To this Charles made no reply, until the same
question had been repeated several times, when his majesty
answered he would think of it.
The Duke of York, who stood by the while, noting the king's
answer, and aware of his tendencies towards Catholicism, bade
those who had gathered round stand aside; and then, bending over
him, asked in a low tone if he might send for a priest. A look
of unspeakable relief came into the king's face, and he answered,
"For God's sake do, brother, and lose no time." Then another
thought flashing across his mind, he said, "But will not this
expose you to much danger?" James made answer, "Though it cost
me my life I will bring you a priest." He then hurried into the
next room, where, among all the courtiers, he could find no man
he could trust, save a foreigner, one Count Castelmachlor.
Calling him aside, he secretly despatched him in search of a
priest.
Between seven and eight o'clock that evening, Father Huddleston,
the Benedictine friar who had aided the king's escape after the
battle of Worcester, awaited at the queen's back stairs the
signal to appear in his majesty's presence. The duke being made
aware of the fact, announced it to the king, who thereon ordered
all in his room to withdraw; but James, mindful that slander
might afterwards charge him with killing his brother, begged the
Earl of Bath, the lord of the bedchamber then in waiting, and the
Earl of Feversham, captain of the guard, might stay--saying to
the king it was not fitting he should be unattended in his weak
condition.
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