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Published by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
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London SE1 9GF
First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins Publishers 2019
Copyright © Andrew Taylor 2019
Cover design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2019
Cover illustrations © Heritage Image Partnership Ltd/Alamy Stock Photo and Shutterstock.com
Andrew Taylor asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
Prelims show image of Clarendon House © Antiqua Print Gallery/Alamy Stock Photo
A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
Source ISBN: 9780008119188
Ebook Edition © April 2019 ISBN: 9780008119171
Version: 2019-02-28
For Caroline
To that soft Charm, that Spell, that Magick Bough,
That high Enchantment I betake me now:
And to that Hand (the Branch of Heavens faire Tree)
I kneele for help: O! lay that hand on me,
Adored Cesar! and my Faith is such,
I shall be heal’d, if that my King but touch.
The Evill is not Yours: my sorrow sings,
Mine is the Evill, but the Cure, the KINGS.
Robert Herrick, ‘To the King, to cure the Evill’
(Hesperides, 1648)
Contents
Copyright
Dedication
Epigraph
The Main Characters
The Royal Family
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
