It had been his misfortune, he thought, to
see long, modish, tapering stays that bruised his fancy as it did
the wearer's body, and to behold such slender waist crowned by full,
unfettered maiden roundness, pedestalled by such broad and shapely
hips was maddening. He had not dreamt of such beauty when his Grace of
Buckingham had suggested the trip into the forest.
"We will have some sport finding a beauty and a secret. If it pleases
your Grace, I will have the secret and thou the maid," said he to
Monmouth, and the latter had come all the way from Whitehall, for
he knew the Duke would waste no time looking for aught but a King's
portion. Never was there another such a beauty; she would be the gem
of his seraglio. She looked up, her dark orbs casting a sweeping
glance upon those about.
"I will return to Crandlemar for the night; call my escort!" said she.
Now it was plain this was a ruse of Constantine's own making, and had
whispered it as she had pretended to read. Buckingham laughed cruelly
and scornfully, provoking smothered mirth from behind the masques of
his followers.
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