof in the College-yards of Glasgow?
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