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+The Project Gutenberg Etext of The King's Highway, by G.P.R. James
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+Title: The King's Highway
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+Author: G. P. R. James
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+Release Date: February, 2003  [Etext #3780]
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+The Project Gutenberg Etext of The King's Highway, by G.P.R. James
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+
+THE KING'S HIGHWAY
+
+by G.P.R. JAMES ESQ.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+Though the weather was hot and sultry, and the summer was at its height,
+yet the evening was gloomy, and low, angry clouds hung over the distant
+line of the sea, when, under the shelter of some low-browed cliffs upon
+the Irish coast, three persons stood together, two of whom were talking
+earnestly. About four or five miles from the shore, looking like a
+spectre upon the misty background of clouds, appeared a small brig with
+her canvas closely reefed, though there was little wind stirring, and
+nothing announced the approach of a gale, unless it were a long, heavy
+swell that heaved up the bosom of the ocean as if with a suppressed sob.
+The three persons we have mentioned were standing together close at the
+foot of the rocks; and, though there was nothing in their demeanour
+which would imply that they were seeking concealment by the points and
+angles of the cliff,--for they spoke loud, and one of them laughed more
+than once with the short but jocund laugh of a heart whose careless
+gaiety no circumstances can repress,--yet the spot was well calculated
+to hide them from any eye, unless it were one gazing down from the
+cliffs above, or one looking towards the shore from the sea.
+
+The party of which we speak comprised two men not quite reached the
+middle age, and a fine, noble-looking boy of perhaps eight years old or
+a little more; but all the conversation was between the two elder, who
+bore a slight family likeness to each other. The one had a cloak thrown
+over his arm, and a blue handkerchief bound round his left hand. His
+dress in other respects was that of a military man of the period; a
+long-waisted, broad-tailed coat, with a good deal of gold lace and many
+large buttons upon it, enormous riding boots, and a heavy sword. He had
+no defensive armour on, indeed, though those were days when the
+soldierly cuirass was not yet done away with; and on his head he only
+wore an ordinary hat trimmed round with feathers.
+
+He seemed, however, to be a personage perfectly well able to defend his
+own, being not much short of six feet in height; and though somewhat
+thin, extremely muscular, with long, bony arms, and a wide deep chest.
+His forehead was high and open, and his eye frank and clear, having
+withal some shrewdness in its quick twinkle. The countenance was a good
+one; the features handsome, though a little coarse; and if it was not
+altogether prepossessing, the abatement was made on account of a certain
+indescribable look of dissipation--not absolutely to say debauchery,
+but approaching it--which mingled with the expression of finer things,
+like nightshade filling up the broken masses of some ruined temple. His
+hair was somewhat prematurely grizzled; for he yet lacked several years
+of forty, and strong lines, not of thought, were marked upon his brow.
+
+He was, upon the whole, a man whom many people would have called a
+handsome, fine-looking man; and there was certainly in his countenance
+that indescribable something, which can only be designated by the term
+engaging.
+
+While conversing with his companion, which he did frankly and even
+gaily, laughing, as we have said, from time to time, there was still a
+peculiarity which might be supposed to show that for some reason he was
+not perfectly at his ease, or perfectly sure of the man to whom he
+spoke. In general, he did not look at him, though he gazed straight
+forward; but, as is very frequently the case with us all, when we are
+talking to a person whom we doubt or dislike, he looked beyond him, from
+time to time, however, turning his eyes full upon the countenance of his
+comrade, and keeping them fixed upon him for several moments.
+
+The second personage of the party was a man somewhat less in height than
+the other, but still tall. He was two or three years younger; handsome
+in features; graceful in person; and withal possessing an air of
+distinction which the other might have possessed also, had it not been
+considerably diminished by the certain gay and swaggering look which we
+have already noticed. His dress was not so completely military as that
+of the first, though there was scarf and sword-knot, and gold-fringed
+belt and leathern gloves, with wide cuffs, which swallowed up the arms
+almost to the elbows.
+
+He laughed not at all, and his tone was grave, but smooth and courtly,
+except when, ever and anon, there mingled with what he was saying in
+sweet and placid words, some bitter and sarcastic tirade, which made his
+companion smile, though it moved not a muscle of his own countenance.
+
+We have said that there was a third in the group, and that third was a
+boy of about eight years of age. It is scarcely possible to conceive
+anything more beautiful than his countenance, or to fancy a form more
+replete with living grace than his. His hair swept round his clear and
+open countenance in dark wavy curls; and while he held the taller of the
+two gentlemen by the hand, he gazed forward over the wide melancholy
+sea, which came rolling up towards their feet, with a look full of
+thought, and perhaps of anxiety. There was certainly grief in that gaze;
+for the black eyelashes which surrounded those large blue eyes became,
+after a moment or two, moistened with something bright like a tear; and
+apparently utterly inattentive to the conversation between his two
+companions, he still turned away, fully occupied with the matter of his
+own thoughts.
+
+It is time, however, for us to take notice of that to which he did not
+attend.
+
+"Not a whit, Harry, not a whit," said the taller of the two: "there are
+certain portions of good and evil scattered through the world, and every
+man must take his share of both. I have taken care, as you well know, to
+secure a certain portion of the pleasures of this life. It was not
+natural that the thing should last for ever, so I have quite made up my
+mind to drinking the bitters since I have sipped the sweets. On this
+last business I have staked my all, and lost my all; and if my poor
+brother had not done the same, and lost his life into the bargain, I
+should not much care for my part. On my honour and soul, it does seem to
+me a strange thing, that here poor Morton, who would have done service
+to everybody on earth, who was as good as he was brave, and as clever as
+he was good, should fall at the very first shot, and I go through the
+whole business with nothing but this scratch of the hand. I did my best
+to get myself killed, too; for I will swear that I was the last man upon
+our part that left the bank of the Boyne. But just as half a dozen of
+the fellows had got me down, and were going to cut my throat because I
+would not surrender, there came by the fellow they call Bentinck, I
+think, who called to them not to kill me now that the battle was over. I
+started up, saying, 'There is one honest Dutchman at least,' and made a
+dart through them. They would have caught me, I dare say, but he laughed
+aloud; and I heard him call to them not to follow me, saying, 'That one
+on either side made no great difference.' I may chance to do that fellow
+a good turn yet in my day."
+
+"That may well be," replied the other; "for since your brother's death,
+if you are sure he is killed, you are the direct heir to an earldom, and
+to estates that would buy a score of German princes."
+
+While he thus spoke, the person he addressed suddenly turned his eyes
+full upon his face, and looked at him intently for a minute. He then
+answered, "Sure he is dead, Harry? Did I not tell you that he died in my
+arms? Would it not have been a nice thing now, if I had been killed too?
+There would have been none between you and the earldom then. Upon my
+life, I think you ought to have it: it would just suit you; you would
+make such a smooth-tongued, easy courtier to this Dutch vagabond, whom
+you are going over to, I can see, notwithstanding all your
+asseverations;" and he laughed aloud as he spoke.
+
+"Nonsense, Lennard, nonsense!" replied his companion: "I neither wish
+you killed, my good cousin, nor care for the earldom, nor am going over
+to the usurper, though, Heaven knows, you'll do no good to any one, the
+earldom will do no good to you, and the usurper, perhaps, may do much
+good to the country. But had either of the three been true, I should
+certainly have given you up to the Prince of Orange, instead of sharing
+my last fifty guineas with you, to help you off to France."
+
+His companion gazed down upon the ground with a grim smile, and remained
+for a moment without answering; he then looked up, gave a short laugh,
+and replied, "I must not be ungrateful, cousin mine; I thank you for the
+money with all my heart and soul; but I cannot think that you have run
+yourself so hard as that either; you must have made mighty great
+preparations which have not appeared, to spend your snug little
+patrimony upon a king who did not deserve it, and for whom you did not
+fight, after all."
+
+"I should have fought if I could have come up in time," replied the
+other, with his brows darkening. "I suppose you do not suspect me of
+being unwilling to fight, Lennard?"
+
+"Oh, no, man! no!" replied his cousin: "it does not run in our blood; we
+have all fighting drops in our veins; and I know you can fight well
+enough when it suits your purpose. As for that matter, I might think
+myself a fool for fighting in behalf of a man who won't fight in his own
+behalf; but it is his cause, not himself, Harry, I fought for."
+
+"Bubbles, bubbles, Lennard," replied the other, "'tis but a mere name!"
+
+"And what do we all fight for, from the cradle to the grave?" demanded
+his cousin--"bubbles, bubbles, Harry. Through England and Ireland, not
+to say Scotland, there will be to-morrow morning, which I take it is
+Sunday, full five thousand priests busily engaged in telling their
+hearers, that love, glory, avarice, and ambition are nothing
+but--bubbles! So I am but playing the same game as the rest. I wish to
+Heaven the boat would come round though, for I am beginning to think it
+is as great a bubble as the rest.--Run down, Wilton, my boy," he said,
+speaking to the youth that held him by the hand--"run down to that
+point, and see if you can discover the boat creeping round under the
+cliffs."
+
+The boy instantly darted off without speaking, and the two gentlemen
+watched him in silence. After a moment, however, the shorter of the two
+spoke, with his eyes still fixed on the child, and the slight sneer
+curling his lip--"A fine boy that, Lennard!" he said. "A child of love,
+of course!"
+
+"Doubtless," answered the other; "but you will understand he is not
+mine.--It is a friend's child that I have promised to do the best for."
+
+"He is wondrous like your brother Morton," rejoined his companion: "it
+needs no marriage certificate to tell us whose son he is."
+
+"No; God speed the poor boy!" replied the other gentleman, "he is like
+his father enough. I must do what I can for him, though Heaven knows
+what I am to do either for him or myself. It is long ere he can be a
+soldier, and I am not much accustomed to taking heed of children."
+
+"Where is his mother?" demanded the cousin: "whatever be her rank, she
+is most likely as rich as you are, and certainly better able to take
+care of him."
+
+"Pshaw!" replied the other--"I might look long enough before I found
+her. The boy has never known anything about her either, so that would
+not do. But here he comes, here he comes, so say no more about it."
+
+As he spoke, the boy bounded up, exclaiming, "I see the boat, I see the
+boat coming round the rock!" and the moment after, a tolerable-sized
+fishing boat was seen rounding the little point that we have mentioned;
+and the two cousins, with the boy, descended to the water's edge. During
+the few minutes that elapsed before the boat came up to the little
+landing-place where they stood, the cousins shook hands together, and
+bade each other adieu.
+
+"Well, God speed you, Harry!" said the one; "you have not failed me at
+this pinch, though you have at many another."
+
+"Where shall I write to you, Lennard," demanded the other, "in case that
+anything should happen to turn up to your advantage?"
+
+"Oh! to the Crown, to the Crown, at St. Germains," replied the elder;
+"and if it be for anything to my advantage, write as quickly as
+possible, good cousin.--Come, Wilton, my boy; come, here's the boat!
+Thank God we have not much baggage to embark.--Now, my man," he
+continued, speaking to one of the fishermen who had leaped out into the
+water, "lift the boy in, and the portmanteau, and then off to yonder
+brig, with all the sail you can put on."
+
+Thus saying, he sprang into the boat, received the boy in his arms, and
+waved his hand to his cousin, while the fishermen pushed off from the
+shore.
+
+The one who was left behind folded his arms upon his chest, and gazed
+after the boat as she bounded over the water. His brow was slightly
+clouded, and a peculiar sort of smile hung upon his lip; but after thus
+pausing for a minute or two, he turned upon his heel, walked up a narrow
+path to the top of the cliff, and mounting a horse which was held for
+him by a servant, at a distance of about a hundred yards from the edge,
+he rode away, whistling as he went, not like Cimon, for want of thought,
+but from the very intensity of thought.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+The horseman of whom we have spoken in the last chapter rode slowly on
+about two hundred yards farther, and there the servant advanced and
+opened a gate, by means of which the path they were then upon
+communicated with a small road between two high banks leading down to
+the sea-side. The moment that the gentleman rode forward through the
+gate, his eyes fell upon a figure coming up apparently from the
+sea-shore. It was that of a woman, seemingly well advanced in life, and
+dressed in the garb of the lower orders: there was nothing particular in
+her appearance, except that in her gait and figure she was more decrepit
+than from her countenance might have been expected. The tears were
+streaming rapidly down her face, however; and though she suddenly paused
+on perceiving the stranger, she could not command those tears from
+flowing on, though she turned away her head to conceal them.
+
+The stranger slightly pulled in his horse's rein, looked at her again,
+and then gazed thoughtfully down the road towards the sea, as if
+calculating what the woman could have been doing there, and whether she
+could have seen the departure of his two late companions.
+
+The servant who was behind him seemed to read his master's thoughts; for
+being close to him shutting the gate, he said in a low tone, "That's the
+old woman with whom the young gentleman lodged; for I saw her when the
+Colonel went there this morning to fetch him away."
+
+The moment the man had spoken, his master pushed forward his horse
+again, and riding up to the woman, accosted her at once.
+
+"Ah, my good woman," he said, "you are grieving after your poor little
+boy; but do not be cast down, he will be taken good care of."
+
+"God bless your honour," replied the woman, "and thank you, too, for
+comforting me: he's a dear good boy, that's true; but the Colonel has
+taken him to France, so I shall never see him more."
+
+"Oh yes, you may, my good lady," replied the stranger: "you know I am
+his cousin--his father's first cousin; so if you want to hear of him
+from time to time, perhaps I could put you in the way of it. If I knew
+where you lived, I would come and call upon you to-night, and talk to
+you about it before I go on to Dublin."
+
+"Your honour's going to Dublin, are you?" said the woman, suddenly and
+sharply, while the blood mounted into the cheek of her companion, as if
+from some feeling of embarrassment. She continued, however, before he
+could reply, saying, "With a thousand thanks to your honour, I shall be
+glad to see you; and if I could but hear that the poor boy got well to
+France, and was comfortable, I think I should be happy all my life."
+
+"But where do you live, my good woman?" demanded the horseman: "we have
+not much time to lose, for the sun is going down, and the night is
+coming on."
+
+"And a stormy night it will be," said the woman, who, though she had
+very little of the Irish accent, seemed to have not a little of that
+peculiar obliquity of mind, which so often leads the Irishman to follow
+the last idea started, however loosely it may be connected with the main
+subject of discourse. "As to where I live," she continued, "it's at the
+small neat cottage at the end of the lane; the best house in the place
+to my mind, except the priest's and the tavern; and for that matter,
+it's my own property, too."
+
+"Well, I will come there in about an hour," said her companion, "and we
+will talk it all over, my good lady, for I must leave this place early
+to-morrow."
+
+Away went the stranger as he spoke, at a rapid pace, towards an Irish
+village or small town of that day, which lay at the distance of about a
+mile and a half from the sea-shore. It was altogether a very different
+place, and bore a very different aspect, from any other collection of
+houses, of the same number and extent, within the shores of the Sister
+Island. It was situated upon the rise of a steep hill, at the foot of
+which ran a clear shallow stream, from whose margin, up to the top of
+the acclivity, ran two irregular rows of houses, wide apart, and
+scattered at unequal distances, on the two sides of the high road. They
+were principally hovels, of a single story in height; a great proportion
+of them formed of nothing but turf, with no other window but a hole
+covered with a board, and sometimes not that. Others, few and far
+between, again, were equally of one story, but were neatly plastered
+with clay, and ornamented with a wash of lime; and besides these, were
+three or four houses which really deserved the name--the parish
+priest's, the tavern, and what was called the shop.
+
+These rows of dwellings were raised on two high but sloping banks, which
+were covered with green turf, and extended perhaps fifty yards in width
+between the houses and the road: this long strip of turf affording the
+inhabitants plenty of space for dunghills and dust-heaps, with
+occasional stacks of turf, and a detached sort of summer-house now and
+then for a pig, in those cases where his company was not preferred in
+the parlour.
+
+Here, too, the chickens used to meet in daily convocation; and here the
+priest's bull would occasionally take a morning walk, to the detriment
+of the dunghills and the frailer edifices, to the danger of the
+children, and the indignation of the other animals, who might seem to
+think that they had a right prescriptive to exclusive possession.
+
+Between these two tracts of debatable land was interposed a paved high
+road, twice as broad as it needed to have been, and furnished with a
+stone gutter down the centre, into which flowed, from every side,
+streams not Castalian; while five or six ducks, belonging to the master
+of the shop, acted as the only town scavengers; and a large black sow,
+with a sturdy farrow of eleven young pigs, rolled about in the full
+enjoyment of the filth and dirt, seeming to represent the mayor and town
+council of this rural municipality.
+
+At the top of the hill two or three lanes turned off, and in one of
+these was situated the cottage which the old lady had indicated as her
+dwelling. The stranger, however, rode not thither at once, but, in the
+first place, stopped at the tavern, as it was called (being neither more
+nor less than a small public-house), and throwing his rein to the
+servant, he dismounted, and paused to order some refreshment. When this
+was done, he took his way at once to the house of the priest, which was
+a neat white building, showing considerable taste in all its external
+arrangements. The stranger was immediately admitted, and remained for
+about half an hour; at the end of which time he came out, accompanied as
+far as the little wicket gate by a very benign and thoughtful-looking
+man, past the middle age, whose last words, as he took leave of the
+stranger, were, "Alas, my son! she was so beautiful, and so charitable,
+that it is much to be lamented that she was in all respects a
+cast-away."
+
+The stranger then returned to the tavern, and sat down to a somewhat
+black and angular roasted fowl, which, however, proved better to the
+palate than the eye; and to this he added somewhat more than a pint of
+claret, which--however strange it may seem to find such a thing in an
+Irish pot-house--might, for taste and fragrance, have competed with the
+best that ever was found at the table of prince or peer: nor was such a
+thing uncommon in that day. This done, and when five or six minutes of
+meditation--that kind of pleasant meditation which ensues when the inner
+man is made quite comfortable--had been added to his moderate food and
+moderate potation, the stranger rose, and with a slow and thoughtful
+step walked forth from the inn, and took his way towards the cottage to
+which the old woman had directed him.
+
+The sun was by this time sinking below the horizon, and a bright red
+glow from his declining rays spread through the atmosphere, tinging the
+edges of the long, liny, lurid clouds which were gathering thickly over
+the sky. The wind, too, had risen considerably, and was blowing with
+sharp quick gusts increasing towards a gale, so that the stranger was
+obliged to put his hand to his large feathered hat to keep it firm upon
+his head.
+
+In the meantime, the old woman had returned home, and her first
+occupation was to indulge her grief; for, sitting down at the little
+table in her parlour, she covered her eyes with her hands, and wept till
+the tears ran through her fingers. After a time, however, she calmed
+herself, and rising, looked for a moment into a small looking-glass,
+which showed her face entirely disfigured with tears. She then went into
+a little adjacent room, which, as well as the parlour, was the image of
+neatness and cleanness. She there took a towel, dipped it in cold water,
+and seemed about to bathe away the traces from her cheeks. The next
+moment, however, she threw the towel down, saying, "No, no! why should
+I?" She then returned to the parlour, and called down the passage,
+"Betty, Betty!"
+
+An Irishwoman, of about fifty years of age, clothed much in the same
+style, and not much worse than her mistress, appeared in answer to her
+summons; and, according to the directions she now received, lighted a
+single candle, put up a large heavy shutter against the parlour window,
+and retired. The mistress of the house remained for some time sitting at
+the table, and apparently listening for every step without; though from
+time to time, when a heavier and heavier blast of wind shook the cottage
+where she sat, she gazed up towards the sky, and her lips moved as if
+offering a prayer.
+
+At length, some one knocked loudly at the door, and starting up, she
+hurried to open it and give entrance to the stranger whom we have
+mentioned before. She put a chair for him, and stood till he asked her
+to sit down.
+
+"So, my good lady," he said, "you lived a long time with Colonel and
+Mrs. Sherbrooke."
+
+"Oh! bless you, yes, sir," replied the woman, "ever since the Colonel
+and the young lady came here, till she died, poor thing, and then I
+remained to take care of the boy, dear, beautiful fellow."
+
+"You seem very sorry to lose him," rejoined the stranger, "and,
+doubtless, were sadly grieved when Mrs. Sherbrooke died."
+
+"You may well say that," replied the woman; "had I not known her quite a
+little girl? and to see her die, in the prime of her youth and beauty,
+not four-and-twenty years of age. You may well say I was sorry. If her
+poor father could have seen it, it would have broke his heart; but he
+died long before that, or many another thing would have broken his heart
+as well as that."
+
+"Was her father living," demanded the stranger, "when she married
+Colonel Sherbrooke?"
+
+The woman, without replying, gazed inquiringly and steadfastly on the
+stranger's countenance for a moment or two; who continued, after a short
+pause--"Poo, poo, I know all about it; I mean, when she came away with
+him."
+
+"No, sir," replied the woman; "he had been dead then more than a year."
+
+"Doubtless," replied the stranger, "it was, as you implied, a happy
+thing for him that he did not live to see his daughter's fate; but how
+was it, I wonder, as she was so sweet a creature, and the Colonel so
+fond of her, that he never married her?"
+
+The woman looked down for a moment; but then gazed up in his face with a
+somewhat rueful expression of countenance, and a shake of the head,
+answering, "She was a Protestant, you know."
+
+The stranger looked surprised, and asked, "Did she always continue a
+Protestant, my good woman? I should have thought love could have worked
+more wonderful conversions than that."
+
+"Ah! she died as she lived, poor thing," replied the woman, "and with
+nobody with her either, but I and one other; for the Colonel was away,
+poor man, levying troops for the king--that is, for King James, sir; for
+your honour looks as if you were on the other side."
+
+The stranger was silent and looked abstracted; but at length he
+answered, somewhat listlessly, "Really, my good woman, one does not know
+what side to be of. It is raining very hard to-night, unless those are
+the boughs of the trees tapping against your window."
+
+"Those are the large drops of rain," replied the woman, "dashed against
+the glass by the south-west wind. It will be an awful night; and I think
+of the ship."
+
+"I will let you hear of the boy," rejoined the stranger in an
+indifferent tone, "as soon as I hear of him myself;" and taking up his
+hat from the table, he seemed about to depart, when a peculiar
+expression upon the woman's countenance made him pause, and, at the same
+time, brought to his mind that he had not even asked her name.
+
+"I thought your honour had forgotten," she replied, when he asked her
+the question at length. "They call me Betty Harper; but Mrs. Harper will
+find me in this place, if you put that upon your letter: and now that we
+are asking such sort of questions, your honour wouldn't be offended,
+surely, if I were to ask you your name too?"
+
+"Certainly not, my good lady," he replied; "I am called Harry
+Sherbrooke, Esquire, very much at your service.--Heavens, how it blows
+and rains!"
+
+"Perhaps it is nothing but a wind-shower" replied the woman; "if your
+honour would like to wait until it has ridden by."
+
+"Why, I shall get drenched most assuredly if I go," he answered, "and
+that before I reach the inn; but I will look out and see, my good lady."
+
+He accordingly proceeded into the little passage, and opened the door,
+followed by his companion. They were instantly saluted, however, by a
+blast of wind that almost knocked the strong man himself down, and made
+the woman reel against the wall of the passage.
+
+Everything beyond--though the cottage, situated upon a height, looked
+down the slope of the hill, over the cliffs, to the open sea--was as
+dark as the cloud which fell upon Egypt: a darkness that could be felt!
+and not the slightest vestige of star or moon, or lingering ray of
+sunshine, marked to the eye the distinction between heaven, earth, and
+sea.
+
+Sherbrooke drew back, as the wind cut him, and the rain dashed in his
+face; but at that very moment something like a faint flash was seen,
+apparently at a great distance, and gleaming through the heavy rain. The
+woman instantly caught her companion's wrist tight in her grasp,
+exclaiming, "Hark!"--and in a few seconds after, in a momentary lull of
+the wind, was heard the low booming roar of a distant cannon.
+
+"It is a signal of distress!" cried the woman. "Oh! the ship, the ship!
+The wind is dead upon the shore, and the long reef, out by the Battery
+Point, has seen many a vessel wrecked between night and morning."
+
+While she spoke, the signal of distress was seen and heard again.
+
+"I will go down and send people out to see what can be done," said the
+stranger, and walked away without waiting for reply. He turned his steps
+towards the inn, muttering as he went, "There's one, at least, on board
+the ship that won't be drowned, if there's truth in an old proverb! so
+if the vessel be wrecked to-night, I had better order breakfast for my
+cousin to-morrow morning--for he is sure to swim ashore." It was a
+night, however, on which no hope of reaching land could cheer the
+wrecked seamen. The tide was approaching the full; the wind was blowing
+a perfect hurricane; the surf upon a high rocky beach, no boat could
+have lived in for a minute; and the strongest swimmer--even if it had
+been within the scope of human power and skill to struggle on for any
+time with those tremendous waves--must infallibly have been dashed to
+pieces on the rocks that lined the shore. The minute guns were
+distinctly heard from that town, and several other villages in the
+neighbourhood. Many people went to the tops of the cliffs, and some down
+to the sea-shore, where the waves did not reach the bases of the rocks.
+One gentleman, living in the neighbourhood, sent out servants and
+tenantry with links and torches, but no one ever could clearly
+distinguish the ship; and could only perceive that she must be in the
+direction of a dangerous rocky shoal called the Long Reef, at about two
+miles' distance from the shore.
+
+The next morning, however, her fate was more clearly ascertained; not
+that a vestige of her was to be seen out at sea, but the whole shore for
+two or three miles was covered with pieces of wreck. The stern-post of a
+small, French-built vessel, and also a boat considerably damaged in the
+bow, and turned keel upwards, came on shore as Harry Sherbrooke and his
+servant were themselves examining the scene. The boat bore, painted in
+white letters, "La Coureuse de Dunkerque."
+
+"That is enough for our purpose, I should suppose," said the master,
+pointing to the letters with a cane he had in his hand, and addressing
+his servant--"I must be gone, Harrison, but you remain behind, and do as
+I bade you."
+
+"Wait a moment, yet, sir," replied the man: "you see they are bringing
+up a body from between those two rocks,--it seems about his size and
+make, too;" and approaching the spot to which he pointed, they found
+some of the country people carrying up the body of a French officer,
+which afterwards proved to be that of the commander of the brig, which
+had been seen during the preceding day. After examining the papers which
+were taken from the pockets of the dead man, one of which seemed to be a
+list of all the persons on board his vessel, Sherbrooke turned away,
+merely saying to his servant, "Take care and secure that paper, and
+bring it after me to Dublin as fast as possible."
+
+The man bowed his head, and his master walked slowly
+and quietly away.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+Now whatever might be the effect of all that passed, as recorded in the
+last chapter, upon the mind of Harry Sherbrooke, it is not in the
+slightest degree our intention to induce the reader to believe that the
+two personages, the officer and the little boy, whom we saw embark for
+the brig which was wrecked, were amongst the persons who perished upon
+that occasion. True it is that every person the ship contained found a
+watery grave, between sunset and sunrise on the night in question. But
+to explain how the whole took place, we must follow the track of the
+voyagers in the boat.
+
+As soon as they were seated, Lennard Sherbrooke threw his arms
+affectionately round the boy, drew him a little closer to his bosom, and
+kissed his broad fair forehead; while the boy, on his part, with his
+hand leaning on the officer's knee, and his shoulder resting confiding
+on his bosom, looked up in his face with eyes of earnest and deep
+affection. In such mute conference they remained for some five or ten
+minutes; while the hardy sailors pulled away at the oars, their course
+towards the vessel lying right in the wind's eye. After a minute or two
+more, Lennard Sherbrooke turned round, and gazed back towards the shore,
+where he could now plainly perceive his cousin beginning to climb the
+little path up the cliff. After watching him for a moment with a look of
+calculating thought, he turned towards the boy again, and saw that there
+were tears in his eyes, which sight caused him to bend down, saying, in
+a low voice, "You are not frightened, my dear boy?"
+
+"Oh no, no!" replied the boy--"I am only sorry to go away to a strange
+place."
+
+Lennard Sherbrooke turned his eyes once more towards the shore, but the
+form of his cousin had now totally disappeared. He then remained musing
+for a minute or two, while the fishermen laboured away, making no very
+great progress against the wind. At the distance of about a mile or a
+mile and a half from the shore, Lennard Sherbrooke turned round towards
+the man who was steering, and made some remarks upon the excellence of
+the boat. The man, proud of his little vessel, boasted her capabilities,
+and declared that she was as sea-worthy as any frigate in the navy.
+
+"I should like to see her tried," said Sherbrooke. "I should not wonder
+if she were well tried to-night," replied the man.
+
+For a moment or two the officer made no rejoinder; but then approaching
+the steersman nearer still, he said, in a low voice, "Come, my man, I
+have something to tell you. We must alter our course very soon; I am not
+going to yon Frenchman at all."
+
+"Why, then, where the devil are you going to?" demanded the fisherman;
+and he proceeded, in tones and in language which none but an Irishman
+must presume to deal with, to express his astonishment, that after
+having been hired by the other gentleman to carry the person who spoke
+to him and the boy to the French brig of war, where berths had been
+secured for them, he should be told that they were not going there at
+all.
+
+The stranger suffered him to expend all his astonishment without moving
+a muscle, and then replied, with perfect calmness, "My good friend, you
+are a Catholic, I have been told, and a good subject to King James--"
+
+"God bless him!" interrupted the man, heartily; but Sherbrooke
+proceeded, saying, "In these days one may well be doubtful of one's own
+relations; and I have a fancy, my man, that unless I prevent any one
+from knowing my course, and where I am, I may be betrayed where I go,
+and betrayed if I stay. Now what I want you to do is this, to take me
+over to the coast of England, instead of to yonder French brig."
+
+The man's astonishment was very great; but he seemed to enter into the
+motives of his companion with all the quick perception of an Irishman.
+There were innumerable difficulties, however, which he did not fail to
+start; and he asserted manfully, that it was utterly impossible for them
+to proceed upon such a voyage at once. In the first place, they had no
+provisions; in the next place, there was the wife and children, who
+would not know what was become of them; in the third place, it was
+coming on to blow hard right upon the coast. So that he proved there
+was, in fact, not only danger and difficulty, but absolute
+impossibility, opposed to the plan which the gentleman wished to follow.
+
+In the meanwhile, the four seamen, who were at the oars, laboured away
+incessantly, but with very slow and difficult efforts. Every moment the
+wind rose higher and higher, and the sun's lower limb touched the
+waters, while they were yet two miles from the French brig.
+
+A part of the large red disk of the descending orb was seen between the
+sea and the edge of the clouds that hung upon the verge of the sky,
+pouring forth from the horizon to the very shore a long line of
+blood-red light, which, resting upon the boiling waters of the ocean,
+seemed as if the setting star could indeed "the multitudinous sea
+incarnadine, making the green one red."
+
+That red light, however, showed far more clearly than before how the
+waters were already agitated; for the waves might be seen distinctly,
+even to the spot in the horizon where they seemed to struggle with the
+sun, heaving up their gigantic heads till they appeared to overwhelm him
+before he naturally set.
+
+The arguments of the fisherman apparently effected that thing which is
+so seldom effected in this world; namely, to convince the person to whom
+they were addressed. I say SELDOM, for there have been instances known,
+in remote times, of people being convinced. They puzzled him, however,
+and embarrassed him very much, and he remained for full five minutes in
+deep and anxious thought.
+
+His reverie, however, was brought to an end suddenly, by a few words
+which the fisherman whispered to him. His countenance brightened; a
+rapid and brief conversation followed in a low tone, which ended in his
+abruptly holding out his hand to the good man at the helm, saying, "I
+trust to your honour."
+
+"Upon my soul and honour," replied the fisherman, grasping his proffered
+hand.
+
+The matter now seemed settled,--no farther words passed between the
+master of the boat and his passenger; but the seaman gave a rapid glance
+to the sky, to the long spit of land called the Battery Point, and to
+the southward, whence the wind was blowing so sharply.
+
+"We can do it," he muttered to himself, "we can do it;" and he then gave
+immediate orders for changing the boat's course, and putting out all
+sail. His companions seemed as much surprised by his change of purpose,
+as he had been with the alteration of his passenger's determination. His
+orders were nevertheless obeyed promptly, the head of the boat was
+turned away from the wind, the canvas caught the gale, and away she went
+like lightning, heeling till the little yard almost touched the water.
+Her course, however, was not bent back exactly to the same spot from
+which she started, and it now became evident that it was the fisherman's
+intention to round the Battery Point.
+
+Lennard Sherbrooke was not at all aware of the dangerous reef that lay
+so near their course; but it soon became evident to him that there was
+some great peril, which required much skill and care to avoid; and, as
+night fell, the anxiety of the seamen evidently became greater. The wind
+by this time was blowing quite a hurricane, and the rushing roaring
+sound of the gale and the ocean was quite deafening. But about half an
+hour after sunset that peculiar angry roar, which is only heard in the
+neighbourhood of breakers, was distinguished to leeward; and looking in
+that direction, Sherbrooke perceived one long white line of foam and
+surf, rising like an island in the midst of dark and struggling waters.
+
+Not a word was said: it seemed as if scarcely a breath was drawn. In a
+few minutes the sound of the breakers became less distinct; a slight
+motion was perceivable in the arm of the man who held the tiller, and in
+about ten minutes the effect of the neighbouring headlands was found in
+smoother water and a lighter gale, as the boat glided calmly and
+steadily on, into a small bay, not many hundred miles from Baltimore.
+The rest of their voyage, till they reached the shore again, was safe
+and easy: the master of the boat and his men seemed to know every creek,
+cove, and inlet, as well as their own dwelling places; and, directing
+their coarse to a little but deep stream, they ran in between two other
+boats, and were soon safely moored.
+
+The boy, by Sherbrooke's direction, had lain himself down in the bottom
+of the boat, wrapped up in a large cloak; and there, with the happy
+privilege of childhood, he had fallen sound asleep, nor woke till danger
+and anxiety were passed, and the little vessel safe at the shore.
+Accommodation was easily found in a neighbouring village, and, on the
+following day, one, and only one, of the boat's crew went over to the
+spot from which they had set out on the preceding evening. He returned
+with another man, both loaded with provisions. There was much coming and
+going between the village and the boat during the day. By eventide the
+storm had sobbed itself away; the sea was calm again, the sky soft and
+clear; and beneath the bright eyes of the watchful stars, the boat once
+more took its way across the broad bosom of the ocean, with its course
+laid directly towards the English shore.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+Those were days of pack-saddles and pillions--days certainly not without
+their state and display; but yet days in which persons were not valued
+according to the precise mode of their dress or equipage, when hearts
+were not appraised by the hat or gloves, nor the mind estimated by the
+carriages or horses.
+
+Man was considered far more abstractedly then than at present; and
+although illustrious ancestors, great possessions, and hereditary claims
+upon consideration, were allowed more weight than they now possess, yet
+the minor circumstances of each individual,--the things that filled his
+pocket, the dishes upon his table, the name of his tailor, or the club
+that he belonged to,--were seldom, if ever, allowed to affect the
+appreciation of his general character.
+
+However that might be, it was an age, as we have said, of pack-saddles
+and pillions; and no one, at any distance from the capital itself, would
+have been the least ashamed to be seen with a lady or child mounted
+behind him on the same horse, while he jogged easily onward on his
+destined way.
+
+It was thus that, about a quarter of an hour before nightfall, a, tall
+powerful man was seen riding along through one of the north-western
+counties of England, with a boy of about eight years of age mounted on a
+pillion behind him, and steadying himself on the horse by an
+affectionate embrace cast round the waist of his elder companion.
+
+Lennard Sherbrooke--for the reader has already divined that this was no
+other than the personage introduced to him in our first chapter--Lennard
+Sherbrooke, then, was still heavily armed, but in other respects had
+undergone a considerable change. The richly laced coat had given place
+to a plain dark one of greenish brown; the large riding boots remained;
+and the hat, though it kept its border of feathers, was divested of
+every other ornament. There were pistols at the saddle-bow, which indeed
+were very necessary in those days to every one who performed the
+perilous and laborious duty of wandering along the King's Highway; and
+in every other respect the appearance of Lennard Sherbrooke was well
+calculated neither to attract cupidity nor invite attack.
+
+About ten minutes after the period at which we have again introduced him
+to our readers, the traveller and his young companion stopped at the
+door of an old-fashioned inn, or rather at the porch thereof; for the
+door itself, with a retiring modesty, stood at some distance back, while
+an impudent little portico with carved oak pillars, of quaint but not
+inelegant design, stood forth into the road, with steps leading down
+from it to the sill of the sunk doorway. An ostler ran out to take the
+horse, and helped the boy down tenderly and carefully. Sherbrooke
+himself then dismounted, looked at his beast from head to foot, and then
+ordering the ostler to give him some hay and water, he took the boy by
+the hand and entered the house.
+
+The ostler looked at the beast, which was tired, and then at the sky,
+over which the first shades of evening were beginning to creep, thinking
+as he did so that the stranger might quite as well put up his beast for
+the night. In the meantime, however, Sherbrooke had given the boy into
+the charge of the hostess, had bidden her prepare some supper for him,
+and had intimated that he himself was going a little farther, but would
+soon return to sleep at her hospitable dwelling. He ordered to be
+brought in and given into her charge also a small portmanteau,--smaller
+than that which he had taken with him into the boat,--and when all this
+was done, he kissed the boy's forehead tenderly, and left him, mounting
+once more his weary beast, and plodding slowly along upon his way.
+
+It was a very sweet evening: the sun, half way down behind one of the
+distant hills, seemed, like man's curiosity, to overlook unheeded all
+the bright and beautiful things close to him, and to gaze with his eyes
+of light full upon the objects further from him, through which the
+wayfarer was bending his way. The line of undulating hills, the masses
+of a long line of woodland, some deep valleys and dells, a small village
+with its church and tower on an eminence, were all in deep blue shadow;
+while, in the foreground, every bank and slope was glittering in yellow
+sunshine, and a small river, that wound along through the flatter part
+of the ground, seemed turned into gold by the great and glorious
+alchymist, as he sunk to his rest.
+
+The heart of the traveller who wandered there alone was ill, very ill at
+ease. Happily for himself, as he was now circumstanced, the character of
+Sherbrooke was a gay and buoyant one, not easily depressed, bearing the
+load lightly; but still he could not but feel the difficulties, the
+dangers, and the distresses of a situation, which, though shared in by
+very many at that moment, was rather aggravated by such being the case,
+and had but small alleviation even from hope.
+
+In the first place, he had seen the cause to which he had attached
+himself utterly ruined by the base irresolution of a weak monarch, who
+had lost his crown by his tyranny, and who had failed to regain it by
+his courage. In the next place, for his devotion to that cause, he was a
+banished and an outlawed man, with his life at the mercy of any one who
+chose to take it. In the next he was well nigh penniless, with the life
+of another, dear, most dear to his heart, depending entirely upon his
+exertions.
+
+The heart of the traveller, then, was ill, very ill at ease, but yet the
+calm of that evening's sunshine had a sweet and tranquillizing effect.
+There is a mirror--there is certainly a moral mirror in our hearts,
+which reflects the images of the things around us; and every change that
+comes over nature's face is mingled sweetly, though too often unnoticed,
+with the thoughts and feelings called forth by other things. The effect
+of that calm evening upon Lennard Sherbrooke was not to produce the
+wild, bright, visionary dreams and expectations which seem the peculiar
+offspring of the glowing morning, or of the bright and risen day; but it
+was the counterpart, the image, the reflection of that evening scene
+itself to which it gave rise in his heart. He felt tranquillized, he
+felt more resolute, more capable of enduring. Grief and anxiety subsided
+into melancholy and resolution, and the sweet influence of the hour had
+also an effect beyond: it made him pause upon the memories of his past
+life, upon many a scene of idle profligacy, revel, and riot,--of talents
+cast away and opportunity neglected,--of fortune spent and bright hopes
+blasted,--and of all the great advantages which he had once possessed
+utterly lost and gone, with the exception of a kind and generous heart:
+a jewel, indeed, but one which in this world, alas! can but too seldom
+be turned to the advantage of the possessor.
+
+On these things he pondered, and a sweet and ennobling regret came upon
+him that it should be so--a regret which might have gone on to sincere
+repentance, to firm amendment, to the retrieval of fortunes, to an utter
+change of destiny, had the circumstances of the times, or any friendly
+voice and helping hand, led his mind on upon that path wherein it had
+already taken the first step, and had opened out before him a way of
+retrieval, instead of forcing him onward down the hill of destruction.
+But, alas! those were not times when the opportunity of doing better was
+likely to be allowed to him; nor were circumstances destined to change
+his course. His destiny, like that of many Jacobites of the day, was but
+to be from ruin to ruin; and let it be remembered, that the character
+and history of Lennard Sherbrooke are not ideal, but are copied
+faithfully from a true but sad history of a life in those times.
+
+All natural affections sweeten and purify the human heart. Like
+everything else given us immediately from God, their natural tendency is
+to wage war against all that is evil within us; and every single thought
+of amendment and improvement, every regret for the past, every better
+hope for the future, was connected with the thought of the beautiful boy
+he had left behind at the inn; and elevated by his love for a being in
+the bright purity of youth, he thought of him and his situation again
+and again; and often as he did so, the intensity of his own feelings
+made him murmur forth half audible words all relating to the boy, or to
+the person he was then about to seek, for the purpose of interesting him
+in the poor youth's fate.
+
+"I will tell him all and everything," he said, thus murmuring to himself
+as he went on: "he may drive me forth if he will; but surely, surely, he
+will protect and do something for the boy. What, though there have been
+faults committed and wrong done, he cannot be so hard-hearted as to let
+the poor child starve, or be brought up as I can alone bring him up."
+
+Such was still the conclusion to which he seemed to come; and at length
+when the sun had completely gone down, and at the distance of about
+three miles from the inn, he paused before a large pair of wooden gates,
+consisting of two rows of square bars of painted wood placed close
+together, with a thick heavy rail at the top and bottom, while two
+wooden obelisks, with their steeple-shaped summits, formed the gate
+posts. Opening the gates, as one well familiar with the lock, he now
+entered the smaller road which led from them through the fields towards
+a wood upon the top of the hill. At first the way was uninteresting
+enough, and the faint remains of twilight only served to show some
+square fields within their hedge-rows cut in the most prim and
+undeviating lines around. The wayfarer rode on, through that part of the
+scene, with his eyes bent down in deep thought; but when he came to the
+wood; and, following the path--which, now kept with high neatness and
+propriety, wound in and out amongst the trees, and then sweeping gently
+round the shoulder of the hill, exposed a beautiful deer park--he had
+before his eyes a fine Elizabethan house, rising grey upon a little
+eminence at the distance of some four or five hundred yards,--it seemed
+that some old remembrance, some agitating vision of the days gone by,
+came over the horseman's mind. He pulled in his rein, clasped his hands
+together, and gazed around with a look of sad and painful recognition.
+At the end of a minute or two, however, he recovered himself, rode on to
+the front of the house we have mentioned, and dismounting from his
+horse, pulled the bell-rope which action was instantly followed by a
+long peal heard from within.
+
+"It sounds cold and empty," said the wayfarer to himself, "like my
+reception, and perhaps my hopes."
+
+No answer was made for some time; and though the sounds had been loud
+enough, as the traveller's ears bore witness, yet they required to be
+repeated before any one came to ask his pleasure.
+
+"This is very strange!" he said, as he applied his hand to the bell-rope
+again. "He must have grown miserly, as they say, indeed. Why I remember
+a dozen servants crowding into this porch at the first sound of a
+horse's feet."
+
+A short time after, some steps were heard within; bolts and bars were
+carefully withdrawn, and an old man in a white jacket, with a lantern in
+his hand, opened the heavy oaken door, and gazed upon the stranger.
+
+"Where is the Earl of Byerdale?" demanded the horseman, in apparent
+surprise. "Is he not at home?"
+
+The old man gazed at him for a moment from head to foot, without
+replying, and then answered slowly and somewhat bitterly, "Yes, he is at
+home--at his long home, from which he'll never move again! Why, he has
+been dead and buried this fortnight."
+
+"Indeed!" cried the traveller, putting his hand to his head, with an air
+of surprise, and what we may call dismay; "indeed! and who has
+discharged the servants and shut up the house?"
+
+"Those who have a right to do it," replied the old man, sharply; "for my
+lord was not such a fool as to leave his property to be spent, and his
+place mismanaged, by two scape-graces whom he knew well enough."
+
+As he spoke, without farther ceremony he shut the door in the stranger's
+face, and then returned to his own abode in the back part of the house,
+chuckling as he went, and murmuring to himself, "I think I have paid him
+now for throwing me into the horsepond, for just telling a little bit of
+a lie about Ellen, the laundry maid. He thought I had forgotten him! Ha!
+ha! ha!"
+
+The traveller stood confounded; but he made no observation, he uttered
+no word, he seemed too much accustomed to meet the announcement of fresh
+misfortune to suffer it to drive him from the strong-hold of silence.
+Sweeter or gentler feelings might have done it: he might have been
+tempted to speak aloud in calm meditation and thought, either gloomy or
+joyful; but his heart, when wrung and broken by the last hard grasp of
+fate, like the wolf at his death, was dumb.
+
+He remained for full two minutes, however, beneath the porch, motionless
+and silent; then springing on his horse's back, he urged him somewhat
+rapidly up the slope. Ere he had reached the top, either from
+remembering that the beast was weary, or from some change in his own
+feelings, he slackened his pace, and gave himself up to meditation
+again. The first agony of the blow that he had received was now over,
+and once again he not only reasoned with himself calmly, but expressed
+some of his conclusions in a murmur.
+
+"What!" he said, "a peer without a penny! the name attainted, too, and
+all lands and property declared forfeit! No, no! it will never do! Years
+may bring better times!--Who knows? the attainder may be reversed; new
+fortunes may be gained or made! The right dies not, though it may
+slumber; exists, though it be not enforced. A peer without a penny! no,
+no!--far better a beggar with half a crown!"
+
+Thus saying he rode on, passed through the wood we have mentioned,--the
+dull meadows, and the wooden gates; and entering the high road, was
+proceeding towards the inn, when an event occurred which effected a
+considerable change in his plans and purposes.
+
+It was by this time one of those dark nights, the most propitious that
+can be imagined for such little adventures as rendered at one time the
+place called Gad's Hill famous alike in story and in song. It wasn't
+that the night was cloudy, for, to say sooth, it was a fine night, and
+manifold small stars were twinkling in the sky; but the moon, the sweet
+moon, was at that time in her infancy, a babe of not two days old, so
+that the light she afforded to her wandering companions through the
+fields of space was of course not likely to be much. The stars twinkled,
+as we have said, but they gave no light to the road; and on either side
+there were sundry brakes, and lanes, and hedges, and groups of trees
+which were sufficiently shady and latitant in the mid-day, and which
+certainly were impervious to any ray of light then above the horizon.
+
+The mind of Lennard Sherbrooke, however, was far too busy about other
+things to think of dangers on the King's Highway. His purse was
+certainly well armoured against robbery; and the defence was on the
+inside and not on the out; so that--had he thought on the matter at all,
+which he did not do--he might very probably have thought, in his light
+recklessness, he wished he might meet with a highwayman, in order to try
+whether he could not rob better than be robbed.
+
+However, as I have said, he thought not of the subject at all. His own
+situation, and that of the boy Wilton, occupied him entirely; and it was
+not till the noise of a horse's feet coming rapidly behind him sounded
+close at his shoulder, that he turned to see by whom he had been
+overtaken.
+
+All that Sherbrooke could perceive was, that it was a man mounted on a
+remarkably fine horse, riding with ease and grace, and bearing
+altogether the appearance of a gentleman.
+
+"Pray, sir," said the stranger, "can you tell me how far I am from the
+inn called the Buck's Horns, and whether this is the direct road
+thither?"
+
+"The inn is about two miles on," replied Sherbrooke, "on the left-hand
+side of the way, and you cannot miss it, for there is no other house for
+five miles."
+
+"Only two miles!" said the stranger; "then there is no use of my riding
+so fast, risking to break my neck, and my horse's knees."
+
+Sherbrooke said nothing, but rode on quietly, while the stranger, still
+reining in his horse, pursued the high road by the traveller's side.
+
+"It is a very dark night," said the stranger, after a minute or two's
+silence.
+
+"A very dark night, indeed!" replied Sherbrooke, and the conversation
+again ended there.
+
+"Well," said the stranger, after two or three minutes more had passed,
+"as my conversation seems disagreeable to you, sir, I shall ride on."
+
+"Goodnight, sir," replied Sherbrooke, and the other appeared to put
+spurs to his horse. At the first step, however, he seized the
+traveller's rein, uttering a whistle: two more horsemen instantly darted
+out from one side of the road, and in an instant the well-known words,
+"Stand and deliver!" were audibly pronounced in the ears of the
+traveller.
+
+Now it is a very different thing, and a much more difficult thing, to
+deal in such a sort with three gentlemen of the road, than with one; but
+nevertheless, as we have before shown, Lennard Sherbrooke was a stout
+man, nor was he at all a faint-hearted one. A pistol was instantly out
+of one of the holsters, pointed, and fired, and one of his assailants
+rolled over upon the ground, horse and man together. His heavy sword was
+free from the sheath the moment after; and exclaiming, "Now there's but
+two of you, I can manage you," he pushed on his horse against the man
+who had seized his bridle, aiming a very unpleasant sort of oblique cut
+at the worthy personage's head, which, had it taken effect, would
+probably have left him with a considerable portion less of skull than
+that with which he entered into the conflict.
+
+Three things, however, happened almost simultaneously, which gave a new
+aspect altogether to affairs. The man upon Sherbrooke's left hand fired
+a pistol at his head, but missed him in the darkness of night. At the
+same moment the other man at whom he was aiming the blow, and who being
+nearer to him of course saw better, parried it successfully, but
+abstained from returning it, exclaiming, "By Heavens! I believe it is
+Leonard Sherbrooke!"
+
+"If you had asked me," replied Sherbrooke, "I would have told you that
+long ago: pray who are you?"
+
+"I am Frank Bryerly," replied the man: "hold your hands, hold your hands
+every one, and let us see what mischief's done! Dick Harrison, I
+believe, is down. Devilish unfortunate, Sherbrooke, that you did not
+speak."
+
+"Speak!" returned Sherbrooke, "what should I speak for? these are not
+times for speaking over much."
+
+"I am not hurt, I am not hurt!" cried the man called Harrison; "but hang
+him, I believe he has killed my horse, and the horse had well nigh
+killed me, for he reared and went over with me at the shot:--get up,
+brute, get up!" and he kicked the horse in the side to make him rise. Up
+started the beast upon his feet in a moment, trembling in every limb,
+but still apparently not much hurt; and upon examination it proved that
+the ball had struck him in the fleshy part of the shoulder, producing a
+long, but not a deep wound, and probably causing the animal to rear by
+the pain it had occasioned.
+
+As soon as this was explained satisfactorily, a somewhat curious scene
+was presented, by Leonard Sherbrooke standing in the midst of his
+assailants, and shaking hands with two of them as old friends, while the
+third was presented to him with all the form and ceremony of a new
+introduction. But such things, alas! were not uncommon in those days;
+and gentlemen of high birth and education have been known to take to the
+King's Highway--not like Prince Hal, for sport, but for a mouthful of
+bread.
+
+"Why, Frank," said Sherbrooke, addressing the one who had seized his
+horse's rein, "how is this, my good fellow?"
+
+"Why, just like everything else in the world," replied the other in a
+gay tone. "I'm at the down end of the great see-saw, Sherbrooke, that's
+all. When last you knew me, I was a gay Templer, in not bad practice,
+bamboozling the juries, deafening the judges, making love to every woman
+I met, ruining the tavern-keepers, and astounding the watch and the
+chairman. In short, Sherbrooke, very much like yourself."
+
+"Exactly, Frank," replied Sherbrooke, "my own history within a letter or
+so: we were always called the counterparts, you know; but what became of
+you after I left you, a year and a half ago, when this Dutch skipper
+first came over to usurp his father-in-law's throne?"
+
+"Why, I did not take it quite so hotly as you did," replied the other;
+"but I remained for some time after the King was gone, till I heard he
+had come back to Ireland; then, of course, I went to join him, fared
+with the rest, lost everything, and here I am--after having been a
+Templer, and then a captain in the king's guards--doing the honours of
+the King's Highway."
+
+"Stupidly enough," replied Lennard Sherbrooke; "for here the first thing
+that you do is to attack a man who is just as likely to take as to give,
+and ask for a man's money who has but a guinea and a shilling in all the
+world."
+
+"I am but raw at the trade, I confess," replied the other, "and we are
+none of us much more learned. The truth is, we were only practising upon
+you, Sherbrooke, we expect a much better prize to-morrow; but what say
+you, if your condition be such, why not come and take a turn upon the
+road with us? It is the most honourable trade going now-a-days. Treason
+and treachery, indeed, carry off the honours at court; but there are so
+many traitors of one gang or another, that betraying one's friend is
+become a vulgar calling. Take a turn with us on the road, man! take a
+turn with us on the road!"
+
+"Upon my soul," replied Sherbrooke, "I think the plan not a bad one; I
+believe if I had met you alone, Frank, I should have tried to rob you."
+
+"Don't call it rob," replied Frank Bryerly, "call it soliciting from, or
+relieving. But it is a bargain, Sherbrooke, isn't it?"
+
+Lennard Sherbrooke paused and thought for a moment, with the scattered
+remains of better feelings, like some gallant party of a defeated army
+trying still to rally and resist against the overpowering force of
+adverse circumstances. He thought, in that short moment, of what other
+course he could follow; he turned his eyes to the east and the west, to
+the north and the south, for the chance of one gleam of hope, for the
+prospect of any opening to escape. It was in vain, his last hope had
+been trampled out that night. He had not even money to fly, and seek, on
+some other shore, the means of support and existence. He had but
+sufficient to support himself and his horse, and the poor boy, for three
+or four more days. Imagination pictured that poor boy's bright
+countenance, looking up to him for food and help, and finding none, and
+grasping Bryerly's hand, he said, in a low voice, "It is a bargain.
+Where and how shall I join you?"
+
+"Oh!" replied the other, "we three are up at Mudicot's inn, about four
+miles there: you had better turn your horse and go back with us."
+
+"No," replied Sherbrooke, "I have some matters to settle at the little
+inn down there: all that I have in the world is there, and that, Heaven
+knows, is little enough; I will join you to-morrow."
+
+"Sherbrooke," said Bryerly, drawing him a little on one side and
+speaking low, "I am a rich man, you know: I have got ten guineas in my
+pocket: you must share them with me."
+
+Pride had already said "No!" but Bryerly insisted, saying, "You can pay
+me in a day or two."
+
+Sherbrooke thought of the boy again, and accepted the money; and then
+bidding his companions adieu for the time, he left them and returned to
+the inn.
+
+The poor boy, wearied out, had once more fallen asleep where he sat, and
+Sherbrooke, causing him to be put to bed, remained busily writing till a
+late hour at night. He then folded up and sealed carefully that which he
+had written, together with a number of little articles which he drew
+forth from the portmanteau; he then wrote some long directions on the
+back of the packet, and placing the whole once more in the portmanteau,
+in a place where it was sure to be seen, if any inquisitive eye examined
+the contents of the receptacle, he turned the key and retired to rest.
+The whole of the following day he passed in playing with and amusing
+little Wilton; and so much childish gaiety was there in his demeanour,
+that the man seemed as young as the child. Towards evening, however, he
+again ordered his horse to be brought out; and, having paid the landlady
+for their accommodation up to that time, he again left the boy in her
+charge and put his foot in the stirrup. He had kissed him several times
+before he did so; but a sort of yearning of the heart seemed to come
+over him, and turning back again to the door of the inn, he once more
+pressed him to his heart, ere he departed.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+Journeys were in those days at least treble the length they are at
+present. It may be said that the distance from London to York, or from
+Carlisle to Berwick, could never be above a certain length. Measured by
+a string probably such would have been the case; but if the reader
+considers how much more sand, gravel, mud, and clay, the wheels of a
+carriage had to go through in those days, he will easily see how it was
+the distances were so protracted.
+
+At all events, fifty or sixty miles was a long, laborious journey; and
+at whatever hour the traveller might set out upon his way, he was not
+likely to reach the end of it, without becoming a "borrower from the
+night of a dark hour or two."
+
+Such was the case with the tenant of a large cumbrous carriage, which,
+drawn heavily on by four stout horses wended slowly on the King's
+Highway, not very far from the spot where the wooden gates that we have
+described raised their white faces by the side of the road.
+
+The panels of that carriage, as well as the ornaments of the top
+thereof, bore the arms of a British earl; and there was a heavy and
+dignified swagger about the vehicle itself, which seemed to imply a
+consciousness even in the wood and leather of the dignity of the person
+within. He, for his own part, though a graceful and very courtly
+personage, full of high talent, policy, and wit, had nothing about him
+at all of the pomposity of his vehicle; and at the moment which we refer
+to, namely, about two hours after nightfall, tired with his long
+journey, and seated with solitary thought, he had drawn a fur-cap
+lightly over his head, and, leaning back in the carriage, enjoyed not
+unpleasant repose.
+
+To be woke out of one's slumbers suddenly at any time, or by any means,
+is a very unpleasant sensation; but there are few occasions that we can
+conceive, on which such an event is more disagreeable than when we are
+thus woke, to find a pistol at our breast, and some one demanding our
+money.
+
+The Earl of Sunbury was sleeping quietly in his carriage with the most
+perfect feeling of security, though those indeed were not very secure
+times; when suddenly the carriage stopped, and he started up. Scarcely,
+however, was he awake to what was passing round, than the door of the
+carriage was opened, and a man of gentlemanly appearance, with a pistol
+in his right hand, and his horse's bridle over the left arm, presented
+himself to the eyes of the peer. At the same time, through the opposite
+window of the carriage, was seen another man on horseback; while the
+Earl judged, and judged rightly, that there must be others of the same
+fraternity at the heads of the horses, and the ears of the postilions.
+
+The Earl was usually cool and calm in his demeanour under most of the
+circumstances of life; and he therefore asked the pistol-bearing
+gentleman, much in the same tone that one would ask one's way across the
+country, or receive a visitor whom we do not know, "Pray, sir, what may
+be your pleasure with me?"
+
+"I am very sorry to delay your lordship even for a moment," replied the
+stranger, very much in the same tone as that with which the Earl had
+spoken; "but I do it for the purpose of requesting, that you would
+disburden yourself of a part of your baggage, which you can very well
+spare, and which we cannot. I mean, my lord, shortly and civilly, to
+say, that we must have your money, and also any little articles of gold
+and jewellery that may be about your person."
+
+"Sir," replied the Earl, "you ask so courteously, that I should be
+almost ashamed to refuse you, even were your request not backed by the
+soft solicitation of a pistol. There, sir, is my purse, which probably
+is not quite so full as you might desire, but is still worth something.
+Then as to jewellery, my watch, seals, and these trinkets are at your
+disposal. Farther than these I have but this ring, for which I have a
+very great regard; and I wish that some way could be pointed out by
+which I might be able to redeem it at a future time it may be worth some
+half dozen guineas, but certainly not more, to any other than myself. In
+my eyes, however, it only appears as a precious gage of old affection,
+given to me in my youth by one I loved, and which has remained still
+upon my finger, till age has wintered my hair."
+
+"I beg that you will keep the ring," replied the highwayman; "you have
+given enough already, my lord, and we thank you."
+
+He was now retiring with a bow, and closing the door, but the Earl
+stopped him, saying, in a tone of some feeling, "I beg your pardon; but
+your manner, language, and behaviour, are so different from all that
+might be expected under such circumstances, that I cannot but think
+necessity more than inclination has driven you to a dangerous pursuit."
+
+"Your lordship thinks right," replied the highwayman "I am a poor
+gentleman, of a house as noble as your own, but have felt the hardships
+of these times more severely than most."
+
+He was again about to retire; but the Earl once more spoke, saying,
+"Your behaviour to me, sir, especially about this ring, has been such
+that, without asking impertinent questions, I would fain serve you.--Can
+I do it ?"
+
+"I fear not, my lord; I fear not," replied the stranger. Then seeming to
+recollect himself, with a sudden start, he approached nearer to the
+carriage, saying, "I had forgot--you can, my lord!--you can."
+
+"In what manner?" demanded the peer.
+
+"That I cannot tell your lordship here and now," replied the highwayman:
+"time is wanting, and, doubtless, my companions' patience is worn away
+already."
+
+"Well," replied the Earl, "if you will venture to call upon me at my own
+house, some ten miles hence, which, as you know me, you probably know
+also, I will hear all you have to say, serve you if I can, and will take
+care that you come and go with safety."
+
+"I offer you a thousand thanks, my lord," replied the other, "and will
+venture as fearlessly as I would to my own chamber." [Footnote: It may
+be interesting to the reader to know that the whole of this scene, even
+to a great part of the dialogue, actually took place in the beginning of
+the reign of William III.]
+
+Thus saying, he drew back and closed the door; and then making a signal
+to his companions to withdraw from the heads of the horses, he bade the
+postilions drive on, and sprang upon his own beast.
+
+"What have you got, Lennard? what have you got?" demanded the man who
+was at the other door of the carriage: "what have you got--you have had
+a long talk about it?"
+
+"A heavy purse," replied Sherbrooke; "what the contents are, I know
+not--a watch, a chain, and three gold seals.--I'm almost sorry that I
+did this thing."
+
+"Sorry!" cried the other; "why you insisted upon doing it yourself, and
+would let no other take the first adventure out of your hands."
+
+"I did not mean that," replied Sherbrooke "I did not mean that at all!
+If the thing were to be done, and I standing by, I might as well do it
+as see you do it. What I mean is, that I am sorry for having taken the
+man's money at all!"
+
+"Pshaw!" replied the other: "You forget that he is one of the enemy, or
+rather, I should say, a traitor to his king, to his native-born prince,
+and therefore is fair game for every true subject of King James."
+
+"He stood by him a long time," replied Sherbrooke, "for all that--as
+long, and longer than the King stood by himself."
+
+"Never mind, never mind, Colonel," said one of the others, who had come
+up by this time; "you won't need absolution for what's been done
+to-night; and I would bet a guinea to a shilling, that if you ask any
+priest in all the land, he will tell you, that you have done a good deed
+instead of a bad; but let us get back to the inn as quick as we can, and
+see what the purse contains."
+
+The road which the Earl of Sunbury was pursuing passed the very inn to
+which the men who had lightened him of his gold were going; but there
+was a back bridle-path through some thick woods to the right of the
+road, which cut off a full mile of the way, and along this the four
+keepers of the King's Highway urged their horses at full speed,
+endeavouring, as was natural under such circumstances, to gallop away
+reflection, which, in spite of all that they assumed, was not a pleasant
+companion to any of the four. It very often happens that the
+exhilaration of success occupies so entirely the portion of time during
+which remorse for doing a bad action is most ready to strike us, that we
+are ready to commit the same error again, before the last murmurs of
+conscience have time to make themselves heard. Those who wish to drown
+her first loud remonstrances give full way and eager encouragement to
+that exhilaration; and now, each of the men whom we have mentioned,
+except Sherbrooke, went on encouraging their wild gaiety, leaping the
+gates that here and there obstructed their passage, instead of opening
+them; and in the end arriving at the inn a full quarter of an hour
+before the carriage of the Earl passed the house on its onward way.
+
+The vehicle stopped there for a minute or two, to give the horses hay
+and water; and much was the clamour amongst the servants, the
+postilions, and the ostlers, concerning the daring robbery that had been
+committed; but the postilions of those days, and eke the keepers of
+inns, were wise people in their generation, and discreet withal. They
+talked loudly of the horror, the infamy, and the shamefulness, of making
+the King's Highway a place of general toll and contribution; but still
+they abstained most scrupulously from taking any notice of gentlemen who
+were out late upon the road, especially if they went on horseback.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+It was about two days after the period of which we have spoken, when the
+Earl of Sunbury, caring very little for the loss he had met with on the
+road, and thinking of it merely as one of those unpleasant circumstances
+which occur to every man now and then, sat in his library with every
+sort of comfort and splendour about him, enjoying in dignified ease the
+society of mighty spirits from the past, in those works which have given
+and received an earthly immortality. His hand was upon Sallust; and
+having just been reading the awful lines which present in Catiline the
+type of almost every great conspirator, he raised his eyes and gazed on
+vacancy, calling up with little labour, as it were, a substantial image
+to his mind's eye of him whom the great historian had displayed.
+
+The hour was about nine o'clock at night, and the windows were closed,
+when suddenly a loud ringing of the bell made itself heard, even in the
+Earl's library. As the person who came, by applying at the front
+entrance, evidently considered himself a visitor of the Earl, that
+nobleman placed his hand upon the open page of the book and waited for a
+farther announcement with a look of vexation, muttering to himself,
+"This is very tiresome: I thought, at all events, I should have had a
+few days of tranquillity and repose."
+
+"A gentleman, my lord," said one of the servants, entering, "is at the
+gate, and wishes to speak with your lordship."
+
+"Have you asked what is his business?" demanded the Earl.
+
+"He will not mention it, my lord," replied the servant, "nor give his
+name either; but he says your lordship told him to call upon you."
+
+"Oh! admit him, admit him," said the peer; "put a chair there, and bring
+some chocolate."
+
+After putting the chair, the man retired, and a moment after returned,
+saying, "The gentleman, my lord."
+
+The door opened wide, and the tall fine form of Lennard Sherbrooke
+entered, leading by the hand the beautiful boy whom we have before
+described, who now gazed about him with a look of awe and surprise.
+
+Little less astonishment was visible on the countenance of the Earl
+himself; and until the door was closed by the servant, he continued to
+gaze alternately upon Sherbrooke and the boy, seeming to find in the
+appearance of each much matter for wonder.
+
+"Do me the favour of sitting down," he said at length "I think I have
+had the advantage of seeing you before."
+
+"Once, my lord," replied Sherbrooke, "and then it must have been but
+dimly."
+
+"Not more than once?" demanded the Earl: "your face is somewhat familiar
+to me, and I think I could connect it with a name."
+
+"Connect it with none, my lord," said Sherbrooke: "that name is at an
+end, at least for a time: the person for whom you take me is no more. I
+should have thought that you knew such to be the case."
+
+"I did, indeed, hear," said the Earl, "that he was killed at the Boyne;
+but still the likeness is so great, and my acquaintance with him was so
+slight, that--"
+
+"He died at the Boyne, my lord," said Sherbrooke, looking down, "in a
+cause which was just, though the head and object of that cause was
+unworthy of connexion with it." The Earl's cheek grew a little red; but
+Sherbrooke continued, with a slight laugh, "I did not, however, come
+here, my lord, to offend you with my view of politics. We have only once
+met, my lord, that I know of in life, but I have heard you kindly spoken
+of by those I loved and honoured. You, yourself, told me, that if you
+could serve me you would; and I come to claim fulfilment of that offer,
+though what I request may seem both extraordinary and extravagant to
+demand."
+
+The Earl bent down his eyes upon the table, and drew his lips in
+somewhat close, for he in no degree divined what request was coming; and
+he was much too old a politician to encourage applications, the very
+proposers of which announced them as extravagant. "May I ask," he said,
+at length, "what it is you have to propose? I am quite ready to do any
+reasonable thing for your service, as I promised upon an occasion to
+which I need not farther refer."
+
+Three servants at that moment entered the room, with chocolate, long cut
+slices of toast, and cold water; and the conversation being thus
+interrupted, the Earl invited his two guests to partake; and calling the
+boy to him, fondled him for some moments at his knee, playing with the
+clustering curls of his bright hair, and asking him many little kindly
+questions about his sports and pastimes.
+
+The boy looked up in his face well pleased, and answered with so much
+intelligence, and such winning grace, that the Earl, employing exactly
+the same caress that Sherbrooke had often done before, parted the fair
+hair on his forehead, and kissed his lofty brow.
+
+When the servants were gone, Sherbrooke instantly resumed the
+conversation. "My request, my lord," he said, "is to be a very strange
+one; a request that will put you to some expense, though not a very
+great one; and will give you some trouble, though, would to God both the
+trouble and expense could be undertaken by myself."
+
+"Perhaps," said the Earl, turning his eyes to the boy, "it may be
+better, sir, that we speak alone for a minute or two. I am now sure that
+I cannot be mistaken in the person to whom I speak, although I took you
+at first for one that is no more. We will leave your son here, and he
+can amuse himself with this book of pictures."
+
+Thus saying he rose, patted the boy's head, and pointed out the book he
+referred to. He then threw open a door between that room and the next,
+which was a large saloon, well lighted, and having led the way thither
+with Sherbrooke, he held with him a low, but earnest conversation for
+some minutes.
+
+"Well, sir," he said at length, "well, sir, I will not, and must not
+refuse, though it places me in a strange and somewhat difficult
+situation; but indeed, indeed, I wish you would listen to my
+remonstrances. Abandon a hopeless, and what, depend upon it, is an
+unjust cause,--a cause which the only person who could gain by it has
+abandoned and betrayed. Yield to the universal voice of the people; or
+if you cannot co-operate with the government that the popular voice has
+called to power, at all events submit; and, I doubt not in the least,
+that if, coupled with promises and engagements to be a peaceful subject,
+you claim the titles and estates--"
+
+"My lord, it cannot be," replied Sherbrooke, interrupting him: "you
+forget that I belong to the Catholic church. However, you will remember
+our agreement respecting the papers, and other things which I shall
+deposit with you this night: they are not to be given to him till he is
+of age, under any circumstances, except that of the King's restoration,
+when you may immediately make them public."
+
+As he spoke, he was turning away to return to the library; but the Earl
+stopped him, saying, "Stay yet one moment: would it not be better to
+give me some farther explanations? and have you nothing to say with
+regard to the boy's education? for you must remember how I, too, am
+situated."
+
+"I have no farther explanations to give, my lord," replied Sherbrooke;
+"and as to the boy's education, I must leave it entirely with yourself.
+Neither on his religious nor his political education will I say a word.
+In regard to the latter, indeed, I may beg you to let him hear the
+truth, and, reading what is written on both sides, to judge for himself.
+Farther I have nothing to say."
+
+"But you will understand," replied the other, with marked emphasis,
+"that I cannot and do not undertake to educate him as I would a son of
+my own. He shall have as good an education as possible; he shall be
+fitted, as far as my judgment can go, for any station in the state, to
+enter any gentlemanly profession, and to win his way for himself by his
+own exertions. But you cannot and must not expect that I should accustom
+him to indulgence or expense in any way that the unfortunate
+circumstances in which he is placed may render beyond his power to
+attain, when you and I are no longer in being to support or aid him."
+
+"You judge wisely, my lord," replied Sherbrooke, "and in those respects
+I trust him entirely to you, feeling too deeply grateful for the relief
+you have given me from this overpowering anxiety, to cavil at any
+condition that you may propose."
+
+"I have only one word more to say," replied the Earl, "which is, if you
+please, I would prefer putting down on paper the conditions and
+circumstances under which I take the boy: we will both sign the paper,
+which may be for the security of us both."
+
+Sherbrooke agreed without hesitation; and on their return to the
+library, the Earl wrote for some time, while his companion talked with
+and caressed the boy. When the Earl had done, he handed one of the
+papers he had written to Sherbrooke, who read it attentively, and then
+signing it returned it to the Earl. That nobleman in the mean time, had
+signed a counterpart of the paper which he now gave to Sherbrooke; and
+the latter, taking from his pocket the small packet of various articles
+which we have seen him make up at the inn before he went out on the very
+expedition which produced his present visit to the Earl, gave it into
+the peer's hands, who put his seal upon it also.
+
+This done, a momentary pause ensued, and Lennard Sherbrooke gazed
+wistfully at the boy. A feeling of tenderness, which he could not
+repress, gained upon his heart as he gazed, and seemed to overpower him;
+for tears came up, and dimmed his sight. At length, he dashed them away;
+and taking the boy up in his arms, he pressed him fondly to his bosom;
+kissed him twice; set him down again; and then, turning to the Earl,
+with a brow on which strong resolution was seen struggling with deep
+emotion, he said, "Thank you, my lord, thank you!"
+
+It was all he could say, and turning away hastily he quitted the room.
+The Earl rang the bell, and ordered the servant to see that the
+gentleman's horse was brought round. He then turned and gazed upon the
+boy with a look of interest; but little Wilton seemed perfectly happy,
+and was still looking over the book of paintings which the Earl had
+given to him to examine.
+
+"What can this be?" thought the Earl, as he looked at him; "can there be
+perfect insensibility under that fair exterior?" And taking the boy by
+the hand he drew him nearer.
+
+"Are you not sorry he is gone?" the nobleman asked.
+
+"Oh! he will not be long away," replied the boy: "he will come back in
+an hour or two as he always does, and will look at me as I lie in bed,
+and kiss me, and tell me to sleep soundly."
+
+"Poor boy!" said the Earl, in a tone that made the large expressive eyes
+rise towards his face with a look of inquiry: "You must not expect him
+to be back to-night, my boy. Now tell me what is your name?"
+
+"Wilton," replied the boy; but remembering that that was not sufficient
+to satisfy a stranger, he added, "Wilton Brown. But how long will it be
+before he comes back?"
+
+"I do not know," replied the Earl, evading his question. "How old are
+you, Wilton?"
+
+"I am past eight," replied the boy.
+
+"Happily, an age of quick forgetfulness!" said the Earl, in a low tone
+to himself; and then applying his thoughts to make the boy comfortable
+for the night, he rang for his housekeeper, and gave her such
+explanations and directions as he thought fit.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+There is a strange and terrible difference in this world between the
+look forward and the look back. Like the cloud that went before the
+hosts of the children of Israel, when they fled from the land of Egypt,
+an inscrutable fate lies before us, hiding with a dark and shadowy veil
+the course of every future day: while behind us the wide-spread past is
+open to the view; and as we mark the steps that we have taken, we can
+assign to each its due portion of pain, anxiety, regret, remorse,
+repose, or joy. Yet how short seems the past to the recollection of each
+mortal man! how long, and wide, and interminable, is the cloudy future
+to the gaze of imagination!
+
+Many years had passed since the eventful night recorded in our last
+chapter; and to the boy, Wilton Brown, all that memory comprised seemed
+but one brief short hour out of life's long day.
+
+The Earl of Sunbury had fulfilled what he had undertaken towards him,
+exactly and conscientiously. He was a man, as we have shown, of kindly
+feelings, and of a generous heart: although he was a politician, a
+courtier, and a man of the world. He might, too--had not some severe
+checks and disappointments crushed many of the gentler feelings of his
+heart--he might, too, have been a man of warm and enthusiastic
+affections. As it was, however, he guarded himself in general very
+carefully against such feelings; acted liberally and kindly; but never
+promised more, or did more, than prudence consented to, were the
+temptation ever so strong.
+
+He had promised Lennard Sherbrooke that he would take the boy, and give
+him a good education, would befriend him in life, and do all that he
+could to serve him. He kept his word, as we have said, to the letter.
+During the first six weeks, after he had engaged in this task, he saw
+the boy often in the course of every day; grew extremely fond of him;
+took him to London, when his own days of repose in the country were
+past; and solaced many an hour, when he returned home fatigued with
+business, by listening to the boy's prattle, and by playing with, as it
+were, the fresh and intelligent mind of the young being now dependent
+upon him for all things.
+
+It is a false and a mistaken notion altogether, that men of great mind
+and intense thought are easily wearied or annoyed by the presence of
+children. The man who is wearied with children must always be childish
+himself in mind; but, alas! not young in heart. He must be light,
+superficial, though perhaps inquiring and intelligent; but neither
+gentle in spirit nor fresh in feeling. Such men must always soon become
+wearied with children; for very great similarity of thought and of
+mind--the paradox is but seeming--is naturally wearisome in another;
+while, on the contrary, similarity of feeling and of heart is that bond
+which binds our affections together. Where both similarities are
+combined, we may be most happy in the society of our counterpart; but
+where the link between the hearts is wanting there will always be great
+tediousness in great similarity.
+
+Thus the Earl of Sunbury, though, Heaven knows, no man on earth could be
+less childish in his keen and calculating thoughts, or in all his
+ordinary habits and occupations, yet found a relief, and an enjoyment,
+in talking with the boy, in eliciting all his fresh and picturesque
+ideas, and in marking the train and course which thought naturally takes
+before it is tutored to follow the direction of art. His own heart--for
+a man of the world--was very fresh; but still the worldly mind ruled it
+when it would; and the moment that he began to find that the boy might
+become too much endeared, and too necessary to him, he determined to
+deprive himself of the present pleasure, rather than risk the future
+inconvenience.
+
+He accordingly determined to send the boy to school, and little Wilton
+heard the announcement with pleasure; for though by this time he had
+become greatly attached to the Earl, he longed for the society of beings
+of the same age and habits as himself. When he was with the Earl he saw
+that nobleman was interested with him, but he saw that he was amused
+with him too; and in this respect children are very like that noblest of
+animals, the dog. Any one who has remarked a dog when people jest with
+him, and speak to him mockingly, must have seen that the creature is not
+wholly pleased, that he seems as if made to feel a degree of
+inferiority. Such also is the case with children; and little Wilton felt
+that the Earl was making a sort of playful investigation of his mind,
+even while he was jesting with him. I have said felt, because it was
+feeling, not thought, that discovered it; and, therefore, though he
+loved the Earl notwithstanding all this, he was glad to go where he
+heard there were many such young beings as himself.
+
+The Earl did not think him ungrateful on account of the open expression
+of his delight. He saw it all, and understood it all; for he had very
+few of the smaller selfishnesses, which so frequently blind our eyes to
+the most obvious facts which impinge against our own vanities. His was a
+high and noble mind, chained and thralled by manifold circumstances and
+accidents to the dull pursuits of worldly ambitions. One trait, however,
+may display his character: he had practised in regard to the boy a piece
+of that high delicacy of feeling of which none but great men are
+capable. He had learned and divined, from the short conversation which
+had taken place between himself and Lennard Sherbrooke, sufficient in
+regard to the boy's unfortunate situation to guide his conduct in
+respect to him; and now, even when alone with him in his own
+drawing-room or library, he asked no farther questions; he pryed not at
+all into what had gone before; and though the youth occasionally
+prattled of the wild Irish shores, and the cottage where he had been
+brought up, the Earl merely smiled, but gave him no encouragement to say
+more.
+
+At length, Wilton Brown went to school; and as the Earl gradually lost a
+part of that interest in him which had given prudence the alarm, time
+had its effect on Wilton also, drawing one thin airy film after another
+over the events of the past, not obliterating them; but, like the effect
+of distance upon substantial objects, gathering them together in less
+distinct masses, and diminishing them both in size and clearness. When
+the time approached for his holidays, which were few and far between, he
+was called to the Earl's house, and treated with every degree of
+kindness; though with mere boyhood went by boyhood's graces, and the lad
+could not be fondled and played with as the child. The Earl never did
+anything to make him feel that he was a dependant--no, not for a single
+moment; but as the boy's mind expanded, and as a certain degree of the
+knowledge of the world was gained from the habits of a public school, he
+explained to him, clearly and straight-forwardly, that upon his own
+exertions he must rely for wealth, fame, and honour. He told him, that
+in the country where he lived, the road to fortune, dignity, and power,
+was open to every man; but that road was filled with eager and
+unscrupulous competitors, and obstructed in many parts by obstacles
+difficult to be surmounted.
+
+"They can be surmounted, Wilton, however," he added; "and with energy,
+activity, and determination, that road can be trod, from one end to the
+other, within the space of a single life, and leave room for repose at
+the end.--You have often seen," he continued, "a gentleman who visits me
+here, who rose from a station certainly not higher, or more fortunate
+than your own,--who is called, even now, the Great Lord Somers, and
+doubtless the same name will remain with him hereafter. He is an example
+for all men to follow; and his life offers an encouragement for every
+sort of exertion. He rose even from a very humble station of life,
+outstripped all competitors, and is now, as you see, in the post of Lord
+Keeper, owing no man anything, but all to his own talents and
+perseverance. The same may be the case with you, Wilton. All that I can
+do, to place you in the way of winning fortune and station for yourself,
+I will do most willingly; but in every other respect you must keep in
+mind, that you are to be the artisan of your own fortune, and shape your
+course accordingly."
+
+Such was the language held towards Wilton Brown by the Earl, upon more
+than one occasion; and the boy took what he said to heart, remembered,
+pondered it, and after much thought and reflection formed the great and
+glorious resolution of winning honour and renown, by every exertion of
+his mind and body. It is a resolution that may, perhaps, have often been
+taken by those who ultimately have never succeeded in the attempt. It is
+a resolution from which some may have been wiled away by pleasure, or
+driven by accident. But it is a resolution which no man who afterwards
+proved great ever failed to take, ay, and to take early. On the head of
+mediocrity: on the petty statesmen who figure throughout two thirds of
+the world's history; on the tolerable generals who conduct the ordinary
+wars of the world; on the small poets and the small philosophers who
+fill up the ages that intervene between great men, fortune and accident
+may shower down the highest honours, the greatest power, the most
+abundant wealth; but the man who in any pursuit has reached the height
+of real greatness, has set out on his career with the resolution of
+winning fame in despite of circumstances.
+
+Such was the resolution which was taken, as we have said, by Wilton
+Brown, and the effect of that very resolution upon him, as a mere lad,
+was to make him thoughtful, studious, and different from any of the
+other youths of the school, in habits and manners.
+
+The change was beneficial in many respects, even then. It made him
+strive to acquire knowledge of every sort and kind that came within his
+reach, and he always succeeded in some degree. It made him cultivate
+every talent which he felt that he possessed, and an accurate eye and a
+musical ear were not neglected as far as he could obtain instruction. He
+not only acquired much knowledge, but also much facility in acquiring;
+and his eager and anxious zeal did not pass unnoticed by those who
+taught him, so that others contributed to his first success, as well as
+his own efforts.
+
+That first success was, perhaps, unexpected by any one else. The period
+came, at which he was barely qualified by age to strive in competition
+with his schoolfellows, for one of those many excellent opportunities
+afforded by the kindness and wisdom of past ages, for obtaining a high
+education at one of the universities. He had never himself proposed to
+be one of the competitors on this occasion, as there was a year open
+before him to pursue his studies, and there were many boys at the school
+far older than himself.
+
+The Earl had not an idea that such a thing would take place, as Wilton
+himself had always expressed the utmost anxiety to pursue a military
+career. He had never, indeed, even pressed him to adopt another pursuit,
+although he had pointed out to his protege, that his own influence lay
+almost entirely in the political world; and his surprise, therefore, was
+very great, when he heard that Wilton, at the suggestion of the head
+master, had presented himself for examination on this very first
+occasion, and had carried off the highest place from all his
+competitors.
+
+On his arrival in London he received him with delight, showered upon him
+praises, and fitted him out liberally for his first appearance at the
+University.
+
+Here, however, Wilton's first fortune seemed to abandon him. About six
+months after his matriculation, he had the grief to hear that the Earl
+had been thrown from his horse in hunting, and received various severe
+injuries. He hastened to one of his country seats, where that nobleman
+had been sojourning for the time, but found him a very different man
+from that which he had appeared before. He was not ill enough to need or
+to desire nursing and tendance, but he was quite ill enough to be
+irritable, impatient, and selfish; for it is a strange fact, that the
+very condition which renders us the most dependent on our
+fellow-creatures too often renders us likewise indifferent to their
+comfort, in our absorbing consideration of our own. Although he could
+sit up and walk about, and go forth into his gardens, yet he suffered
+great pain, which did not seem to diminish; and a frequent spitting of
+blood rendered him impatient and querulous, whenever his lowest words
+were not instantly heard and comprehended.
+
+It was a painful lesson to the youth he had brought up; and when the
+time for Wilton's return to Oxford arrived, and the Earl, with seeming
+satisfaction, put him in mind that it was time to go, the young
+gentleman, in truth, felt it a relief from a situation in which he
+neither well knew how to satisfy himself, or to satisfy the invalid,
+towards whom he was so anxious to show his gratitude.
+
+He returned, then, to the university, where the allowance made him by
+the Earl, of two hundred per annum, together with the little income
+which a successful competition at school had placed at his disposal,
+enabled him to maintain the society of that class with which he had
+always associated in life, and to do so with ease to himself; though not
+without economy. [Footnote: I think that the same was the college
+allowance of the well-known Evelyn.] The Earl had asked him twice, if he
+had found the sum enough, and seemed much pleased when Wilton had
+replied that it was perfectly so. But from that expression he easily
+divined, that had it been otherwise, the Earl might have said nothing
+reproachful, but would not have been well satisfied.
+
+Wilton did not mistake the motives of the Earl: he knew him to be
+anything but a penurious man; and he had long seen and been aware of the
+motives on which that nobleman acted towards him. He knew that it was
+with a wish to give him everything that was necessary and appropriate to
+the situation in which he was placed, but by no means to encourage
+expensive habits, or desires which might unfit him for the first
+laborious steps which he was destined to tread in the path of life. He
+felt, indeed, that there was an ambitious spirit in his own heart, and
+it cost him many a struggle in thought, to regulate its action: to guide
+it in the course of all that was good and right, but resolutely to
+restrain it from following any other path. "Ambition," he thought, "is
+like a falcon, and must be trained to fly only at what game I will. Its
+proud spirit must be broken, to bend to this, and to submit to that; to
+yield even to imaginary indignities, provided they imply no sacrifice of
+real honour, and to strive for no false show, while I am striving for a
+greater object."
+
+Thus passed a year, but during that time the Earl's health had been in
+no degree improved; and a number of painful events had taken place in
+his political course which had left his mind more irritable than before,
+while continual suffering had brought upon him a sort of desponding
+recklessness, which made him cast behind him altogether those things
+which he had previously considered the great objects of existence, and
+desire nothing but to quit for ever the scene of political strife, and
+pass the rest of his days in peace, if not in comfort.
+
+Such had been the state of his mind when Wilton had last seen him in
+London, towards the beginning of the year 1695; but the young gentleman
+was somewhat surprised, about a month afterwards, to receive a sudden
+summons to visit the Earl in town, coupled with information, that it was
+his friend's design immediately to proceed to Italy, on account of his
+health. The summons was very unexpected, as we have implied; but the
+Earl informed him in his letter that he was going without loss of time;
+and as the shortest way of reaching him, Wilton determined to mount his
+horse at once, and ride part of the way to London that night. Of his
+journey, however, and its results, we will speak in another chapter.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+That there are epochs in the life of every man, when all the concurrent
+circumstances of fortune seem to form, as it were, a dam against the
+current of his fate, and turn it completely into another direction, when
+the trifling accident and the great event work together to produce an
+entirely new combination around him, no one who examines his own
+history, or marks attentively the history of others, can doubt for a
+moment. It is very natural, too, to believe that there are at those
+moments indications in our own hearts--from the deep latent sympathies
+which exist between every part of nature and the rest--that the changes
+which reason and observation do not point out are about to take place in
+our destiny: for is it to be supposed, that when the fiat has gone forth
+which alters a being's whole course of existence--when the electric
+touch has been communicated to one end of the long chain of cause and
+effect which forms the fate of every individual being--is it to be
+supposed that it will not tremble to its most remote link, especially
+towards that point where the greatest action is to take place?
+
+There come upon us, it seems to me, in those times, fits of musing far
+deeper and more intense, excitability of feeling--perhaps of imagination
+too--more acute than at any other time. Perhaps, also, a determination,
+an energy of will is added, necessary to carry us through, with power
+and firmness, the struggle, or the change, or the temptation that awaits
+us.
+
+When Nelson stood upon the quarter-deck of his ship, but a few minutes
+before the last great victory that closed a career of glory, he felt and
+expressed a sense that his last hour was come, that the great and final
+change of fate was near, and that but a few moments remained for the
+accomplishment of his destiny. But the indication was given to a mind
+that could employ it nobly; and he to whom the foreshadowing of his fate
+had been afforded, even as a boy--when he determined that he would, and
+felt that he could, be a hero--in that last moment, when he knew that
+the hero's life was done, determined to die as he had lived, and used
+the prescience of his coming death but to promote the objects for which
+he had existed.
+
+There may be some men who would say these things are not natural; but if
+we could see all the fine relationships of one being to another, if the
+mortal eye refined could view the unsubstantial as well as the
+substantial world, could mark the keen sympathies and near associations,
+and all the essences which fill up the apparent gaps between being and
+being, we should see, undoubtedly, that these things are most natural,
+and wonder at the blindness with which we have walked in darkling
+ignorance through the thronged and multitudinous universe.
+
+It was somewhat late in the afternoon when Wilton Brown put his foot in
+the stirrup, and set off to ride towards London. He did not hope to
+reach the metropolis that night, but he intended to go as far as he
+could, so as to insure his arrival before the hour of the Earl's
+breakfast on the following morning. He had ridden his horse somewhat
+hard during the morning before he had received the summons to town, and
+he consequently now set out at a slow pace. Not to weary the noble beast
+was, in truth, and in reality, his motive; but there was, at the same
+time, in his mind, a temporary inclination to deep and intense thought,
+which he could by no means shake off, and which naturally disposed him
+to a slow and equable pace.
+
+The sudden announcement of the Earl's determination to go abroad,
+without any intimation that the young man whom he had fostered from
+youth to manhood was to accompany him, or to follow him to the
+continent, might very well set Wilton musing on his circumstances and
+his prospects; but that was not the cause of his meditative mood on the
+present occasion, though it was the immediate cause of his giving way to
+it. In truth, the inclination which he felt to low, desponding, though
+deep and clear thought, had pursued him for the last four-and-twenty
+hours, and it was to cast it off that he had in fact ridden so hard that
+very morning. Now, however, he found it necessary to yield to it; and as
+he rode along, he gave up his mind entirely to the consideration of the
+past, of the present, and the future.
+
+The Earl had announced to him at once in his letter, that he was about
+to leave England, but he had made no reference whatsoever to the future
+fate of him whom he had hitherto protected and supported. Was that
+protection and support still to continue? Wilton asked himself. His
+friend had told him that he was to win his way in the world, and was the
+struggle now to begin? The next question that came was, naturally, Who
+and what am I, then? and his thoughts plunged at once into a gulf where
+they had often lost themselves before.
+
+His boyhood had passed away unheeding, and he had attached no importance
+to his previous fate, nor made any effort to impress upon his own
+recollection the circumstances which preceded the period of his
+reception into the Earl's house. Indeed, he had never thought much upon
+the matter, till at length, when he had reached the age of fifteen, the
+Earl had kindly and judiciously spoken with him upon his future
+prospects; and in order to stimulate him to exertion, had pointed out to
+him that his fortunes depended on himself. He had then, for the first
+time, asked himself, "Who and what am I?" and had striven to recollect
+as much as possible of the past, in order to gather thence some
+knowledge of the present. His efforts had not been very successful.
+
+Time, the great destroyer, envies even memory the power of preserving
+images of the things that he has done away or altered; and he is sure,
+if possible, to deface the pictures altogether, or to leave the lines
+less clear. With Wilton he had done much to blot out and to confuse. At
+first, memory seemed all a blank beyond the period of his schoolboy
+days; but gradually one image after another rose out of the void, and
+one called up another as they came. Still they were clouded and
+indistinct, like the vague phantoms of a dream. It was with great
+difficulty that he recollected any names, and could not at all tell in
+what land it was, that some of the brightest of his memories lay. It was
+all unconnected, too, with the present, and from it Wilton could derive
+no clue in regard to the great change that was coming. Between him and
+the future there appeared to hang a dark pall, which his eye could not
+penetrate, but behind which was Fate. He tried to combat such feelings:
+he tried long, as he rode, to conquer them; to put them down by the
+power of a vigorous mind; to overthrow sensation by thought.
+
+When, however, he found that he could not succeed, when, after many
+efforts, the oppression--for I will not call it despondency--remained
+still as powerful as ever, he mentally turned, as if to face an enemy
+that pursued him, and to gaze full upon the inevitable power itself; all
+the more awful as it was, in the misty grandeur which shrouded the
+frowning features from his view. He nerved his heart, too, and resolved,
+whatever it might be that was in store for him, whatever might be the
+change, the loss, the adversity, which all his sensations seemed to
+prophesy, that he would bear it with unshrinking courage, with resolute
+determination; nay, with what was still more with one of his
+disposition, with unmurmuring patience.
+
+In the meanwhile, however, he strove, as he went along, to persuade
+himself that the presentiment was but the work of fancy; that there was
+nothing real in it; that he had excited himself to fears and
+apprehensions that were groundless; that the expedition of the Earl to
+Italy was but a temporary undertaking, and that it would most probably
+make no change in his situation, no alteration in his fortunes.
+
+Thus thought he, as he rode slowly onward, when, at the distance of
+about a quarter of a mile, he perceived another horseman, proceeding at
+a pace perhaps still slower than his own. The aspect of the country
+between Oxford and London was as different in that day from that which
+it is at present as it is possible to conceive. There is nothing in all
+England--with all the changes which have taken place, in manners,
+morals, feelings, arts, sciences, produce, manufactures, and
+government--which has undergone so great a change, as the high roads of
+the empire during the last hundred and fifty years. No one can now tell,
+where the roads which lay between this place and that then ran. They
+have been dug into, ploughed up, turned hither and thither, changed into
+canals, or swallowed up in railroads. The face of the country, too, has
+been altered, by many a village built, and many an old mansion pulled
+down, long tracts of country brought into cultivation, and deep
+plantations of old trees shadowing that ground which in those days was
+unwholesome marsh, or barren moor. Even Hounslow Heath, beloved by many
+of the frequenters of the King's Highway, has disappeared under the
+spirit of cultivation, and left no trace of places where many a daring
+deed was clone.
+
+However that may be, the road which the young traveller was following,
+lay not at all in the direction taken by either of the present roads to
+Oxford; but at a short distance from High Wycombe turned off to the
+right--that is, supposing the traveller to be going towards London--and
+approached the banks of the Thames not far from Marlow. In so doing, it
+passed over a long range of high hills, and a wide extent of flat,
+common ground upon the top, which was precisely the point whereat Wilton
+Brown had arrived, at the very moment we began this digression upon the
+state of the King's Highways in those times.
+
+This common ground of which we speak was as bleak as well might be, for
+the winds of heaven had certainly room to visit it as roughly as they
+chose; it was also uncultivated, and yet it cannot be said to have been
+unproductive; for, probably, there never was a space of ground of equal
+size, unless it were Maidenhead Thicket, which could show so rich and
+luxuriant a crop of gorse, heath, and fern. For a shelter to the latter,
+appeared scattered at unequal distances over the ground a few stunted
+trees--hawthorns, beeches, and oaks. The beech, however, predominated,
+in honour of the county in which the common was situated; for though,
+probably, if we knew the origin of the name bestowed on each county in
+England, we should find them all significant, yet none, I believe, would
+be found more picturesque or appropriate than that given by our good
+Saxon ancestors to the county in question--being Buchen-heim, or
+Buckingham: the home or land of the beeches.
+
+The gorse, fern, and heath, besides a small quantity of not very rich
+grass, and a few wild flowers, were the only produce of the ground,
+except the trees that I have mentioned; and the only tenants of the
+place were a few sheep, by far too lean to need any one to look after
+them. On the edges of the common, indeed, might be found an occasional
+goose or two, but they were like the white settlers on the coast of
+Africa: venturing rarely and timidly into the interior. A high road went
+across this track, as I have shown; but it being necessary, from time to
+time, that farmers' carts, and other conveyances, horses, waggons,
+tinkers' asses, and flocks of sheep, should cross it in different
+directions, and as each of these travelling bodies, in common with the
+world in general, liked to have a way of its own, the furze and fern had
+been cut down in many long straight lines; and paths for horse and foot,
+as well as long tracks of wheels, and deep ruts, crossed and recrossed
+each other all over the common. To have seen it--nay, to see it now, for
+it exists very nearly in its primeval state--one would suppose, from all
+the various tracks, that it was a place of great thoroughfare, when, to
+say truth, though I have crossed it some twenty times or more, I never
+saw any travelling thing upon it but a solitary tax-cart and a gipsy's
+van.
+
+It was just about the middle of this common, then, that Wilton Brown, as
+I have said, perceived another horseman riding along at the same slow
+pace as himself. Their faces were both turned one way, with a few
+hundred yards between them; and it appeared to the young gentleman, that
+the other personage whom we have mentioned was coming in an oblique line
+towards the high road to which he himself was journeying. This
+supposition proved to be correct, as the stranger, riding along the path
+that he was following, came abreast of Wilton Brown upon the high road,
+just at the spot where a comfortable direction-post pointed with the
+forefinger of a rude hand carved in the wood, along a path to the left,
+bearing inscribed, in large letters, "To Woburn."
+
+The young traveller examined the other with a hasty but marking glance,
+and perceived thereby, that he was a stout man of the middle age,
+between the unpleasant ages of forty and fifty, but without any loss of
+power or activity. He was mounted on a strong black horse, had a quick
+and eager eye, and altogether possessed a fine countenance, but there
+was some degree of shy suspicion in his look, which did not seem to
+indicate any very great energy or force of determination.
+
+It now wanted not more than a quarter of an hour to sunset, and there
+was a bright rich yellow light in the western sky, which gave each
+traveller a fair excuse for staring into the face of the other, as if
+their eyes were dazzled by the beams of the declining sun.
+
+When he had satisfied himself, Wilton Brown turned away his eyes, and
+rode on, gazing quietly over the wide extent of bleak common, which, to
+say sooth, offered a picturesque scene enough, with its scrubby trees,
+and its large masses of tall gorse, lying in the calm evening air; while
+deep blue shadows, and clear lights resting here and there in the
+hollows and upon the swells, marked them out distinctly to the view.
+
+In a moment after, however, Wilton's ears were saluted by the stranger's
+voice, saying, "Give you good evening, young gentleman--it has been a
+fine afternoon."
+
+Now this might appear somewhat singular in the present day--when human
+beings have adopted a particular sort of mysterious ordinance, by which
+alone they can become thoroughly known and acquainted with each
+other--and when no man, upon any pretence or consideration whatsoever,
+dare speak to a fellow-creature, until some one known to both of them
+has whispered some cabalistic words between them, which, in general,
+neither of them hear distinctly. At the time I speak of, however,
+acquaintance was much more easily made, so far, at least, as common
+civility and the ordinary charities of life went. A man might speak to
+another at that time, if any accidental circumstances threw them close
+together, without any risk of being taken for a fool, a swindler, or a
+brute; and there was, in short, a good-humoured frankness and simplicity
+in those days, which formed, to say the truth, the best part about them;
+for the good old times, as they are called, were certainly desperately
+coarse, and a trifle more vicious than the present.
+
+Such being the case then, Wilton Brown was not in the least surprised at
+the address of the stranger, but turned, and replied civilly; and being,
+indeed, somewhat dissatisfied with the companionship of his own
+thoughts, he suffered his horse to jog on side by side with the beast of
+the stranger, and entered into conversation with him willingly enough.
+He found him an intelligent and clever man, with a tone and manner
+superior, in many points, to his dress and equipage. He seemed to speak
+with authority, and was conversant with the great world of London, with
+the court, and the camp. He knew something also of France, and its
+self-called great monarch. He spoke with a shrug of the shoulder and an
+Alas! of the court of Saint Germain, and the exiled royal family of
+England; but he said nothing that could commit him to either one party
+or the other; and though he certainly left room for Wilton to express
+his own sentiments, if he chose to do so, he did not absolutely strive
+to lead him to any political subject, which formed in those days a more
+dangerous ground than at present.
+
+Wilton, however, had not the slightest inclination to discuss politics
+with a stranger. Brought up by a Whig minister, educated in the
+Protestant religion, and fond of liberty upon principle, it may easily
+be imagined, that he not only looked upon those who now swayed, and were
+destined to sway, the British sceptre as the lawful and rightful
+possessors of power in the country, but he regarded the actual sovereign
+himself--though he might not love him in his private character, or
+admire him in those acts, where the man and the monarch were too
+inseparably blended to be considered apart--as a great deliverer of this
+country, from a tyranny which had been twice tried and twice repudiated.
+At the same time, however, he felt for the exiled monarch. But he felt
+still more for his noble wife, and for his unhappy son. His own heart
+told him that those two had been unjustly dealt with, the one
+calumniated, the other punished without a fault. Nor did he blame the
+true and faithful servants whom adversity could not shake, and who were
+only loyal to a crime, who still adhered to their old allegiance, loved
+still the sovereign, who had never ill-treated them, and were ready
+again to shed their blood for the house in whose service so much noble
+blood had already flowed. He did not--he did not in his own heart--blame
+them, and he loved not to consider what necessity there might be for
+putting down with the strong and unsparing hand of law the frequent
+renewal of those claims which had been decided upon by the awful
+sentence of a mighty nation.
+
+But upon none of these subjects spoke he with the stranger. He refrained
+from all such topics, though they were with some skill thrown in his
+way; and thus the journey passed pleasantly enough for about half an
+hour. By that time the sun had gone down; but it was a clear, bright
+evening with a long twilight; and the evening rays, like gay children
+unwilling to go to sleep, lingered long in rosy sport with the light
+clouds before they would sink to rest beneath the western sky. The
+twilight was becoming grey, however, and the light falling short, when,
+at about the distance of half a mile before they reached the spot where
+the common terminated, the two travellers approached a rise and fall in
+the ground, beyond which ran a little stream with a small old bridge of
+one arch, not in the best repair, carrying the highway over the water
+with a sharp and sudden turn. Scattered about in the neighbourhood of
+the bridge, and on the slope that led down to it, perched upon sundry
+knolls and banks, and pieces of broken ground, were a number of old
+beeches, mostly hollowed out by time, but still flourishing green in
+their decay. These trees, together with the twilight, prevented the
+bridge itself from being seen by the travellers; but as they came near,
+they heard a sudden cry, as if called forth by either terror or
+surprise, and Wilton instantly checked his horse to listen.
+
+"Did you not hear a scream?" he said, addressing his companion in a low
+voice.
+
+"Yes," answered the other, "I thought I did: let us ride on and see."
+
+Wilton's spurs instantly touched his horse's side, and he rode quickly
+down the slope towards the bridge, which he well remembered, when a
+scene was suddenly presented to his view, which for a moment puzzled and
+confounded him.
+
+Just at the turn of the bridge lay overturned upon the road one of the
+large, heavy, wide-topped vehicles, called a coach in those days, while
+round about it appeared a group of persons whose situation, for a
+moment, seemed to him dubious, but which soon became more plain. A
+gentleman, somewhat advanced in life--perhaps about fifty-eight or
+fifty-nine, if not more--stood by the door of the carriage, from which
+he had recently emerged, and with him two women, one of whom was a young
+lady, apparently of about seventeen years of age, and the other her
+maid. Three men--servants stood about their master; but they had not the
+slightest appearance of any intention of giving aid to any one; for,
+though sundry were the situations and attitudes in which they stood,
+each of those attitudes betokened, in a greater or a less degree, the
+uncomfortable sensation of fear. One of them, indeed, had a brace of
+pistols in his two hands, but those hands dropped, as it were, powerless
+by his side, and his knees were bent into a crooked line, which
+certainly indicated no great firmness of heart.
+
+To account for the trepidation displayed by several of the persons
+present, it may be necessary to state that round the overthrown vehicle
+stood five personages, each of whom held a cocked pistol in his hand,
+and, in two instances, the hands that held those pistols were raised in
+an attitude of menace not to be mistaken. In one instance, the weapon of
+offence was pointed towards the gentleman who appeared to be the owner
+of the carriage; in the other, it was directed towards the head of the
+poor girl, his daughter, who seemed to have not the slightest intention
+of resisting.
+
+This formidable gesture was accompanied by words, which were spoken loud
+enough for Wilton to hear, as he pushed his horse down the hill; and
+those words were, "Come, madam! your ear-rings, quick: do not keep us
+all night with your hands shaking. By the Lord, I will get them out in a
+quicker fashion, if you do not mind."
+
+Before we can proceed to describe what occurred next, it may be
+necessary to state one feature in the case, which was very
+peculiar--this was, that at about forty yards from the spot where the
+robbery was taking place, upon the top of a small bank, with his horse
+grazing near, and his arms crossed upon his chest, stood a man of
+gentlemanly appearance and powerful frame, taking no part whatsoever in
+the affray; not opposing the proceedings of the plunderers, indeed, but
+gnawing his nether lip, as if anything rather than well contented. He
+fixed a keen, even a fierce eye upon Wilton as he rode down; but neither
+the young gentleman himself, nor the other traveller, who followed him
+at full speed, took any notice of him, but coming on with their pistols
+drawn from their holsters, they were soon in the midst of the group
+round the carriage.
+
+Wilton, unaccustomed to such encounters, was not very willing to shed
+blood, and therefore--the chivalrous spirit in his heart leading him at
+once towards one particular spot in the circle--he struck the man who
+was brutally pointing his pistol at the girl, a blow of his clenched
+fist, which hitting him just under the ear, as he turned at the sound of
+the horse's feet, laid him in a moment motionless and stunned upon the
+ground.
+
+The young gentleman, by the same impulse, and almost at the same
+instant, sprang from his horse, and cast himself between the lady and
+the assailants; but at that moment the voice of his travelling companion
+met his ear, exclaiming, in a thundering tone, "That is right! that is
+right! Now stand upon the defensive till my men come up!"
+
+Wilton did not at all understand what this might mean; but turning to
+the servants already on the spot, he exclaimed, in a sharp tone, "Stand
+forward like men, you scoundrels!" and they, seeing some help at hand,
+advanced a little with a show of courage.
+
+The gentlemen of the King's Highway, however, had heard the words which
+Wilton's companion had shouted to him; and seeing themselves somewhat
+overmatched in point of numbers already, they did not appear to approve
+of more men coming up on the other side, before they had taken their
+departure. There was, consequently, much hurrying to horse. The man who
+had been knocked down by Wilton was dragged away by the heels, from the
+spot where he lay somewhat too near to the other party; and the sharp
+application of the gravel to his face, as one of his companions pulled
+him along by the legs, proved sufficiently reviving to make him start
+up, and nearly knock his rescuer down.
+
+Wilton--not moved by the spirit of an ancient Greek--felt no
+inclination to fight for the dead or the living body of his foe; and the
+whole party of plunderers were speedily in the saddle and on the
+retreat, with the exception of the more sedate personage on the bank.
+He, indeed, was more slow to mount, calling the man who had been knocked
+down "The Knight of the Bloody Nose" as he passed him; and then with a
+light laugh springing into the saddle, he followed the rest at an easy
+canter.
+
+"Ha! ha! ha!" exclaimed Wilton's companion of the road, laughing, "let
+me be called the master of stratagems for the rest of my life! Those
+five fools have suffered themselves to be terrified from their booty,
+simply by three words from my mouth and their own imaginations."
+
+"Then you have no men coming up?" said Wilton.
+
+"Not a man," replied the other: "all my men are busy in my own house at
+this minute; most likely saying grace over roast pork and humming ale."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+The events that happen to us in life gather themselves together in
+particular groups, each group separated in some degree from that which
+follows and that which goes before, but yet each united, in its own
+several parts, by some strong bond of connexion, and each by a finer and
+less apparent ligament attached to the other groups that surround it. In
+short, if, as the great poet moralist has said, "All the world is a
+stage, and all the men and women in it only players," the life of each
+man is a drama, with the events thereof divided into separate scenes,
+the scenes gathered into grand acts, and the acts all tending to the
+great tragic conclusion of the whole. Happy were it for man if he, like
+a great dramatist, would keep the ultimate conclusion still in view.
+
+In the life of Wilton Brown, the scene of the robbers ended with the
+words which we have just said were spoken by his travelling companion,
+and a new scene was about to begin.
+
+The elderly gentleman to whom the carriage apparently belonged, took a
+step forward as the stranger spoke the last sentence, exclaiming,
+"Surely I am not mistaken--Sir John Fenwick, I believe." The stranger
+pulled off his hat and bowed low. "The same, your grace," he replied:
+"it is long since we have met, and I am happy that our meeting now has
+proved, in some degree, serviceable to you."
+
+"Most serviceable, indeed, Sir John," replied the Duke, shaking him
+warmly by the hand; "and how is your fair wife, my Lady Mary? and my
+good Lord of Carlisle, and all the Howards?"
+
+"Well, thank your grace," replied Sir John Fenwick, "all well. This, I
+presume, is your fair daughter, my Lady."
+
+"She is, sir, she is," interrupted the Duke: "you have seen her as a
+child, Sir John. But pray, Sir John, introduce us to your gallant young
+friend, to whom we are also indebted for so much."
+
+"He must do that for himself," replied Sir John Fenwick: "we are but the
+companions of the last half hour, and comrades in this little
+adventure."
+
+Although accustomed to mingle with the best society; and, in all
+ordinary cases, free and unrestrained in his own manners, Wilton Brown
+felt some slight awkwardness in introducing himself upon the present
+occasion. He accordingly merely gave his name, expressing how much
+happiness he felt at the opportunity he had had of serving the Duke; but
+referred not at all to his own station or connexion with the Earl of
+Sunbury.
+
+"Wilton Brown!" said the Duke, with a meaning smile, and gazing at him
+from head to foot, while he mentally contrasted his fine and lofty
+appearance, handsome dress, and distinguished manners, with the somewhat
+ordinary name which he had given. "Wilton Brown! a NOM DE GUERRE, I
+rather suspect, my young friend?"
+
+"No, indeed, my lord," replied Wilton: "were it worth anybody's while to
+search, it would be found so written in the books of Christchurch."
+
+"Oh! an Oxonian," cried the Duke, "and doubtless now upon your way to
+London. But how is this, my young friend, you are in midst of term
+time!"
+
+Wilton smiled at the somewhat authoritative and parental tone assumed by
+the old gentleman. "The fact is, my Lord Duke," he said, "that I am
+obliged to absent myself, but not without permission. The illness of my
+best friend, the Earl of Sunbury, and his approaching departure for
+Italy, oblige me to go to London now to see him before he departs."
+
+"Oh, the Earl of Sunbury, the Earl of Sunbury," replied the Duke: "a
+most excellent man, and a great statesman, one on whom all parties rely.*
+That alters the case, my young friend; and indeed, whatever might be the
+cause of your absence from Alma Mater, we have much to thank that cause
+for your gallant assistance--especially my poor girl here. Let me shake
+hands with you--and now we must think of what is to be done next, for
+it is well nigh dark: the carriage is broken by those large stones which
+they must have put in the way, doubtless, to stop us; and it is hopeless
+to think of getting on farther to-night."
+
+[*Footnote: Let it be remarked that this was not the Earl of Sunderland,
+of whom the exact reverse might have been said.]
+
+"Hopeless, indeed, my lord," replied Sir John Fenwick; "but your grace
+must have passed on the way hither a little inn, about half a mile
+distant, or somewhat more. There I intended to sleep to-night, and most
+probably my young friend, too, for his horse seems as tired as mine. If
+your grace will follow my advice, you would walk back to the inn, make
+your servants take everything out of the carriage, and send some people
+down afterwards to drag it to the inn-yard till to-morrow morning."
+
+"It is most unfortunate!" said the Duke, who was fond of retrospects.
+"We sent forward the other carriage about three hours before us, in
+order that the house in London might be prepared when we came."
+
+The proposal of Sir John Fenwick, however, was adopted; and after giving
+careful and manifold orders to his servants, the Duke took his way back
+on foot towards the inn, conversing as he went with the Knight. His
+daughter followed with Wilton Brown by her side; and for a moment or two
+they went on in silence; but at length seeing her steps not very steady
+over the rough road upon which they were, Wilton offered his left arm to
+support her, having the bridle of his horse over the right.
+
+She took it at once, and he felt her hand tremble as it rested on his
+arm, which was explained almost at the same moment. "It is very foolish,
+I believe," she said, in a low, sweet voice, "and you will think me a
+terrible coward, I am afraid; but I know not how it is, I feel more
+terrified and agitated, now that this is all over, than I did at the
+time."
+
+The communication being thus begun, Wilton soon found means to soothe
+and quiet her. His conversation had all that ease and grace which,
+combined with carefulness of proprieties, is only to be gained by long
+and early association with persons of high minds and manners. There was
+no restraint, no stiffness--for to avoid all that could give pain or
+offence to any one was habitual to him--and yet, at the same time, there
+was joined to the high tone of demeanour a sort of freshness of ideas, a
+picturesqueness of language and of thought, which were very captivating,
+even when employed upon ordinary subjects. It is an art--perhaps I might
+almost call it a faculty--of minds like his, insensibly and naturally to
+lead others from the most common topics, to matters of deeper interest,
+and thoughts of a less every-day character. It is as if two persons were
+riding along the high road together, and one of them, without his
+companion remarking it, were to guide their horses into some bridle-path
+displaying in its course new views and beautiful points in the scenery
+around.
+
+Thus ere they reached the inn, the fair girl, who leaned upon the arm of
+an acquaintance of half an hour, seemed to her own feelings as well
+acquainted with him as if she had known him for years, and was talking
+with him on a thousand subjects on which she had never conversed with
+any one before.
+
+The Duke, who, although good-humoured and kindly, was somewhat stately,
+and perhaps a very little ostentatious withal, on the arrival of the
+party at the inn, insisted upon the two gentlemen doing him the honour
+of supping with him that night, "as well," he said, "as the poorness of
+the place would permit;" and a room apart having been assigned to him,
+he retired thither, with the humbly bowing host, to issue his own orders
+regarding their provision. The larder of the inn, however, proved to be
+miraculously well stocked; the landlord declared that no town in
+Burgundy, no, nor Bordeaux itself, could excel the wine that he would
+produce; and while the servants with messengers from the inn brought in
+packages, which seemed innumerable, from the carriage, the cook toiled
+in her vocation, the host and hostess bustled about to put all the rooms
+in order, Sir John Fenwick and Wilton Brown talked at the door of the
+inn, and Lady Laura retired to alter her dress, which had been somewhat
+deranged by the overthrow of the carriage.
+
+At length, however, it was announced that supper was ready, and Wilton
+with his companion entered the room, where the Duke and his daughter
+awaited them. On going in, Wilton was struck and surprised; and, indeed,
+he almost paused in his advance, at the sight of the young lady, as she
+stood by her father. In the grey of the twilight, he had only remarked
+that she was a very pretty girl; and as they had walked along to the
+inn, she had shown so little of the manner and consciousness of a
+professed beauty, that he had not even suspected she might be more than
+he had first imagined. When he saw her now, however, in the full light,
+he was, as we have said, struck with surprise by the vision of radiant
+loveliness which her face and form presented. Wilton was too wise,
+however, and knew his own situation too well, even to dream of falling
+in love with a duke's daughter; and though he might, when her eyes were
+turned a different way, gaze upon her and admire, it was but as a man
+who looks at a jewel in a king's crown, which he knows he can never
+possess.
+
+Well pleased to please, and having nothing in his thoughts to embarrass
+or trouble him on that particular occasion, he gave way to his natural
+feelings, and won no small favour and approbation in the eyes of the
+Duke and his fair daughter. The evening, which had begun with two of the
+party so inauspiciously, passed over lightly and gaily; and after
+supper, Wilton rose to retire to rest, with a sigh, perhaps, from some
+ill-defined emotions, but with a recollection of two or three happy
+hours to be added to the treasury of such sweet things which memory
+stores for us in our way through life.
+
+As the inn was very full, the young gentleman had to pass through the
+kitchen to reach the staircase of his appointed room. Standing before
+the kitchen fire, and talking over his shoulder to the landlord, who
+stood a step behind him, was a tall, broad-shouldered, powerful man,
+dressed in a good suit of green broad cloth, laced with gold. His face
+was to the fire, and his back to Wilton, and he did not turn or look
+round while the young gentleman was there. The landlord hastened to give
+his guest a light, and show him his room; and Wilton passed a night,
+which, if not dreamless, was visited by no other visions but sweet ones.
+
+On the following morning he was up early, and approached the window of
+his room to throw it open, and to let in the sweet early air to visit
+him, while he dressed himself; but the moment he went near the window,
+he saw that it looked into a pretty garden laid out in the old English
+style. That garden, however, was already tenanted by two persons
+apparently deep in earnest conversation. One of those two persons was
+evidently Sir John Fenwick, and the other was the stranger in green and
+gold, whom Wilton had remarked the night before at the kitchen fire.
+
+Seeing how earnestly they were speaking, he refrained from opening his
+window, and proceeded to dress himself; but he could not avoid having,
+every now and then, a full view of the faces of the two, as they turned
+backwards and forwards at the end of the garden. Something that he there
+saw puzzled and surprised him: the appearance of the stranger in green
+seemed more familiar to him than it could have become by the casual
+glance he had obtained of it in the inn kitchen; and he became more and
+more convinced, at every turn they took before him, that this personage
+was no other than the man he had beheld standing on the bank, taking no
+part with the gentlemen of the road, indeed, but evidently belonging to
+their company.
+
+This puzzled him, as we have said, not a little. Sir John Fenwick was a
+gentleman of good repute, whom he had heard of before now. He had
+married the Lady Mary Howard, daughter of the Earl of Carlisle, and,
+though a stanch Jacobite, it was supposed, he was nevertheless looked
+upon as a man of undoubted probity and honour. What could have been his
+business, then, with thieves, or at best with the companions of thieves?
+This was a question which Wilton could no ways solve; and after having
+teased himself for some time therewith, he at length descended to the
+little parlour of the inn, and ordered his horse to be brought round as
+speedily as possible. He felt in his own bosom, indeed, some inclination
+to wait for an hour or two, in order to take leave of the Duke and his
+fair daughter; but remembering his own situation with the Earl, as well
+as feeling some of his gloomy sensations of the day before returning
+upon him, he determined to set out without loss of time. He mounted
+accordingly, and took his way towards London at a quick pace, in order
+to arrive before the Earl's breakfast hour.
+
+There are, however, in that part of the country, manifold hills, over
+which none but a very inhumane man, unless he were pursued by enemies,
+or pursuing a fox, would urge his horse at a rapid rate; and as Wilton
+Brown was slowly climbing one of the first of these, he was overtaken by
+another horseman, who turned out to be none other than the worthy
+gentleman in the green coat.
+
+"Good morrow to you, Master Wilton Brown," said the stranger, pulling up
+his horse as soon as he had reached him: "we are riding along the same
+road, I find, and may as well keep companionship as we go. These are sad
+times, and the roads are dangerous."
+
+"They are, indeed, my good sir," replied Wilton, who was, in general,
+not without that capability of putting down intrusion at a word, which,
+strangely enough, is sometimes a talent of the lowest and meanest order
+of frivolous intellects, but is almost always found in the firm and
+decided--"they are, indeed, if I may judge by what you and I saw last
+night."
+
+The stranger did not move a muscle, but answered, quite coolly, "Ay, sad
+doings though, sad doings: you knocked that fellow down smartly--a neat
+blow, as I should wish to see: I thought you would have shot one of
+them, for my part."
+
+"It is a pity you had not been beforehand with me," answered Wilton:
+"you seemed to have been some time enjoying the sport when we came up."
+
+The stranger now laughed aloud. "No, no," he said, "that would not do; I
+could not interfere; I am not conservator of the King's Highway; and,
+for my part, it should always be open for gentlemen to act as they
+liked, though I would not take any share in the matter for the world."
+
+"There is such a thing," replied Wilton, not liking his companion at
+all--"there is such a thing as taking no share in the risk, and a share
+in the profit."
+
+A quick flush passed over the horseman's cheek, but remained not a
+moment. "That is not my case," he replied, in a graver tone than he had
+hitherto used; "not a stiver would I have taken that came out of the
+good Duke's pocket, had it been to save me from starving. I take no
+money from any but an enemy; and when we cannot carry on the war with
+them in the open field, I do not see why we should not carry it on with
+them in any way we can. But to attack a friend, or an indifferent
+person, is not at all in my way."
+
+"Oh! I begin to understand you somewhat more clearly," replied Wilton;
+"but allow me to say, my good sir, that it were much better not to talk
+to me any more upon such subjects. By so doing, you run a needless risk
+yourself, and can do neither of us any good. Of course," he added,
+willing to change the conversation, "it was Sir John Fenwick who told
+you my name."
+
+"Yes," replied the other; "but it was needless, for I knew it before."
+
+"And yet," said Wilton, "I do not remember that we ever met."
+
+"There you are mistaken," answered the traveller; "we met no longer ago
+than last Monday week. You were going down the High-street in your cap
+and gown, and you saw some boys looking into a tart shop, and gave them
+some pence to buy what they longed for."
+
+The ingenuous colour came up into Wilton Brown's cheek, as he remembered
+the little circumstance to which the man alluded. "I did not see you,"
+he said.
+
+"But I saw you," answered the man, "and was pleased with what I saw; for
+I am one of those whom the hard lessons of life have taught to judge
+more by the small acts done in private, than by the great acts that all
+mankind must see. Man's closet acts are for his own heart and God's eye;
+man's public deeds are paintings for the world. However, I was pleased,
+as I have said, and I have seen more things of you also that have
+pleased me well. You saw me, passed me by, and would not know me again
+in the same shape to-morrow; but I take many forms, when it may suit my
+purposes; and having been well pleased with you once or twice, I take
+heed of what you are about when I do see you."
+
+Wilton Brown mused over what he said for a moment or two, and then
+replied, "I should much like to know what it was first induced you to
+take any notice of my actions at all--there must have been some motive,
+of course."
+
+"Oh, no," replied the other--"there is no MUST! It might have been
+common curiosity. Every likely youth, with a pair of broad shoulders and
+a soldier-like air, is worth looking after in these times of war and
+trouble. But the truth is, I know those who know something of you, and,
+if I liked, I could introduce you to one whom you have not seen for many
+a year."
+
+"What is his name?" demanded Wilton Brown, turning sharply upon the
+stranger, and gazing full in his face.
+
+"Oh! I name no names," replied the stranger; "I know not whether it
+would be liked or not. However, some day I will do what I have said, if
+I can get leave; and now I think I will wish you good morning, for here
+lies my road, and there lies yours."
+
+"But stay, stay, yet a moment," said Wilton, checking his horse; "how am
+I to hear of you, or to see you again?"
+
+"Oh!" replied the stranger, in a gay tone, "I will contrive that, fear
+not!--Nevertheless, in case you should need it, you can ask for me at
+the tavern at the back of Beaufort House: the Green Dragon, it is
+called."
+
+"And your name, your name?" said Wilton, seeing the other about to ride
+away.
+
+"My name! ay, I had forgot--why, your name is Brown--call me Green, if
+you like. One colour's just as good as another, and I may as well keep
+the complexion of my good friend, the Dragon, in countenance. So you
+wont forget, it is Mister Green, at the Green Dragon, in the Green Lane
+at the back of Beaufort House; and now, Mister Brown, I leave you a
+brown study, to carry you on your way."
+
+So saying, he turned his horse's head, and cantered easily over the
+upland which skirted the road to the left. After he had gone about a
+couple of hundred yards, Wilton saw him stop and pause, as if
+thoughtfully, for a minute. But without turning back to the road, he
+again put spurs to his horse, and was out of sight in a few moments.
+
+Wilton then rode on to London, without farther pause or adventure of any
+kind; but it were vain to say that, in this instance, "care did not sit
+behind the horseman;" for many an anxious thought, and unresolved
+question, and intense meditation, were his companions on his onward way.
+Fortunately, however, his horse was not troubled in the same manner; and
+about five minutes before the hour he had proposed to himself, Wilton
+was standing before the house of the Earl in St. James's-square. The
+servants were all rejoiced to see him, for, unlike persons in his
+situation in general, he was very popular amongst them; but the Earl, he
+was informed, had not yet risen, and the account the young gentleman
+received of his health made him sad and apprehensive.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+IN about an hour's time, the Earl of Sunbury descended to breakfast; and
+he expressed no small pleasure at the unexpected appearance of his young
+protege.
+
+"You were always a kind and an affectionate boy, Wilton," he said; "and
+you have kept your good feelings unchanged, I am happy to find. Depend
+upon it, when one can do so, amongst all the troubles, and cares, and
+corrupting things of this world, we find in the feelings of the heart
+that consolation, when sorrows and disappointments assail us, which no
+gift or favour of man can impart. I believe, indeed, that within the
+last six months, with all the bodily pains and mental anxieties I have
+had to suffer, I should either have died or gone mad, had not my mind
+obtained relief, from time to time, in the enjoyment of the beauties of
+nature, the works of art, and the productions of genius. Nor have my
+thoughts been altogether unoccupied with you," he added, after a
+moment's pause, "and that occupation would have been most pleasant to my
+mind, Wilton, inasmuch as through your whole course you have given me
+undivided satisfaction. But, alas! I cannot do for you all that I should
+wish to do. You know that my own estates are all entailed upon distant
+relatives, whom I do not even know. I am not a man, as you are well
+aware, to accumulate wealth; and all I can possibly assure to you is the
+enjoyment of the same income I have hitherto allowed you, and which, in
+case of my death, I will take care shall be yours."
+
+Wilton listened, as may be supposed, with affection and gratitude; but
+he tried, after expressing all he felt, and assuring the Earl that he
+possessed as much as he desired, to put an end to a conversation which
+was rendered the more painful to him by the marked alteration which he
+perceived in the person of his friend since he had last seen him.
+
+The Earl, however, would not suffer the subject to drop, replying, "I
+know well that you are no way extravagant, Wilton, and maintain the
+appearance of a gentleman upon smaller means than many could or would;
+but yet, my good youth, you are naturally ambitious; and there are a
+thousand wants, necessities, and desires still to be gratified, which at
+present you neither perceive nor provide for. You are not destined,
+Wilton, to go on all your life, content in the seclusion of a college,
+with less than three hundred a year. Every man should strive to fulfil
+to the utmost his destiny--I mean, should endeavour to reach the highest
+point in any way which God has given him the capability of attaining.
+You must become more than you are, greater, higher, richer, by your own
+exertions. Had my health suffered me to remain here, I could have easily
+facilitated your progress in political life. Now I must trust your
+advancement to another; and you will perhaps think it strange, that the
+person I do trust it to should not be any of my old and intimate
+political friends. But I have my reasons for what I do, which you will
+some day know; and before I go, I must exact one promise of you, which
+is to put yourself under the guidance of the person whom I have
+mentioned, and to accept whatever post he may think the best calculated
+to promote your future views. As he now holds one of the highest
+stations in the ministry, I could have wished him to name you his
+private secretary, but that office is at present filled, and he has
+promised me most solemnly to find you some occupation within the next
+half-year. Your allowance shall be regularly transmitted to you till my
+return; and, until you receive some appointment, you had better remain
+at Oxford, which may give you perhaps the means of taking your first
+degree. And now, my dear boy, that I have explained all this, what were
+you about to say regarding the adventures you met with in your journey?"
+
+"First let me ask, sir," replied Wilton, "who is the gentleman you have
+so kindly interested for me?"
+
+"Oh! I thought you had divined: it is the Earl of Byerdale, now all
+potent in the counsels of the King--at least, so men suppose and say.
+However, I look upon it that you have given me the promise that I ask."
+
+"Undoubtedly, my lord," replied Wilton: "in such a case, I must ever
+look upon your wishes as a command."
+
+The conversation then turned to other and lighter matters, and Wilton
+amused his friend with the detail of the adventures of the preceding
+night.
+
+"Sir John Fenwick!" exclaimed the Earl, as soon as Wilton came to the
+events that succeeded the robbery--"he is a dangerous companion, Sir
+John Fenwick! We know him to be disaffected, a nonjuror, and a plotter
+of a dark and intriguing character. Who was the Duke he met with? Duke
+of what?"
+
+"On my word, I cannot tell you, sir," replied Wilton; "I did not hear
+his name: they called his daughter Lady Laura."
+
+"You are a strange young man, Wilton," replied the Earl; "there are
+probably not two men in Europe who would have failed to inquire, if it
+were no more than the name of this pretty girl you mention."
+
+"If there had been the slightest probability of my ever meeting her
+again," replied Wilton, "I most likely should have inquired. But my
+story is not ended yet;" and he went on to detail what had occurred
+during his ride that morning.
+
+This seemed to strike and interest the Earl more than the rest; and he
+immediately asked his young companion a vast number of questions, all
+relating to the personal appearance of the gentleman in green, who had
+been the comrade of his early ride.
+
+After all these interrogatories had been answered, he mused for a minute
+or two, and then observed, "No, no, it could not be. This personage in
+green, Wilton, depend upon it, is some agent of Sir John Fenwick, and
+the Jacobite party. He has got some intimation of your name and
+situation, and has most likely seen you once or twice in Oxford, where,
+I am sorry to say, there are too many such as himself. They have fixed
+their eyes upon you, and, depend upon it, there will be many attempts to
+gain your adherence to an unsuccessful and a desperate party. Be wise,
+my dear Wilton, and shun all communication with such people. No one who
+has not filled such a station as I have, can be aware of their manifold
+arts."
+
+Wilton promised to be upon his guard, and the conversation dropped
+there. It had suggested, however, a new train of ideas to the mind of
+the young gentleman--new, I mean, solely in point of combination, for
+the ideas themselves referred to subjects long known and often thought
+of. It appeared evident to him, that the question which the Earl had put
+to himself in secret, when he heard of his conversation with the man in
+green, was, "Can this be any one, who really knows the early history of
+Wilton Brown?" and the question which Wilton in turn asked himself was,
+"How is the Earl connected with that early history?"
+
+Many painful doubts had often suggested themselves to the mind of Wilton
+Brown in regard to that very subject; and those doubts themselves had
+prevented him from pressing on the Earl questions which might have
+brought forth the facts, but which, at the same time, he thought, might
+pain that nobleman most bitterly, if his suspicions should prove
+accurate.
+
+The Earl himself had always carefully avoided the subject, and when any
+accidental words led towards it, had taken evident pains to change the
+conversation. What had occurred that morning, however, weighed upon
+Wilton's mind, and he more than once asked himself the question--"Who
+and what am I?"
+
+There was a painful solution always ready at hand; but then again he
+replied to his own suspicions--"The Earl certainly treats me like a
+noble and generous friend, but not like a father." The conclusion of all
+these thoughts was,--
+
+"Even though I may give the Earl a moment's pain, I must ask him the
+question before he goes to Italy;" and he watched his opportunity for
+several days, without finding any means of introducing such a topic.
+
+At length, one morning, when the Earl happened to be saying something
+farther regarding the young man's future fate, Wilton seized the
+opportunity, and replied, "With me, my dear lord, the future and the
+past are alike equally dark and doubtful. I wish, indeed, that I might
+be permitted to know a little of the latter, at least." "Do not let us
+talk upon that subject at present, Wilton," said the Earl, somewhat
+impatiently; "you will know it all soon enough. At one-and-twenty you
+shall have all the information that can be given to you."
+
+But few words more passed on that matter, and they only conveyed a
+reiteration of the Earl's promise more distinctly. On the afternoon of
+that day another person was added to the dinner table of the Earl of
+Sunbury. Wilton knew not that anybody was coming, till he perceived that
+the Earl waited for some guest; but at length the Earl of Byerdale was
+announced, and a tall good-looking man, of some fifty years of age, or
+perhaps less, entered the room, with that calm, slow, noiseless sort of
+footstep, which generally accompanies a disposition either naturally or
+habitually cautious. It is somewhat like the footstep of a cat over a
+dewy lawn.
+
+Between the statesman's brows was a deep-set wrinkle, which gave his
+countenance a sullen and determined character, and the left-hand corner
+of his mouth, as well as the marking line between the lips and the
+cheek, were drawn sharply down, as if he were constantly in the presence
+of somebody he disliked and rather scorned. Yet he strove frequently to
+smile, made gay and very courteous speeches too, and said small pleasant
+things with a peculiar grace. He was, indeed, a very gentlemanly and
+courtly personage, and those who liked him were wont to declare, that it
+was not his fault if his countenance was somewhat forbidding. By some
+persons, indeed--as is frequently the case with people of weak and
+subservient characters--the very sneer upon his lip, and the
+authoritative frown upon his brow, were received as marks of dignity,
+and signs of a high and powerful mind.
+
+Such things, however, did not at all impose upon a man so thoroughly
+acquainted with courts and cabinets as the Earl of Sunbury, and the
+consequence was, that Lord Byerdale, with all his coolness,
+self-confidence, and talent, felt himself second in the company of the
+greater mind, and though he liked not the feeling, yet stretched his
+courtesy and politeness farther than usual.
+
+When he entered, he advanced towards the Earl with one of his most
+bright and placid smiles, apologized for being a little later than his
+time, was delighted to see the Earl looking rather better, and then
+turned to see who was the other person in the room, in order to
+apportion his civility accordingly. When he beheld Wilton Brown, the
+young gentleman's fine person, his high and lofty look, and a certain
+air of distinction and self-possession about him, though so young,
+appeared to strike and puzzle him; but the Earl instantly introduced his
+protege to the statesman, saying, "The young friend, my lord, of whom I
+spoke to you, Mr. Wilton Brown."
+
+Lord Byerdale was now as polite as he could be, assured the young
+gentleman that all his small interest could command should be at his
+service; and while he did so, he looked from his countenance to that of
+the Earl, and from the Earl's to his, as if he were comparing them with
+one another. Then, again, he glanced his eyes to a beautiful picture by
+Kneller, of a lady dressed in a fanciful costume, which hung on one side
+of the drawing-room.
+
+Wilton remarked the expression of his face as he did so; and his own
+thoughts, connecting that expression with foregone suspicions, rendered
+it painful. Quitting the room for a moment before dinner was announced,
+he retired to his own chamber, and looked for an instant in the glass.
+He was instantly struck by an extraordinary resemblance, between himself
+and the picture, which had never occurred to him before.
+
+In the meanwhile, as soon as he had quitted the room, the Earl said, in
+a calm, grave tone to his companion, pointing at the same time to the
+picture which the other had been remarking, "The likeness is indeed very
+striking, and might, perhaps, lead one to a suspicion which is not
+correct."
+
+"Oh, my dear lord," replied the courtier, "you must not think I meant
+anything of the kind. I did remark a slight likeness, perhaps; but I was
+admiring the beauty of the portrait. That is a Kneller, of course; none
+could paint that but Kneller."
+
+The Earl bowed his head and turned to the window. "It is the portrait,"
+he said, "of one of my mother's family, a third or fourth cousin of my
+own. Her father, Sir Harry Oswald, was obliged to fly, you know, for one
+of those sad affairs in the reign of Charles the Second, and his estates
+and effects were sold. I bought that picture at the time, with several
+other things, as memorials of them, poor people."
+
+"She must have been very handsome," said Lord Byerdale.
+
+"The painter did her less than justice," replied the Earl, in the same
+quiet tone: "she and her father died in France, within a short time of
+each other; and there is certainly a strong likeness between that
+portrait and Wilton.--There is no relationship, however."
+
+Notwithstanding the quiet tone in which the Earl spoke, Lord Byerdale
+kept his own opinion upon the subject, but dropped it as a matter of
+conversation. The evening passed over as pleasantly as the illness of
+the Earl would permit; and certainly, if Wilton Brown was not well
+pleased with the Earl of Byerdale, it was not from any lack of
+politeness on the part of that gentleman. That he felt no particular
+inclination towards him is not to be denied; but nevertheless he was
+grateful for his kindness, even of demeanour, and doubted not--such was
+his inexperience of the world--that the Earl of Byerdale would always
+treat him in the same manner.
+
+After this day, which proved, in reality, an eventful one in the life of
+Wilton Brown, about a week elapsed before the Earl set out for the
+Continent. Wilton saw him on board, and dropped down the river with him;
+and after his noble friend had quitted the shores of England, he turned
+his steps again towards Oxford, without lingering at all in the capital.
+It must be confessed, that he felt a much greater degree of loneliness,
+than he had expected to experience on the departure of the Earl. He knew
+now, for the first time, how much he had depended upon, and loved and
+trusted, the only real friend that he ever remembered to have had. It is
+true, that while the Earl was resident in London, and he principally in
+Oxford, they saw but little of each other; but still it made a great
+change, when several countries, some at peace and some at war with
+England, lay between them, and when the cold melancholy sea stretched
+its wide barrier to keep them asunder. He felt that he had none to
+appeal to for advice or aid, when advice or aid should be wanting; that
+the director of his youth was gone, and that he was left to win for
+himself that dark experience of the world's ways, which never can be
+learned, without paying the sad price of sorrow and disappointment.
+
+Such were naturally his first feelings; and though the acuteness of them
+wore away, the impression still remained whenever thought was turned in
+that direction. He was soon cheered, however, by a letter from the Earl,
+informing him of his having arrived safely in Piedmont; and shortly
+after, the first quarter of his usual allowance was transmitted to him,
+with a brief polite note from the Earl of Byerdale, in whose hands Lord
+Sunbury seemed entirely to have placed him. Wilton acknowledged the note
+immediately, and then applied himself to his studies again; but shortly
+after, he was shocked by a rumour reaching him, that his kind friend had
+been taken prisoner by the French. While he was making inquiries, as
+diligently as was possible in that place, and was hesitating, as to
+whether, in order to learn more, he should go to London or not, he
+received a second epistle froth the Earl of Byerdale, couched in much
+colder terms than his former communication, putting the question of the
+Earl's capture beyond doubt, and at the same time stating, that as he
+understood this circumstance was likely to stop the allowance which had
+usually been made to Mr. Brown, he, the Earl of Byerdale, was anxious to
+give him some employment as speedily as possible, although that
+employment might not be such as he could wish to bestow. He begged him,
+therefore, to come to London with all speed, to speak with him on the
+subject, and ended, by assuring him that he was--what Wilton knew him
+not to be--his very humble and most obedient servant.
+
+On first reading the note, Wilton had almost formed a rash
+resolution--had almost determined neither to go to London at all, nor to
+repose upon the friendship and assistance of the Earl of Byerdale. But
+recollecting his promise to his noble friend before his departure, he
+resolved to endure anything rather than violate such an engagement; and
+consequently wrote to say he would wait upon the Earl as soon as the
+term was over, to the close of which there wanted but a week or two at
+that time.
+
+In that week or two, however, Wilton was destined to feel some of the
+first inconveniences attending a sudden change in his finances.
+Remembering, that, for the time at least, more than two-thirds of his
+income was gone, he instantly began to contract all his expenses, and
+suffered, before the end of the term, not a few of the painful followers
+of comparative poverty.
+
+He now felt, and felt bitterly, that the small sum which he received
+from his college would not be sufficient to maintain him at the
+University, even with the greatest economy; so that, besides his promise
+to the Earl, to accept whatever Lord Byerdale should offer him, absolute
+necessity seemed to force him as a dependent upon that nobleman, at
+least till he could hear some news of his more generous friend.
+
+It is an undoubted fact, that small annoyances are often more difficult
+to bear than evils of greater magnitude; and Wilton felt all those
+attendant upon his present situation most acutely. To appear differently
+amongst his noble comrades at the University; to have no longer a horse,
+to join them in their rides; to be obliged to sell the fine books he had
+collected, and one or two small pictures by great masters which he had
+bought; to be questioned and commiserated by the acquaintances who cared
+the least for him;--all these were separate sources of great and acute
+pain to a feeling and sensitive heart, not yet accustomed to adversity.
+Wilton, however, had not been schooling his own mind in vain for the
+last two years; and though he felt as much as any one, every privation,
+yet he succeeded in bearing them all with calmness and fortitude, and
+perhaps even curtailed every indulgence more sternly than was absolutely
+necessary at the time, from a fear that the reluctance which he felt
+might in any degree blind his eyes to that which was just and right.
+
+A few instruments of music, a few books not absolutely required in his
+studies, his implements for drawing, and all the little trinkets or
+gifts of any kind which he had received from the Earl of Sunbury, were
+the only things that he still preserved, which merited in any degree the
+name of superfluities. With the sum obtained from the sale of the rest,
+he discharged to the uttermost farthing all the expenses of the
+preceding term, took his first degree with honour, and then set out upon
+his journey to London.
+
+No adventure attended him upon the way; and on the morning after his
+arrival, he presented himself at an early hour at the house of the Earl
+of Byerdale. After waiting for some time, he was received by that
+nobleman with a cold and stately air; and having given him a hint, that
+it would have been more respectful if he had come up immediately to
+London, instead of waiting at Oxford till the end of the term, the Earl
+proceeded to inform him of his views.
+
+"Our noble and excellent friend, the Earl of Sunbury," said the
+statesman, "was very anxious, Mr. Brown, that I should receive you as my
+private secretary. Now, as I informed him, the gentleman whom I have
+always employed cannot of course be removed from that situation without
+cause; but, at the same time, what between my public and my private
+business, I have need of greater assistance than he can render me. I
+have need, in fact, of two private secretaries, and one will naturally
+succeed the other, when, as will probably be the case, in about six
+months the first is removed by appointment to a higher office. I will
+give you till to-morrow to consider, whether the post I now offer you is
+worth your acceptance. The salary we must make the same as the allowance
+which has lately unfortunately ceased; and I am only sorry that I can
+give you no further time for reflection, as I have already delayed three
+weeks without deciding between various applicants, in order to give you
+time to arrive in London."
+
+Wilton replied not at the moment; for there was certainly not one word
+said by the Earl which could give him any assignable cause of offence,
+and yet he was grieved and offended. It was the tone, the manner, the
+cold haughtiness of every look and gesture that pained him. He was not
+moved by any boyish conceit; he was always willing, even in his own
+mind, to offer deep respect to high rank, or high station, or high
+talents. He would have been ready to own at once, that the Earl was far
+superior to himself in all these particulars; but that which did annoy
+him, as it might annoy any one, was to be made to feel the superiority,
+at every word, by the language and demeanour of the Earl himself.
+
+He retired, then, to the inn, where, for the first time during all his
+many visits to London, he had taken up his residence; and there, pacing
+up and down the room, he thought bitterly over Lord Byerdale's proposal.
+The situation offered to him was far inferior to what he had been led to
+expect; and he evidently saw, that the demeanour of the Earl himself
+would render every circumstance connected with it painful, or at least
+unpleasant. Yet, what was he to do? There were, indeed, a thousand other
+ways of gaining his livelihood, at least till the Earl of Sunbury were
+set free; but then, his promise that he would not refuse anything which
+was offered by Lord Byerdale again came into his mind, and he
+determined, with that resolute firmness which characterized him even at
+an early age, to bear all, and to endure all; to keep his word with the
+Earl to the letter, and to accept an office in the execution of which he
+anticipated nothing but pain, mortification, and discomfort.
+
+Such being the case, he thought it much better to write his resolutions
+to the Earl, than to expose himself to more humiliation by speaking with
+him on the subject again. He had suffered sufficiently in their last
+conversation on that matter, and he felt that he should have enough to
+endure in the execution of his duties. He wrote, indeed, as coldly as
+the Earl had spoken; but he made no allusion to his disappointment, or
+to any hopes of more elevated employment.
+
+He expressed himself ready to commence his labours as soon as the Earl
+thought right; and in the course of three days was fully established as
+the second private secretary of the Earl.
+
+The next three or four months of his life we shall pass over as briefly
+as possible, for they were chequered by no incident of very great
+interest. The Earl employed him daily, but how did he employ him?--As a
+mere clerk. No public paper, no document of any importance, passed
+through his hands. Letters on private business, the details of some
+estates in Shropshire, copies of long and to him meaningless accounts,
+and notes and memorandums, referring to affairs of very little interest,
+were the occupations given to a man of active, energetic, and cultivated
+mind, of eager aspirations, and a glowing fancy. It may be asked, how
+did the Earl treat him, too?--As a clerk! and not as most men of
+gentlemanly feeling would treat a clerk. Seldom any salutation marked
+his entrance into the room, and cold, formal orders were all that he
+received.
+
+Wilton bore it all with admirable patience; he murmured not, otherwise
+than in secret; but often when he returned to his own solitary room, in
+the small lodging he had taken for himself in London, the heart within
+his bosom felt like a newly-imprisoned bird, as if it would beat itself
+to death against the bars that confined it.
+
+Amidst all this, there was some consolation came. A letter arrived one
+morning, after this had continued about two months, bearing one postmark
+from Oxford, and another from Italy. It was from the Earl of Sunbury,
+who was better, and wrote in high spirits. He had been arrested by the
+French, and having been taken for a general officer of distinction, bad
+been detained for several weeks. But he had been well treated, and set
+at liberty, as soon as his real name and character were ascertained.
+Only one of Wilton's letters, and that of an early date, had reached
+him, so that he knew none of the occurrences which placed his young
+friend in so painful a situation, but conceived him to be still at
+Oxford, and still possessing the allowance which he had made him.
+
+The moment he received these tidings, Wilton replied to it with a
+feeling of joy and a hope of deliverance, which showed itself in every
+line of the details he gave. This letter was more fortunate than the
+others, and the Earl's answer was received within a month. That answer,
+however, in some degree disappointed his young friend. Lord Sunbury
+praised his conduct much for accepting the situation which had been
+offered; but he tried to soothe him under the conduct of the Earl of
+Byerdale, while he both blamed that conduct and censured the Earl in
+severe terms, for having suffered the allowance which he had authorized
+him to pay to drop in so sudden and unexpected a manner. To guard
+against the recurrence of such a thing for the future, the Earl enclosed
+an order on his steward for the sum, with directions that it should be
+paid in preference to anything else whatsoever. At the same time,
+however, he urged Wilton earnestly not to quit the Earl of Byerdale, but
+to remain in the employment which he had accepted, at least till the
+return of a more sincere friend from the Continent should afford the
+prospect of some better and more agreeable occupation.
+
+Wilton resolved to submit; and as he saw that the Earl was anxious upon
+the subject, wrote to him immediately, to announce that such was the
+case. Hope gave him patience; and the increased means at his command
+afforded him the opportunity of resuming the habits of that station in
+which he had always hitherto moved. In these respects, he was now
+perfectly at his ease, for his habits were not expensive; and he could
+indulge in all, to which his wishes led him, without those careful
+thoughts which had been forced upon him by the sudden straitening of his
+means. Such, then, was his situation when, towards the end of about
+three months, a new change came over his fate, a new era began in the
+history of his life.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+How often is it that a new acquaintance, begun under accidental
+circumstances, forms an epoch in life? How often does it change in every
+respect the current of our days on earth--ay! and affect eternity
+itself? The point of time at which we form such an acquaintance is, in
+fact, the spot at which two streams meet. There, the waters of both are
+insensibly blended together--the clear and the turbid, the rough and the
+smooth, the rapid and the slow. Each not only modifies the manner, and
+the direction, and the progress of the other with which it mingles, but
+even if any material object separates the united stream again into two,
+the individuality of both those that originally formed it is lost, and
+each is affected for ever by the progress they have had together.
+
+Wilton Brown was now once more moving at ease. He had his horses and his
+servant, and his small convenient apartments at no great distance from
+the Earl of Byerdale's. He could enjoy the various objects which the
+metropolis presented from time to time to satisfy the taste or the
+curiosity of the public, and he could mingle in his leisure hours with
+the few amongst the acquaintances he had made in passing through a
+public school, or residing at the University, whom he had learned to
+love or to esteem. He sought them not, indeed, and he courted no great
+society; for there was not, perhaps, one amongst those he knew whose
+taste, and thoughts, and feelings, were altogether congenial with his
+own. Indeed, when any one has found such, in one or two instances,
+throughout the course of life, he may sit himself down, saying, "Oh!
+happy that I am, in the wide universe of matter and of spirit I am not
+alone! There are beings of kindred sympathies linked to myself by ties
+of love which it never can be the will of Almighty Beneficence that
+death itself should break!"
+
+If Wilton felt thus towards any one, it was towards the Earl of Sunbury;
+but yet there was a difference between his sensations towards that kind
+friend and those of which we have spoken, on which we need not pause in
+this place. Except in his society, however, Wilton's thoughts were
+nearly alone. There were one or two young noblemen and others, for whom
+he felt a great regard, a high esteem, a certain degree of habitual
+affection, but that was all, and thus his time in general passed
+solitarily enough.
+
+With the Earl of Byerdale he did not perhaps interchange ten words in
+three months, although when he was writing in the same room with him he
+had more than once remarked the eyes of the Earl fixed stern and intent
+upon him from beneath their overhanging brows, as if he would have asked
+him some dark and important question, or proposed to him some dangerous
+and terrible act which he dared hardly name.
+
+"Were he some Italian minister," thought Wilton, sometimes, "and I, as
+at present, his poor secretary, I should expect him every moment to
+commend the assassination of some enemy to my convenient skill in such
+affairs."
+
+At length one morning when he arrived at the house of the Earl to pursue
+his daily task, he saw a travelling carriage at the door with two
+servants, English and foreign, disencumbering it from the trunks which
+were thereunto attached in somewhat less convenient guise than in the
+present day. He took no note, however, and entered as usual, proceeding
+at once to the cabinet, where he usually found the Earl at that hour. He
+was there and alone, nor did the entrance of Wilton create any farther
+change in his proceedings than merely to point to another table, saying,
+"Three letters to answer there, Mr. Brown--the corners are turned down,
+with directions."
+
+Wilton sat down and proceeded as usual; but he had scarcely ended the
+first letter and begun a second, when the door of the apartment was
+thrown unceremoniously open, and a young gentleman entered the room,
+slightly, but very gracefully made, extremely handsome in features, but
+pale in complexion, and with a quick, wandering, and yet marking eye,
+which seemed to bespeak much of intelligence, but no great steadiness of
+character. He was dressed strangely enough, in a silk dressing-gown of
+the richest-flowered embroidery, slippers of crimson velvet
+embroidered with gold upon his feet, and a crimson velvet nightcap with
+gold tassels on his head.
+
+"Why, my dear sir, this is really cruel," cried he, advancing towards
+the Earl, and speaking in a tone of light reproach, "to go away and
+leave me, when I come back from twelve or fourteen hundred miles'
+distance, without even waiting to see my most beautiful dressing-gown.
+Really you fathers are becoming excessively undutiful towards your
+children! You have wanted some one so long to keep you in order, my
+lord, that I see evidently, I shall be obliged to hold a tight hand over
+you. But tell me, in pity tell me, did you ever see anything so
+exquisite as this dressing-gown? Its beauty would be nothing without its
+superbness, and its splendour nothing without its delicacy. The richness
+of the silk would be lost without the radiant colours of the flowers,
+and the miraculous taste of the embroidery would be entirely thrown away
+upon any other stuff than that. In short, one might write a catechism
+upon it, my lord. There is nothing on all the earth equal to it. No man
+has, or has had, or will have, anything that can compete with it. Gold
+could not buy it. I was obliged to seduce the girl that worked it; and
+then, like Ulysses with Circe, I bound her to perform what task I liked.
+'Produce me,' I exclaimed, 'a dressing-gown!' and, lo! it stands before
+you."
+
+Wilton Brown turned his eyes for an instant to the countenance of the
+Earl of Byerdale, when, to his surprise, he beheld there, for the first
+time, something that might be called a good-humoured smile. The change
+of Wilton's position, slight as it was, seemed to call the attention of
+the young gentleman, who instantly approached the table where he sat,
+exclaiming, "Who is this? I don't know him. What do you mean, sir," he
+continued, in the same light tone--"what do you mean, by suffering my
+father to run riot in this way, while I am gone? Why, sir, I find he has
+addicted himself to courtierism, and to cringing, and to sitting in
+cabinets, and to making long speeches in the House of Lords; and to all
+sorts of vices of the same kind, so as nearly to have fallen into prime
+ministerism. All this is very bad--very bad, indeed--"
+
+"My dear boy," said the Earl, "you will gain the character of a madman
+without deserving it."
+
+"Pray, papa, let me alone," replied the young man, affecting a boyish
+tone; "you only interrupt me: may I ask, sir, what is your name?" he
+continued, still addressing Wilton.
+
+"My name, sir," replied the other, slightly colouring at such an abrupt
+demand, "is Wilton Brown."
+
+"Then, Wilton, I am very glad to see you," replied the other, holding
+out his hand--"you are the very person I wanted to see; for it so
+happens, that my wise, prudent, and statesmanlike friend, the Earl of
+Sunbury, having far greater confidence in the security of my noddle than
+has my worthy parent here, has entrusted to me for your behoof one long
+letter, and innumerable long messages, together with a strong
+recommendation to you, to take me to your bosom, and cherish me as any
+old man would do his grandson; namely, with the most doting,
+short-sighted, and depraving affection, which can be shown towards a
+wayward, whimsical, tiresome, capricious boy; and now, if you don't like
+my own account of myself, or the specimen you have had this morning, you
+had better lay down your pen, and come and take a walk with me, in order
+to shake off your dislike; for it must be shaken off, and the sooner it
+is done the better."
+
+The Earl's brow had by this time gathered into a very ominous sort of
+frown, and he informed his son in a stern tone, that his clerk, Mr.
+Brown, was engaged in business of importance, and would not be free from
+it, he feared, till three o'clock.
+
+"Well, my lord, I will even go and sleep till three," replied the young
+man. "At that hour, Mr. Brown, I will come and seek you. I have an
+immensity to say to you, all about nothing in the world, and therefore
+it is absolutely necessary that I should disgorge myself as soon as
+possible."
+
+Thus saying, he turned gaily on his heel, and left the Earl's cabinet.
+
+"You must excuse him, Mr. Brown," said the Earl, as soon as he was gone;
+"he is wild with spirits and youth, but he will soon, I trust, demean
+himself more properly." Wilton made no reply, but thought that if the
+demeanour of the son was not altogether pleasant, the demeanour of the
+father was ten times worse. When the three letters were written, Lord
+Byerdale immediately informed Wilton that he should have no farther
+occupation for him that day, although the clock had not much passed the
+first hour after noon; and as it was evident that he had no inclination
+to encourage any intimacy between him and his son, the young gentleman
+retired to his own lodgings, and ordering his horse to be brought round
+quickly, prepared to take a lengthened ride into the country.
+
+Before the horse could be saddled, however, a servant announced Lord
+Sherbrooke, and the next moment the son of the Earl of Byerdale entered
+the room. There was something in the name that sounded familiar in the
+ears of Wilton Brown, he could not tell why. He almost expected to see
+a familiar face present itself at the open door; for so little had been
+the communication between himself and the Earl of Byerdale, that he had
+never known till that morning that the Earl had a son, nor ever heard
+the second title of the family before. He received his visitor, however,
+with pleasure, not exactly for the young nobleman's own sake, but rather
+on account of the letters and messages which he had promised from the
+Earl of Sunbury.
+
+Lord Sherbrooke was now dressed as might well become a man of rank in
+his day; with a certain spice of foppery in his apparel, indeed, and
+with a slight difference in the fashion and materials of his clothes
+from those ordinarily worn in England, which might just mark, to an
+observing eye, that they had been made in a foreign country.
+
+His demeanour was much more calm and sedate than it had been in the
+morning; and sitting down, he began by a reproach to Wilton, for having
+gone away without waiting to see him again.
+
+"The fact is, my lord," replied Wilton, "that the Earl, though he did
+not absolutely send me away, gave me such an intimation to depart, that
+I could not well avoid it."
+
+"It strikes me, Wilton," said Lord Sherbrooke, familiarly, "that my
+father is treating you extremely ill; Lord Sunbury gave me a hint of the
+kind, when I saw him in Rome; and I see that he said even less than the
+truth."
+
+"I have no right to complain, my lord," answered Wilton, after pausing
+for a moment to master some very painful emotions--"I have no reason to
+complain, my lord, of conduct that I voluntarily endure."
+
+"Very well answered, Wilton!" replied the young lord, "but not
+logically, my good friend. Every gentleman has a right to expect
+gentlemanly treatment. He has a right to complain if he does not meet
+with that which he has a right to expect; and he does not bar himself of
+that right of complaint, because any circumstances render it expedient
+or right for him not to resist the ill-treatment at which he murmurs.
+However, it is more to your honour that you do not complain; but I know
+my father well, and, of course, amongst a great many high qualities,
+there are some not quite so pleasant. We must mend this matter for you,
+however, and what I wish to say to you now, is, that you must not spoil
+all I do, by any pride of that kind which will make you hold back when I
+pull forward."
+
+"Indeed, my lord," replied Wilton, "you would particularly oblige me by
+making no effort to change the position in which I am placed. All the
+communication which takes place between your lordship's father and
+myself is quite sufficient for the transaction of business, and we can
+never stand in any other relation towards each other than that of
+minister and private secretary."
+
+"Or CLERK, as he called you to me to-day," said Lord Sherbrooke, drily.
+
+"The name matters very little, my lord," replied Wilton; "he calls me
+SECRETARY to myself, and such he stated me to be in the little
+memorandum of my appointment, which he gave me, but if it please him
+better to call me clerk, why, let him do it."
+
+"Oh! I shall not remonstrate," replied Lord Sherbrooke; "I never argue
+with my father. In the first place, it would be undutiful and
+disrespectful, and I am the most dutiful of all sons; and in the next
+place, he generally somehow gets the better of me in argument--the more
+completely the more wrong he is. But, nevertheless, I can find means to
+drive him, if not to persuade him; to lead him, if not to convince him;
+and having had my own way from childhood up to the present hour--alas!
+that I should say it, after having taken the way that I have taken--I do
+not intend to give it up just now, so I will soon drive him to a
+different way with you, while you have no share in the matter, but that
+of merely suffering me to assume, at once, the character of an old
+friend, and not an insincere one. On the latter point, indeed, you must
+believe me to be just as sincere as my father is insincere, for you very
+well know, Wilton, that, in this world of ours, it is much more by
+avoiding the faults than by following the virtues of our parents, that
+we get on in life. Every fool can see where his father is a fool, and
+can take care not to be foolish in the same way; but it is a much more
+difficult thing to appreciate a father's wisdom, and learn to be wise
+like him."
+
+"The latter, my lord, I should think, would be the nobler endeavour,"
+replied Wilton; "though I cannot say what would have been my own case,
+if I had ever had the happiness of knowing a father's care."
+
+Lord Sherbrooke for a moment or two made no reply, but looked down upon
+the ground, apparently struck by the tone in which Wilton spoke. He
+answered at length, however, raising his eyes with one of his gay looks,
+"After all, we are but mortals, my dear Wilton, and we must have our
+little follies and vices. I would not be an angel for the world, for my
+part; and besides--for so staid and sober a young man as you are--you
+forget that I have a duty to perform towards my father, to check him
+when I see him going wrong, and to put him in the right way; to afford
+him, now and then, a little filial correction, and take care of his
+morals and his education. Why, if he had not me to look after him, I do
+not know what would become of him. However, I see," he added in a graver
+tone, "that I must not jest with you, until you know me and understand
+me better. What I mean is, that we are to be friends, remember. It is
+all arranged between the Earl of Sunbury and myself. We are to be
+friends, then; and such being the case, I will take care that my lord of
+Byerdale does not call my friend his clerk, nor treat him in any other
+manner than as my friend. And now, Wilton, set about the matter as fast
+as ever you can. There is my letter of recommendation from the Earl of
+Sunbury, which I hope will break down some barriers, the rest I must do
+for myself. You will find me full of faults, full of follies, and full
+of vices; for though it may be a difficult thing to be full of three
+things at once, yet the faults, follies, and vices within me seem to
+fill me altogether, each in turn, and yet altogether. In fact, they put
+me in mind of two liquids with which I once saw an Italian conjurer
+perform a curious trick. He filled a glass with a certain liquid, which
+looked like water, up to the very brim, and then poured in a
+considerable quantity of another liquid without increasing the liquid in
+the glass by a drop. Now sometimes my folly seems to fill me so
+completely, that I should think there was no room for vices, but those
+vices find some means to slip in, without incommoding me in the least.
+However, I will leave you now to read your letters, and to wonder at
+your sage and prudent friend, the Earl of Sunbury, having introduced to
+your acquaintance, and recommended to your friendship, one who has made
+half the capitals of Europe ring with his pranks. The secret is, Wilton,
+that the Earl knows both me and you. He pays you the high compliment of
+thinking you can be the companion of a very faulty man, without
+acquiring his faults; and he knows that, though I cannot cure myself of
+my own errors, I hate them too much to wish any one to imitate them.
+When you have done reading," he added, "come and join me at Monsieur
+Faubert's Riding School, in the lane going up to the Oxford Road: I see
+your horse at the door--I will get one there, and we will have a ride
+in the country. By heavens, what a beautiful picture! It is quite a
+little gem. That child's head must be a Correggio."
+
+"I believe it is," replied Wilton: "I saw it accidentally at an auction,
+and bought it for a mere trifle."
+
+"You have the eye of a judge," replied his companion.
+
+"Do not be long ere you join me;" and looking at every little object of
+ornament or luxury that the room contained, standing a minute or two
+before another picture, taking up, and examining all over, a small
+bronze urn, that stood on one of the tables, and criticising the hilts
+of two or three of Wilton's swords, that stood in the corner of the
+room, he made his way out, like Hamlet, "without his eyes," and left his
+new acquaintance to read his letter in peace.
+
+In that letter, which was in every respect most kind, Wilton found that
+the Earl gave a detailed account of the character of the young nobleman
+who had just left him. He represented him, very much as he had
+represented himself, full of follies, and, unfortunately, but too much
+addicted to let those follies run into vices. "Though he neither gambled
+nor drank for pleasure," the Earl said, "yet, as if for variety, he
+would sometimes do both to excess. In other respects, he had lived a
+life of great profligacy, seeming utterly careless of the reproaches of
+any one, and rather taking means to make any fresh act of licence
+generally known, than to conceal it. Nor is this," continued the Earl,
+"from that worst of all vanities, which attaches fame to what is
+infamous, and confounds notoriety with renown, but rather from a sort of
+daringness of disposition, which prompts him to avow openly any act to
+which there may be risk attached. With all these bad qualities," the
+Earl proceeded, "there are many good ones. To be bold as a lion is but a
+corporeal endowment, but he adds to that the most perfect sincerity and
+frankness.
+
+"He would neither falsify his word nor deny an act that he has committed
+for the world. His mind is sufficiently acute, and his heart
+sufficiently good, to see distinctly the evils of unbridled licence, and
+to condemn it in his own case; and he is the last man in the world who
+would lead or encourage any one in that course which he has pursued
+himself. In short, his own passions are as the bonds cast around the
+Hebrew giant when he slept, to give him over into the hands of any one
+who chooses to lead him into wrong. The consecrated locks of the
+Nazarite--I mean, purity and innocence of heart--have been shorn away
+completely in the lap of one Delilah or another; and though he hates
+those who hold him captive, he is constrained to follow where they lead.
+I think you may do him good, Wilton; I am certain he can do you no harm:
+I believe that he is capable, and I am certain that he is willing, to
+make your abode in London more pleasant to you, and to open that path
+for your advancement, which his father would have put you in, if he had
+fulfilled the promises that he made to me."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+A few weeks made a considerable change in the progress of the life of
+Wilton Brown. He found the young Lord Sherbrooke all that he had been
+represented to be in every good point of character, and less in every
+evil point. He did not, it is true, studiously veil from his new friend
+his libertine habits, or his light and reckless character; but it so
+happened, that when in society with Wilton, his mind seemed to find food
+and occupation of a higher sort, and, on almost all occasions, when
+conversing with him, he showed himself, as he might always have
+appeared, a high-bred and well-informed gentleman, who, though somewhat
+wild and rash, possessed a cultivated mind, a rich and playful fancy,
+and a kind and honourable heart.
+
+Wilton soon discovered that he could become attached to him, and ere
+long he found a new point of interest in the character of his young
+companion, which was a sort of dark and solemn gloom that fell upon him
+from time to time, and would seize him in the midst of his gayest
+moments, leaving him, for the time, plunged in deep and sombre
+meditations. This strange fit was very often succeeded by bursts of
+gaiety and merriment, to the full as wild and joyous as those that went
+before; and Wilton's curiosity and sympathy were both excited by a state
+of mind which he marked attentively, and which, though he did not
+comprehend it entirely, showed him that there was some grief hidden but
+not vanquished in the heart.
+
+Lord Sherbrooke did not see the inquiring eyes of his friend fixed upon
+him without notice; and one day he said,
+
+"Do not look at me in these fits, Wilton; and ask me no questions.
+It is the evil spirit upon me, and he must have his hour."
+
+As the time passed on, Wilton and the young lord became daily
+companions, and the Earl could not avoid showing, at all events, some
+civility to the constant associate of his son. He gradually began to
+converse with him more frequently. He even ventured, every now and then,
+upon a smile. He talked for an instant, sometimes, upon the passing
+events of the day; and, once or twice, asked him to dine, when he and
+his son would otherwise have been tete-a-tete. All this was pleasant to
+Wilton; for Lord Sherbrooke managed it so well, by merely marking a
+particular preference for his society, that there was no restraint or
+force in the matter, and the change worked itself gradually without any
+words or remonstrance. In the midst of all this, however, one little
+event occurred, which, though twenty other things might have been of
+much more importance and much more disagreeable in their consequences,
+pained Wilton in a greater degree than anything he had endured.
+
+One day, when the Earl was confined to his drawing-room by a slight fit
+of gout, Wilton had visited him for a moment, to obtain more particular
+directions in regard to something which he had been directed to write.
+Just as he had received those directions, and was about to retire, the
+Duke of Gaveston was announced; and in passing through a second room
+beyond, into which the Earl could see, Wilton came suddenly upon the
+Duke, and in him at once recognised the nobleman whom he had aided in
+delivering from the clutches of some gentlemen practitioners on the
+King's Highway. Their meeting was so sudden, that the Duke, though he
+evidently recollected instantly the face of Wilton Brown, could not
+connect it with the circumstances in which he had seen it. Wilton, on
+his part, merely bowed and passed on; and the Duke, advancing to Lord
+Byerdale, asked at once, "Who is that young gentleman?--his face is
+quite familiar to me."
+
+"It is only my clerk," replied the Earl, in a careless tone. "I hope
+your grace received my letter."
+
+Wilton had not yet quitted the room, and heard it all; but he went out
+without pause. When the door was closed behind him, however, he stood
+for a moment gazing sternly upon the ground, and summoning every good
+and firm feeling to his aid. Nor was he unsuccessful: he once more
+conquered the strong temptation to throw up his employment instantly;
+and, asking himself, "What have I to do with pride?" he proceeded with
+his daily task as if nothing had occurred.
+
+No consequences followed at the moment; but before we proceed to the
+more active business of our story, we must pause upon one other
+incident, of no great apparent importance, but which the reader will
+connect aright with the other events of the tale.
+
+Two mornings after that of which we have spoken, the Earl came suddenly
+into the room where Wilton was writing, and interrupted him in what he
+was abort, by saying, "I wish, Mr. Brown, you would have the goodness to
+write, under my dictation, a letter, which is of some importance."
+
+Brown bowed his head, and taking fresh paper, proceeded to write down
+the Earl's words, as follows:--
+
+    "Sir,--Immediately upon the receipt of this, you will be
+    pleased to proceed to the village of ------, in the county
+    of ------, and make immediate inquiries, once more, in
+    regard to the personages concerning whom you instituted an
+    investigation some ten or twelve years ago. Any additional
+    documents you may procure, concerning Colonel Sherbrooke,
+    Colonel Lennard Sherbrooke, or any of the other parties
+    concerned in the transactions which you know of as taking
+    place at that time, you will be pleased to send to me forthwith."
+
+Wilton perceiving that the Earl did not proceed, looked up, as if to see
+whether he had concluded or not. The Earl's eyes were fixed upon him
+with a stern, intense gaze, as if he would have read his very soul.
+Wilton's looks, on the contrary, were so perfectly unconscious, so
+innocent of all knowledge that he was doing anything more than writing
+an ordinary letter of business, that--if the Earl's gaze was intended to
+interpret his feelings by any of those external marks, which betray the
+secrets of the heart, by slight and transitory characters written on
+nature's record book, the face--he was convinced at once that there was
+nothing concealed below. His brow relaxed, and he went on dictating,
+while the young gentleman proceeded calmly to write.
+
+"You will be particular," the letter went on, "to inquire what became of
+the boy, as his name was not down in the list found upon the captain's
+person; and you will endeavour to discover what became of the boat that
+carried Lennard Sherbrooke and the boy to the ship, and whether all on
+board it perished in the storm, or not."
+
+The Earl still watched Wilton's countenance with some degree of
+earnestness; and, to say the truth, if his young companion had not been
+put upon his guard, by detecting the first stern, dark glance the
+minister had given him, some emotion might have been visible in his
+countenance, some degree of thoughtful inquiry in his manner, as he
+asked, "To whom am I to address it, my lord?"
+
+The words of the Earl, in directing an inquiry about the fisherman,
+the boy, the boat, and the wreck, seemed to connect themselves with
+strange figures in the past--figures which appeared before his mind's
+eye vague and misty, such as we are told the shadows always appear at
+first which are conjured up by the cabalistic words of a necromancer.
+He felt that there was some connecting link between himself and the
+subject of the Earl's investigation; what, he could not tell: but
+whatever it was, his curiosity was stimulated to tax his memory to
+the utmost, and to try by any means to lead her to a right
+conclusion, through the intricate ways of the past.
+
+That first gaze of the Earl, however, had excited in his bosom not
+exactly suspicion, but that inclination to conceal his feelings,
+which we all experience when we see that some one whom we neither
+love nor trust is endeavouring to unveil them. He therefore would not
+suffer his mind to rest upon any inquiry in regard to the past, till
+the emotions which it might produce could be indulged unwatched; and,
+applying to the mechanical business of the pen, he wrote on to the
+conclusion, and then demanded, simply, "To whom am I to address it?"
+
+"To Mr. Shea," replied the Earl, "my agent in Waterford, to whom you
+have written before;" and there the conversation dropped.
+
+The Earl took the letter to sign it; but now that it was done, he
+seemed indifferent about its going, and put it into a portfolio,
+where it remained several days before it was sent.
+
+As soon as he could escape, Wilton Brown retired to his own dwelling,
+and there gave himself up to thought; but the facts, which seemed
+floating about in the dark gulf of the past, still eluded the grasp
+of memory, as she strove to catch them. There was something, indeed,
+which he recollected of a boat, and a storm at sea, and a fisherman's
+cabin, and still the name of Sherbrooke rang in his ears, as
+something known in other days. But it came not upon him with the same
+freshness which it had done when first he heard the title of the Earl
+of Byerdale's soil; and he could recall no more than the particulars
+we have mentioned, though the name of Lennard seemed familiar to him
+also.
+
+While he was in this meditative mood, pondering thoughtfully over the
+past, and extracting little to satisfy him from a record which time,
+unfortunately, had effaced, he was interrupted by the coming of the
+young Lord Sherbrooke, who now was accustomed to enter familiarly
+without any announcement. On the present occasion his step was more
+rapid than usual, his manner more than commonly excited, and the
+moment he had cast himself into a chair he burst into a long loud
+peal of laughter. "In the name of Heaven," he exclaimed, "what piece
+of foolery do you think my worthy father has concocted now? On my
+honour, I believe that he is mad, and only fear that he has
+transmitted a part of his madness to me. Think of everything that is
+ridiculous, Wilton, that you can conceive; let your mind run free
+over every absurd combination that it is possible to fancy; think of
+all that is stupid or mad-like in times present or past, and then
+tell me what it is that my father intends to do."
+
+"I really do not know, Sherbrooke," replied his friend "but nothing,
+I dare say, half so bad as you would have me believe. Your father is
+much too prudent and careful a man to do anything that is absurd."
+
+"You don't know him--Wilton, you don't know him," replied Lord
+Sherbrooke; "for the sake of power or of wealth he has the courage to
+do anything on earth that is absurd, and for revenge he has the
+courage to do a great deal more.  In regard to revenge, indeed, I
+don't mind: he is quite right there; for surely if we are bound to be
+grateful to a man that does good to us, we are bound to revenge
+ourselves upon him who does us wrong. Besides, revenge is a
+gentlemanlike passion; but avarice and ambition are certainly the two
+most ungentlemanlike propensities in human nature."
+
+"Not ambition, surely," exclaimed Wilton.
+
+"The worst of all!" cried his friend--"the worst of all!  Avarice is
+a gentleman to ambition! Avarice is merely a tinker, a dealer in old
+metal; but ambition is a chimney-sweep of a passion: a mere
+climbing-boy, who will go through any dirty hole in all Christendom
+only to get out at the top of the chimney. But you have not guessed,
+Wilton--you have not guessed. To it; and tell me, what is the absurd
+thing my father proposes to do?"
+
+Wilton shook his head, and said that he could in no way divine.
+
+"To marry me, Wilton--to marry me to a lady rich and fair," replied
+the young lord: "what think you of that, Wilton?--you who know me,
+what think you of that?"
+
+"Why, if I must really say the truth," replied Wilton, "I think the
+Earl has very naturally considered your happiness before that of the
+lady."
+
+"As well gilded a sarcasm that," replied Lord Sherbrooke, "as if it
+had come from my father's own lips. However, what you say is very
+true: the poor unfortunate girl little knows what the slave merchants
+are devising for her. My father has dealt with hers, and her father
+has dealt with mine, and settled all affairs between them, it seems,
+without our knowledge or participation in any shape. I was the first
+of the two parties concerned who received the word of command to march
+and be married, and as yet the unfortunate victim is unacquainted
+with the designs against her peace and happiness for life."
+
+"Nay, nay," replied Wilton, almost sorrowfully, "speak not so lightly
+of it. What have you done, Sherbrooke? for Heaven's sake, what have
+you done? If you have consented to marry, let me hope and trust that
+you have determined firmly to change your conduct, and not indeed, as
+you say, to ruin the poor girl's peace and happiness for life."
+
+"Oh! I have consented," replied Lord Sherbrooke, in the same gay
+laughing tone; "you do not suppose that I would refuse beauty, and
+sweetness, and twenty thousand a year.  I am not as mad as my father.
+Oh! I consented directly. I understand, she is the great beauty of
+the day. She will see very little of me, and I shall see very little
+of her, so we shall not weary of one another. Oh! I am a very wise
+man, indeed. I only wanted what our friend Launcelot calls 'a trifle
+of wives' to be King Solomon himself. Why you know that for the other
+cattle which distinguished that great monarch I am pretty well
+provided."
+
+Wilton looked down upon the ground with a look of very great pain,
+while imagination pictured what the future life of some young and
+innocent girl might be, bound to one so wild, so heedless, and
+dissolute as Lord Sherbrooke. He remained silent, however, for he did
+not dare to trust himself with any farther observations; and when he
+looked up again, he found his friend gazing at him with an expression
+on his countenance in some degree sorrowful, in some degree
+reproachful, but with a look of playful meaning flickering through the
+whole.
+
+"Now does your solemnity, and your gravity," said Lord Sherbrooke,
+"and your not yet understanding me, almost tempt me, Wilton, to play
+some wild and inconceivable trick, just for the purpose of opening
+your eyes, and letting you see, that your friend is not such an
+unfeeling rascal as the world gives out."
+
+"I know you are not, my dear Sherbrooke--I am sure you are not,"
+replied Wilton, grasping warmly the hand which Lord Sherbrooke held
+out to him; "I was wrong for not seeing that you were in jest, and
+for not discovering at once that you had not consented. But how does
+the Earl bear your refusal?"
+
+"You are as wrong as ever, my dear Wilton," replied his friend, in a
+more serious tone--"I have consented; for if I had not, it must have
+made an irreparable breach between my father and myself, which you
+well know I should not consider desirable--I must obey him sometimes,
+you know, Wilton--He had pledged himself, too, that I should consent.
+However, to set your mind at rest, I will tell you the loophole at
+which I creep out. Her father, it seems, is not near so sanguine as
+my father, in regard to his child's obedience, and he is, moreover,
+an odd old gentleman, who has got into his head a strange antiquated
+notion, that the inclinations of the people to be married have
+something to do with such transactions. He therefore bargained, that
+his consent should be dependent upon the young lady's approbation of
+me when she sees me. In fact, I am bound to court, and she to be
+courted. My father is bound that I shall marry her if she likes me,
+her father is bound to give her to me if she likes to be given. Now
+what I intend, Wilton, is, that she should not like me. So this very
+evening you must come with me to the theatre, and there we shall see
+her together, for I know where she is to be. To-morrow, I shall be
+presented to her in form, and if she likes to have me, after all I
+have to say to her, why it is her fault, for I will take care she
+shall not have ignorance to plead in regard to my worshipful
+character."
+
+Wilton would fain have declined going to the theatre that night,
+for, to say the truth, his heart was somewhat heavy; but Lord
+Sherbrooke would take no denial, jokingly saying that he required
+some support under the emotions and agitating circumstances which he
+was about to endure. As soon as this was settled, Lord Sherbrooke
+left him, agreeing to call for him in his carriage at the early hour
+of a quarter before five o'clock; for such, however, were the more
+rational times and seasons of our ancestors, that one could enjoy the
+high intellectual treat of seeing a good play performed from
+beginning to end, without either changing one's dinner hour, or going
+with the certainty of indigestion and headache.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+Far more punctual than was usual with him. Lord Sherbrooke was at the
+door of Wilton Brown exactly at the hour he had appointed; and,
+getting into his carriage, they speedily rolled on from the
+neighbourhood of St. James's-street, then one of the most fashionable
+parts of the metropolis, to Russell-street, he however, though
+evidently anxious to be early at the theatre, could not resist his
+inclination to take a look into the Rose, and, finding several
+persons whom he knew there, he lingered for a considerable time,
+introducing Wilton to a number of the wits and celebrated men of the
+day.
+
+The play had thus begun before they entered the theatre, and the
+house was filled so completely that it was scarcely possible to
+obtain a seat.
+
+As if with a knowledge that his young companion was anxious to see
+the ill-fated lady destined by her friends to be the bride of a wild
+and reckless libertine, Lord Sherbrooke affected to pay no attention
+whatsoever to anything but what was passing on the stage. During the
+first act Wilton was indeed as much occupied as himself with the
+magic of the scene: but when the brief pause between the acts took
+place, his eyes wandered round those boxes in which the high nobility
+of the land usually were found, to see if he could discover the
+victim of the Earl of Byerdale's ambition.
+
+There were two boxes on the opposite side of the house, towards one
+or the other of which almost all eyes were turned, and to the
+occupants of which all the distinguished young men in the house
+seemed anxious to pay their homage. In one of those boxes was a very
+lovely woman of about seven or eight and twenty, sitting with a
+queenly air to receive the humble adoration of the gay and fluttering
+admirers who crowded round her. Her brow was high and broad, but
+slightly contracted, so that a certain haughtiness of air in her
+whole figure and person was fully kept in tone by the expression of
+her face. For a moment or two, Wilton looked at her with a slight
+smile, as he said in his own heart, "if that be the lady destined for
+Sherbrooke, I pity her less than I expected, for she seems the very
+person either to rule him or care little about him."
+
+The next moment, however, a more perfect recollection of all that
+Lord Sherbrooke had said, led him to conclude that she could not be
+the person to whom he alluded. He had spoken of her as a girl, as of
+one younger than himself; whereas the lady who was reigning in the
+stage-box was evidently older, and had more the appearance of a
+married than a single woman.
+
+Wilton then turned his eyes to the other box of which we have spoken;
+and in it there was also to be seen a female figure seated near the
+front with another lady; while somewhat further back, appeared the form
+of an elderly gentleman with a star upon the left breast. Towards that
+box, as we have before said, many eyes were turned; and from the space*
+below, as well as from other parts of the house, the beaux of the
+day were gazing in evident expectation of a bow, or a smile, or a mark
+of recognition. Nevertheless, in neither of the ladies which that box
+contained was there, as far as Wilton could see, any of those little
+arts but too often used for the purpose of attracting attention, and
+which, to say the truth, were displayed in a remarkable manner by the
+lady in the other box we have mentioned. There was no fair hand
+stretched out over the cushions; no fringed glove cast negligently down;
+no fan waved gracefully to give emphasis to that was said; but, on the
+contrary, the whole figure of the lady in front remained tranquil and
+calm, with much grace and beauty in the attitude, but none even of that
+flutter of consciousness which often betrays the secrets of vanity. The
+expression of the face, indeed, Wilton could not see, for the head was
+turned towards the stage; and though the lady looked round more than
+once during the interval between the acts to speak to those behind her
+in the box, the effect was only to turn her face still farther from his
+gaze.
+
+[*Footnote: I have not said "the pit," because the intruders of fashion
+had not then been driven from the STAGE itself, especially between the
+acts.]
+
+At length, the play went on, and at the end of the second act a
+slight movement enabled Lord Sherbrooke and Wilton to advance further
+towards the stage, so that the latter was now nearly opposite to the
+box in which one of the beauties of the day was seated. He
+immediately turned in that direction, as did Lord Sherbrooke at the
+same moment; and Wilton, with a feeling of pain that can scarcely be
+described, beheld in the fair girl who seemed to be the unwilling
+object of so much admiration, no other than the young lady whom he
+had aided in rescuing when attacked, as we have before described, by
+the gentry who in those days frequented so commonly the King's
+Highway.
+
+Though now dressed with splendour, as became her rank and station,
+there was in her whole countenance the same simple unaffected look of
+tranquil modesty which Wilton had remarked there before, and in which
+he had fancied he read the story of a noble mind and a fine heart,
+rather undervaluing than otherwise the external advantages of beauty
+and station, but dignified and raised by the consciousness of purity,
+cultivation, and high thoughts. The same look was there, modest yet
+dignified, diffident yet self-possessed; and while he became
+convinced that there sat the bride selected by the Earl of Byerdale
+for his son, he was equally convinced that she was the person of all
+others whose fate would be the most miserable in such an union.
+
+At the same moment, too, his heart was moved by sensations that may be
+very difficult accurately to describe. To talk of his being in love
+with the fair girl before him would, in those days as in the present,
+have been absurd; to say that he had remembered her with anything
+like hope, would not be true, for he had not hoped in the slightest
+degree, nor even dreamed of hope. But what he had done was this--he
+had thought of her often and long; he had recollected the few hours
+spent in her society with greater pleasure than any he had known in
+life; he had remembered her as the most beautiful person he had ever
+seen--and indeed to him she was so; for not only were her features,
+and her form, and her complexion, all beautiful according to the
+rules of art, but they were beautiful also according to that
+modification of beauty which best suited his own taste. The
+expression, too, of her countenance--and she had much expression of
+countenance when conversing with any one she liked--was beautiful and
+varying; and the grace of her movements and the calm quietness of her
+carriage were of the kind which is always most pleasing to a high and
+cultivated mind.
+
+He had recollected her, then, as the most beautiful creature he had
+ever seen; but there was also a good deal of imaginative interest
+attached to the circumstances in which they had first met; and he
+often thought over them with pleasure, as forming a little bright
+spot in the midst of a somewhat dull and monotonous existence. In
+short, all these memories made it impossible for him to feel towards
+her as he did towards other women. There was admiration, and
+interest, and high esteem.--It wanted, surely, but a little of being
+love.  One thing is very certain: Wilton would have heard that she
+was about to be married to any one with no inconsiderable degree of
+pain. It would have cost him a sigh; it would have made him feel a
+deep regret. He would not have been in the slightest degree
+disappointed, for hope being out of the question he expected nothing;
+but still he might regret.
+
+Now, however, when he thought that she was about to be importuned to
+marry one for whom he might himself feel very deep and sincere
+regard, on account of some high and noble qualities of the heart, but
+whose wild and reckless libertinism could but make her miserable for
+ever, the pain that he experienced caused him to turn very pale. The
+next moment the blood rushed up again into his cheek, seeing Lord
+Sherbrooke glance his eyes rapidly from the box in which she sat to
+his countenance, and then to the box again.
+
+At that very same moment, the Duke, who was the gentleman sitting on
+the opposite side of the box, bent forward and whispered a few words
+to his daughter: the blood suddenly rushed up into her cheek; and with
+a look rather of anxiety and apprehension than anything else, she
+turned her eyes instantly towards the spot where Wilton stood. Her
+look was changed in a moment; for though she became quite pale, a
+bright smile beamed forth from her lip; and though she put her hand
+to her heart, she bowed markedly and graciously towards her young
+acquaintance, directing instantly towards that spot the looks of all
+the admirers who surrounded the box.
+
+The words which the Duke spoke to her were very simple, but led to an
+extraordinary mistake. He had in the morning communicated to her the
+proposal which had been made for her marriage with Lord Sherbrooke,
+and she, who had heard something of his character, had shrunk with
+alarm from the very idea. When her father, however, now said to her,
+"There is Lord Sherbrooke just opposite," and directed her attention
+to the precise spot, her eyes instantly fell upon Wilton.
+
+She recollected her father's observation in regard to the name he had
+given at the inn being an assumed one: his fine commanding person,
+his noble countenance, his lordly look, and the taste and fashion of
+his dress, all made her for the moment believe that in him she beheld
+the person proposed for her future husband. At the same time she
+could not forget that he had rendered her an essential service. He
+had displayed before her several of those qualities which peculiarly
+draw forth the admiration of women--courage, promptitude, daring, and
+skill; his conversation had delighted and surprised her; and to say
+truth, he had created in her bosom during the short interview, such
+prepossessions in his favour, that to her he was the person who now
+solicited her hand, instead of the creature which her imagination had
+portrayed as Lord Sherbrooke, was no small relief to her heart. It
+seemed as if a load was taken off her bosom; and such was the cause
+of those emotions, the expression of which upon her countenance we
+have already told.
+
+It was not, indeed, that she believed herself the least in love with
+Wilton Brown, but she felt that she COULD love him, and that feeling
+was quite enough. It was enough, while she fancied that he was Lord
+Sherbrooke, to agitate her with joy and hope; and, though the mistake
+lasted but a short time, the feelings that it produced were
+sufficient to effect a change in all her sensations towards him
+through life. During the brief space that the mistake lasted, she
+looked upon him, she thought of him, as the man who was to be her
+husband. Had it not been for that misunderstanding, the idea of such
+an union between herself and him would most likely never have entered
+her mind; but once having looked upon him in that light, even for
+five minutes, she never could see him or speak to him without a
+recollection of the fact, without a reference, however vague,
+ill-defined, and repressed in her own mind, to the feelings and
+thoughts which she had then entertained.
+
+Lord Sherbrooke remarked the changing colour, the look of recognition
+on both parts, the glad smile, and the inclination of the head.
+
+"Why, Wilton," he said in a low voice--"Wilton! it seems you are
+already a great deal better acquainted with my future wife than I am
+myself; and glad to see you does she seem!  and most gracious is her
+notice of you! Why, there are half of those gilded fools on the other
+side of the house ready to cut your throat at this moment, when it is
+mine they would seek to cut if they knew all; but pray come and
+introduce me to my lovely bride, I had no idea she was so pretty.
+I'm sure I am delighted to have some other introduction than that of
+my father, and so unexpected a one."
+
+All this was said in a bantering tone, but not without a shrewd
+examination of Wilton's countenance while it was spoken. What were
+the feelings of the young nobleman it was impossible for Wilton to
+divine; but he answered quite calmly, the first emotion being by this
+time passed--"My acquaintance with her is so slight, that I certainly
+could not venture to introduce any one, far less one who has so much
+better an introduction ready prepared."
+
+"By heavens, Wilton," replied his friend, "by the look she gave you
+and the look you returned, one would not have judged the acquaintance
+to be slight; but as you will not introduce me, I will introduce you;
+for, I suppose, in common civility, I must go and speak to her father,
+as the old gentleman's eye is upon me. There! He secures his point by
+a bow. Dearly beloved, I come, I come!"
+
+Thus saying, he turned to proceed to the box, making a sign to Wilton
+to follow, which he did, though at the time he did it, he censured
+his own weakness for yielding to the temptation.
+
+"I am but going," he thought, "to augment feelings of regret at a
+destiny I cannot change--I only go to increase my own pain, and in no
+degree to avert from that sweet girl a fate but too dark and
+sorrowful."
+
+As he thus thought, he felt disposed, even then, to make some excuse
+for not going to the Duke's box; but by the time they were half way
+thither, they were met by several persons coming the other way,
+amongst whom was a gentleman richly but not gaudily dressed, who
+immediately addressed Lord Sherbrooke, saying, that the Duke of
+Gaveston requested the honour of his company in his box, and Wilton
+immediately recognised his old companion of the road, Sir John
+Fenwick. Sir John bowed to him but distantly; and Wilton was more than
+ever hesitating whether he should go on or not, when some one touched
+him on the arm, and turning round he beheld his somewhat doubtful
+acquaintance, who had given himself the name of Green.
+
+Sir John Fenwick and the stranger looked in each other's faces
+without the slightest sign of recognition: but to Wilton himself
+Green smiled pleasantly, saying, "I very much wish to speak a word
+with you, Mr. Wilton Brown. Will you just step aside with me to the
+lobby for a moment?"
+
+The recollection of what had passed when last they met, together with
+the wish of avoiding an interview with the Duke and his daughter,
+from which he augured nought but pain, overcame Wilton's repugnance
+to hold any private communication with one whom he had certainly seen
+in a situation at the least very equivocal; and merely saying to Lord
+Sherbrooke, "I must speak with this gentleman for a moment, and
+therefore cannot come with you," he left the young lord to follow Sir
+John Fenwick, and turned with the stranger into the lobby. There was
+no one there at the moment, for at that time the licensed
+abomination, of which it has since been the scene, would not have
+been tolerated in any country calling itself Christian. Wilton was
+indeed rather glad that it was vacant, for he was not anxious to be
+observed by many people in conversation with his present companion.
+Not that anything in his appearance or manner was calculated to call
+up the blush of idle pride. The stranger's dress was as rich and
+tasteful as any in the house, his manner was easy and free, his look,
+though not particularly striking, distinguished and gentlemanly.
+
+The stranger was the first to speak. "Do not alarm yourself, Mr.
+Brown," he said: "Mr. Green is a safe companion here, whatever he
+might be in Maidenhead Thicket. But I wanted to speak a word to you
+yourself, and to give you a hint that may be beneficial to others. As
+to yourself, I told you when last we met that I could bring you into
+company with some of your old friends. I thought your curiosity would
+have carried you to the Green Dragon long ago. As, however, you do
+not seem to wish to see your old friends, I have now to tell you that
+they wish to see you, and therefore I have to beg you to meet me
+there to-morrow at six o'clock."
+
+"You are mistaken entirely," replied Wilton, "in regard to my not
+wishing to see my old friends. I very much wish it. I wish to hear
+more of my early history, about which there seems to me to be some
+mystery."
+
+"Is there?" said the stranger, in a careless tone. "Whether anything
+will be explained to you or not, I cannot say.  At all events, you
+must meet me there; and, in the meantime tell me, have you seen Sir
+John Fenwick since last we met?"
+
+"No, I have not," replied Wilton. "Why do you ask?"
+
+"Because," replied the other, "Sir John Fenwick is a dangerous
+companion, and it were better that you did not consort with him."
+
+"That I certainly shall not do," replied Wilton, "knowing his
+character sufficiently already."
+
+"Indeed!" replied the other. "You have grown learned in people's
+characters of late, Master Brown: perhaps you know mine also; and if
+you do, of course you will give me the meeting to-morrow at the Green
+Dragon."
+
+He spoke with a smile; and Wilton replied, "I am by no means sure
+that I shall do so, unless I have a better cause assigned, and a
+clearer knowledge of what I am going there for."
+
+"Prudent! Prudent!" said the stranger. "Quite right to be prudent,
+Master Wilton. Nevertheless, you must come, for the matter is now one
+of some moment. Therefore, without asking you to answer at present, I
+shall expect you.  At six of the clock, remember--precisely."
+
+"I by no means promise to come," replied Wilton, "though I do not say
+that I will not. But you said that you wished to tell me something
+which might be useful to others.  Pray what may that be?"
+
+"Why," answered the stranger, "I wish you to give a little warning to
+your acquaintance, the Duke of Gaveston, regarding this very Sir John
+Fenwick and his character."
+
+"Nay," said Wilton, "nay--that I can hardly do. My acquaintance with
+the Duke himself is extremely small.  The Duke is a man of the world
+sufficiently old to judge for himself, and with sufficient experience
+to know the character of Sir John Fenwick without my explaining it to
+him."
+
+"The Duke," replied the other, "is a grown baby, with right wishes
+and good intentions, as well as kind feelings; but a coral and bells
+would lure him almost anywhere, and he has got into the hands of one
+who will not fail to lead him into mischief. I thought you knew him
+well; but nevertheless, well or ill, you must give him the warning."
+
+"I beg your pardon," replied Wilton, drawing himself up coldly: "but
+in one or two points you have been mistaken.  My knowledge of the
+Duke is confined to one interview. I shall most probably never
+exchange another word with him in my life; and even if I were to do
+so, I should not think of assailing, to a mere common acquaintance,
+the character of a gentleman whom I may not like or trust myself, but
+who seems to be the intimate friend of the very person in whose good
+opinion you wish me to ruin him."
+
+"Pshaw!" replied the stranger--"you will see the Duke again this very
+night, or I am much mistaken. As to Sir John Fenwick, I am a great
+deal more intimately his friend than the Duke is, and I may wish to
+keep him from rash acts, which he has neither courage nor skill to
+carry through, and will not dare to undertake, if he be not supported
+by others. I am, in fact, doing Sir John himself a friendly act, for
+I know his purposes, which are both rash and wrong; and if I cannot
+stop them by fair means, I must stop them by others."
+
+"In that," replied Wilton, "you must act as you think fit. I know
+nothing of Sir John Fenwick from my own personal observation; and
+therefore will not be made a tool of, to injure his reputation with
+others."
+
+"Well, well," replied his companion--"in those circumstances you are
+right; and, as they say in that beggarly assemblage of pettifogging
+rogues and traitors called the House of Commons, I must shape my
+motion in another way. The manner in which I will beg you to deal
+with the Duke, is this. Find an opportunity, before this night be
+over, of entreating him earnestly not to go to-morrow to the meeting
+at the Old King's Head, in Leadenhall-street. This is clear and
+specific, and at the same time you assail the character of no one."
+
+Wilton thought for a moment or two, and then replied, "I cannot even
+promise you absolutely to do this; but, if I can, I will. If I see
+the Duke, and have the means of giving him the message, I will tell
+him that I received it from a stranger, who seemed anxious for his
+welfare."
+
+"That will do," answered the other--"that will do. But you must tell
+him without Sir John Fenwick's hearing you.  As to your seeing him
+again, you will, I suppose, take care of that; for surely the bow,
+and the smile, and the blush, that came across the house to you, were
+too marked an invitation to the box, for such a gallant and a
+courteous youth not to take advantage of at once."
+
+Wilton felt himself inclined to be a little angry at the familiarity
+with which his companion treated him, and which was certainly more
+than their acquaintance warranted. Curiosity, however, is powerful to
+repress all feelings, that contend with it; and if ever curiosity was
+fully justifiable, it surely was that of Wilton to know his own early
+history. Thus, although he might have felt inclined to quarrel with
+any other person who treated him so lightly, on the present occasion
+he smothered his anger, and merely replied that the stranger was
+mistaken in supposing that there was any such acquaintance between
+him and Lady Laura as to justify him in visiting her box.
+
+Even while he was in the act of speaking, however, Lord Sherbrooke
+entered the lobby in haste, and advanced immediately towards him,
+saying, "Why, Wilton, I have been seeking you all over the house.
+Where, in Fortune's name, have you been? The Duke and Lady Laura have
+both been inquiring after you most tenderly, and wondering that you
+have not been to see them in their box."
+
+The stranger, whom we shall in future call Green, turned away with a
+smile, saying merely, "Good evening, Mr.  Brown; I won't detain you
+longer."
+
+"Why, who the devil have you got there, Wilton?" exclaimed Lord
+Sherbrooke: "I think I have seen his face before."
+
+"His name is Green," replied Wilton, not choosing to enter into
+particulars; "but I am ready now to go with you at once, and make my
+apologies for not accompanying you before."
+
+"Come then, come," replied Lord Sherbrooke; and, leading the way
+towards the Duke's box, he added, laughingly, "If there had been any
+doubt before, my good Wilton, as to my future fate, this night has
+been enough to settle it."
+
+"In what way?" said Wilton; but ere the young nobleman could answer,
+otherwise than by a smile, they had reached the box, and the door was
+thrown open.
+
+Wilton's heart beat, it must be confessed; but he had sufficient
+command over himself to guard against the slightest emotion being
+perceptible upon his countenance; and he bowed to the Duke and to
+Lady Laura, with that ceremonious politeness which he judged that his
+situation required.  Lady Laura at once, however, held out her hand
+to him, and expressed briefly, how glad she was of another
+opportunity to thank him for the great service which he had rendered
+her some time before. The Duke also spoke of it kindly and politely;
+and the other persons in the box, who were several in number, began
+to inquire into the circumstances thus publicly mentioned, so that
+the conversation took a more general turn, till the curtain again
+arose.
+
+A certain degree of restraint, which had at first affected both
+Wilton and the lady, soon wore off, and the evening went by most
+pleasantly. It was not strange--it was not surely at all
+strange--that a young heart should forget itself in such
+circumstances. Wilton gave himself up, not indeed to visions of joy,
+but to actual enjoyment. Perhaps Lady Laura did the same. At all
+events, she looked far happier than she had done before; and when at
+length the curtain fell, and the time for parting came, they both
+woke as from a dream, and the waking was certainly followed by a sigh
+on either part. It was then that Wilton first recollected the warning
+that he had promised to give, and he was considering how he should
+find the means of speaking with the Duke alone, when that nobleman
+paused for a moment, as the rest of the party went out of the box,
+and drawing Wilton aside, said in a hasty but kindly manner, "Lord
+Sherbrooke informs me that you are his most intimate friend, Mr.
+Brown; and as it is very likely that we shall see him frequently, I
+hope you will sometimes do us the favour of accompanying him."
+
+Wilton replied by one of those unmeaning speeches which commit a man
+to nothing; for though his own heart told him that he would really be
+but too happy, as he said to take advantage of the invitation, yet it
+told him, at the same time, that to do so would be dangerous to his
+peace. The Duke was then about to follow his party; but Wilton now in
+turn detained him, saying, "I have a message to deliver to you, my
+lord duke, from a stranger who stopped me as I was coming to your
+box."
+
+"Ha!" said the Duke, with a somewhat important air, "this is strange;
+but still I have so many communications of different kinds--what may
+it be, Mr. Brown?"
+
+"It was, my lord," replied Wilton, in a low voice, "a warning which I
+think it best to deliver, as, not knowing the gentleman's name who
+gave it to me, I cannot tell whether it may be a mere piece of
+impertinence from somebody who is perhaps a stranger to your grace,
+or an intimation from a sincere friend--"
+
+"But the warning, the warning!" said the Duke, "pray, what was this
+warning?"
+
+"It was," replied Wilton, "a warning not to go to a meeting which you
+proposed to attend in the course of to-morrow."
+
+"Ha!" said the Duke, with a look of some surprise--"did he say what
+meeting?"
+
+"Yes, my lord," replied Wilton--"he said it was a meeting at the old
+King's Head in Leadenhall Street, and he added that it would be
+dangerous for you to do so."
+
+"I will never shrink from personal danger, Mr. Brown," said the Duke,
+holding up his head, and putting on a courageous look. But the moment
+after, something seemed to strike him, and he added with a certain
+degree of hesitation, "But let me ask you, Mr. Brown, does my lord of
+Byerdale know this?--You have not told Lord Sherbrooke?"
+
+"Neither the one nor the other, my lord," replied Wilton--"I have
+mentioned the fact to nobody but yourself."
+
+"Pray, then, do not," replied the Duke; "you will oblige me very
+much, Mr. Brown, by keeping this business secret.  I must certainly
+attend the meeting at four to-morrow, because I have pledged my word
+to it; but I shall enter into nothing that is dangerous or criminal,
+depend upon it--"
+
+The nobleman was going on; and it is impossible to say how much he
+might have told in regard to the meeting in question, if Wilton had
+not stopped him.
+
+"I beg your pardon, my lord," he said; "but allow me to remind you
+that I have no knowledge whatsoever of the views and intentions with
+which this meeting is to be held. I shall certainly not mention the
+message I have brought your grace to any one, and having delivered
+it, must leave the rest to yourself, whose judgment in such matters
+must be far superior to mine."
+
+The Duke looked gratified, but moved on without reply, as the rest of
+his party were waiting at a little distance.  Wilton followed; and
+seeing the Duke and Lady Laura with Sir John and Lady Mary Fenwick
+into their carriages, he proceeded homeward with Lord Sherbrooke,
+neither of them interchanging a word till they had well nigh reached
+Wilton's lodgings. There, however, Lord Sherbrooke burst into a loud
+laugh, exclaiming--
+
+"Lack-a-day, Wilton, lack-a-day! Here are you and I as silent and as
+meditative as two owls in a belfry: you looking as wise as if you
+were a minister of state, and I as sorrowful as an unhappy lover,
+when, to say the truth, I am thinking of some deep stroke of policy,
+and you are meditating upon a fair maid's bright eyes. Get you gone,
+Wilton; get you gone, for a sentimental, lack-a-daisical shepherd!
+Now could we but get poor old King James to come back, the way to a
+dukedom would be open before you in a fortnight."
+
+"How so?" demanded Wilton, "how so? You do not suppose, Sherbrooke,
+that I would ever join in overturning the religion, and the laws, and
+the liberties of my country--how so, then?"
+
+"As thus," replied Lord Sherbrooke--"I will answer you as if I had
+been born the grave-digger in Hamlet. King James comes over--well,
+marry go to, now--a certain duke that you wot of, who is a rank
+Jacobite, by the by, instantly joins the invader; then comes King
+William, drives me his fellow-king and father-in-law out of the
+kingdom in five days, takes me the duke prisoner, and chops me his
+head off in no time. This headless father leaves a sorrowful
+daughter, who at the time of his death is deeply and desperately in
+love, without daring to say it, her father's head being the only
+obstacle in the way of the daughter's heart. Then comes the lover to
+console the lady, and finding her without protection, offers to
+undertake that very needful duty. Now see you, Wilton? Now see
+you?--But there's the door of your dwelling. Get you in, man, get you
+in, and try if in your dreams you can get some means of bringing it
+about. By my faith, Wilton, you are in a perilous situation; but
+there's one thing for your comfort,--if I can get out of all the
+scrapes that at this moment surround me on every side, like the lines
+of a besieging enemy, you can surely make your escape out of your
+difficulties, when you have love, and youth, and hope, to befriend
+you."
+
+"Hope?" said Wilton, in bitter sadness; but at the moment he spoke,
+the door of the house was opened, and, bidding Lord Sherbrooke "Good
+night," he went in.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+During the greater part of the next day Wilton did not set eyes upon
+Lord Sherbrooke. The Earl of Byerdale, however, was peculiarly
+courteous and polite to his young secretary. There was much business,
+Earl was obliged to be very rapid in all his movements; but the terms
+in which he gave his directions were gentle and placable, and some
+letters received in the course of the day from Ireland seemed to
+please him well. He hinted even in a mysterious tone to Wilton that
+he had something of importance to say to him, but that he had not time
+to say it at the moment, and he ended by asking his secretary to dine
+at his house on the following day, when he said the Duke of Gaveston
+and Lady Laura were to be present, with a large party.
+
+He went out about three o'clock: and Wilton had not long returned to
+his lodgings when Lord Sherbrooke joined him, and insisted on his
+accompanying him on horseback for a ride into the country.
+
+Wilton was at that moment hesitating as to whether he should or
+should not go to the rendezvous given him by his strange
+acquaintance, Green. He had certainly left the theatre on the
+preceding night determined so to do; for the various feelings which
+at this time agitated his heart had changed the anxiety which he had
+always felt to know the circumstances of his birth and family into a
+burning thirst, which would have led him almost anywhere for
+satisfaction.
+
+A night's thought, however--for we cannot say that he slept--had
+again revived all the doubts which had before prevented him from
+seeking the stranger, and had once more displayed before his eyes all
+the many reasons which in those days existed for holding no
+communication with persons whose characters were not known; or were
+in the least degree suspicious. Thus before Lord Sherbrooke joined
+him, he had fully convinced himself that the thing which he had so
+great an inclination to do was foolish, imprudent, and wrong. He had
+seen the man in a situation which left scarcely a doubt of his
+pursuits; he had seen him in close communication with a gentleman
+principally known as a virulent and unscrupulous enemy of the
+reigning dynasty; and he had not one cause for thinking well of him,
+except a certain off-hand frankness of manner which might easily be
+assumed.
+
+All this he had repeated to himself twenty times, but yet he felt a
+strong inclination to go, when Lord Sherbrooke's sudden appearance,
+and invitation to ride out with him, cast an additional weight into
+the opposite scale, and determined his conduct at once. It is
+wonderful, indeed, how often those important acts, in regard to which
+we have hesitated and weighed every point with anxious deliberation,
+are ultimately determined by the most minute and trifling
+circumstance, totally unconnected with the thing itself. The truth
+is, under such circumstances we are like a man weighing fine gold
+dust, who does it to such a nicety that a hair falling into the scale
+turns it one way or the other.
+
+In the present instance, our friend Wilton was not unwilling that
+something should come in aid of his better judgment; and ordering his
+horse he was soon beyond the precincts of London, and riding through
+the beautiful fields which at that time extended over ground where
+courtiers and ministers have now established their town dwellings.
+
+From the whole demeanour of his companion, from the wild and excited
+spirits which he displayed, from the bursts of merriment to which he
+gave way, apparently without a sufficient cause, Wilton evidently saw
+that there was either some wild scheme working in Lord Sherbrooke's
+brain, or the knowledge of some happy event gladdening his heart.
+What it was, however, he could not divine, and the young nobleman was
+evidently determined on no account to explain. He  laughed and jested
+with Wilton in regard to the gravity which he could not conquer,
+declared that he was the dullest companion that ever had been seen,
+and vowed that there could be no more stupid and tiresome companion
+for a long ride than a man in love, unless, indeed, it were a lame
+horse.
+
+"Indeed, my dear Sherbrooke," replied Wilton, "you should prove, in
+the first place, that I am in love, which I can assure you is not the
+case, before you attempt to attribute my being grave to that reason.
+My very situation in life, and a thousand things connected therewith,
+are surely enough to make me sad at times."
+
+"Why, what is there sad in your situation, my dear Wilton?" demanded
+Lord Sherbrooke, in the same tone of raillery: "here are you a
+wealthy young man--ay, wealthy, Wilton. Have you not yourself told me
+that your income exceeds your expenses; while I, on the other hand,
+have no income at all, and expenses in abundance? Well, I say you are
+here a wealthy young man, with the best prospects in the world,
+destined some day to be prime minister for aught I know."
+
+"And who, at this present moment," interrupted Wilton, "has not a
+relation upon earth that he knows of; who has never enjoyed a
+father's care or a mother's tenderness; who can only guess that his
+birth was disgraceful to her whom man's heart is naturally bound to
+reverence, without knowing who or what was his father, or who even
+was the mother by whose shame he was brought into being."
+
+Lord Sherbrooke was immediately grave, for he saw that Wilton was
+hurt; and he replied frankly and kindly, "I beg your pardon, my dear
+Wilton--I did not intend to pain you, and had not the slightest idea
+of how you were circumstanced.  To tell the truth, I took it for
+granted that you were the son of good Lord Sunbury; and thought that
+you were, of course, well aware of all the particulars."
+
+"Of none, Sherbrooke, of none," replied Wilton. "Suspicions may have
+crossed my mind that it is as you supposed, but then many other things
+tend to make me believe that such is not the case. At all events, one
+thing is clear--I have no family, no kindred; or if I have
+relations, they are ashamed of the tie that binds me to them, and
+voluntarily disown it."
+
+"Pshaw! Wilton," exclaimed Lord Sherbrooke--"family!  What matters a
+family? Make yourself one, Wilton. The best of us can but trace his
+lineage back to some black-bearded Northman, or yellow-haired Saxon,
+no better than a savage of some cannibal island of the South Sea--a
+fellow who tore his roast meat with unwashed fingers, and never knew
+the luxury of a clean shirt. Make a family for yourself, I say; and
+let the hundredth generation down, if the world last so long, boast
+that the head of the house was a gentleman, and wore gold lace on his
+coat."
+
+Wilton smiled, saying, "I fear the prospect of progeny, Sherbrooke,
+will never be held as an equivalent for the retrospect of ancestors."
+
+"An axiom worthy of Aristotle!" exclaimed Lord Sherbrooke; "but here
+we are, my dear Wilton," he continued, pulling up his horse at the
+gates of a house enclosed within walls, situated about a quarter of a
+mile beyond Chelsea, and somewhat more from the house and grounds
+belonging at that time to the celebrated Earl of Peterborough.
+
+"But what do you intend to do here?" exclaimed Wilton, at this pause.
+
+"Oh! nothing but make a call," replied his companion.
+
+"Shall I ride on, or wait till you come back?" demanded Wilton.
+
+"Oh, no!--come in, come in," said Lord Sherbrooke--"I shall not be
+long, and I'll introduce you, if you are not acquainted."
+
+While he was speaking he had rung the bell, and his own two servants
+with Wilton's rode up to take the horses.  Almost at the same moment
+a porter threw open the gates, and to his companion's surprise, Lord
+Sherbrooke asked for the Duke of Gaveston. The servant answered that
+the Duke was out, but that his young lady was at home; and thus the
+hero of our tale found himself suddenly, and even most unwillingly,
+brought to the dwelling of one whose society he certainly liked
+better than that of any one else on earth.
+
+Lord Sherbrooke looked in his face with a glance of malicious
+pleasure; and then, as nothing on earth ever stopped him in anything
+that he chose to do or say, he burst forth into a gay peal of
+laughter at the surprise which he saw depicted on the countenance of
+his friend.
+
+"Take the horses," he continued, turning to his own servants--"take
+the horses round to the Green Dragon, in the lane behind the house,
+wet their noses, and give them a book to read till we come to them.
+Come, Wilton, come!  It is quite fitting," he said, in a lower tone,
+"that in execution of my plan I should establish a character for
+insanity in the house. Now that fat porter with the mulberry nose
+will go and report to the kitchen-maid that I order my horses a book
+to read, and they will decide that I am mad in a minute. The news
+will fly from kitchen-maid to cook, and from cook to housekeeper, and
+from housekeeper to lady's maid, and from lady's maid to lady. There
+will be nothing else talked of in the house but my madness; and when
+they come to add madness to badness they will surely give me up, if
+they haven't a mind to add sadness to madness likewise."
+
+While he spoke, they were following a sort of groom of the chambers,
+who, after looking into one of the rooms on the ground-floor, turned
+to Lord Sherbrooke, saying, in a sweet tone,
+
+"Lady Laura is walking in the gardens I see, my lord. I will show
+your lordship the way."
+
+"So you have the honour of knowing who my lordship is, Mr. Montgomery
+Styles?" said Lord Sherbrooke, looking him full in the face.
+
+"I beg your lordship's pardon," said the man, in the same mincing
+manner--"my name is not Montgomery Styles--my name is Josiah
+Perkins."
+
+"Well, Jos. Perkins," said the young nobleman, "I PRAE SEQUOR, which
+means, get on as fast as you can, Mr. Perkins, and I'll come after;
+though you may tell me as you go, how it was you discovered my
+lordliness."
+
+"Oh! by your look, my lord: I should have discovered it at once,"
+replied the groom of the chambers; "but his grace told me that your
+lordship was likely to call."
+
+"Oh, ho!" cried Lord Sherbrooke, with a laughing look to Wilton. But
+the next moment the servant threw open a glass door, and they issued
+forth into the gardens, which were very beautiful, and extended down
+to the river, filled with fine old trees, and spread out in soft
+green terraces and gravel walks. Lord Sherbrooke gazed round at
+first, with a look of criticising inquiry, upon the gardens; but the
+eyes of Wilton had fixed immediately upon the figure of a lady who
+was walking slowly along on the terrace, some way beneath them, at
+the very edge of the river. She did not remark the opening of the
+glass door in the centre of the house, which was at the distance of
+about two hundred yards from the spot where she was at the time; but
+continued her walk with her eyes bent upon the ground, and one hand
+playing negligently with the bracelet which encircled the wrist of
+the other arm. Her thoughts were evidently deeply busied with matters
+of importance, at least to herself.  She was walking slowly, as we
+have said--a thing that none but a high-bred woman can do with
+grace--and though the great beauty of her figure was, in some degree,
+hidden by the costume of the day, yet nothing could render its easy,
+gliding motion aught but exquisitely graceful, and (if I may use a
+far-fetched term, but, perhaps, the only one that will express my
+meaning clearly,) musical to the eye. It must not be understood that,
+though she was walking slowly, the grace with which she did so had
+anything of the cold and stately air which those who assume it call
+dignity. Oh no!  it was all easy: quiet, but full of youth, and
+health, and life it was the mere movement of a form, perfect in the
+symmetry of every limb, under the will of a spirit harmonizing
+entirely with the fair frame that contained it. She walked slowly
+because she was full of deep thought; but no one who beheld her could
+doubt that bounding joy might in its turn call forth as much grace in
+that young form as the calmer mood now displayed.
+
+Wilton turned his eyes from the lady to his young companion, and he
+saw that he was now gazing at her too, and that not a little
+admiration was painted in his countenance.  Wilton was painfully
+situated, and felt all the awkwardness of the position in which Lord
+Sherbrooke had placed him fully. Yet how could he act? he asked
+himself--what means of escape did there exist? What was the motive,
+too? what the intentions of Lord Sherbrooke? for what purposes had he
+brought him there? in what situation might he place him next?
+
+All these, and many another question, he asked his own heart as they
+advanced across the green slopes and little terraces towards that in
+which the young lady "walked in beauty." There was no means for him
+to escape, however; and though he never knew from one moment to
+another what would be the conduct of Lord Sherbrooke, he was obliged
+to go on, and take his chance of what that conduct might be.
+
+When they were about fifty yards from Lady Laura, she turned at the
+end of the walk, and then, for the first time, saw them as they
+approached; but if the expression of her countenance might be
+believed, she saw them with no great pleasure. An expression of
+anxiety, nay, of pain, came into her beautiful eyes; and as they were
+turned both upon Lord Sherbrooke and Wilton, the latter came in for
+his share also of that vexed look.
+
+"You see, Wilton," said Lord Sherbrooke in a low voice, "how angry
+she is to behold you here. It was for that I brought you. I want to
+tease her in all possible ways," and without waiting for any reply,
+he hurried his pace, and advanced towards the lady.
+
+She received him with marked coldness and distance of manner; but now
+the difference in her demeanour towards him and towards Wilton was
+strongly marked--not that the smile with which she greeted the latter
+when he came up was anything but very faint, yet her lip did relax
+into a smile.
+
+The colour, too, came up a little into her cheek; and her manner was
+a little agitated. In short--though without openly expressing any
+very great pleasure at seeing him--it was evident that she was not
+displeased; and the secret of the slight degree of embarrassment
+which she displayed was, that for the first moment or so after she
+saw him, she thought of her mistake of the night before, and of her
+feelings while she had imagined that the Duke had pointed him out to
+her as one who, if she thought fit, might be her future husband.
+
+The lady soon conquered the momentary agitation, however; and the
+conversation went on, principally maintained, of course, between
+herself and Lord Sherbrooke. Wilton would have given worlds indeed to
+have escaped, but there was no possibility of so doing, Lady Laura
+signified no intention of returning to the house; and they continued
+walking up and down the broad gravelled terrace, which of all things
+on earth affords the least opportunity for lingering behind, or
+escaping the embarrassment of being the one too many.
+
+Wilton had too much good taste to suffer his annoyance to appear; and
+though he strove to avoid taking any greater part in the conversation
+than he could help, still when he joined in, what he did say was said
+with ease and grace.  Lord Sherbrooke forced him, indeed, to speak
+more than he was inclined, and, to Lady Laura, there seemed a strange
+contrast between the thoughts and language of the two.  The young
+nobleman's conversation was light, witty, poignant, and irregular. It
+was like the flowing of a shallow stream amongst bright pebbles which
+it causes to sparkle, and from which it receives in return a thousand
+various shades and tints, but without depth or vigour; while that of
+Wilton was stronger, more profound, more vigorous both in thought and
+expression, and was like a deeper river flowing on without so much
+sunshine and light, but clear, deep, and powerful, and not unmusical
+either, between its banks.
+
+It was towards the latter that Lady Laura turned and listened, though
+she could not but smile at many of the gay sallies of him who walked
+on the other side: but it seemed as if the conversation of Lord
+Sherbrooke rested in the ear, while that of Wilton sunk into the
+heart.
+
+It would not be very interesting, even if we had times to detail all
+that took place upon that occasion; but it must be confessed that,
+though once or twice Lord Sherbrooke felt inclined to put forth all
+his powers of pleasing, out of pique at the marked preference which
+Lady Laura showed for Wilton, he in no degree concealed the worst
+points of his character. He said nothing, indeed, which could offend
+in mere expression: but every now and then he suffered some few words
+to escape him, which clearly announced that the ties of morality and
+religion were in no degree recognised by him amongst the principles
+by which he intended to guide his actions. He even forced the
+conversation into channels which afforded an opportunity of
+expressing opinions of worse than a dangerous character. Constancy,
+he said, was all very well for a turtledove, or an old man of seventy
+with a young wife; and as for religion, there were certain people
+paid for having it, and he should not trouble himself to have any
+unless he were paid likewise. This was not, indeed, all said at once,
+nor in such distinct terms as we have here used, but still the
+meaning was the same; and whether expressed in a jesting or more
+serious manner, that meaning could not be misunderstood.
+
+Wilton looked grave and sad when he heard such things said to a pure
+and high-minded girl; and Lady Laura herself turned a little pale, and
+cast her eyes down upon the ground without reply.
+
+At length, after this had gone on for some time, Lord Sherbrooke
+inquired for Lady Mary Fenwick, saying that he had hoped to see her
+there, and to inquire after her health.
+
+"Oh, she is here still," replied Lady Laura; "but she complained of
+headache this morning, and is sitting in the little library. I do not
+know whether she would be inclined to see any one or not."
+
+"Oh, she will see me, beyond all doubt," exclaimed Lord
+Sherbrooke--"no lady ever refuses to see me. Besides, her
+great-grandmother, on old Lady Carlisle's side, was my great-
+grandfather's forty-fifth cousin; so that we are relations. I will go
+and find her out. Stay you, Wilton, and console Lady Laura, till I
+come back again. I shall not be five minutes."
+
+Thus saying, away he darted, leaving Lady Laura and Wilton alone in
+the middle of the walk. The lady seemed to hesitate for a moment what
+she should do, whether she should follow to the house or not, and she
+paused for an instant in the walk; but inclination, if the truth must
+be said, got the better of what she might consider strictly decorous,
+and after that momentary pause, she walked on with Wilton by her
+side. In saying that it was inclination determined her conduct, I did
+not mean to say that it was solely the inclination to walk and
+converse with Wilton Brown, though that had some share in the
+business, but there was besides, an inclination to be freed from the
+presence of Lord Sherbrooke, who had succeeded to a miracle in making
+her thoroughly disgusted with him.
+
+As they walked on, there was a certain degree of embarrassment hung
+over both Wilton and Laura; both felt, perhaps, that they could be
+very happy in each other's society, but both felt afraid of being too
+happy. With Wilton, there were a thousand causes to produce that
+slight embarrassment, and with Lady Laura several also. But one, and
+a very principal cause was, that there was something which she longed
+exceedingly to say, and yet doubted whether she ought to say it.
+
+It does not unfrequently happen that a person of the highest rank and
+station, possessing every quality to secure friendship, with wealth
+and every gift of fortune at command, surrounded by numerous
+acquaintances, and mingling with a wide society, is nevertheless
+totally alone--alone in spirit and in heart--alone in thought and
+mind. Such was the case with Lady Laura. It is true she had yet but
+very little experience of the world, and her search for a congenial
+spirit had not been carried far or prosecuted long; but she was one
+of those who had learned to think and to feel early. Her mother, who
+had died three years before, had taught her to do so, not alone for
+her own sake, but also for that of her father; for the Duchess had
+early felt the conviction that her own life would be brief, and knew
+that the mind and character of her daughter must have a great effect
+upon the Duke, whom she loved much, though she could not venerate
+very highly.
+
+With a heart, then, full of deep and pure feelings, with a mind not
+only originally bright and strong, not only highly cultivated and
+stored with fine tastes, but highly directed and fortified with
+strong principles, with an enthusiastic love of everything that was
+beautiful and graceful, generous, noble, and dignified--it is not to
+be wondered at that, in the wide society of the capital, or amongst
+all the acquaintances who thronged her father's house, Lady Laura had
+seen no spirit congenial to her own, no heart with the same feelings,
+no mind with the same objects. In every one she had met with, there
+had still been some apparent weakness, some worldliness, some
+selfishness; there had been coldness, or apathy, or want of
+principle, or want of feeling; and the bright enthusiasms of her
+young nature had been confined to the tabernacle of her own heart.
+
+She had seen Wilton Brown but seldom, it is true, but nevertheless
+she felt differently towards him and other people.  There were
+several causes which had produced this; and perhaps, as Lady Laura
+was not absolutely an angel, his personal appearance might have
+something to do with it, though less than might be supposed. His fine
+person, his noble carriage, his bright and intelligent countenance,
+the rapid variety of its expressions, the dignified character of the
+predominant one to which it always returned, after those more
+transient had passed away--all gave the idea of there being a high
+heart and mind beneath. In the next place, Wilton had, as we have
+told, commenced his acquaintance with her by an act of personal
+service, performed with gallantry, skill, and decision, at the risk
+of his own life. In the third place, in all his conversation, as far
+as she had ever known or remarked, there were those small casual
+traits of good feelings, fine tastes, and strong principles,
+expressed sometimes by a single word, sometimes by a look or gesture,
+which are a thousand-fold more convincing, in regard to the real
+character of the person, than the most laboured harangue, or essay,
+or declaration.
+
+Thus it was that Laura hoped, and fancied, and believed, she had now
+seen one person upon earth whose feelings, thoughts, and character
+might assimilate with her own. Pray let the reader understand, that I
+do not mean to say Laura was in love with Wilton; but she did believe
+that he was one of those for whose eyes she might draw away a part of
+that customary veil with which all people hide the shrine of their
+deeper feelings from the sight of the coarse multitude.
+
+There was something, then, as we have seen, that she wished to
+say--there was something that she believed she might say, without
+risk or wrong. But yet she hesitated; and she and Wilton went on
+nearly to the end of the walk in perfect silence. At length she cast
+a timid glance, first towards the house where Lord Sherbrooke was
+seen just entering one of the rooms from the upper terrace, and then
+to the face of Wilton Brown, whose eye chanced at that moment to be
+upon her with a look of inquiry. The look gave her courage, and she
+said--
+
+"I am going to say a very odd thing, Mr. Brown, I believe; but your
+great intimacy with Lord Sherbrooke puzzles me. He told my father
+last night that you were his dearest and most intimate friend. I
+always thought that friendship must proceed from a similarity of
+feelings and pursuits, and I am sure, from what I have heard you say,
+at least I think I may be sure, that you entertain ideas the most
+opposite to those with which he has just pained us."
+
+Wilton smiled somewhat sadly; but he did not dare deny that such
+opinions were Lord Sherbrooke's real ones; for his well-known conduct
+was too much in accordance with them.
+
+"Would to Heaven, dear lady," he said, "that Sherbrooke would permit
+me to be as much his friend as I might be! I must not deny that he
+has many faults--faults, I am sure, of education and habit alone, for
+his heart is noble, honourable, and high"
+
+"Nay," cried Lady Laura--"could a noble or an honourable heart
+entertain such sentiments as he has just expressed?"
+
+"You do not know him, nor understand him yet, Lady Laura," replied
+Wilton. "Most men strive to make themselves appear better than they
+really are: Sherbrooke labours to make himself appear worse--not
+alone, Lady Laura, in his language--not alone in his account of
+himself, but even by his very actions. I am confident that he has
+committed more than one folly, for the sole purpose, if his motives
+were thoroughly sifted and investigated, of establishing a bad
+reputation."
+
+"What a sad vanity!" exclaimed Lady Laura. "On such a man no reliance
+can be placed. But his plain declaration, a few minutes ago, is quite
+sufficient to mark his character, I mean his declaration, that he
+considers no vows taken to a woman at all binding on a man. Is that
+the principle of an honourable heart, Mr. Brown?"
+
+Wilton was silent for a moment, but Lady Laura evidently looked for a
+reply; and he answered at length, "No, it is not, Lady Laura; but I
+fully believe, ere taking any such vows, Sherbrooke would openly
+acknowledge his view of them, and, having done so, would look upon
+them as mere empty air."
+
+Lady Laura laughed, evidently applying her companion's words to her
+own situation with Lord Sherbrooke; and Wilton, unwilling that one
+word from his lips should have a tendency to thwart the purposes of
+the Earl of Byerdale, in a matter where he had no right to interfere,
+hastened to add, "Let me assure you, Lady Laura, however, at the same
+time that I make this acknowledgment with regard to Sherbrooke, that
+I am fully convinced, if he were to pledge his word of honour to keep
+those vows, he would die rather than violate that pledge."
+
+"That is to say," replied Lady Laura, somewhat bitterly, "that he has
+erected an idol whose oracles he can interpret as he will, and calls
+it honour, denying that there is any other God. But let us speak of
+it no more, Mr. Brown; these things make one sad."
+
+Wilton was glad to speak of something else; for he felt himself bound
+by every tie to say all that he could in favour of Lord Sherbrooke;
+and yet he could not find in his heart to aid, in the slightest
+degree, in forwarding a scheme which could end in nothing but misery
+to the sweet and innocent girl beside him. He changed the topic at
+once, then, and exerted himself to draw her mind away from the matter
+on which they had just been speaking.
+
+Nevertheless, that subject, while they went on, remained in the mind
+of each; and Lady Laura might have discovered--if she had been at
+all apprehensive of her own feelings--that it is a dangerous thing to
+do as she had done, and raise, for any eye, even a corner of that
+veil which bides the heart, unless we are inclined to raise it
+altogether. Her subsequent conversation with Wilton took its tone
+throughout, entirely from what had gone before. Without knowing it,
+or rather, we should say, without perceiving it, they suffered it to
+be mingled with deep feelings; shadowed forth, perhaps, more than
+actually expressed. A softness, too, came over it--we insist not,
+though, perhaps, we might, call it a tenderness the ceremonious terms
+were soon dropped; and because the speakers would have been obliged
+to use those ceremonious terms, if they had spoken each other's
+names, they seemed by mutual consent to forget each other's names,
+and never spoke them at all. Lady Laura did not address him as Mr.
+Brown, and Wilton uttered not the words, "Lady Laura." From time to
+time, too, she gazed up in his face, to see if he understood what she
+meant but could not fully express; and he, while he poured forth any
+of the deep thoughts long treasured in his own bosom, looked often
+earnestly into her countenance, to discover by the expression the
+effect produced on her mind.
+
+Lord Sherbrooke was absent for more than half an hour; and, during
+that half hour, Wilton and the lady had gone farther on the journey
+they were taking than ever they had gone yet.--What journey?
+
+Cannot you divine, reader? When Wilton entered those gardens, we
+might boldly say, as we did say, that he was not in love. When he
+left them, we should have hesitated.  He would have hesitated
+himself! Was not that going far upon a journey?
+
+However, Lord Sherbrooke at length joined them; and after a moment
+more of cold and ceremonious leave-taking with Lady Laura, he turned,
+and, accompanied by Wilton, left the house.
+
+Lady Laura remained upon the terrace, walking more rapidly than
+before, and with her eyes bent upon the ground.  Two minutes brought
+Wilton to the gates of the court-yard; but oh, in those two minutes,
+how his heart smote him, and how his brain reeled!
+
+"Shall I run for the horses, my lord?" cried the groom of the
+chambers--"Shall I go for the horses, my lord?" exclaimed one of the
+running footmen who was loitering in the hall.
+
+"No," said Lord Sherbrooke--"we will walk and fetch them," and taking
+Wilton's arm, he sauntered quietly on from the house.
+
+"Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, this is all very wrong," said Wilton, the
+moment they were out of hearing.
+
+"Very wrong, Solon!" exclaimed Lord Sherbrooke--"what do you mean?
+Heavens and earth, what a perverse generation it is! When I expected
+to be thanked over and over again for the kindest possible act, to be
+told that it is all very wrong! You ungrateful villain! I declare I
+have a great mind to turn round and draw my sword upon you, and cut
+your throat out of pure friendship. Very wrong, say you?"
+
+"Ay, very wrong, Sherbrooke," replied Wilton. "You have placed me in
+an unpleasant and dangerous situation, and without giving me notice
+or a choice, have made me co-operate in doing what I do not think
+right."
+
+"Pshaw!" cried Lord Sherbrooke--"Pshaw! At your heart, my dear
+Wilton, you are very much obliged to me; and if you are not the most
+ungrateful and the most foolish of all men upon earth, you will take
+the goods the gods provide you, and make the best use of time and
+opportunity."
+
+"All I can say, Sherbrooke," replied Wilton, "is, that I shall never
+return to that house again, except for a formal visit to the Duke."
+
+"Fine resolutions speedily broken!" exclaimed Lord Sherbrooke: and he
+was right.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+Had Wilton Brown wanted an immediate illustration of the fragile
+nature of man's purposes, of how completely and thoroughly our
+firmest resolutions are the sport of fate and accident, it could have
+been furnished to him within five minutes after he left the gates of
+the house where he had paid an unintended visit.
+
+Lord Sherbrooke seemed perfectly well acquainted with the house and
+its neighbourhood, and led the way round through a green lane at the
+back, which presently, in one of its most sequestered spots, offered
+to the eyes a somewhat large old-fashioned public-house, standing
+back in a small paved court: while planted before it, on the edge of
+the road, was a sign-post, bearing on its top the effigy of a huge
+green dragon.
+
+Now, whether it be from some unperceived association in the minds of
+the English people between the chimerical gentleman we have lately
+mentioned and the patron saint of this island, who, it seems, if all
+tales were told, was not a bit better than the dragon that he slew;
+or for what other reason I know not, yet there is no doubt of the
+fact, that in all ages English vintners have had a particular
+predilection for green dragons; and that name was so commonly
+attached to a public-house, in those days, that it had not at all
+struck Wilton Brown that the Green Dragon to which Lord Sherbrooke
+ordered the horses to be led, was that very identical Green Dragon
+where his acquaintance Mr. Green had given him the rendezvous.
+
+He might not, indeed, have heard Lord Sherbrooke's order at all; but
+it is still more probable, that he only did not attend to it, as all
+his thoughts were taken up at the moment by the discovery of what
+place Lord Sherbrooke had brought him to. It now, however, struck
+him--when he saw the Green Dragon standing in the Green Lane,
+precisely as it had been described by Green--that it might very
+likely be the identical house to which he had been directed; and on
+asking Lord Sherbrooke what was the name of the mansion they had just
+visited, the matter was placed beyond doubt by his replying,
+"Beaufort House. The Duke only hires it for a time."
+
+Brown hesitated now for an instant, as to how he should act. His
+watch told him that it was close upon the hour to the appointment:
+curiosity raised her voice: the natural longing after kindred had
+also its influence; and if the society of Lord Sherbrooke was any
+impediment, that was instantly removed by the young nobleman saying,
+"Come, Wilton, as you are an unsociable devil, and seem out of
+temper, I shall leave you to ride home by yourself--The truth is," he
+added, after a moment's pause, "I am going upon an expedition, that
+the character I have given myself to my fair Lady Laura may be fully
+and completely established on the day that it is given.".
+
+"Nay, Sherbrooke, nay!" cried Wilton--"I hope and trust such is not
+the case."
+
+The other only laughed, and called loudly for his servants and
+horses.
+
+Well disciplined to his prompt and fiery disposition, his grooms led
+the horses out in a moment, and the young nobleman sprang into the
+saddle. Before his right foot was in the stirrup, he had touched the
+horse with the spur, and away he went like lightning, waving his hand
+to Wilton with a light laugh.
+
+Wilton's horses and groom had appeared also, but he paused before the
+door without mounting; and the next moment, a fat, well-looking host,
+as round, as well fed, and as rosy, as beef, beer, and good spirits,
+ever made the old English innkeeper, appeared at the door in his
+white night-cap and apron, and approaching the young gentleman,
+invited him in with what seemed a meaning look.
+
+"Perhaps I may come in," replied Wilton, "and taste your good ale,
+landlord."
+
+"Sir, the ale is both honoured and honourable," replied the host. "I
+can assure you many a high gentleman tastes it at the Green Dragon."
+
+Bidding his servant lead the horse up and down before the door,
+Wilton slowly entered the well-sanded passage, and passed through the
+doorway of a room to which the landlord pointed. The moment he
+entered, he heard voices speaking very loud, there being nothing
+apparently between that and the adjoining chamber but a very thin
+partition of wood-work. The landlord hemmed and coughed aloud, and
+Wilton made his footfalls sound as heavily as possible, but all in
+vain: the person who was speaking went on in the same tone; and
+before the landlord could get out of the room again and down the
+passage to the door of the next chamber, which was some way farther
+on, Wilton distinctly heard the words, "Nonsense, Sir George! don't
+attempt to cajole me! I tell you, I will have nothing to do with it.
+To bring in foreigners is bad enough, when we are quite strong enough
+to do it without: but I will take no man's blood but in fair fight."
+
+"Well!" exclaimed the other, in the same loud and vehement
+manner--"you know, sir, I could hang you if I liked!"
+
+At that moment the door was evidently opened, and the landlord's
+voice, exclaiming, "Hush! hush!" was heard; but he could not stop the
+reply, which was,--
+
+"I know that! But I could hang you, too; so that we are each pretty
+safe. This is that villain Charnock's doing.  Tell him I will blow
+his brains out the first time I meet him, for spoiling, by his
+bloody-minded villany, one of the most hopeful plans--"
+
+But the landlord's "Hush! hush!" was again repeated, and the voices
+were thenceforth moderated, though the discussion seemed still to
+endure some time.
+
+Wilton's curiosity was now more excited than ever; and when the
+landlord brought him a foaming jug of ale, together with a long
+Venice glass having a wavy pearl-coloured line up the stalk, he asked
+the simple question, "Is Mr. Green here?"
+
+On this the landlord put down his head, saying, in a low voice, "The
+Colonel will be with you directly: he expects you, sir."
+
+"The Colonel!" thought Brown--"this is a new dignity.  However, with
+his state and station I have little to do, if I could but discover my
+own."
+
+At the end of about five minutes the conversation in the other room
+ceased, and in a moment or two more the door was opened, and Green
+made his appearance. We have so accurately described him before that
+we should not pause upon his appearance now, had there not been a
+great change in his dress, which had such an effect as to render it
+scarcely possible to recognise him.
+
+Now, instead of a military-looking suit of green, he had on a
+long-waisted broad-cut coat of black, with jet buttons; a
+light-coloured periwig filled full of powder; black breeches and silk
+stockings, and a light black-hilted sword. In fact, he bore much more
+the appearance of a French lawyer of that day than anything else. The
+features, indeed, were there; but it was wonderful what the
+highly-powdered wig had done to soften the strong-marked lines of his
+face, and to blanch the weather-beaten appearance of his complexion.
+
+The suit of black, too, made him look thinner and even taller than he
+really was; and on his first entrance into the room, Wilton certainly
+did not know him.
+
+"You have come before your time," he said, "though perhaps it is as
+well, for I must go out as soon as it is dusk;" and as he spoke he
+cast himself into a chair, fixed his eyes upon some scanty embers
+which were smouldering in the grate, and fell into a deep and
+apparently painful fit of thought. His broad but heavy brow was
+knitted with a wrinkled frown; the muscles of his face worked from
+time to time; and Wilton could see the sinews of his large powerful
+hand, as it lay upon his knee, standing out like cords, though he
+uttered not a word.
+
+After pausing for a moment or two, his companion thought it time to
+recall this strange acquaintance to the subject of his coming, and
+said, "You told me I might see some of my old friends here, Mr.
+Green. Let me remind you it grows late."
+
+"Don't be impatient, my good boy," replied the other, abstractedly, at
+the same time rising and drinking a deep draught of the ale--"you
+SHALL see some of your old friends!  Don't you see me?"
+
+"Yes," replied Wilton, "you are an acquaintance, certainly, of some
+months, but nothing more that I know of."
+
+"Well, well, do not be impatient, I say," answered Green "you shall
+see some one else, if I don't satisfy you. But you are before your
+time, as I said."
+
+He had scarcely spoken, when the door of the little room opened once
+more, and a woman apparently of no very high class, and considerably
+advanced in years, so as to be somewhat decrepit, came in. She was
+dressed in a large grey cloak of common serge, with a stick in her
+hand, and mittens on her hands, while over her head was a large black
+wimple or hood, which covered a great part of her face.
+
+The moment Green saw her, he crossed over, and said in a low but not
+inaudible voice, "Not a word, till all this business is over! They
+will ruin the cause and themselves, and all that are engaged with
+them, by committing all sorts of crimes. It will plunge him into the
+greatest dangers, if you say a word."
+
+Much of what he said was heard by Brown; and in the meantime Green
+aided the woman to disembarrass herself of her hood and cloak, taking
+the staff out of her hand, and at the same time turning the key of
+the door. The moment that he did so, his female companion drew
+herself up; the appearance of bowed decrepitude vanished; and she
+stood before Brown a tall graceful woman, apparently scarcely forty
+years of age, with a countenance still beautiful, and a demeanour
+which left no doubt of the society with which at one time she must
+have mingled.
+
+Of Wilton himself the lady had as yet had but one glance, as she
+first entered the room; for, ever since, Green had stood between them
+so that she could not see. When she did behold him fully, however,
+she gazed upon him earnestly, clasping her hands, and exclaiming, "Is
+it--is it possible?"
+
+The next moment her feelings seemed to overpower her--"Oh yes, yes,"
+she cried, advancing "it is he himself--the same dear, blessed
+likeness of the dead!" and casting her arms round the young
+gentleman's neck, she wept long and profusely on his bosom.
+
+Wilton was surprised and agitated, as may well be conceived. He was
+not sufficiently ignorant of the world not to know that there are a
+thousand tricks and artifices daily practised, which assume such
+appearances as the scene now performing before him displayed. He
+might, indeed, have entertained suspicions of all sorts of
+transformations and disguises; but there was an earnestness, a truth,
+in the lady's manner that was in itself convincing, and there was
+something more, also--there was a most extraordinary resemblance in
+her whole face and person to the picture which we have before
+mentioned in the house of the Earl of Sunbury. The features were the
+same, the height, the figure: the eyes were the same colour, there was
+the same peculiar expression about the mouth, and the only difference
+seemed to be the difference of age. The picture represented a girl of
+eighteen or nineteen: the person who stood beside him must have seen
+well nigh forty summers.
+
+Though the likeness was complete, there was a certain difference.
+Have we not all beheld a beautiful scene spread out in the morning
+light, full of radiance, and sparkling, and glorious sunshine? and
+have we not seen a grey cloud creep over the sky, leaving the
+landscape the same, but taking from it the resplendent beams in
+which it shone at first? So did it seem with her. All appeared the
+same as in the bright being whom the painter had depicted in her gay
+day of youth; but that Time had since brought, as it were, a grey
+shadow over the loveliness which it could not take away.
+
+All these things took from Wilton every doubt; and after he had
+suffered the lady for a moment to give way to her feelings without a
+word: even throwing his arm slightly round her, and pressing her
+towards him, he said, "Are you--are you my mother?"
+
+"Alas! no, my dear boy," she replied, raising her head and wiping
+away the tears, while the colour rose slightly in her cheek. "I am
+not your mother, but one who has loved you scarcely less than ever
+mother loved her son; one who nursed and fondled you in infancy; one
+who has now come from another land but for the sake of seeing you,
+and of holding once more to her heart the nursling of other years,
+even more sad and terrible than these."
+
+"From another land!" said Wilton, thoughtfully, while through the dim
+and misty vista of the past, strange figures seemed to move before
+his eyes, as if suddenly called up out of the darkness of oblivion by
+some enchanter's voice.  "Another land!" he said, thoughtfully--"Your
+face and your voice seem to wake strange memories. I think, I
+remember having been with you in another land, and I
+recollect--surely I recollect, a pretty cottage with a rose-tree at
+the door--a rose-tree in full bloom; and tying the knot of an
+officer's scarf, and his holding me long to his heart, and blessing
+me again and again--"
+
+"Before he went to battle!" said the lady, "before he went to death!"
+Her voice became choked in suffocating sobs, and she wept again long
+and bitterly.
+
+"Nay, but tell me more," said Wilton--"in pity, tell me more. Do I
+not surely recollect his face, too?" and he pointed to Green, "and
+the sparkling sea-shore? and sailing long upon the ocean? Tell me
+more, oh, tell me more!"
+
+"I must not yet, Wilton," she replied--"I must not yet.  They tell me
+it is dangerous, and I believe it is. Struggles must soon take place,
+changes must inevitably ensue, and I would not--no, not for all the
+world, I would not that your young life should be plunged into those
+terrible contentions, which have swallowed up, as a dark whirlpool,
+the existence of so many of your race. If our hopes be true, the way
+to fortune and rank will be open to you at once: or there is no such
+a thing as gratitude in the world. If not, you will have the means of
+living in quiet and tranquillity, and if you will, of struggling for
+higher things; for within six months the whole shall be told to you.
+Ask me not! ask me not!" she added, seeing him about to speak--"I
+have promised in this matter to be guided by others, and I must say
+no more."
+
+"But who is he?" continued Wilton, pointing to Green.  The lady
+looked first at him, and then at their companion, with a faint, even
+a melancholy, smile.
+
+"He is one," she replied, "whom you must trust, for he has ever
+guided others better and more successfully than he has guided
+himself. He is one who has every title to direct you."
+
+"This is all very strange," said Wilton, "and it is painful, too. You
+do not know--you cannot tell, how painful it is to live, as it were,
+in a dark cloud, knowing nothing either of the future or the past."
+
+The lady looked down sadly upon the ground.
+
+"There are, sometimes," she said, "certainties which are far more
+terrible than doubts. Be contented, Wilton, till you hear more: when
+you do hear more, you will hear much painful matter; you will have
+much to undergo, and you will need courage, determination, and
+strength of mind. In the meanwhile, as from your earliest years,
+careful, anxious, zealous, eyes have watched over you, marked your
+every movement, traced your every step, even while you thought
+yourself abandoned, forgotten, and neglected: so shall it be till the
+whole is explained to you. Thenceforth you will rule your own
+conduct, judge, determine, and act for yourself. We know, we are
+sure, that you will act nobly, uprightly, and well in the meanwhile,
+and that you will do no deed which at a future period may not befit
+any station and any race to acknowledge."
+
+Wilton mused deeply for several moments, and then raising his eyes to
+the lady's face, he demanded, in a low tone--
+
+"Answer me only one question more. Am I the son of Lord Sunbury?"
+
+The blood rushed violently up into the lady's countenance.
+
+"Lord Sunbury was never married," she exclaimed--"was he?"
+
+"I know not," replied Wilton--"all I ask is, am I his son?  I ask it,
+because he has shown me generous kindness, care, and consideration;
+and at times I have seen him gazing in my face, when he thought I did
+not remark it, as if there were some deeper feelings in his bosom
+than mere friendship. Yet I cannot say that he has ever taught me to
+look upon myself as his son."
+
+"Your imagination is only leading you into a labyrinth, Wilton,"
+replied the personage calling himself Green, "from which you will
+find it difficult to extricate yourself. Be contented with what you
+know, and ask no more."
+
+"I much wish, and I do entreat," replied Wilton, "that you would give
+me an answer to the question I have asked.  There might be
+circumstances--indeed, I may say, that circumstances are very likely
+to occur, in which it would be absolutely necessary for me to know
+what claim I have upon the Earl of Sunbury. I have never yet asked
+him for anything of importance; but I foresee that the time may soon
+come when I may have to demand of him what I would not venture to
+demand, did I consider myself but the claimless child of his bounty."
+
+The lady looked at Green, and Green at her, and they paused for
+several minutes. At length she answered, "I will give you a claim
+upon Lord Sunbury;" and she took from her finger a large ring, such
+as were commonly worn in those days, presenting on one side a shield
+of black enamel surrounded with brilliants, and in the centre a
+cipher, formed also of small diamonds. "Keep this," said the lady,
+"till all is explained to you, Wilton, and then return it to me.
+Should the Earl's assistance be required in anything of vital
+importance, show him that ring, if he be in England, or if he be
+abroad, tell him that you possess it, and beseech him by all the
+thoughts which that may call up in his mind, to aid you to the utmost
+of his power.--I think he will not fail you."
+
+Wilton was about to answer; and though it was now growing dusk, he
+might have lingered on much longer, striving to gain more
+information, but at that moment there came a sound of many feet at
+the passage, and the voice of some one speaking apparently to the
+landlord, and demanding,--"Who the devil's horses are those walking
+up and down there?"
+
+Almost at the same time, a hand was laid upon the latch of the door,
+and it would have been thrown open, had not Green previously taken
+the precaution of locking it. He now partially opened it, however,
+and spoke a few words to those without.
+
+"Go into the next room," he said; "go into the next room--I will be
+with you directly." He then closed the door again, and turning to
+Wilton, took him by the arm, saying, "Now mount your horse, and be
+gone instantly: your time for staying here is over; make the best of
+your way home, without delay; and only remember, that whenever we
+meet in future, you do not appear to know me, unless I speak to you.
+Should you want advice, direction, and assistance--and remember, that
+though poor and powerless as I seem, I may know more, and be able to
+do far more, than you imagine--ask for me here; or the first time
+you see me, lay your finger upon that ring which she has given you,
+and I will find means to learn your wishes, and to promote them
+instantly--Now you must go at once."
+
+Wilton saw that the attempt to learn more, at that moment, would be
+vain: but before he departed, he took the lady by the hand, bidding
+her adieu, and saying, "At all events, I have one consolation. Since
+I came here, I feel less lonely in the world; I feel that there are
+some to whom I am dear; and yet I would fain ask you one thing more.
+It is, how, when I think of you, I shall name you in my thoughts.
+Your image will be frequently before me; the affection which you have
+shown me, the words you have spoken, will never be forgotten. But
+there is a pleasure in connecting all those remembrances with a name.
+It seems to render them definite; to give them a habitation in the
+heart for ever."
+
+"Call me Helen," replied the lady, quickly. "Where I now dwell they
+call me the Lady Helen. I must not add any more; and now adieu, for
+it is time that both you and I should leave this place."
+
+Green once more urged him to depart; and Brown, with his curiosity
+not satisfied, but even more excited than ever, quitted the house,
+mounted his horse, and rode away slowly towards his own dwelling,
+meditating as he went.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+"Onward! onward!" cries the voice of youth; whether it may be that
+the days are bright, passing in joy and tranquillity, and we can say
+with the greatest French poet of the present day--ay, the greatest,
+however it may seem--Beranger,
+
+   "Sur une onde tranquille,
+       Voguant soir et matin,
+    Ma nacelle est docile
+       Au souffle du destin.
+    La voile s'enfie-t-elle,
+       J'abandonne le bord.
+   (O doux zephir, sois-moi fidele!)
+    Eh! vogue, ma nacelle;
+       Nous trouverons un port"--
+
+or whether the morning is overcast with clouds and storms, still
+"Onward! onward!" is the cry, either in the hope of gaining new joys,
+or to escape the sorrows that surround us.  It is for age to stretch
+back the longing arms towards the Past: the fate of youth is to bound
+forward to meet the Future.
+
+Wilton reached his home, and bending down his head upon his hands,
+passed more than an hour in troublous meditation. All was confused and
+turbid. The stream of thought was like a mountain torrent, suddenly
+swelled by rains, overflowing its banks, knowing no restraint, no
+longer clear and bright, but dark and foaming and whirling in rapid
+and uncertain eddies round every object that it touched upon.  The
+scene at Beaufort House, the thought of Laura, and all that had been
+said there, mingled strangely and wildly with everything that had
+taken place afterwards, and nothing seemed certain, but all confused,
+and indistinct, and vague.  But still there came a cry from the
+bottom of his heart: the cry of "Onward! onward! onward! towards the
+fated future!"
+
+Nor was that cry the less vehement or less importunate because he
+had no power whatsoever to advance or retard the coming events by a
+single hour: nor had it less influence because--unlike most men, who
+generally have some lamp, however dim, to give them light into the
+dark caverns of the future--he had not even one faint ray of
+probability to show him what was before his footsteps.
+
+On the contrary, the yearning to reach that future, to pass on through
+that darkness to some brighter place beyond, was all the more strong and
+urgent. In short, excited imagination had produced some hope, without
+the slightest probability to foster it. He had even been told that he
+was to expect information of a painful kind. Not one word had been said
+to give him the expectation of a bright destiny: and yet there was
+something so sweet, so happy, in having found any one whose tenderness
+had been bestowed upon his infant years, and whose affection had
+remained unchanged by time and absence, that hope--as hope always
+is--was born of happiness; and though that hope was wild, uncertain, and
+unfounded, it made the natural eagerness of youth all the more eager.
+
+When he lay down to rest he slept not, but still many a vision
+floated before his waking eyes, and thought made the night seem
+short. On the following morning he was early up and dressed; but by
+seven o'clock a note was put into his hand, in a writing which he did
+not know. On opening it, however, he found it to contain a request,
+couched in the most courteous terms, from the Duke of Gaveston, that
+he would call upon him immediately, and before he went to the house
+of Lord Byerdale. There was scarcely time to do so; but he instantly
+ordered his horse, and galloped to Beaufort House as fast as
+possible. He was ushered immediately into a small saloon, and thence
+into the dressing-room of the Duke, whom he found in a state of
+considerable agitation, and evidently embarrassed even in explaining
+to him what he wanted.
+
+"I have sent for you, Mr. Brown," he said,--"I have sent for you to
+speak on a matter that may be of great consequence:--not that I know
+that it will be--not that I have heard anything--for I would not
+hear, after I found out what was the great object; but--but--"
+
+Wilton was inclined to imagine that some unexpected obstacles had
+occurred in regard to the proposed alliance between the families of
+the Duke and of the Earl of Byerdale, and he certainly felt no
+inclination to aid in removing those obstacles. He replied,
+therefore, coldly enough, "If there is anything in which I can serve
+your grace, I am sure it will give me much pleasure to do so."
+
+His coldness, however, only seemed to increase the Duke's eagerness
+and also his agitation.
+
+"You can, indeed, Mr. Brown," he said, "render me the very greatest
+service, and I'm sure you are an honourable and an upright man, and
+will not refuse me. If you had explained yourself more clearly the
+night before last, I am sure I would have taken your advice at once,
+and would not have gone at all; but, as it is, I stayed not a moment
+longer than I could help, and have now broken with Fenwick and
+Barklay for ever. They vow that I am pledged to their cause, and must
+take a part, but they will find themselves mistaken."
+
+Wilton now found that the good nobleman's fancy had misled him, and
+that his agitation arose from something that had taken place at the
+meeting at the Old King's Head, in regard to which he certainly knew
+nothing, nor indeed wished to know anything. He replied, however,
+somewhat more warmly,--
+
+"In regard to these transactions, my lord duke, I know nothing, as I
+before informed you: but if you will tell me how I can serve you, I
+will do it with pleasure."
+
+"I was sure you would, Mr. Brown, I was sure you would," said the
+Duke. "You can do me the greatest service, my dear young friend, by
+promising me positively upon your word of honour never to mention to
+any one that I went to this meeting at the Old King's Head, or, in
+fact, that I knew anything about it. I especially could wish that it
+be not mentioned to the Earl of Byerdale; for I know that he is a
+very fierce and vindictive man, and I do not wish to put myself in
+his power, just at present, above all times. Nobody on earth knows it
+but you and the people engaged in the affair, whose mouths are
+stopped, of course. We left the carriage on this side of Paul's, and
+I sent the two running footmen different ways, so that, if you give me
+your honour, I am quite safe."
+
+"I give you my honour, most assuredly, my lord duke," replied Wilton,
+"that I will never, under any circumstances, or at any time, mention
+one word of that which has taken place between us on the subject.
+Rest perfectly sure of that.  Indeed, I know nothing; I therefore
+have nothing to tell.  But, at all events, I will utter not one
+word."
+
+"Thank you, thank you!" cried the Duke, grasping his hand with joy
+and enthusiasm--"thank you, thank you a thousand times, my dear young
+friend!" and in the excitement of the moment, in his dressing-gown and
+slippers as he was, he led Wilton out to the room where his daughter
+was seated, and without any explanation informed her that he, Wilton,
+was one of his best and dearest friends. He then rushed back again to
+conclude the little that wanted to the labours of his toilet, leaving
+Wilton alone with her at the breakfast-table.
+
+"Oh, Mr. Brown," exclaimed Laura, with her face glowing with
+eagerness, "I hope and trust that you have settled this business, for
+I have been most anxious ever since last night. Sir John Fenwick
+behaved so ill, and quitted the house in such fury, and that
+dark-looking man who accompanied him back, used such threatening
+language towards my father, that indeed--indeed, I feared for the
+consequences this morning."
+
+Wilton evidently saw that her fears pointed in any direction but the
+right one, and that she apprehended some hostile rencontre between
+her father and the two rash Jacobites with whom he had suffered
+himself to be entangled.  Knowing, however, that it could be anything
+but the desire of such men to call public attention to their
+proceedings, he did not scruple to give her every assurance that no
+duel, or angry collision of any kind, was likely, to take place: at
+which news her face glowed with pleasure, and her lips flowed with
+many an expression of gratitude, although he assured her again and
+again that he had done nothing on earth to merit her thanks.
+
+The smiles were very beautiful, however, and very grateful to his
+heart; but he found that every moment was adding to feelings which it
+was madness to indulge; and, therefore, as soon as the Duke had
+returned, he took his leave, and turned his steps homeward. He knew,
+indeed, that he should have to encounter the same pleasant danger
+again that very afternoon; that he should have to see her, to be in
+the same room, to sit at the same table with her, to speak to her,
+even though it were but for a moment; but then it would be all under
+restraint; the eyes of the many would be upon them; there would be no
+open communication, no speaking the real feelings of the heart, no
+freedom from the dull routine of society.
+
+He was perhaps five minutes behind his time, but the Earl was all
+complaisance: the arrangements that he had made for his son; the
+unexpected facility with which Lord Sherbrooke had apparently entered
+into those arrangements; the political importance of the alliance
+with the Duke; the immense accession of wealth to his family; the
+aspect of public affairs, were all sufficient to mellow down a
+demeanour which, to his inferiors at least, was generally harsh and
+proud. But yet Wilton could not help believing that there was a
+peculiar expression in the Earl's countenance when that nobleman's
+eyes turned upon him; that there was a smile which was not a smile of
+benignity, that there was a courtesy which was not of the heart. Why
+or wherefore Wilton could hardly tell, but he fancied that the Earl's
+conduct was what it might be towards a person who had suddenly fallen
+completely into his power, and whom he intended to use as a tool in
+any way that he might think fit. He pictured to his own imagination
+the Earl bidding his victim perform some action the most revolting to
+his feelings in the sweetest tone possible; the victim beginning to
+resist; the cold blooded politician calmly showing his power, and
+exercising it with bitter civility.
+
+However, the courtesy lasted all day: there was nothing said to
+confirm Wilton in this fancy; and when he took leave, the Earl
+reminded him of the dinner hour, adding, "Be punctual, be punctual,
+Mr. Brown. We shall dine exactly at the hour; and my cook is a virago,
+you know."
+
+Wilton did not fail to be to the moment, and he, the Earl, and Lord
+Sherbrooke, were some time in the great saloon before the guests began
+to arrive. At length the large heavy coaches of those days began to
+roll into the court-yard, and one after another many a distinguished
+man and many a celebrated beauty of the age appeared. Still, however,
+the Earl evidently looked upon the Duke and his daughter as the
+principal guests, and waited in anxious expectation for their coming.
+
+They arrived later than any one, Laura herself looking grave, if not
+sad, the Duke evidently embarrassed and not at ease. Nor did the
+particular attentions paid by the Earl to both remove in any degree
+the sadness of the one or the embarrassment of the other. This was so
+marked that the Earl soon felt it; and though the sort of determined
+calmness of his manner, and habitual self-command, prevented him from
+showing the least uneasiness, yet, from a particular glance of his
+eye and momentary quiver of his lip, Wilton divined that he was angry
+and irritable.
+
+It must be admitted, also, that Lord Sherbrooke did not take the
+means to put his father more at ease. To Lady Laura he paid no
+attention whatsoever, devoted himself during the greater part of the
+evening to a beautiful woman of not the most pure and unsullied
+character in the world, and showed himself disposed to flirt with
+everybody, except the very person to whom his father wished him to
+pay court. The dinner party was followed by an entertainment in the
+evening; and still the same scene went on; till at length the Earl
+came round to Wilton, and said, in a low voice, "I wish, my dear
+young gentleman, you would try your influence upon Sherbrooke."
+
+The Earl was going on, but Wilton rose immediately, saying, "I
+understand you, my lord," and approaching the place where Lord
+Sherbrooke was seated, he waited till the laughter which was going on
+around him was over, and then said in a low voice, "For pity's sake,
+Sherbrooke, and for decency's sake, do pay some attention to the Duke
+and his daughter; remember, they are new guests of your father's, and
+merit, at all events, some respect."
+
+The young Lord looked up in his friend's countenance with a malicious
+smile, replying, "They do, my dear Wilton, they do! and you see I keep
+at a respectful distance.  But I will do anything to please."
+
+He accordingly rose from his seat, and Wilton saw him first approach
+the Duke, speak a few words to him, and then take a seat beside Lady
+Laura. Her air was evidently cold and reserved, but what passed more,
+Wilton, of course, did not know. The young lord, however, seemed
+suddenly struck by something that she said, turned quickly towards
+her, and made a rejoinder; she answered, apparently, with perfect
+calmness. But the instant after, Lord Sherbrooke rose from his chair,
+made her a low bow, and was crossing the room.  His father, however,
+met him half-way, and they spoke for a moment or two. The Earl's
+cheek became very red, and his brow contracted; but Lord Sherbrooke
+passed quietly on, and came up to where Wilton stood.
+
+"She has just told me what she thinks of my character, Wilton," said
+the young nobleman, "and I have transmitted the same to my father,
+who must settle the matter with the Duke as he likes."
+
+"The Earl's plans are certainly in a prosperous condition," thought
+Wilton; and though he could not, of course, approve of the
+unceremonious means which Lord Sherbrooke took to defeat his father's
+intentions, and to cast the burden of refusal on Lady Laura, yet he
+could not grieve, it must be admitted, that she should determine
+for herself.
+
+During the whole evening her conduct towards Wilton Brown had been
+exactly what he had expected--kind, gentle, and courteous. She
+evidently treated him more as a friend than any one else in the room;
+and though he purposely spoke to her but seldom, and then merely with
+the terms of formal respect, yet whenever he did approach her, she
+greeted him with a smile, which showed that his society was not at
+all unpleasant to her.
+
+To the eyes of Wilton it was very evident that Lord Byerdale was
+extremely irritated by what he had heard. No one else perceived it,
+however, for, as was usual with him, the irritation of the moment,
+though likely to produce very serious effects at an after period,
+clothed itself for the time in additional smiles and stately
+courtesies, only appearing now and then in an additional drop of
+sarcastic bitterness mingling with all the civil things that he said.
+As usual, also, he was peculiarly soft and reverential in his manner
+towards those with whom he was most angry, and the Duke and Lady
+Laura were more the objects of his particular attention than ever.
+He sat beside her; he talked to her; he paid her that marked
+attention which his son had neglected to offer; and at length, when
+the Duke proposed to retire, he himself handed her to the carriage,
+paying her some well turned compliment at every step, and relieving
+his heart of its bitterness by some stinging sneer at the rest of
+womankind.
+
+Thus passed over the evening; and Wilton, it must be acknowledged
+with a mind more at ease on account of the decided part that Lady
+Laura seemed to have taken, slept soundly and dreamt happily, though
+he still resolved, sooner or later, to crush feelings which could
+only end in misery.
+
+On the following morning he went to the house of Lord Byerdale at the
+usual hour, and proceeded at once to the cabinet of the Earl. It was
+already occupied by that nobleman and his son, however; and though
+there were no loud words spoken, no angry tones audible, yet there
+were sufficient indications of angry feeling, at least on the part of
+the Earl, to make Wilton immediately pause and draw back a step.
+
+"Come in, come in," said the Earl--"you know all this affair, and I
+believe have done what you could to make this young man reasonable."
+
+Wilton accordingly entered the room, and Lord Byerdale again turned
+to his son, laying his finger upon the letter before him. "I repeat,
+Sherbrooke," he said, "that you yourself have done all this. I did
+not ask you, sir, to be virtuous, I did not ask you to be temperate,
+I did not bid you cast away the dice or abandon drunkenness and
+revelling, or turn off three or four of your mistresses, or to give
+over going to the resort of every sort of vice in the metropolis. I
+asked you none of these things, because it would be hard and
+ungenerous to require a man to do what his nature and habits render
+perfectly impossible. Return to his vomit again, or the sow to
+refrain from wallowing in the mire."
+
+"Savoury similes, my lord," said Lord Sherbrooke--"most worthy of
+Solomon and your lordship. May I ask what it is you did demand then?"
+
+"That you should assume a virtue if you had it not," replied Lord
+Byerdale; "that you should put a certain cloak of decency over your
+vices, and that you should at least be commonly courteous to the
+person selected for your future wife: especially when I pointed out
+to you the immense, the inconceivable advantages of such an alliance
+not only to you but to me."
+
+"Well, but, my dear father," said Lord Sherbrooke, "I will grant all
+that you say. It is altogether my fault; I have behaved very
+stupidly, very wildly, very rudely, very viciously.  But there is no
+reason that you should be so angry with the young lady, or with my
+good lord duke."
+
+"Ay, sir! think you so?" said the Earl--"you are mighty wise in your
+own conceit. You have had your share, certainly; but I do not avenge
+myself on my own son. They have had their share, however, too. Their
+pride, their would-be importance, their insufferable arrogance,
+which makes them think that kings or princes are not too good for
+her--these have all had no light share; and if I live for six months
+I will bring that pride down to the very lowest pitch. I will degrade
+her till she thinks herself a servant wench."
+
+Wilton certainly did feel his blood boil, but he knew that he had
+neither any right nor any power to interfere; and he turned to some
+papers that were upon the tables, and hid the expression which his
+thoughts might communicate to his countenance, by apparent attention
+to something else.
+
+Some more words passed between the father and son, but they were few.
+Lord Sherbrooke, upon the whole, behaved better than Wilton could
+have expected. He neither treated the subject lightly and jocularly
+as he was accustomed to do in most cases, nor bitterly and
+sarcastically, which his father's evident want of principle in the
+whole business gave him but too fair an opportunity of doing. He
+acknowledged fairly and straight-forwardly his errors and his vices;
+and all that he said in regard to the offence he had given his father
+was, that he imagined he could not in honour suffer Lady Laura to
+decide without letting her know the character at least of the man who
+was proposed for her husband.
+
+"Well, sir," replied his father, sharply, "you have convinced her of
+your character very soon. Mine, she may be longer in finding out; but
+she shall not fail to be made equally well aware of it in the end."
+
+Thus saying, he turned and quitted the room, giving some casual
+directions to Wilton as he passed.
+
+"Well, that business is so far done and over," exclaimed Lord
+Sherbrooke, as soon as his father was gone; "and, as it is pleasant,
+my dear Wilton, to do a good action now and then, by way of a change,
+you and I must enter into a conspiracy together, to prevent my worthy,
+subtle, and revengeful father from executing this poor girl, who
+has only done her duty to herself, and to me, and to her father."
+
+"I trust," replied Wilton, "that the Earl's threat was but one of
+those bursts of disappointment which will pass away with time. I
+cannot imagine that, after a little consideration, he will have any
+inclination really to injure either the Duke or his daughter; nor,
+indeed, do I see that he could have the means either."
+
+Lord Sherbrooke shook his head with a gloomy air, and answered, "He
+will make them, Wilton--he will make the means; and as to
+inclination, you do not know him as well as I do. He will not forget
+what has occurred this day, as long as he remembers how to write his
+own name. This same goodly desire of revenge is henceforth a part of
+his nature, and nothing will ever remove it, unless self-interest or
+ambition be brought into action against it."
+
+"But what sort of revenge think you he will seek?" demanded
+Wilton--"situated as the Duke is, I see no opportunity that your
+father can have of injuring him."
+
+"Heaven only knows," replied Lord Sherbrooke. "The fire will go on
+smouldering for months, perhaps for years, but it will not go out. He
+said, just before you came in, that because she had refused to marry
+me, he would make her marry a footman; and, as I really believe his
+lordship is occasionally endowed with superhuman powers of executing
+what he thinks fit, it would not surprise me at all to see my Lady
+Laura led to the altar by John Noakes, our porter's son, dressed up
+for the occasion as a foreign prince."
+
+"I do not fear that," replied Wilton with a smile; "I should rather
+apprehend that he may entangle the good Duke, who does not seem
+overburdened with sense, in some of these sad plots which are daily
+taking place. Should we find out that such is the case, we may indeed
+aid in preventing it."
+
+Lord Sherbrooke shook his head. "It is the poor girl he will aim at
+first, depend upon it," the young nobleman answered. "I wish to
+Heaven she had told me her intention of refusing me in such a formal
+manner; I would have shown her how to manage the matter without
+calling down this storm. But, instead of that, she sits down and
+deliberately writes him a letter, which, just in the proportion that
+it is honest, true, and straightforward, is the thing best calculated
+to excite his wrath. Yet, as if she had some idea of his character,
+and wished to shield her father, she takes the whole responsibility
+of the thing upon herself, telling him that the Duke had pressed her
+much upon the subject, but that she felt it would be utterly
+impossible to give her hand to your very humble servant. All this
+has, of course, brought the storm more directly upon herself, though
+her father will be screened thereby in no degree. I doubt not he has
+gone there now."
+
+"Do you think there is any chance of an actual and open quarrel
+between them?" demanded Wilton.
+
+"Not in the least," answered Lord Sherbrooke with a scoff:  "my dear
+Wilton, you must be as blind as a mole, if you do not see that my
+father, though as brave as a lion, is not a man to quarrel with any
+one. He is a great deal too good a politician for that; he knows that
+in quarrelling with any one he hates, he must suffer something
+himself, and may suffer a good deal. No, no, he takes a better plan,
+and contrives to make his enemies suffer while he suffers not at all.
+In general, if you see him particularly civil to anybody, you may
+suppose that he looks upon them as an enemy, and is busy in getting
+them quietly into his power. Quarrel with the Duke? Oh no, a thousand
+to one, ere half an hour be over, he will be shaking him cordially by
+the hand, putting him quite at his ease, begging him to let the
+matter be forgotten altogether, saying that it was natural he should
+seek so illustrious an alliance, which, indeed, he had scarcely a
+right to hope for. Then he will see the lady herself, and say that he
+perfectly enters into her feelings, that a person so richly gifted as
+herself, and having already all that wealth and rank can give, has a
+right to consult, before all other things, the feelings of her own
+heart. It would not surprise me at all if he were to offer to send me
+abroad again, lest my presence in London, after the pretensions which
+have been formed, should prove, in any degree, annoying to her."
+
+The conversation continued for some time longer in the same strain:
+and Wilton could not but feel that Lord Sherbrooke gave an accurate
+though a terrible picture of his father's character.
+
+At length, the young nobleman rose as if to depart; but standing ere
+he did so before the table at which his young friend was seated, he
+gazed upon his face earnestly and silently for a minute or two, and
+then said,--
+
+"I don't know why, Wilton, but I have a great and a strong regard for
+you, and I have been dreaming dreams for you, that I see you are
+unwilling to dream for yourself: However, you must have the same
+regard for me; and--even if you are not inclined, in any degree, to
+take advantage of what I must say is evident regard on the part of
+this young lady towards you--yet, for my sake, you must let me know,
+aid me, and assist me, if you should see any scheme forming against
+her happiness or peace. I am not so bad, Wilton, even as I seem to
+you. I am sorry for this girl--really sorry for her. I ought to have
+taken the burden upon my own shoulders, instead of casting it upon
+hers; for I could have removed all these difficulties by speaking one
+single word. But that word would have cost me much to speak, and I
+shrunk from saying it. If, however, I find that through my fault she
+is likely to suffer, I will speak that word, Wilton, at all risks, so
+you must give me help and support, at least in doing what is right."
+
+"That I will, Sherbrooke," replied Wilton, grasping his hand, "that I
+will most zealously. But in regard to what you say of Lady Laura's
+kind feeling towards me, depend upon it you are wholly mistaken. The
+only reason, be you sure, why she makes any difference in her manner
+towards me, and towards men of higher rank than myself; is, that she
+knows the difference of our station and fortunes must ever prevent my
+entertaining any of those hopes which others might justly feel."
+
+Before Wilton concluded, Lord Sherbrooke had cast himself into a
+chair; his eyes were fixed on the ground, his brow had become
+contracted. It was one of those moments when, as he said, his evil
+spirit was upon him; and seeing that such was the case, Wilton left
+him to his own meditations and proceeded to write the letters which
+the Earl had directed him to despatch.
+
+In about half an hour, the young nobleman roused himself from his
+reverie, with a light laugh, apparently causeless; and without
+speaking another word to Wilton, quitted the room.
+
+Wilton only saw the Earl for a few minutes during the rest of the
+day, and with him the statesman was so captious, irritable, and
+sneering, that, reading his feelings by the key his son had given,
+Wilton had every reason to believe himself to be in high favour.
+Various matters of business, however, occurred to keep him late at
+the Earl's house, and night had fallen when he returned to his own
+lodgings.
+
+In about an hour after, however, one of the Earl's servants brought
+him a note in Lord Sherbrooke's handwriting, and marked "In haste."
+Wilton tore it open immediately, and read,--
+
+    "MY DEAR WILTON,
+
+    "My father directs me to request your immediate return.
+    The Duke is now here. Lady Laura has been carried off,
+    or, at all events, has disappeared; and we want your wise
+    head to counsel, perhaps your strong hand to execute. Come
+    directly, for we are all in agitation.
+
+    "Yours, SHERBROOKE."
+
+Written below, in smaller characters, and marked "Private," two lines
+to the following effect:--
+
+    "This business is not my father's doing. It is too coarse for his
+    handiwork. He may, perhaps, take advantage of it, however, if he
+    finds an opportunity. Burn this instantly."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+Having now run on for some time, following almost entirely the course
+and history of one individual, painting none but the characters with
+whom he was brought into immediate contact, and making him, as it
+were, a lantern in the midst of our dark story, all the characters
+appearing in bright light as long as they were near him, and sinking
+back into darkness as soon as they were removed from him, we must
+follow our old wayward and wandering habits; and just at the moment
+when we have contrived to create the first little gleam of interest
+in the reader's breast, must leave our hero entirely to his fate,
+open out new scenes, introduce new personages, and devote a
+considerable space to matters which have APPARENTLY not the slightest
+connexion whatsoever with that which went before.
+
+About thirty miles from London, towards the sea-coast, there then
+stood a small ancient house, built strongly of brick.  It was not
+exactly castellated in its appearance, but yet in the days of
+Cromwell it had endured a short siege by a small body of the
+parliamentary troops, and had afforded time, by the resistance which
+it offered, for a small body of noblemen and gentlemen attached to
+the cause of King Charles to make their escape from a superior party
+of pursuers. It was built upon the edge of a very steep slope, so
+that on one side it was very much taller than the other. It was
+surrounded by thick trees also; and though by no means large, it had
+contrived to get into a small space as many odd corners as a Chinese
+puzzle. The walls were very thick, the windows few and small, the
+chimneys numerous, and the angles innumerable.
+
+Into one of the small rooms of this house, at about eleven o'clock at
+night, I must now introduce the reader.
+
+In that chamber, with her head resting on her hand, her eyes fixed
+upon a wood-fire that was burning before her, one small and beautiful
+foot stretched out towards it, while the other was concealed by the
+drapery of her long robe; and with the whole graceful line of her
+figure thrown back in the large arm-chair which she occupied--except,
+indeed, the head, which was bent slightly forward--sat a very lovely
+young woman, perhaps of two or three and twenty years of age, in
+meditations evidently of a somewhat melancholy cast.  The hand on
+which her head leaned, and which was very soft, round, and fair, was
+covered with rings, while the other was quite free from such
+ornaments, with the exception of one small ring of gold upon the
+slender third finger. In that hand she had been holding an open
+letter; but, buried in meditation, she had suffered the paper to drop
+from her hold, and it had fallen upon the ground beside her.
+
+We had said that she was very beautiful, but her beauty was of a
+different sort and character altogether from that of the lady whom we
+have described under the name of Lady Laura Gaveston. Her hair was of
+the richest, brightest, glossy black, as fine as silk, yet bending,
+wherever it escaped, into rich and massy curls. There was one of
+these which fell upon the back of her fair neck, and another upon
+either temple. Upon the forehead, as was then customary, the hair was
+divided into smaller curls, and cut much shorter, which fashion was a
+great disfigurement to beauty, and certainly left her less handsome
+than she otherwise would have appeared. Still, however, she was very,
+very lovely; and the fine lines of her features, the clear rich brown
+of her complexion, the glorious light of her large dark eyes,
+softened by the long thick lashes that overshadowed them, the full
+and rounded beauty of every limb, left it impossible even for human
+heart to do away what nature's cunning hand had done.
+
+There are certainly moments in which, as every one must have
+remarked, a beautiful human countenance is more beautiful than at any
+other period, when it acquires, from some accidental circumstance, a
+temporary and extraordinary degree of loveliness. Sometimes it is the
+mere disposition of light and shade that produces this effect--the
+background behind it, the objects that surround it. Sometimes it is
+that the tone of the mind at the moment gives the peculiar expression
+which harmonizes best with the lines of the features and the
+colouring of the complexion, and which is in perfect accord with all
+those expectations which fine, indistinct, but sweet associations
+produce in our mind from every particular style of beauty that we
+see. Associations are, in fact, the bees of the imagination, and,
+wandering through all nature, may be said to distil honey from every
+fair object on which they light. Why does a rich and warm complexion,
+and a glowing cheek, call up instantly in our mind the idea of joyous
+health and pleasant-heartedness?  Less because we have been
+accustomed to see that complexion attended by such qualities than
+because it connects itself with the idea of summer, gay summer and
+all its fruits and flowers, and merry sports and light amusements,
+and a thousand memories of happy days, and thousands upon thousands
+still of other things of which we have no consciousness, but which are
+present to sensation though not to thought, all the while that we are
+gazing upon a ruddy cheek, and thinking that the pleasure is derived
+from the white and red alone.
+
+When the expression is perfectly suited to the style of beauty, it is
+natural to suppose that it will add to the charm; but there is a case
+where the cause of the increase is not so easily discovered--I mean
+when the mind gives to the countenance a temporary-expression totally
+opposed to the style of beauty itself. Yet this is sometimes the
+case: for how often do we see high and majestic features soften into
+playful smiles, and seem to gain another grace. In the lady we have
+mentioned, the whole style of the countenance and of the form gave
+the idea of joyous gaiety, of happy, nay, exuberant life and
+cheerfulness; but the expression was now all sad; and from the
+contrast--which produced deeper associations than perfect harmony
+would have called forth--her beauty itself was heightened. It was
+like some gay and splendid scene by moonlight.
+
+She had remained in this meditating attitude for some time, when the
+door quietly opened, and a personage entered the room, of whom we
+must say a few words, though he is not destined to play any very
+prominent part in our tale.  Monsieur Plessis was a Frenchman, a
+soi-disant Protestant.  One thing, at all events, is certain, that
+his father had been so, and had been expelled from France many years
+before by persecution. The gentleman before us exercised many trades,
+by which, perhaps, he had not acquired so much wealth as his father
+had by one. His father's calling had been that of cook and major domo
+to a fat, rich, gluttonous, careless English peer; and as he employed
+his leisure time in distilling various simples, he had classed his
+noble patron under that head, and distilled from him what he himself
+would jocosely have called "Golden Water."
+
+Amongst the various trades which, as we have said, were carried on by
+the son, was smuggling, under which were included the conveyance of
+contraband men, women, and children, as well as other sorts of
+merchandise; swindling a little, when occasion presented itself;
+clipping the golden coin of the kingdom, which at that time was a
+great resource to unfortunate gentlemen; not exactly forging
+exchequer tallies, and other securities of the same kind, but aiding
+by a certain dexterity of engraving in the forging, which he did not
+choose actually to commit; and over and above all these several
+occupations, callings, and employments, he was one of the best
+reputed spies which the French court had in England, as well as the
+most industrious agent which England had in obtaining intelligence
+from France. In fact, he sold each country to the other with the
+greatest possible complaisance. The great staple of the intelligence
+that he gave to both was false; but he took care to mingle a
+sufficient portion of truth with what he told, to acquire a
+considerable degree of reputation. He was, indeed, much too well
+versed in the practices of coiners, not to know that a bad piece of
+money is best passed off between two good ones; and though he was a
+sort of bonding warehouse, where an immense quantity of manufactured
+intelligence lay till it was wanted, yet he had means of obtaining
+better information, which he did not fail to make use of when he
+judged it needful.
+
+Strange, however, are the perversities of human character:  this
+practical betrayer of trust was not without certain good points in
+his character. The cheating a king or a statesman had a touch of
+grandeur in it, which suited his magnificent ideas; a little robbery
+on the King's Highway seemed to him somewhat chivalrous; and he could
+admire those who did it, though he did not meddle with the business
+himself: but there was a certain class of persons whom he would as
+soon have cheated, betrayed, or deceived, even to keep himself in
+practice, which he considered one of the most legitimate excuses for
+anything he liked to do, as he would have cut his hand off. These
+were the poor French emigrants in England, and the unfortunate
+adherents of the House of Stuart in France.
+
+As is now well known, though it was only suspected at the time,
+thousands of these men were daily coming and going between France and
+Britain, in the very midst of the war; and they were always sure to
+find at the house of Plessis kind and civil treatment, perfect
+security, and the most accurate intelligence which could be procured
+of all that was taking place.
+
+In cases of danger he had a thousand ways of secreting them or
+favouring their escape. If ever, as was frequently the case, they
+wished to communicate with some kind friend, who was willing to
+relieve them, or to frighten some timid enemy upon whom they had some
+hold, Plessis could generally find them the means; and in cases where
+some one in danger required to be brought off speedily and secretly,
+Plessis had often been known to spend very large sums, and risk even
+life itself, rather than suffer an enterprise to fail in which he had
+taken a part.
+
+The Duke of Shrewsbury and Trumbull, while they were secretaries of
+state, employed Plessis actively, and overlooked not a few little
+peccadilloes for the sake of the intelligence they obtained; and
+Torcy, though he had been known to vow more than once that he would
+hang him if he set his foot in France, held two or three long
+conferences with him at Versailles, and dismissed him with a present
+of several thousand livres.
+
+His apparel was very peculiar, as he generally wore above his
+ordinary dress a large long waisted red coat, hooked round his neck
+at the collar, somewhat in the manner of a cloak, without his arms
+being thrust into the sleeves; his shoes were very high in the
+instep, and buckled with a small buckle over the front; but as he was
+a little man, and of a somewhat aspiring disposition, the heels of
+those shoes were enormously high, sufficient to raise him nearly two
+inches from the ground, and make his foot in external appearance very
+like that of a calf or a Chinese lady. Indeed, in body and in mind
+likewise, he was upon tiptoes the whole day long.
+
+His entrance into the room where the lady was, roused her at once
+from the reverie into which she had fallen; and taking up the letter
+from the ground, she turned to see who it was that came in.
+
+"Madam," he said, speaking in French, which, be it remarked, was the
+language used between them during the whole conversation, "were it
+not better for you to retire to rest? You spoil your complexion, you
+impair your beauty, by these long vigils."
+
+"Beauty!" she said, with something of a scoff. "But why should I
+retire, as you call it, to rest, Plessis? You mean to say, retire to
+think more deeply still, in darkness as well as in solitude."
+
+"Madam," replied Plessis, "you take these things too heavily. But the
+truth is, I have a fair company coming here, by whom you might not
+well like to be seen. Far be it from me, if you think otherwise, to
+disturb you in possession of the apartments. But they come here at
+midnight to consult, it would seem, upon business of importance;
+whereof I know nothing, indeed, but which I know requires secrecy and
+care."
+
+"Business of importance!" said the lady, somewhat scornfully--"to seat
+a bigoted dotard on the throne of England!  That is what they come to
+consult about. Are they not some of those whom I saw yesterday
+morning from the window? that dark Sir George Barkley, who used to
+walk through the halls of St. Germain's, in gloomy silence, till the
+profane courtiers called him the shadow of the cloud?  and that
+sanguinary Charnock, whom I once heard conferring with the banished
+queen, and vowing that there was no way but one of dealing with
+usurpers, and that was by the dagger?  If these are your guests,
+Plessis, I know the business that they come for full well."
+
+"I neither know, beautiful lady," replied Plessis, "nor do I seek to
+know. So pray tell me nothing thereof. Many a grown man in his day
+has been hanged for knowing too much, and nobody but a schoolboy was
+ever punished for knowing too little. These gentlemen come about
+their own business. I meddle not with it; and I must not shame my
+hospitality so much as to say, 'Good gentlemen, you shall not meet at
+my house!'"
+
+"You are a wise and prudent man, Plessis," replied the lady: "bid the
+girl take a light to my chamber; I will go there and muse--not that I
+fear their seeing me; but the Lady Helen, perhaps, might wish it
+otherwise."
+
+With a bow down to the very ground, Plessis retired, and the lady
+paused for a minute or two longer, leaning upon a small table in the
+middle of the room, and apparently thinking over what had passed.
+
+"It is a strange thing," she said to herself, after a moment, "a most
+strange thing, that the customs of the world, and what we call
+honour, so often requires us to do those things that every principle
+of right and justice, truth and religion, commands us not to do.
+God's word tells us not to murder, yet men daily do it, and women
+think them all the nobler for trading in blood. If we violate the
+law, and do what is really wicked, we risk punishment on earth, and
+incur punishment hereafter; yet if we do strictly what honesty and
+justice tells us, in all cases, how many instances would be found,
+where men would shun us, and where our own hearts would condemn us
+also. Here I have it in my power to stop the effusion of much blood,
+to prevent the commission of many crimes, to strangle, perhaps, a
+civil war in its birth, merely by discovering the presence of these
+men in a land from which they are exiled--I have it in my power
+thereby to spare even themselves from evil acts and certain
+punishment: and yet my lips must be sealed, lest men should say I
+dealt treacherously with them. 'Tis a hard-dealing world, and I have
+suffered too much already by despising it, to despise it any more."
+
+As she thus came to the conclusion, which every woman, perhaps, will
+come to sooner or later, she turned and left the room; and while her
+foot was still upon the staircase, there came a sound of many horses'
+feet from the small paved esplanade in front of the house.
+
+"Ay, there they are," murmured the lady in a low voice--"the men who
+would use any treacherous art whatever to accomplish their own
+purpose, and who would yet call any one traitor who divulged their
+schemes. Would to God that Helen would come back! I am weary of all
+this, and sick at heart, as well I may be."
+
+A sound in the hall below made her quicken her footsteps; and in two
+or three minutes more the room she had just quitted was occupied by
+five or six tenants of a very different character and appearance from
+herself.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+The first person that entered the room after the lady quitted it was
+Monsieur Plessis himself, who, with a light in his hand, came quickly
+on before the rest, and gave a rapid glance round, as if to insure
+that no little articles belonging to its last tenant remained
+scattered about, to betray the fact of her dwelling in his house.
+
+He was followed soon after by a tall, thin, gloomy-looking personage,
+dressed in dark clothing, and somewhat heavily armed, for a period of
+internal peace. His complexion was saturnine, his features sharp and
+angular, his eyes keen and sunk deep under the overhanging brows; and
+across one cheek, not far below the eye, was a deep gash, which drew
+down the inner corners of the eyelid, and gave a still more sinister
+expression to the countenance than it originally possessed. He was
+followed by two others, both of whom were much younger men than
+himself. One was gaily dressed, and had a fat and somewhat heavy
+countenance, which indeed seemed unmeaning, till suddenly a quick
+fierce glance of the eye and a movement of the large massy lower jaw,
+like that which is seen in the jaws of a dog eager to bite, showed
+that under that dull exterior there were passions strong and quick,
+and a spirit not so slow and heavy as a casual observer might
+imagine.
+
+Besides these, there were one or two other persons whose dress
+denoted them of some rank and station in society, though those who
+had seen them in other circumstances might now have remarked that
+various devices had been employed to disguise their persons in some
+degree.
+
+One of these, however, has been before introduced to the reader,
+being no other than that Sir John Fenwick whom we have more than once
+had occasion to mention. He was now no longer dressed with the
+somewhat affected neatness and coxcombry which had marked his
+appearance in London, but, on the contrary, was clad in garments
+comparatively coarse, and bore the aspect of a military man no longer
+in active service, and enduring some reverses. He also was heavily
+armed, though many of the others there present bore apparently
+nothing but the ordinary sword which was carried by every gentleman
+in that day.
+
+The first of the personages we have mentioned approached with a slow
+step towards the fire, saying to Plessis as he advanced, "So the
+Colonel has not come, I see?"
+
+"No, Sir George," replied Plessis with a lowly inclination of the
+head, "he has not arrived yet; but I had a messenger from him at noon
+to-day, saying that he would be here to-night."
+
+"Ha!" exclaimed Sir George Barkley, "that is more than I
+expected--But he will not come, he will not come! Make us a bowl of
+punch, good Plessis--make us a bowl of punch--the night is very
+cold.--But he will not come, I feel very sure he will not come."
+
+"I think I hear his horse's feet even now," replied Plessis--"at all
+events, there is some one arrived."
+
+"Keep him some minutes down below, good Plessis," exclaimed Sir
+George Barkley hastily. "Run down and meet him. Make up some story,
+and delay him as long as possible; for I have got something to
+consult with these gentlemen upon before we see him."
+
+Plessis hastened away; and as soon as the door was closed, Barkley
+turned to the gaily dressed man we have mentioned, saying, "Charnock,
+tell Sir John Friend and Captain Rookwood what we were saying as we
+came along; and all that has happened in London."
+
+The dull countenance of Charnock was lighted up in a moment by one of
+those quick looks we have mentioned.  "Listen, Parkyns, too," he
+said, "for you have not heard the whole."
+
+"Be quick, be quick, Charnock," said Sir George Barkley.
+
+"Well, thus it is then, gentlemen," said Charnock--"matters do not
+go so favourably as we could have wished.  Sir John Fenwick, here,
+the most active of us all, had got the Duke of Gaveston to join us
+heartily, to concur in the rising, or, at all events, to hear all
+that we propose, with a promise of perfect secrecy; but most
+unfortunately, at the meeting at the Old King's Head, some one
+unwisely suffered it to slip out that we were to have thirty thousand
+French troops, forgetting that what is good to tell the lower classes
+and those who are timid and fearful of not having means enough, does
+not do to be told to the bold and high-minded, who are apt to be
+foolishly confident. The Duke cried out at that, and vowed that if
+his opinion were to have any weight, or if his co-operation was of
+any import, not a foreign soldier should come into the land. This was
+bad enough; but we might have smoothed that down, had not Lowick
+chanced to hint the plan for getting rid of this Prince of Orange as
+the first step. Thereupon both the Duke and the Earl of Aylesbury,
+who were present, flew out like fire; and the Duke, vowing he would
+hear no more, took up his hat and sword and walked away, in spite of
+all that could be said. The Earl, for his part, stayed the business
+out, saying, that he would have nothing to do with the affair, but
+that he remained to show us that he would not betray anything."
+
+"That is to say," exclaimed one of the others, "that the Duke will
+betray all."
+
+"Not exactly," said Sir John Fenwick, with a grim smile.  "We have
+taken care of that, and perhaps may compel the Duke to join us
+whether he likes it or not, when once the matter's done. However, Sir
+George and I have determined that it is absolutely necessary and
+needful for us all to understand, that we, who take the deeper part
+in the matter, must keep our own counsel better for the future. Of
+course, we must still endeavour to enrol as many names as possible;
+but to all ordinary supporters we must tell nothing more, than that
+the general rising is to take place, and that we have the most
+perfect certainty of success by means which we cannot divulge."
+
+"You will remark, gentlemen," said Sir George Barkley, "that the
+assistance of the French troops is to be mentioned to no one at all,
+without the general consent of the persons here present."
+
+"And the execution, or putting to death, or call it what you will, of
+the Prince of Orange," added Charnock, "is to be told to nobody on
+any account whatever. We have quite sufficient hands to do it
+ourselves without any more help; and if you and your men will take
+care of the guards, I will undertake the pistoling work with my own
+hand."
+
+"But the Colonel," said one of the others, "you forgot to mention
+about the Colonel, Charnock."
+
+"Why, that is the worst spot in the whole business," said Sir George
+Barkley. "No one expected his stomach to be queasy; but by heavens
+he's worse than either the Duke or the Earl. He did not so much seem
+to dislike the idea of foreign troops--though that did not please
+him--but one would have thought him a madman to hear how he talked
+about that very necessary first step, the getting rid of the usurper.
+He said, not only that he would have nothing to do with it, but that
+it should not be done; and he used very high and threatening language
+even towards me--at present his Majesty's representative. He used
+words most injurious to us all, and which I would have resented to
+the death if it had not been for consideration of the high cause in
+which we are all here engaged."
+
+"What did he say? What did he say?" demanded two or three voices.
+
+"In the first instance," answered Sir George Barkley, "he would not
+come to the last meeting at the King's Head; and his first question,
+when I went to seek him, was, whether the King knew of what we were
+about to do? I said, certainly not; that I had a general commission,
+which was quite enough, and that we had not told the King of an act
+which was very necessary, but might not be pleasant for him to hear.
+With that he tossed up his head and laughed, in his way, saying that
+he thought so; and that the King did not know what bloody-minded
+villains he had got in his service.--Bloody minded villains was the
+word.--It is rather impudent, too, and somewhat strange, that he, of
+all men, should talk thus--he who, for many a year now, has lived by
+taking toll upon the King's Highway."
+
+"Ay; but I insist say, Sir George," replied one of the others, "he
+has always been very particular. I, who have been with him now these
+many years, can answer for it, that in all that time he has never
+taken a gold piece from any one but the King's enemies, nor I either:
+and he vows that the King's commission which he still has, justifies
+him in stripping them."
+
+"Ay, so it does," replied Sir George Barkley, "and the King's
+commission, too, justifies us in killing them. This gentleman only
+makes nice distinctions when it suits him.  However, we are taking
+means to get all his people away from him. Byerly won't be such a
+stickler, no doubt, and five or six of the others we can bribe."
+
+"Ay, but will he not betray us," said Sir William Parkyns.
+
+"I think not," said Sir George Barkley; and unwittingly he paid the
+person he spoke of the highest compliment in his power, saying, "I
+rather fancy the same sort of humour that prevents him from going on
+in the business with us will keep him from betraying what he knows.
+But we shall soon see that; and now having said all we have to say,
+you had better go down, Fenwick, and see if he be come or not."
+
+During the time that this conversation had been going on, there had
+been various sounds of different descriptions in the house; and when
+Sir John Fenwick rose and opened the door to seek the person last
+spoken of, he was met face to face by Monsieur Plessis, and a
+maid-servant, carrying an immense bowl of punch, at that time the
+favourite beverage of a great part of the English nation.
+
+"Was that the Colonel?" demanded Fenwick, as soon as he beheld
+Plessis.
+
+"Yes," replied the Frenchman; "but he is busy about his horses and
+things, and said he would be up immediately."
+
+"Has he got anybody with him?" demanded Sir John Fenwick in a low
+voice, for Plessis had left the door partly open behind him.
+
+"Only two," rejoined the other.
+
+"Put down the punch, Plessis," said Sir George Barkley--"run down
+and see if you cannot stop the others from coming up with him."
+
+Before Plessis could do as he was bid, however, the door was flung
+farther open, and our old acquaintance Green entered the room alone.
+He was dressed as upon the first occasion of his meeting with Wilton
+Brown, except that he had a sort of cloak cast over his other
+garments, and a much heavier sword by his side. Plessis, who did not
+seem very much to like the aspect of affairs, made his exit with all
+speed, and closed the door; and Green, with a firm step and a
+somewhat frowning brow, advanced to the table, saying, "I give you
+good evening, gentlemen."
+
+Sir John Fenwick, who was nearest to him, held out his hand as to an
+old friend; but Green thrust his hands behind his back, and made him
+a low bow, saying, "I must do nothing, Sir John, that may make you
+believe me your comrade when I am not."
+
+"Nay, nay, Colonel," said Sir John Fenwick, still holding out his
+hand to him, "at least as your friend of twenty years' standing."
+
+"That as you please, sir," replied Green, giving him his hand coldly.
+
+"We have requested your presence here, Colonel," said Charnock, "to
+speak over various matters--"
+
+"Mr. Charnock," interrupted Green, "I have nothing to do with you. It
+is with this gentleman I wish to have a word or two more than we
+could have the other afternoon," and he walked directly up to Sir
+George Barkley.
+
+"Well, sir, what is it that you want with me?" said Sir George. "I
+hope you have thought better of what you said that night."
+
+"Thought, sir," answered Green, "has only served to confirm
+everything that I then felt. In the first place, Sir George Barkley,
+you have dealt with me in this business uncandidly; and if I had not
+had better information than that which you gave me, pretending to be
+a friend, I should have been smuggled into a transaction which I
+abhor and detest."
+
+"How mean you, sir? How mean you? I was perfectly candid with you,"
+said Sir George Barkley.
+
+"Ha, ha, ha!" exclaimed Green, laughing scornfully.  "Perfectly
+candid! Yes, when you could not be otherwise. You told me, sir, that
+you wanted my assistance with ten men well armed for a service of
+great honour and danger; but until I put the question straightforward
+to you--having already obtained a knowledge of your proceedings--you
+did not tell me that the service you required was the cold-blooded
+murder of William, wrongly called King of England."
+
+"That, sir, was to be explained to you afterwards," said Sir George
+Barkley.
+
+"Afterwards!" exclaimed Green: "ay, sir, how soon afterwards? After
+the deed was done, ha? or after I was so far committed that I could
+not retract? And let me ask you, why it was that I was not to be
+informed till afterwards, when every other person here present knew
+it long before--I, who remained by the bloody waters of the Boyne
+when you acted as the King's running footman, and heralded him back
+to France? Nay, nay, you shall hear me out, sir, now. I believe not
+that you would ever have told me, had it not been that this
+intercepted letter fell into my hands, and informed me of all your
+proceedings, when you thought I knew them not."
+
+And as he spoke he held the letter out before him, and struck his
+hand fiercely upon the paper.
+
+The others looked round, each in his neighbour's face, with a
+doubtful, and disconcerted look, and Green went on before any one
+could answer.
+
+"Why was all this, Sir George Barkley?" he said. "Why was this
+concealment? I will tell you why: because you dared not for your life
+propose such a thing to me, till you thought I was so far committed
+that I could not escape you; and if I had not asked you myself the
+question, I should never have heard the truth till this day."
+
+Dark and darker shades of passion had come over the countenance of
+Sir George Barkley while Green had been speaking; and he, Charnock,
+and one of the others, during the latter part of their new
+companion's somewhat vituperative address, had been exchanging looks
+very significant and menacing. At length, however, Sir George Barkley
+exclaimed, "Come, come, Colonel--this language is too much. You have
+been asking questions and answering them yourself.  We have now one
+or two to ask you, and we hope you will answer them as much to our
+satisfaction as you have answered the others to your own."
+
+"What are your questions, sir?" demanded Green, fixing his eye upon
+him sternly. "Let me hear them, and if it suits me I will reply; if
+not, you must do without an answer."
+
+"To one question, at least," replied Sir George Barkley, "to one
+question, at least, we must compel an answer!"
+
+"Compel!" exclaimed Green, "compel!" and he took a step back towards
+the door.
+
+"Look to the door, Fenwick!" exclaimed Sir George Barkley. "Parkyns,
+help Sir John! I should be sorry to take severe measures with you,
+Colonel; but before you stir a step from this room you must pledge
+yourself by all you hold sacred that you will not betray us."
+
+Green heard him to an end without any further movement than the step
+back which he had taken, and which placed him in such a position that
+he could front either Barkley and the rest on the one side, or those
+who were at the door upon the other, without the possibility of any
+one coming upon him from behind without being seen. The moment the
+other had done, however, he shook back the cloak from his shoulders,
+and took from the broad horseman's girdle which girt him round the
+middle, a pistol, the barrel of which was fully eighteen inches long,
+while its counterpart appeared on the other side of the belt, in
+which also were two more weapons of the same kind, but of less
+dimensions. He leaned the muzzle calmly upon his hand for a moment,
+and looking tranquilly in the face of Sir John Fenwick he said, in a
+quiet tone, "Sir John Fenwick, you are in my way. You will do wisely
+to retire from the door, and take your friend with you."
+
+"Rush upon him!" cried a man named Cranburne; and as he spoke he
+sprang forward himself, while Sir George Barkley and the rest came
+somewhat more slowly after.  The pistol was in a moment transferred
+to Green's left hand, and with a back-handed blow of the right, which
+seemed in fact but a mere touch, Cranburne was laid prostrate on the
+ground, with his whole face and neck swimming in blood from his mouth
+and nose. In his fall he nearly knocked down Sir George Barkley, who
+took it as a signal for retreat towards the fire-place, and at the
+same moment Green, who had not moved a step from the spot where he
+stood, repeated in a louder voice, "You are in my way, Sir John
+Fenwick!  Move from the door!" and at the same instant, in the
+silence which had followed the overthrow of Cranburne, the ringing
+sound occasioned by a pistol being suddenly cocked made itself
+distinctly heard.
+
+"Move, move, Sir John Fenwick!" cried one of the others, a Captain
+Porter--"this is all very silly: we risk a great deal more by making
+a fracas here, than in trusting to the honour of a gentleman, such as
+the Colonel."
+
+Sir John Fenwick did not require two recommendations to follow this
+suggestion, but he and Parkyns drew back simultaneously, leaving the
+way free for Green to go out.  He advanced, in consequence, as if to
+take advantage of this movement; but before he quitted the room, he
+turned and fronted the party assembled.
+
+"Sir George Barkley," he said, looking at him with a scornful smile,
+"you are, all of you, afraid of my telling what I know; but now that
+the way is clear, I will so far relieve you as to say, that nothing
+which any of you have told me shall ever pass my lips again. The
+knowledge that I have gained or may gain by other means is my own
+property, with which I shall do as I like; but there are one or two
+pieces of information which I carry under my doublet, and which you
+may not be sorry to hear. As for you. Sir George Barkley, the secret
+I have to reveal to you is, that you are a white-livered coward. This
+I shall tell to nobody but yourself--Ha, ha, ha!--because your
+friends know it already, and to your enemies you will never do any
+harm. Fenwick, you are just sufficient of a fool to get yourself into
+a scrape, and sufficient of a knave to drag your friends in too, in
+the hopes of getting out yourself. Sir William Parkyns and Sir John
+Friend, knights and gentlemen of good repute, with full purses and
+with empty heads, you are paving a golden road to the gallows.
+Charnock, you are a butcher; but depend upon it, you were not made to
+slaughter any better beast than a bullock. The rest of you,
+gentlemen, good night.  As for you, Porter, I wish you were out of
+this business.  You are too honest a man to be in it; but take care
+that you do not make a knave of yourself in trying to shake yourself
+free from a cloak that you should never have put on."
+
+It may easily be conceived that this speech was not particularly
+palatable to any of the parties present. But Sir George Barkley was
+the only one who answered, and he only did it by a sneer.
+
+"Oh! we know very well," he said, "my good Colonel, that you can turn
+your coat as well as any man. We have heard of certain visits to
+Kensington, and interviews with the usurper; and, doubtless, we shall
+soon see a long list of our names furnished by you, and stuck up
+against Whitehall."
+
+"He who insinuates a falsehood, sir," replied Green, turning sharply
+upon him, "is worse than he who tells a lie, for a lie is a bolder
+sort of cowardice than a covered falsehood. I have never been but
+once to Kensington in my life, and that was to see Bentinck, Lord
+Portland--whom I did not see. William of Nassau I have never spoken
+to in my life, and never seen, that I know of, except once through a
+pocket-glass, upon the banks of the Boyne. All that you have said,
+sir, you know to be false; and as to my giving a list of your names,
+that you know to be false also. What I may do to prevent evil actions
+I do not know, and shall hold it over your heads. But of one thing
+you may be quite sure, that no man's name would ever be compromised
+by me, however much he may deserve it."
+
+Thus saying, he turned upon his heel and quitted the room, still
+holding the pistol in his hand. After closing the door, he paused for
+an instant and meditated, then thrust the pistol back into his belt,
+and walked along one of the many passages of the house, with the
+intricacies of which he seemed perfectly well acquainted.
+
+The scene of dismay and confusion, however, which he left behind is
+almost indescribable. Every person talked at once, some addressing
+the general number, not one of whom was attending; some speaking
+vehemently to another individual, who in turn was speaking as
+vehemently to some one else. The great majority of those present,
+however, seemed perfectly convinced that their late companion would
+betray them, or, at all events, take such measures for frustrating
+their schemes, as to render it perilous in the extreme to proceed in
+them. Sir John Friend was for giving it all up at once, and Parkyns
+seemed much of the same opinion.  Rookwood, Fenwick, and others
+hesitated, but evidently leaned to the safer course.
+
+Sir George Barkley and Charnock were the only persons who, on the
+contrary, maintained the necessity and the propriety of abandoning
+none of their intentions. To this, indeed, after great efforts, they
+brought back the judgment of the rest; but it required all their
+skill and art to accomplish that object. In regard to the general
+question of proceeding, they urged, at first, that they might as well
+go on, though cautiously, inasmuch as they were all committed to such
+a degree, that they could not be more so, let them do what they
+would. They were already amenable to the law of high treason, which
+was sure not to be mitigated towards them, and therefore they had
+nothing farther to fear but discovery.  This having been conceded,
+and fear beginning to wear away, after a little consideration, it was
+easily shown to some of those present who proposed to abandon the
+idea of calling in foreign troops, in the hope of bringing back the
+Duke and the Earl of Aylesbury, with others, to their party, that
+their great hope of security lay in the actual presence of those
+foreign troops, who would, at all events, enable them to effect their
+escape, even if they did not insure them success in their design. The
+assassination was the next thing touched upon: but here Sir George
+Barkley argued, that what had occurred should only be considered as a
+motive for urging on their proceedings with the utmost rapidity.
+
+"Let us leave it to be understood," he said, "by the great multitude
+of King James's loyal subjects, that the matter of aid from France is
+a thing yet to be considered of. In regard to the death of the
+usurper, whatever it may be necessary to say to others, none of us
+here present can doubt that it is absolutely necessary to our
+success. The whole of the information possessed by the man who has
+just left us is evidently gained from a letter which I wrote to Sir
+John Hubbard in the north, which has somehow unfortunately fallen
+into his hands. In that letter, however, I stated that the usurper's
+life would come to an end in April next, as we at first proposed. If
+the man have any design of betraying us--"
+
+"No, no, he will not betray us," said several voices; "he has
+pledged himself not to disclose our names; and when his word is once
+given, it is sure."
+
+"But," said Sir John Fenwick, "he straight-forwardly said that he
+would frustrate our scheme, and in so doing, it is a thousand chances
+to one that he causes the whole to be discovered."
+
+"Then the way," exclaimed Sir George Barkley, "the only way is to
+proceed in the business at once. This letter to Hubbard is what he
+goes upon; he has no suspicion of our being ready to accomplish the
+thing at once. Let us then take him by surprise; and while he is
+waiting to see what April will produce, let us, I say, within this
+very week, execute boldly that which we have boldly undertaken. We
+can easily have sharp spies kept constantly watching this good friend
+of ours in the green doublet, who seems to fancy himself a
+second-hand sort of Robin Hood. Half of his people are mine already,
+and the other half will be so soon. Let the thing be done before the
+year be a week older; and let us to-morrow night meet at Mrs.
+Mountjoy's in St. James's-street, and send over to hurry the
+preparations in France.  Gentlemen, it is time for action. Here
+several months have slipped by, and nothing is done. It is high time
+to do something, lest men should say we promised much and performed
+little."
+
+Gradually all those who were present came round to the opinion of Sir
+George Barkley, and everything was arranged as he had proposed it.
+Some farther time was then spent in desultory conversation; and it
+seemed as if every one lingered, under the idea that they were all to
+go away together.  Sir George Barkley, however, and Fenwick, seemed
+somewhat uneasy, and whispered together for a moment or two; and at
+length the latter said, "It may be better, gentlemen, for us to go
+away by two or three at a time. You, Parkyns, with Sir John Friend,
+had better take along the upper road; three others can take the low
+road by the waterside; and Sir George with Charnock and myself will
+wait here till you are safely on your way."
+
+This proposal was instantly agreed to; but still some of the
+gentlemen lingered, evidently to the discomposure of Sir George
+Barkley, who at length gave them another hint that it was time to
+depart.
+
+"By Heaven!" he exclaimed, as soon as they were all gone, "I thought
+they would have hung drivelling on here till the boat came down. The
+tide served at ten o'clock, and before one they must be off the end
+of the garden. How far is it from Erith?"
+
+"Oh, certainly not four hours' sail," answered Charnock.  "But had I
+not better now write the letter we talked of to the Duke? I can
+conceal my own hand well enough, and then if Fenwick is asked
+anything about it, he can swear most positively that it is not his
+writing."
+
+"Oh! I care nothing about it," replied Fenwick. "The foolish old man
+cannot betray me without betraying himself; and you will see he will
+soon come round. In the meantime, however, I will go down and talk to
+old Plessis about the ship. I should think it could be got ready two
+days sooner easily; and as this that we have in view is a great
+object, we must not mind paying a few pounds for speed."
+
+Thus saying, he left the room; and Charnock, taking paper out of a
+drawer, proceeded to write a letter according to the suggestions of
+Sir George Barkley. Presently after, there was a sound of several
+voices speaking, which apparently proceeded from some persons
+approaching the front of the house. Both Sir George Barkley and
+Charnock started up, the first exclaiming, "Hark! there they are!"
+
+"Yes," exclaimed Charnock, "there's a woman's voice, sure enough! Why
+the devil don't they stop her talking so loud?"
+
+"You write out the letter, Charnock," said Sir George.  "I must go
+down and see that all is right."
+
+Charnock nodded his head, and the other left the room.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+When Wilton Brown reached the house of the Earl of Byerdale, he found
+that nobleman, the Duke of Gaveston, and Lord Sherbrooke, sitting
+together in the most amicable manner that it is possible to conceive.
+The countenance of the Duke was certainly very much distressed and
+agitated; but making allowance for the different characters of the
+two men, Lord Byerdale himself did not seem to be less distressed.
+Lord Sherbrooke, too, was looking very grave, and was thoughtfully
+scribbling unmeaning lines with a pen and ink on some quires of paper
+before him.
+
+"Oh, Mr. Brown, I am very glad to see you," exclaimed the Duke.
+
+"My dear Wilton," said the Earl, addressing him by a title which he
+had never given him in his life before, "we are particularly in need
+of your advice and assistance. I know not whether Sherbrooke, in his
+note, told you the event that has occurred."
+
+"He did so, to my great grief and surprise, my lord," replied Wilton.
+"How I can be of any assistance I do not know; but I need not say
+that I will do anything on earth that I can to aid my lord duke and
+your lordship."
+
+"The truth is," replied Lord Byerdale, "that I am as greatly
+concerned as his grace: it having happened most unfortunately, this
+very morning--I am sorry, through Sherbrooke's own fault--that Lady
+Laura found herself compelled to break off the proposed alliance
+between our two families, which was one of my brightest day-dreams.
+The Duke knows well, indeed, that however high I may consider the
+honour which I had at one time in prospect, I am perfectly incapable
+of taking any unjustifiable means, especially of such a rash and
+desperate nature, to secure even an alliance such as his. But other
+people--the slanderous world at large--may insinuate that I have had
+some share in this business; and therefore it is absolutely necessary
+for me to use every exertion for the purpose of discovering whither
+the young lady has been carried. At the same time, the circumstances
+in which we are placed must, in a great degree, prevent Sherbrooke
+from taking that active part in the business which I know he could
+wish to do, and I therefore must cast the burden upon you, of aiding
+the Duke, on my part, with every exertion to trace out the whole of
+this mysterious business, and, if possible, to restore the young lady
+to her father."
+
+The Earl spoke rapidly and eagerly, as if he feared to be
+interrupted, and wished, in the first instance, to give the matter
+that turn which seemed best to him.
+
+"I am very anxious, too, Mr. Brown," said the Duke, "to have your
+assistance in this matter, for I am sure, you well know I place great
+confidence in you."
+
+Wilton bowed his head, not exactly perceiving the cause of this great
+confidence at the moment, but still well pleased that it should be
+so.
+
+"May I ask," he said, in as calm a voice as he could command, for his
+own heart was too much interested in the subject to suffer him to
+speak altogether tranquilly--"may I ask what are the particulars of
+this terrible affair, for Lord Sherbrooke's note was very brief? He
+merely told me the Lady Laura had disappeared; but he told me not
+where she had last been seen."
+
+"She was last seen walking on the terrace in the garden," said the
+Duke, "just as it was becoming dusk. The afternoon was cold, and I
+thought of sending for her; but she had been a good deal agitated and
+anxious during the day, and I did not much like to disturb her
+thoughts."
+
+"On which terrace?" demanded Wilton, eagerly.
+
+"On the low terrace near the water," replied the Duke.
+
+"Good God!" exclaimed Wilton, clasping his hands, "can she have
+fallen into the river?" and the horrible image presented to his mind
+made his cheek turn as pale as ashes. In a moment after, however, it
+became red again, for he marked the eye of the Earl upon him, while
+the slightest possible smile crept round the corners of that
+nobleman's mouth.
+
+"My apprehensions, at first, were the same as yours, my young
+friend," replied the Duke. "I was busy with other things, when one of
+the servants came to tell me that they thought they had heard a
+scream, and that their young lady was not upon the terrace, though
+she had not returned to the house. We went down instantly with
+lights, for it was now dark; and my apprehensions of one terrible
+kind were instantly changed into others, by finding the large
+footmarks of men in the gravel, part of which was beaten up, as if
+there had been a struggle. The footsteps, also, could be traced down
+the stone steps of the landing-place, where my own barge lies, and
+there was evidently the mark of a foot, loaded with gravel, on the
+gunwale of the boat itself, showing that somebody had stepped upon it
+to get into another boat."
+
+This intelligence greatly relieved the mind of Wilton; and at the
+same time, Lord Sherbrooke, who had not yet spoken a word, looked up,
+saying, "The Duke thinks, Wilton, that it will be better for you to
+go home with him, and endeavour to trace this business out from the
+spot itself. One of the messengers will be sent to you immediately
+with a warrant, under my father's hand, [Footnote: It may be as well
+to remark here, that much of the business which is now entirely
+entrusted to police magistrates was then carried on by the
+secretaries of state and high official persons; and a "secretary's
+warrant" was an instrument of very dangerous and extensive power.] to
+assist you in apprehending any of the participators in this business.
+Do you think anything can be done to-night?"
+
+Wilton was accustomed to read his friend's countenance with some
+attention, and, from his whole tone and manner, he gathered that Lord
+Sherbrooke was somewhat anxious to bring the conference to an end.
+
+"Perhaps something may be done to-night," he replied, "especially if
+no inquiry has yet been made amongst the watermen upon the river."
+
+"None," replied the Duke, "none! To say the truth, I was so
+confounded and confused, that I came away here instantly--for advice
+and assistance," he added; but there was a pause between the words,
+which left his real views somewhat doubtful. The rest of the business
+was speedily arranged. The Duke's coach was at the door, and Wilton
+proceeded into the Earl's library to write a note to his own servant,
+containing various directions. He was followed in a minute or two by
+Lord Sherbrooke, who seemed looking for something in haste.
+
+"Where are the blank warrants, Wilton?" he said: "my father will sign
+one at once."
+
+As he spoke, however, he bent down his head over Wilton's shoulder,
+and then added, "Get away as fast as you can, or you will betray
+yourself to the keen eyes that are upon you.  Go with the Duke,
+rescue the girl, and the game is before you. I, too, will exert
+myself to find her, but with different views, and you shall have the
+benefit of it."
+
+"Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke," said Wilton, "what madness is it that you
+would put into my head?"
+
+"It is in your heart already, Wilton," replied Lord Sherbrooke. "But
+after all, it is no madness, Wilton; for I have this very night heard
+my father acknowledge to the Duke that he knows who you really are;
+that the blood in your veins is as good as that of any one in the
+kingdom; and that your family is more ancient than that of the Duke
+himself, only that on account of some of the late troubles and
+changes it has been judged necessary to keep you, for a time, in the
+shade. Thus, you see, it is no madness--Nay, nay, collect your
+thoughts, Wilton.--Where are these cursed warrants?  I say the game
+is before you.--There is my father's voice calling. He has an
+intuitive perception that I am spoiling his plans. Look to Sir John
+Fenwick, Wilton--look to Sir John Fenwick. I suspect him strongly.
+Hark how that patient and dignified father of mine is making the bell
+of the saloon knock its head against the wall! By heavens, there's
+his step! Fold up your note quickly! Where can these cursed warrants
+be?--My lord," he continued, turning to his father, who entered at
+that moment, "before you sent me for the warrants, you should have
+given me a warrant to discover and take them up, for I can neither do
+one nor the other."
+
+The warrants were soon found, however; the Earl signed one and filled
+up the blanks; one of the ordinary Messengers of State was sent for,
+in order to follow Wilton and the Duke as soon as possible; and the
+young gentleman, taking his place in the carriage, was soon upon the
+way to Beaufort House, conversing over the events that had occurred.
+
+What between agitation, grief, and apprehension, the Duke was all
+kindness and condescension towards his young companion. He seemed,
+indeed, to cast himself entirely upon Wilton for support and
+assistance; and it speedily became apparent that his suspicions also
+pointed in the direction of Sir John Fenwick, and the rash and
+violent men with whom he was engaged.
+
+"I could explain myself on this subject," said the Duke, "to no one but
+you, my dear young friend, as you are the only person acquainted with
+the fact of my having been at that unfortunate meeting, except, indeed,
+the people themselves. Of course I could not say a word upon the subject
+to Lord Byerdale or Lord Sherbrooke; but in you I can confide, and on
+your judgment and activity I rely entirely for the recovery of my poor
+girl."
+
+"I will do my best, my lord," replied Wilton, "and trust I shall be
+successful. Perhaps I may have more cause for anticipating a fortunate
+result than even your grace, as I have means of instantly ascertaining
+whether the persons to whom you have alluded have any share in this
+matter or not; means which I must beg leave to keep secret, but which I
+shall not fail to employ at once."
+
+"Oh, I was sure," replied the Duke, "that if there was a man in England
+could do it, you would be the person. I know your activity and your
+courage too well, not to have every confidence in you."
+
+The coachman had received orders to drive quick; and the hour of nine
+was just striking on the bell of an old clock at Chelsea when the
+carriage drove into the court-yard. Wilton sprang out after the Duke;
+but he did not enter the house.
+
+"I will but go to make some inquiries," he said, "and join your grace in
+half an hour. I may learn something to-night, and under these
+circumstances it is right to lose no time. I should be well pleased,
+however, to have a cloak, if one of your grace's servants could bring me
+either a common riding cloak or a roquelaure."
+
+One was immediately procured; and, somewhat to the surprise and
+admiration of the Duke, who was, as the reader may have perceived, one
+of those people that are expressively denominated SLOW MEN, he set off
+instantly to pursue his search, animated by feelings which had now
+acquired even a deeper interest than ever, and by hopes of the
+extraordinary circumstances in which he was placed proving the means of
+attaining an object well worth the exertion of every energy and every
+thought.
+
+It was a fine frosty night, with the stars twinkling over head, but no
+moon, so that his way amongst the narrow lanes which surrounded Beaufort
+House at that time, was not very easily found. As he walked on, he heard
+a sharp whistle before him, but it produced nothing, though he proposed
+to himself to stand upon the defensive, judging from one or two little
+signs and symptoms which he had seen, that the Green Dragon might
+protect under the shadow of its wings many persons of a far more fierce
+and dangerous description than it had itself proved, either as an
+adversary of St. George, or as an inhabitant of the marshes near
+Wantley.
+
+He walked on fast, and a glimmering light in the direction from which he
+had heard the sound proceed at length led him to the hospitable door of
+the Green Dragon. One sign of hospitality, indeed, it wanted. It stood
+not open for the entrance of every one who sought admission; and a
+precautionary minute or two was suffered to pass before Wilton obtained
+one glance of the interior.
+
+At length, however, a small iron bolt, which prevented any impertinent
+intrusion into the penetralia of the Green Dragon, was drawn back, and
+the lusty form of the landlord made its appearance in the passage. He
+instantly recognised Wilton, whose person, indeed, was not very easily
+forgotten; and laying his finger on the side of his nose, with a look of
+much sagacity, he led Wilton into a little room which seemed to be his
+own peculiar abode.
+
+"The Colonel is out, sir," he said, as soon as the door was closed;
+"and there are things going on I do not much like."
+
+Wilton's mind, full of the thought of Lady Laura, instantly connected
+the landlord's words with the fact of her disappearance, but refrained
+from asking any direct question regarding the lady. "Indeed, landlord,"
+he said, "I am sorry to hear that. What has happened?"
+
+"Why, sir," answered the landlord, "nothing particular; but only I wish
+the Colonel was here--that is all. I do not like to see tampering with a
+gentleman's friends. You understand, sir--I wish the Colonel was here."
+
+"But, landlord," said Wilton, "can he not be found? I wish he were here,
+too, and if you know where he is, I might seek him. I have something
+important to say to him."
+
+"Bless you, sir," replied the landlord, "he's half-way to Rochester by
+this time. He went well nigh two hours ago, and he is not a man to lose
+time by the way. You'll not see him before to-morrow night, and then,
+may be, it will be too late. I'd tell you, sir, upon my life," he
+continued, "if you could find him, for he bade me always do so; but you
+will not meet with him on this side of Gravesend till to-morrow night,
+when he will most likely be at the Nag's Head in St. James's Street
+about the present blessed hour. I've known him a long time now, sir, and
+I will say I never saw such another gentleman ON THE WAY, though there
+is Mr. Byerly and many others that are all very gentlemanlike--but bless
+you, sir, they do it nothing like the Colonel, so I do not wish him to
+be wronged."
+
+"Of course not," answered Wilton; "but tell me, landlord, had he heard
+of this unfortunate business of the lady being carried off, before he
+went?"
+
+"Lord bless you, no, sir," replied the man--"I only heard of it myself
+an hour ago. But one of our people was talking with a waterman just
+above there, and he said that there was a covered barge--like a
+gentleman's barge--came down at a great rate, about six o'clock; and he
+vowed that he heard somebody moaning and crying in it; but likely that
+is not true, for he never said a word till after he heard of the Duke's
+young lady having been whipped up."
+
+Wilton obtained easily the name and address of the waterman, and finding
+that there was no chance whatever of gaining any further intelligence of
+Green, or any means of communicating with him at an earlier period than
+the following night, he took his leave of the good host, and rose to
+depart. The landlord, however, stopped him for a moment.
+
+"Stay a bit, Master Brown," he said. "You see, I rather think there are
+one or two gentlemen in the lane waiting just to talk a word with my
+good Lord Peterborough, who is likely to pass by; and as the Colonel
+told me that you were not just in that way of business yourself, you had
+better take the boy with you."
+
+"No, indeed," replied Wilton, somewhat bitterly, "I am not exactly, as
+you say, in that way of business myself. I am being taught to rob on a
+larger scale."
+
+"Oh, sir!" exclaimed the landlord, not at all understanding Wilton's
+allusion to his political pursuits, "all these gentlemen keep the
+highway a horseback too. This foot-padding is only done just for a
+bit of amusement, and because the Colonel is out of the way. He would
+be very angry if he knew it.--But I did not know you were upon the
+road at all, sir."
+
+"No, no," replied Wilton, smiling, "I was only joking, my good friend.
+The sort of robbery I meant was aiding kings and ministers to rob and
+cheat each other."
+
+"Ay, ay, sir!" said the landlord, now entering into his meaning, and
+taking as a good joke what Wilton had really spoken in sadness--"you
+should have called it miching, sir--miching on a great scale. Well,
+that's worse than t'other.  Give me the King's Highway, I say! only
+I'm too fat and pursy now."
+
+This said, he went and called a little boy well trained in bearing
+foaming pots from place to place, who soon conducted Wilton back in
+safety to the house of the Duke, and then undertook to send up the
+waterman with all speed. By this time the Messenger from the Earl of
+Byerdale had arrived; but although the good gentlemen called
+Messengers, in those days, exercised many of the functions of a
+Bow-street officer, and possessed all the keen and cunning sagacity of
+that two-legged race of ferrets, neither he nor Wilton could elicit
+any farther information from the waterman than that which had been
+already obtained.
+
+"I think, sir, I think, your grace," said the Messenger, bowing low
+to the statesman's secretary, and still lower to the Duke, "I think
+that we must give the business up for to-night, for we shall make no
+more of it. To-morrow morning, as early as you please, Mr. Brown, I
+shall be ready to go down the river with you, and I think we had
+better have this young man's boat, as he saw the barge which he
+thinks took the young lady away. Hark ye, my man," he continued,
+addressing the waterman, "you've seen fifty guineas, haven't you?"
+
+"Why, never in my own hand, your honour," replied the man, with a
+grin.
+
+"Well, then, you'll see them in your hand, and your own money too, if
+by your information we find out this young lady; so go away now, and
+try to discover any one of your comrades who knows something of the
+matter, and come with a wherry to the Duke's stairs to-morrow morning
+as soon as it is daylight."
+
+"Ay, ay, we'll find her, sir, I'll bet something," said the man; and
+with this speech, the only consolatory one which had yet been made by
+any of the party, he left them. The Messenger having now done all
+that he thought sufficient, retired comfortably to repose, shaking
+from his mind at once all recollection of a business in which his
+heart took no part. Nothing on earth marks more distinctly that the
+Spirit or the Soul, with all its fine sensibilities and qualities,
+both of suffering and acting, is of distinct being from the mere
+Intellect, which is, in fact, but the soul's prime minister, than the
+manner in which two people of equal powers of mind will act in
+circumstances where the welfare of a third person, dear to the one,
+and not dear to the other, is concerned. A sense of what is right,
+some accidental duty, or mere common philanthropy, may often cause
+the one to exert all his powers with the utmost activity to obtain
+the object in view; but the moment that he has done all that seems
+possible, the soul tells the mind to throw off the burden for the
+time; and, casting away all thought of the matter, he lays himself
+down comfortably to sleep and forgetfulness. The other, however, in
+whose bosom some more deep interest exists, pursues the object also
+by every means that can be suggested; but when all is done, and the
+mind is wearied, the soul does not suffer the intellect to repose,
+but, still engaged in the pursuit, calls the mind to labour with
+anxious thought, even though that thought may be employed in vain.
+
+For some hours after the Messenger was sound asleep, and had
+forgotten the whole transaction in the arms of slumber, Wilton sat
+conversing with the Duke, and endeavouring to draw from him even the
+smallest particulars of all that had taken place during the last few
+days, with the hope of discovering some probable cause for the event.
+The Duke, however, though disposed to be communicative towards Wilton
+on most subjects, showed a shyness of approaching anything connected
+with the meeting in Leadenhall-street.
+
+It was evident, indeed, that all his suspicions turned upon Sir John
+Fenwick, and he admitted that a violent quarrel had occurred after
+the meeting; but he showed so evident an inclination to avoid
+entering into the subject farther, that Wilton in common delicacy
+could not press him. Finding it in vain to seek any more information
+in that quarter, Wilton at length retired to rest, but sleep came not
+near his eyelids. He now lay revolving all that had occurred,
+endeavouring to extract from the little that was really known some
+light, however faint, to lead to farther discovery. In the darkness
+of the night, imagination, too, came in, and pictured a thousand
+vague but horrible probabilities regarding the fate of the beautiful
+girl with whom he had so lately walked in sweet companionship on the
+very terrace from which it appeared that she had been violently taken
+away.  Fancy had wide range to roam, both in regard to the objects of
+those who had carried her off, to the place whither they had borne
+her, and to the probability of ever recovering her or not. But Fancy
+stopped not there--she suggested doubts to Wilton's mind as to the
+fact of her having been carried off at all. The terrible apprehension
+that she might, by some accident, have fallen into the river returned
+upon him. The feet-marks upon the gravel, he thought, might very
+naturally have been produced by the servants in their first search;
+and it was not at all improbable that some one of them, thinking that
+his young mistress had fallen into the water, might have placed his
+foot upon the gunwale of the barge to lean forward for a clearer view
+of the river under the terrace.
+
+As he thought of all these things, and tortured his heart with
+apprehensions, the conviction came upon the mind of Wilton, that,
+notwithstanding every difference of station, and the utter
+hopelessness of love in his case, Laura had become far, far dearer to
+him than any other being upon earth; had produced in his bosom
+sensations such as he had never known before; sensations which were
+first discovered fully in that hour of pain and anxiety, and which,
+alas! promised but anguish and disappointment for the years to come.
+
+There was, nevertheless, something fascinating in the conviction,
+which, once admitted, he would not willingly have parted with; and it
+gradually led his thoughts to what Lord Sherbrooke had told him
+concerning his own fate and family. That information, indeed, brought
+him but little hope in the present case, though we should speak
+falsely were we to assert that it brought him no hope. The gleam was
+faint, and doubting that it would last, he tried voluntarily to
+extinguish it in his own heart. He called to mind how many there
+were, whose families, engaged in the late troubles during the reigns
+of Charles and James, had never been able to raise themselves again,
+but had sunk into obscurity, and died in poverty and exile. He
+recollected how many of them and of their children had been driven to
+betake themselves to the lowest, and even the most criminal courses;
+and he bethought him, that if he were the child of any of these, he
+might think himself but too fortunate in having obtained an inferior
+station which gave him competence at least. The cloud might never be
+cleared away from his fate; and he recollected, that even if it were
+so, there was but little if any chance of his obtaining, with every
+advantage, that which he had learned to desire even without hope.  He
+knew that the Duke was a proud man, proud of his family, proud of his
+wealth, proud of his daughter, proud of his rank, and that he had
+judged it even a very great condescension to consent to a marriage
+between his daughter and the son of the Earl of Byerdale, a nobleman
+of immense wealth, vast influence, most ancient family, and one who,
+from his power in the counsels of his sovereign, might, in fact, be
+considered the prime minister of the day. He knew, I say, that the
+Duke had considered his consent as a very great condescension; and he
+had remarked that very night, that Laura's father, even in the midst
+of his grief and anxiety, had made the Earl feel, by his whole tone
+and manner, that in the opinion of the Duke of Gaveston there was a
+vast distinction between himself and the Earl of Byerdale. What
+chance was there, then, he asked himself, for one without any
+advantages, even were the happiest explanation to be given to the
+mystery of his own early history?
+
+Thus passed the night, but before daylight on the following morning
+he was up and dressed; and, accompanied by the Messenger, he went
+down the river with two watermen; both of whom declared that they had
+seen the covered barge pass down at the very hour of Lady Laura's
+disappearance, and had heard sounds as if from the voice of a person
+in distress.
+
+We shall not follow Wilton minutely on his search, as not a little of
+our tale remains to be told. Suffice it to say, that from Chelsea to
+Woolwich he made inquiries at every wharf and stairs, examined every
+boat in the least like that which had been seen, and spoke with every
+waterman whom he judged likely to give information; but all in vain.
+At that time almost every nobleman and gentleman in London, as well
+as all merchants, who possessed any ready means of access to the
+Thames, had each a private stairs down to the river, with his barge,
+which was neither more nor less than a large covered boat, somewhat
+resembling a Venetian gondola, but much more roomy and comfortable.
+
+Thus the inquiries of Wilton and the Messenger occupied a
+considerable space of time, and the day was far spent when they
+turned again at Woolwich, and began to row up the stream. Wilton, on
+his part, felt inclined to land, and, hiring a horse, to proceed to
+the Duke's house with greater rapidity--but the Messenger shook his
+head, saying, "No, no, sir: that wont do. We must go through the same
+work all over again up the river. There's quite a different set of
+people at the water-side in the morning and in the evening.  We are
+much more likely to hear tidings this afternoon than we were in the
+early part of the day."
+
+Wilton saw the justice of the man's remark, and acquiesced readily.
+But he did so only to procure for himself, as it turned out, a bitter
+and painful addition to the apprehensions which already tormented
+him. In passing London bridge, one of the heavy barges used in the
+conveyance of merchandise was seen moored at a little distance below
+the bridge, and in the neighbourhood of the fall. A great number of
+men were in her, rolling up various ropes and grappling irons, while
+a personage dressed as one of the city officers appeared at their
+head. Ile was directing them at the moment to unmoor the barge, and
+bring her to one of the wharfs again; but the boatmen of Wilton's
+boat, without any orders, immediately rowed up to the barge, and the
+Messenger inquired what the officer and his comrades were about.
+
+The officer, who seemed to know him, replied at once, "Why, Mr.
+Arden, we are dragging here to see if we can get hold of the boat or
+any of the bodies that went down last night."
+
+"Ay, Smith," replied the Messenger, "what boat was that? I haven't
+heard of it."
+
+"Why, some stupid fools," replied the officer, "dropping down the
+river in a barge about half-past eight last night, tried to shoot the
+arch at half tide, struck the pier, got broadside on at the fall, and
+of course capsized and went down. If it had been a wherry, the boat
+would have floated, but being a covered barge, and all the windows
+shut, she went down in a minute, and there she sticks; but we can't
+well tell where, though I saw the whole thing happen with my own
+eyes."
+
+"Did you see who was in the barge?" demanded the Messenger.
+
+"I saw there were three men in her," the officer replied, "but I
+couldn't see their faces or the colour of their clothes, for it was
+very dark; and if it had not been for the two great lamps at the
+jeweller's on the bridge, I should not have seen so much as I did. We
+are going home now, for we have not light to see; but we got up one
+of the bodies, drifted down nearly half a mile on the Southwark side
+there."
+
+"Was it a man or a woman?" demanded Wilton, eagerly.
+
+"A man, sir," replied the officer. "It turns out to be Jones, the
+waterman by Fulham."
+
+Wilton did not speak for a moment, and the Messenger was struck, and
+silent likewise. When they recovered a little, however, they
+explained to the officer briefly the object of their search upon the
+river, and he was easily induced to continue dragging at the spot
+where he thought the boat had disappeared. He was unsuccessful,
+however; and, after labouring for about half an hour, the total
+failure of light compelled them to desist without any farther
+discovery.  Wilton then landed with the Messenger; and with his brain
+feeling as if on fire, and a heart wrung with grief, he rode back, as
+soon as horses could be procured, to carry the sad tidings which he
+had obtained to Laura's father.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+A spirit--though rather of a better kind than that which drags too
+many of our unfortunate countrymen into the abodes of wickedness and
+corruption, now called Gin Pal--es, so liberally provided for them in
+the metropolis--abodes licensed and patronised by the government for
+the temptation of the lower orders of the populace to commit and
+harden themselves in the great besetting vice of this country--a
+spirit, I say, of a better kind than this, drags me into a house of
+public entertainment, called the Nag's Head, in St. James's Street.
+
+The Nag's Head, in St. James's Street!!!
+
+Now, though nobody would be in the least surprised to have read or
+heard of the Nag's Head in the Borough, yet there is probably not a
+single reader who will see this collocation of the "Nag's Head" with
+"St. James's Street" without an exclamation, or at least a feeling of
+surprise, at it being possible there should ever have been such a
+thing in St. James's Street at all--that is to say, not a nag's head,
+either horsically or hobbyhorsically speaking, but tavernistically;
+for be it known to all men, that the Nag's Head here mentioned was an
+inn or tavern actually in the very middle of the royal and
+fashionable street called St. James's.  One might write a whole
+chapter upon the variations and mutations of the names of inns, and
+inquire curiously whether their modification in various places and at
+various times depends merely upon fashion, or whether it is produced
+by some really existing but latent sympathy between peculiar names,
+as applied to inns, and particular circumstances, affecting
+localities, times, seasons, and national character.
+
+Having already touched upon this subject, however, though with but a
+slight and allusive sentence or two, in reference to our friend the
+Green Dragon, and being at this moment pressed for time and room, we
+shall say no more upon the subject here, but enter at once into the
+Nag's Head, and lead the reader by the hand to the door of a certain
+large apartment, which, at about half-past nine o'clock, on the night
+we have just been speaking of, was well nigh as full as it could
+hold.
+
+The people whom it contained were of various descriptions, but most
+of them were gentlemanly men enough in their appearance, and these
+were ranged round little tables in parties of five or six, or
+sometimes more. It cannot, indeed, be said that their occupations
+were particularly edifying. Dice, backgammon-boards, and cards were
+spread on many of the tables; punch smoked around with a very
+fragrant odour; and whatever might have been the nature of the
+conversation in general, the oaths and expletives, with which it was
+interlarded from time to time, spoke not very well for either the
+morality or the eloquence of our ancestors: for such, indeed, I must
+call these gentlemen, forming as they did part of the great ancestral
+body of a hundred and fifty years ago; though I devoutly hope and
+pray that none of my own immediate progenitors happened to be amongst
+the number there assembled. The smell of punch and other strong drink
+was, to the atmosphere of the place, exactly what the dissolute and
+swaggering air of a great number of the persons assembled there was
+to the natural expression of the human countenance. The noise, too,
+was very great; so that the ear of a new comer required to become
+accustomed to it before he could hear anything that was taking place.
+
+Gradually, however, as habit reconciled the visitor to the din, the
+oaths and objurgations, together with the words "cheat, liar, knave,"
+&c. &c., separated themselves from the rest of the conversation, and
+swam like a sort of scum upon the top of the buzz. Though all were
+met there for enjoyment, too, it is worthy of remark, that many of
+the countenances around bore strong marks of fierce and angry
+passions, disappointment, hatred, revenge; and many a flushed cheek
+and flashing eye told the often-told tale, that in the amusements
+which man devises for himself he is almost always sure to mingle a
+sufficient quantity of vice to bring forth a plentiful return of
+sorrow.
+
+While all this was proceeding in full current, the door, which opened
+with a weight and pulley, rattled and squeaked as it was cast back,
+and our often-mentioned friend Green--or the Colonel, as he was
+called--entered the room. Giving a casual glance around him, he
+proceeded to the other end of the saloon, where there was a small
+table vacant, and called in a loud but slow voice for a pint of
+claret. Whether this was his habit, or whether it was merely an
+accidental compliance with the tavern etiquette of taking something
+in the house which we visit, the claret was brought to him instantly,
+as if it had been ready prepared, together with a large glass of the
+kind now called a tumbler, and a single biscuit.
+
+Green took no notice of any one in the room, for some minutes, but
+ate the biscuit and drank the claret in two drafts of half a pint at
+a time. When this was done, he gazed round him gravely and
+thoughtfully; after which he walked up to one of the tables where
+some people were playing at hazard, and spoke a word or two across it
+to the man who was holding the dice-box. The man looked up with a
+frank smile, and for his only reply nodded his head, saying, "In five
+minutes, Colonel."
+
+Green then went on to the next table, and spoke in the same low voice
+to a person on the left-hand side, but the man looked down doggedly,
+shrugged his shoulders, and said, "I can't leave my game now,
+Colonel. If you had told me half an hour ago, it might have been
+different."
+
+"Oh! you are very busy in your game, are you?" said Green.  "And so I
+suppose are you," he added, turning to another who was sitting at the
+same table.
+
+That man answered also in the same tone; and Green, muttering to
+himself "Very well!" went on to two more tables at little distances
+from each other, from one of which only, he received a nod in answer
+to what he said, with the words, "Directly, Colonel--directly."
+
+He was just going on to another, when the door again opened, and a
+tall, graceful young man, APPARENTLY of one or two and twenty years
+of age, entered the room, and advanced towards the table which Green
+had left vacant. His whole manner and appearance was totally
+different from that of the persons by whom the room had been
+previously tenanted, and a number of inquiring eyes were naturally
+turned towards him. Green looked him full in the face without taking
+the slightest notice; nor did the stranger show any sign of remarking
+him, except by brushing against him as he passed, and then turning
+round and begging his pardon, while at the same time he laid the
+finger of his right hand upon a diamond ring which he wore upon the
+little finger of the left.  He then advanced straight to the vacant
+table, as we have said, and sat down, looking towards a drawer who
+stood at the other end of the room, and saying--
+
+"Bring me some claret."
+
+At the same moment, Green advanced to the table, and bowing his head
+with the air and grace of a distinguished gentleman, said--
+
+"I beg your pardon, sir, for saying that this is my table; but there
+is perfectly room at it for us both, and if you will permit me the
+honour, I will join you in your wine. Shall we say a bottle of good
+Burgundy, which will be better than cold claret on this chilly
+night?"
+
+"With all my heart," replied Wilton Brown, for we need hardly tell
+the reader that it was he who had last entered the room at the Nag's
+Head; and Green, turning to the drawer, said, "This gentleman and I
+will take a bottle of Burgundy.  Let it be that which the landlord
+knows of."
+
+"I understand, sir--I understand," replied the drawer, "last Monday
+night's;" and Wilton and his companion were soon busily discussing
+their wine, and talking together, upon various indifferent things, in
+a voice which could be heard at the neighbouring tables. Green spoke
+with ease and grace, and had altogether so much the tone of a
+well-bred man of the world, that he might have passed for such in the
+highest society in the realm. Wilton found the task a more difficult
+one, for his mind was eagerly bent upon other subjects. He laboured
+to play his part to the best, however; and Green, laughing, showed
+him how to drink his wine out of goblets, as he called it; so that
+the matter was brought to a conclusion sooner than he had ventured to
+hope.
+
+As the bottle drew to its close, Green took an opportunity of saying,
+in a low voice, "Come with me when I go out."
+
+Wilton answered in the same tone, "Must you not make some excuse?"
+
+"Oh, I will show you one--I will show you one!" exclaimed Green,
+aloud--"if you have never seen one, I will show you one within five
+minutes from this time. I have but to speak a word to some of my
+friends at these different tables, and then you shall come with me."
+
+This was heard all through the room; and Wilton seeing that the
+excuse was already made, said no more, but, "Very well, I am ready
+when you like."
+
+Green then rose, and went round those to whom he had before spoken,
+addressing each of them again in the same order.
+
+"I will meet you, Harry," he said to the first, who had so readily
+made an affirmative answer, "in three quarters of an hour. Don't be
+longer, my good fellow, if you can help it.  Master Williamson," he
+added, when he came up to the other, speaking in as low a tone as
+possible, "I think you would have given up your game at cards, if you
+had known what I had to tell you and Davis there, opposite."
+
+There was something dark and meaning in Green's look as he spoke, a
+knitting of the brows, a drawing together of the eyelids, and a tight
+shutting of the mouth between every three or four words, which made
+the man turn a little white.
+
+"Why, what is the matter, Colonel?" he said, in a much civiler tone
+than before. "Cannot you tell me now?"
+
+"Oh, yes," replied Green, in the same low tone, "I can tell you now,
+if you like. It is no great matter: only that there are warrants out
+against you and Davis; and against Ingram there at the other table,
+for robbing the Earl of Peterborough last night in the Green Lane,
+behind Beaufort House. They have got hold of Jimmy Law, poor fellow,
+already, and he will be hanged to a certainty. It was discovered who
+you all were by Harry Brown, who was one of your party when you went,
+without my knowledge, to do business between Gravesend and Rochester.
+He's one of my Lord Peterborough's led captains now, and was in the
+carriage with him, though you didn't see him to know him. He gave all
+your names, and they have sent down to the Green Dragon after you,
+and have also people on the Rochester road. Tell Davis, and I will
+tell Ingram; for it is better you should all get out of the way for
+awhile."
+
+This was said in so low a tone, that none of those around could hear
+distinctly; but the worthy gentleman to whom the words were addressed
+did not seem near so cautious as the Colonel; for, after having
+suffered his eyes and his mouth to expand gradually with a look of
+increasing horror at every word, he started up from the table as
+Green concluded, exclaiming, "By--!" and dashed the cards down upon
+the board before him, scattering one half of them over the floor.
+Green gave him one momentary look of sovereign contempt, and then
+proceeded to the opposite table, where he told the same story to the
+personage named Ingram, whose attention had been called by the
+vehement excitement of his comrade.  The effect now produced seemed
+fully as deep, though not quite so demonstrative; for Master Ingram
+sat in profound silence at the table for at least five minutes, with
+his face assuming various hues of purple and green, as he revolved
+the matter in his own mind.
+
+It is probable, that very seldom any three men, except three sailors,
+have ever thought so much of a rope at the same moment; and before
+Green could finish his tour round the room and rejoin Wilton, those
+to whom he had spoken were all hastening up St. James's Street as
+fast as they could go. Green returned to the table where he had been
+seated, called the drawer to receive the money for the Burgundy, and
+then bowing his head to Wilton, with somewhat of a stiff' air, he
+said, "Now, sir, if you please, I am ready to show you the way; and
+as I have not much time-"
+
+"I am quite ready," replied Wilton; and turning to the door, he and
+Green left the house together, while those who remained behind,
+immediately they were gone, gathered into two or three little knots,
+discussing the scene which had just taken place.
+
+In the meantime, Green led Wilton into St. James's Square, the centre
+of which was not at that time enclosed, as now, by iron railings; and
+walking to and fro there, he demanded eagerly what was the matter,
+and heard with surprise all that his young companion had to tell him
+of the sudden disappearance of the Duke's daughter, of which he had
+previously received no intelligence.
+
+We need not recapitulate the whole of Wilton's account to the reader;
+but will only add, to that which is already known, one fact of some
+importance with which the young gentleman concluded the detail of his
+inquiries during that very day.
+
+"When I arrived at Beaufort House," he said, "fully and painfully
+impressed with the notion that this poor young lady was drowned, I
+was met by the Duke at the very door of his library with a letter in
+his hand. His eyes were full of tears of joy, for the news of a boat
+having been lost had, by this time, reached him; and the letter,
+which was dated from a distant part of the country, informed him of
+his daughter's safety, in these words:-'Lady Laura Gaveston will be
+restored to Beaufort House as soon as her father can make up his mind
+to behave with spirit and patriotism, and follow out the only plans
+which can save his country. This must be done by actions, not by
+words; but a positive engagement under his hand will be considered
+sufficient. In the meantime, she remains a hostage for his good
+faith.' At the bottom was written, in a hand which he says is that of
+Lady Laura herself--'My dear father, I am well; but this is all
+they will let me write.'"
+
+"Whence was it dated?" demanded Green sharply.
+
+"Newbury," replied Wilton; "and the letter was brought by a person
+who spoke with a foreign accent."
+
+"This is strange," said Green: "I should think it was some of that
+troop of--I know not well whether to call them villains or madmen. I
+should think some of them had done this, were it not that I had seen
+them all--I may say all the principal ones--last night, and they
+certainly had not a woman with them then."
+
+"The Duke's suspicions turn principally upon Sir John Fenwick," said
+Wilton.
+
+"It could not well be him," replied Green: "he was there, and none
+but men with him. It is very strange! I wish I could see that letter.
+Perhaps I might recognise the hand."
+
+"That is evidently feigned," answered Wilton; "but I should think the
+date of Newbury must be false, too."
+
+"To be sure, to be sure," replied Green--"the exact reverse most
+likely. They must have taken her towards the sea, not
+inland--Newbury!--More likely towards Rochester or Sheerness; yet I
+can't think there was any woman there.  Yet stay a minute, Wilton,"
+he continued, "stay a minute. I expect tidings to-night, from the
+very house at which I met them last night. There is a chance, a bare
+chance, of there being something on this matter in the letters; it is
+worth while to see, however. Where can I find you in ten minutes from
+this time ?-I saw the boy waiting near the palace when we came out."
+
+"I will go into the Earl of Sunbury's, on that side of the square,"
+replied Wilton, "where you see the two lights.  There is nobody in it
+but the old housekeeper, but she knows me and will admit me."
+
+"She knows me, too," replied Green, drily; "and I will join you there
+in ten minutes with any intelligence I may gain."
+
+Green left him at once, with that peculiar sharpness and rapidity of
+movement which Wilton had always remarked in him from their first
+meeting. The young gentleman, on his part, went over to the house of
+the Earl of Sunbury, and telling the old housekeeper, and the girl
+who opened the door to him, that a gentleman would soon be there to
+speak with him on business, he went up to the saloon, and as soon as
+he was alone, raised the light that was left with him, to gaze upon
+the picture which we have mentioned more than once, and to compare it
+by the aid of memory with the lady whom he had seen but a few days
+before. The likeness was very strong, the height was the same, the
+features, examined strictly one by one, presented exactly the same
+lines. The complexion, indeed, in the picture, was more brilliant;
+and it was that, perhaps, as well as a certain roundness, which
+marked a difference of age; but then the expression was precisely the
+same--a depth, a tenderness even approaching to melancholy--in the
+picture, as in her whom he had seen; and though he gazed, and
+wondered, and wearied imagination for probabilities, he found none,
+but could only end by believing that, in the facts connected with
+that picture, lay the mystery of his fate, and of the link between
+him and the Earl of Sunbury.
+
+He was still gazing, when Green was ushered into the room, and
+setting down the light, Wilton turned to meet him.  There was a dark
+and heavy frown upon the countenance of him whom we have so often
+heard called the Colonel, as he entered: an expression of bitterness
+mingled with sadness; but, nevertheless, he took up the light, and
+walking up to the picture, gazed upon it for a minute or two, as
+Wilton had done.
+
+"It is wonderfully like," he said, after pausing for a moment or
+two--"how beautiful she was! However, I have no time to think of
+such things now. I have here tidings for you, Wilton. I know not yet
+rightly what they are, for I caught but a glance of them; and had
+other things to think of bitter enough, and requiring instant
+attention. Here, let us look what this epistle says."
+
+Setting down the lamp upon the table, he opened the letter and held
+it to the light, reading it attentively, while Wilton, who stood
+beside him did the same. It was written in fine small hand, and in
+French; but the page at which Green had opened the sheet, after a few
+words connected with a sentence that had gone before, went on as
+follows:--"I should not have sent this till we were safe across, but
+that circumstances have induced us to delay our departure; and you
+would scarcely think that it is I who have urged Caroline to remain
+for yet a little while: I, who some days ago was so fearful of
+remaining, so anxious to depart. Nor is it solely an inclination to
+linger near that dear boy, although I own the sight of him has been
+to me like the foretaste of a new existence. Bless him for me, my
+friend--bless him for me! But I found that the dear wild girl who is
+with me had neither ceased to love, nor ceased entirely to hope. In
+the last letter she received, mingled with reproaches for coming
+hither, there was every now and then a burst of tenderness and
+affection which made her trust, and me almost believe, that all good
+and honourable feeling is not extinct. She thinks that if she could
+see him, the better angel might gain the dominion, and I have not
+only counselled her to remain yet a little while, but also even to go
+to London should it be required. While we were talking over all these
+things," the letter proceeded, "just after you were gone, we heard a
+fresh arrival at this house, and, as I thought, a woman's voice
+speaking in tones of remonstrance and complaint. I have this morning
+learned who it is, and now write in great haste to ask you if these
+things are right in any cause, or if you can have anything to do with
+it. I will not believe it, Lennard--I will not believe it. Rash as
+you have been in choosing your own fate--hasty as you have been in
+all things connected with yourself--you would not, I am sure,
+countenance a thing that is cruel as well as criminal."
+
+Green laughed bitterly. "I am forced," he said, "to bear much that I
+would not countenance. But look here--she goes on to say that it is
+the daughter of the Duke. 'Young, and beautiful, and gentle,' she
+says--that matches well, does it not, Wilton, ha?--I who has been
+torn from her father, the Duke of Gaveston, in this daring and
+shameful manner, and brought hither by water with the intention, as I
+believe, of sending her over to France in the ship that we have
+hired.  I have seen her twice, and spoken with her for some time, and
+I beseech you, if it be possible, find means of setting her
+free.'--Ay, but how may that be?" continued Green. "If they have got
+her, and risk their necks to have her, they will take care to keep
+her sure. They have men enough for that purpose, and they have taken
+care to render me nearly powerless."
+
+"I should have thought," replied Wilton, whose joy at the discovery
+of where Laura really was had instantly blown up the flame of hope so
+brightly, that objects distant and difficult to be reached seemed by
+that light to be close at hand--"I should have thought, from what I
+have seen and what I suspect, that you could have commanded a
+sufficient force at any moment to set all opposition at defiance,
+especially when you were engaged in a lawful and generous cause."
+
+"I should have thought so, too," replied Green, "two days ago. But
+times have changed, Wilton, times have changed, and, like the wind of
+a tropical climate, turned round in a single moment. On my soul," he
+continued, vehemently, "one would think that men were absolutely
+insane. Here a set of people, whose lives are all in my own hand,
+dare to tamper with my friends and comrades, to bribe them, to hire
+them away from me, ay, and to do it so openly that I cannot fail to
+see it, and that too, at the very moment when they know that I hate
+and abhor their proceedings, and when they have just reason to
+suppose that I will take means to frustrate their base and cowardly
+designs, and only waver between the propriety of doing so, and the
+wish not to give them over to the death they well deserve."
+
+"If they have so acted," replied Wilton--"if they have shown such
+base ingratitude towards you, as well as designs dangerous to the
+country--for I will not affect to doubt or misunderstand you--why not
+boldly, and at once, give them up to justice? Understand me, I wish
+to hear nothing more of these men. I wish to be perfectly ignorant of
+their whole proceedings. I wish to have no information whatsoever,
+except my own suspicions, for if I had, I should feel myself bound
+immediately to cause their arrest. But from what you have said in
+regard to Sir John Fenwick; from what the Duke has said on various
+occasions; and from what I myself have remarked, I am strongly
+inclined to believe that there are matters going on which can but end
+in ruin to those engaged in them, if not in all the horrors of a
+civil war."
+
+"That I should not mind--that I should not mind!" cried Green--"let
+us have a civil war; let every man lay his hand upon his sword and
+betake him to his standard. That is the true, the right, the only
+right way to get rid of an usurper. It has been with the very view of
+that civil war you talk of that I have banished myself from the
+station in which I was born, that I have walked by night instead of
+by day, and that I have kept in constant preparation, throughout the
+whole of the south of England, the seeds, as it were, of a future
+army.  And now what have they done? Not only trusted the command of
+all things to others, but given that command to men who would do, by
+the basest and most dastardly means, that which I would do by open
+force and bold exertion: men who have mixed up crimes of the blackest
+die with the noblest aspirations that ever led on men of honour to
+the greatest deeds; who have soiled and sullied, disgraced and
+degraded, the cause for which I have shed my blood, ruined my
+fortune, and seen all the fair things of life pass away like a dream.
+By heavens, I could cry as if I were a girl or a baby," and he dashed
+away a tear from his eye which he could not restrain; "and now," he
+continued, "and now if I do not prevent them they will put a damning
+seal to all their follies and crimes, which will render that holy and
+noble cause horrible in the eyes of all men, which will brand it for
+ever with infamy and shame, and leave it blighted and loathsome, so
+that men will shrink from the very thought thereof."
+
+"But why not prevent them?" cried Wilton, "why not give up such
+traitors and villains to justice at once?" "Why not?" replied Green;
+"because there are men amongst them who have fought side by side with
+me in the day of battle; because there are some foolish when others
+are wicked; because that there are many who abhor their acts as much
+as I do, but who would be implicated in the consequences of their
+crimes. These are all strong reasons, Wilton, powerful, mighty
+reasons, and I find now, alas I--I find now, most bitterly--that he who
+seeks even the best ends, in dark and tortuous ways, is sure, sooner
+or later, to involve himself in circumstances where he can neither
+act nor refuse to act, neither speak nor be silent, without a crime,
+a danger and a punishment. In that situation I have placed myself;
+and I tell you that even now, since I have entered this room, I have
+determined to call upon my own head those dangers, if not that fate,
+which the mistake I have committed well deserves. I will frustrate
+these men's designs.  They shall not commit the act they purpose. But
+yet I will betray no man; I will give no man up to death. They shall
+not wring it from me; but they shall be sufficiently warned. Now,
+however, let us leave all this, and only inquire how this girl can be
+saved from their hands. You, Wilton, must be the person to rescue
+her, for I feel sure that your fate and hers are bound up together. I
+feel sure, too," he added with a faint smile, "that she would
+rather it were your hand saved her than that of any one else. I have
+seen you together more than once, remember. But how it is to be done
+is the question. My time must be given to other things, for from
+tidings I have received not a moment is to be lost. They have taken
+such means that I find there are only two whom I can trust out of
+very many who were with me near London.  I have no time to send
+either into Dorsetshire or Sussex, and the people there may have been
+tampered with also. Besides, as we cannot call in the power of the
+law upon our side, it would need a number to effect our purpose."
+
+"But I will call in the power of the law," replied Wilton.  "I have a
+Messenger with the Secretary of State's warrant at my command; and
+wherever this place may be, I can in a moment raise such a force in
+the neighbourhood as will enable me to rescue her, and capture those
+who have committed so daring an outrage.
+
+"Ay, but that is what must not be, Wilton," replied Green. "There is
+not one of those men whom you would capture whose head would be worth
+ten days' purchase, were he within the walls of Newgate or the Tower.
+No, no!  to that I cannot consent. Her freedom must be effected
+somehow, but their liberty not lost. I must think over it this night.
+Where can I find you to-morrow morning early?"
+
+"At my own lodgings," replied Wilton, "not four streets off."
+
+"No, no!" answered Green; "I never enter London in the day. I might
+risk much by doing so, and must not do it except in case of great
+need."
+
+"Then let it be at Beaufort House," replied Wilton: "I sleep there
+to-night. But why should we not settle and determine the whole at
+once? Tell me but where is this place to which they have taken Lady
+Laura, and I will undertake to rescue her."
+
+"You alone, Wilton?" said Green.
+
+"Aided by none but the Messenger," replied Wilton:  "armed with the
+force of the law, I fear not whom I encounter."
+
+"Armed with the force of love!" answered Green, after looking at him
+for a moment with eyes in which affection and admiration were equally
+evident. "You want not the spirit of your race; and it will carry you
+through. If you will promise me to take none but the Messenger with
+you, you shall have some one to guide you to the house, and to aid
+you on my part. I need not tell you what you have to do. Demand the
+young lady's liberty simply and straightforwardly; say to all those
+who oppose you, that the task of investigating what have been the
+causes, and who the perpetrators of the outrage committed, must fall
+upon the Duke; that you have no authority to meddle with that part of
+the business. Say this, I repeat, and I doubt not that you will be
+fully successful. They dare not--I am sure they dare not--resist you,
+if you do not attempt to arrest any of their own number."
+
+"I promise you most faithfully," replied Wilton, "to act as you have
+said. I will go with the Messenger and the person you send only. But
+where am I to meet this person?  When, and how, and where, am I to
+find the house?"
+
+"You would find it with difficulty," replied Green; "for it lies far
+off from the high road, not many miles from Rochester; and the lanes
+and woods about it are not arranged for the purpose of making it
+easily discovered. You must not, therefore, attempt to find your way
+alone. However, set out early to-morrow with strong fresh horses, and
+ride on till you come to the village of High Halstow. Should you
+reach that place before nightfall, remain there till it turns dusk.
+As it begins to become grey, ride out again, taking the way towards
+Cowley Castle. As you go along that road, you will find some one to
+show you the way. He will ask you what colour you are of. Answer him
+'Brown,' but that 'Green' will do as well. I would be there myself if
+I could; but that, I fear, cannot be. Let me hear of you and of your
+success, however--though I will not doubt your success; and now, are
+you going back to Beaufort House? If so, I will bear you company on
+the way."
+
+Wilton replied in the affirmative, and they accordingly left the
+house of the Earl of Sunbury. Wilton, however, had to procure his
+horse; and Green also was delayed, for a moment, by the same piece of
+business. When all was prepared, he seemed to hesitate and pause
+before he mounted; and while he yet remained speaking, with his foot
+in the stirrup, a boy ran up, saying, "I have just been down, sir,
+and seen him go in."
+
+Green gave him a note which he had held in his hand during the whole
+conversation at Lord Sunbury's, saying, "Take him that note! Tell the
+servant to deliver it immediately. If Lord Sherbrooke asks who sent
+it, tell him it was the gentleman who wrote it, and who hopes to meet
+him at the appointed place." The boy ran off with the note as fast as
+he could go, and Wilton and his companion turned their horses' heads
+towards Chelsea.
+
+What he had heard certainly did surprise Wilton a good deal; and he
+did not scruple to say, "You seem acquainted with every one, I think,
+and to have an acquaintance with many of whom I did not know you had
+the slightest knowledge."
+
+"It is so," answered Green, in a grave and thoughtful tone, "and yet
+nothing wonderful. It is with a man like me as with nature," he added
+with a smile, "we both work secretly. Things seem extraordinary,
+strange, almost miraculous, when beheld only in their results, but
+when looked at near, they are found to be brought about by the
+simplest of all possible means. You, having lived but little in the
+world, and not being one half my age, yet know thousands of people in
+the highest ranks of life that I do not know, though I have mingled
+with that rank ten times as much as you have done: and I know many
+whom you would think the last to hold acquaintance with me in these
+changed times. You could go into any thronged assembly, a theatre, a
+ball-room, a house of parliament, and point me out, by hundreds,
+people with whose persons I am utterly unacquainted, and these would
+be the greatest men of the day.
+
+"But I could lay my finger upon this wily statesman, or that great
+warrior, or the other stern philosopher, and could tell you secrets
+of those men's bosoms which would astonish you to hear, and make them
+shrink into the ground;--and yet there would be no magic in all
+this."
+
+Wilton did not answer him in the same moralizing strain, but strove
+to obtain some farther information in regard to his proceedings
+proposed for the following day. But neither upon that, nor upon the
+subject of the note to Lord Sherbrooke, would Green speak another
+word, till, on arriving at the gates of Beaufort House, he said--
+
+"Remember High Halstow."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+It was night, and the large assembly of persons who had thronged the
+palace at Kensington during the day had taken their departure.
+Silence had returned after the noise and bustle of the sunshine had
+subsided; scarcely a sound was heard throughout the whole building,
+except the porter snoring in the hall. The King himself had taken his
+frugal supper, and was sitting alone in his cabinet with merely a
+page at the door; his courtiers were scattered in their different
+apartments; and his immediate attendants were waiting in the distant
+chambers where he slept, for the hour of his retiring to rest.
+
+Such had been the state of things for some little time, when the
+great bell rang, and the porter started up to open the door. A
+gentleman on horseback appeared without, accompanied by two others,
+apparently servants; and the principal personage demanded, in a tone
+of authority, "Is the Earl of Portland in the palace?"
+
+The porter, though not well pleased to be roused, replied, with every
+sort of deference to the air and manner of the visitor, saying that
+the Earl was in the palace, but he believed was unwell.
+
+"I am afraid I must disturb him," said the stranger. "My business is
+of too much importance to his lordship to wait till to-morrow
+morning."
+
+The porter then gave the speaker another look: the dress, the
+demeanour, the horses, the attendants, were all such as commanded
+respect, although he did not recollect the stranger's face. "Well,
+sir," he said, "if you will come in, I will have his lordship
+informed."
+
+The stranger nodded his head, and turning to his followers, bade them
+take away the horses. "I will walk back," he said, and then following
+the porter, entered the palace.  The janitor led him onward through
+some large folding doors to a room where two or three servants were
+sitting, into whose hands he delivered him, bidding one of them
+conduct him to the page in waiting. This was speedily done; and the
+page, on being informed of the stranger's desire, again examined him
+somewhat curiously, and asked his name.
+
+"That matters not," replied the stranger. "Tell him merely that it is
+a gentleman to whom he rendered great service many years ago, and who
+has now important intelligence to give him."
+
+"I fear, sir," replied the page, "that my Lord Portland would not
+like to be disturbed without some clearer information than that."
+
+"Do as you are ordered, sir," replied the gentleman, in a tone of
+stern authority, which seemed not a little to surprise his hearer.
+"Tell Lord Portland it is a gentleman whose life he saved at the
+battle of the Boyne."
+
+The page retired with the air of one who would fain have been sullen
+if he had dared; and the stranger remained standing with his hand
+upon the table in the middle of the room, the doors closed round him
+on all sides, and no one apparently near.
+
+His first thought was one not often indulged in that place, though by
+no means an unnatural one. It was a thought, for merely expressing
+which, not less than twelve people were once committed to a severe
+and lengthened imprisonment by a king of France. "How easy would it
+now be," the stranger said mentally, "to kill a king, were one so
+minded!  Now, God forbid," he added, "that even the attempt of such
+an act should ever stain our loyalty to our legitimate sovereign!
+Those Romans, those splendid but most barbarous of barbarians, were
+certainly the greatest cheats of their own understandings that ever
+lived. There was scarcely a crime, a vice, or a folly upon earth,
+that they did not hug to their hearts, when they had once gilded it
+with a glorious name."
+
+As he thus paused, moralizing, he laid down his hat upon the table,
+and brushing back his grey hair from his brow, pressed his hand upon
+his forehead as if his head ached, and then dropping it again, mused
+for several minutes with his eyes fixed upon the floor. He was only
+roused from this deep fit of thought by the door opening suddenly. A
+gentleman rather below the middle height, with strong marked
+features, and a keen but steadfast eye, entered the room with a paper
+in his hand. His eyes were fixed upon the ground as he came in, and
+he walked with a firm but somewhat heavy step, as if his limbs did
+not move very easily, though he was by no means a man far advanced in
+life.
+
+The stranger gazed at him for a moment with a look of inquiry, and
+then advanced immediately towards him, bowing with a stately air, and
+saying, "My Lord of Portland, since I last saw you, you are somewhat
+changed, but perhaps not so much as I am, and therefore I may have to
+recall myself to your remembrance; especially as those who confer a
+benefit in a moment of haste and tumult, are more likely to forget
+the person they obliged, than that person to forget his benefactor."
+
+He spoke in French, as it was generally known that Lord Portland was
+unwilling to speak English, though he understood it.
+
+The other heard him out in perfect silence, and without the slightest
+change of countenance; but looked him in the face attentively, as if
+endeavouring to recollect his features.
+
+"I have seen you somewhere before," he said at length, "but where I
+really do not know. It must have been a long time ago. Pray what do
+you want?"
+
+"It is a long time ago, my lord," replied the visitor, "and the place
+where we met is far distant. It was upon the banks of the Boyne, just
+when the battle was over."
+
+"Oh, I think I remember now," replied the other: "did I not come up
+just as one of our people had got his knee upon your throat, and was
+going to fire his pistol into your head, because you would ask no
+quarter, while another was wrenching your broken sword out of your
+hand?"
+
+"You did," answered the stranger, "you did: you saved my life; and
+when I jumped up and got to a horse, you would not let them fire
+after me. It was not to be forgotten, my lord; but--"
+
+At that moment the door was again thrown open, and the page
+re-entered the room, speaking in a somewhat harsh and authoritative
+tone as he came in, so as to cut across what the stranger was about
+to say, with "My Lord of Portland--;" but the gentleman who had
+entered just before waved his hand, saying, in a stern voice, "Leave
+the room! and wait without."
+
+The man obeyed immediately, and the other turning to the visitor,
+added, "I am at this moment not very well, and extremely busy--even
+pressed for a moment, so that I must leave you just now. If you will
+sit down and write what you wish, it shall have favourable attention,
+or if you would rather say it, and explain it more fully by word of
+mouth, I will send an intimate friend of mine to you to whom you can
+tell what you think proper. I will hear what it is, and give every
+attention to it; but at this moment it is impossible for me to
+remain. These papers in my hand require instant reply, and I was
+seeking for some one to answer them when I came here."
+
+"What I have to say," answered the stranger, "requires also instant
+attention; that is to say, it must be told to your lordship before
+to-morrow morning, and I will therefore, if you will permit me,
+remain here till you are ready to hear.  When once told to you, the
+burden of it will be off my shoulders."
+
+"I could have wished to have gone to bed," replied the other, with a
+faint smile, "without any farther burden upon mine. But if it so
+please you to wait, do it; but I fear I shall be long."
+
+The visitor, however, signified his acquiescence by bowing his head;
+and the other left him without saying anything more.
+
+"Somewhat of the insolence of office!" he said to himself, as his
+acquaintance quitted the room: "however, I must not forget the
+obligation;" and seating himself, he fell into deep thought, which
+seemed of a painful kind; for the muscles of his face moved with the
+emotions of his mind, and one or two half-uttered words escaped him.
+At length, he seemed weary of his own thoughts, and turning round as
+if to look for some occupation for his thoughts, he said, "It matters
+not!"
+
+There were no books in the room, nor any pictures; there was nothing
+that could attract the eye or amuse the mind, except the beautiful
+forms of some of the gilded panel-frames, and the spots of the carpet
+beneath his feet. The visitor began to grow weary, and to think that
+Lord Portland was very long in returning.
+
+At length, however, when he had been there about half an hour, a
+somewhat younger man entered, splendidly dressed according to the
+costume of the day, and advancing directly towards the stranger, he
+said in very good English--
+
+"My name is Keppel, sir, and I am directed to say that Lord Portland
+will really be hardly able to see you to-night, as he is anything but
+well; but as it would appear that what you have to say is important,
+I wish to know whether it is important to the King or to the Earl
+himself. If to the latter, the Earl will see you at two o'clock
+to-morrow; if to the King, I am directed to request that you would
+communicate it to me, by whom it shall be most faithfully reported,
+both to Lord Portland and to the King himself."
+
+"Sir," replied the stranger, "the motive of my coming is on no
+private business. It is on business of importance to the state
+generally--of the very utmost importance. I had wished to communicate
+it to Lord Portland, because that gentleman once performed an act of
+great kindness and generosity towards me, and I wished to give him
+the means of rendering a great service to his master."
+
+"The King and Lord Portland are both indebted to you, sir," replied
+Keppel, better known as the Earl of Albemarle, with a grave smile;
+"but in those circumstances, as the greatest favour to all parties,
+you will be pleased to communicate anything you have to say to me.
+From your whole tone and demeanour, I am perfectly sure that what you
+have to say is none of the unimportant things with which we are too
+often troubled here; and I may therefore confidently add, that, after
+you have given me a knowledge of the business, either the King or
+Lord Portland, as you may think fit, will see you to-morrow."
+
+"Well, sir," replied the visitor, "I have no right to stand on
+ceremony, especially at such a moment as this. What I have to say
+would have been much more easily said to Lord Portland himself, as he
+knows under what circumstances we met, knows probably who I am, and
+would make allowances for my peculiar views. YOU may think it next to
+high treason for me to call that Personage, who was not long ago
+William Prince of Orange, by any other name than King of England"
+
+"Oh no! oh no!" said Keppel with a smile--"names are but names, my
+good sir; and in this boisterous land of England we are accustomed to
+see things stripped of all ornaments. The difficulty you mention is
+easily obviated, by calling him of whom you just have spoken, 'The
+High Personage.'"
+
+"Names, indeed, are nothing," said the other with a smile.  "What I
+have got to say, sir, is this, that I have undoubted reason to know
+that the life of the High Personage we refer to is in hourly danger;
+that there are persons in this realm who have not only designed to
+kill him, but have laid with skill and accuracy their schemes for
+effecting that purpose.  I have heard that he is very apt--for I have
+never seen the royal hunt--to go out to the chase nearly alone, or
+rather, I should say, very slightly attended; and I came to tell Lord
+Portland that if this were continued, that High Personage's life
+could not be counted upon from day to day. Let him be well guarded;
+let there be always some one near him as he rides; and, as far as
+possible, let some of his guards be ready to escort him home on his
+return."
+
+"Your information," said Keppel, "is certainly very important, and the
+precaution you recommend wise and judicious; but yet I fear you must
+give us some more information to render it at all efficient--I say
+this, not at all from doubting you, but because we have had,
+especially of late, so many false reports of plots which never
+existed, that the King has become careless and somewhat rash. Nor
+would it be possible for either Lord Portland or myself to persuade
+him to take any precautions unless we had some more definite
+information. If you know that such a plot really exists, you must
+also know the names of those who laid it."
+
+"But those names I will never give up," replied the other:  "it is
+quite sufficient for me, sir, to satisfy my own heart and my own
+conscience, that I have given a full and timely warning of what is
+likely to ensue. It matters not to me whether that warning be taken
+or not; I have done what is right; I will tell no more. Lord Portland
+knows that I am neither a, coward, nor a low born man. I expect
+not--I ask not for favour, immunity, reward, or even thanks. All I do
+ask is, in the words of the poet, 'that Caesar would be a friend to
+Caesar.'"
+
+"But you are doubtless aware," answered Keppel, after a pause, "that
+by concealing the names, and in any degree the purposes of persons
+guilty of high treason, you bring yourself under the same
+condemnation."
+
+"I both know the fact, sir," replied the other, "and I knew before I
+came that it might be urged against me here; but I did not think that
+Lord Portland would urge it. However that may be, I came fully
+prepared to do what I think right, and as nothing, not even the cause
+to which I am most attached, would induce me to become an assassin or
+to wink at cold-blooded murder, so, sir, nothing on earth will induce
+me to betray others to the death which I do not fear myself.  At all
+events, the truth of what I have told may be positively relied upon;
+and that I ask no reward or recompence of any kind, may well be
+received to show that the warning I have given is not vain."
+
+Keppel again mused for a moment or two, and then said, "Well, sir, I
+must not urge you by any harsh menace, nor was such my intention in
+what I said. But there are other considerations which should induce
+you to tell me more than you have told. One is, the safety of the
+Great Personage we have mentioned himself. It is scarcely possible
+for him to guard against the evil you apprehend in the manner you
+propose. He is by far too fearless a man, as you well know, to shut
+himself up within the walls of his palace, or even to conceal himself
+in his carriage. If he rides out, he cannot always be surrounded by
+guards, nor can he have a troop galloping after him through the
+hunting field."
+
+"Sir," replied the stranger, "to you and to his other friends and
+attendants I must leave the guardianship of his person--I neither know
+him nor his habits. I have done what I conceive to be my duty; I have
+done it to the extreme limit of what I judge right; and neither fear
+nor favour will make me go one step farther."
+
+"These scruples are very extraordinary," replied Keppel--"indeed, I
+cannot understand them: but at all events I must beg you to remain a
+little, while I go and speak to Lord Portland upon the subject.
+Perhaps, if the King himself were to hear you, you might say more."
+
+"I should say no more to the Personage you mention," replied the
+other, "than I should to Lord Portland--for to the one I am obliged,
+to the other, not."
+
+"Well, wait a few minutes," replied Keppel, and quitted the room.
+
+The other remained standing where the courtier had left him, though
+the thought crossed his mind, "My errand is now done. Why should I
+remain any longer? I should risk less by going now than by
+lingering."
+
+But still he stayed; and in two minutes, or perhaps less, the door
+again opened, giving admission, not to Keppel, but to the elder
+personage with whom he had spoken before.  Advancing into the middle
+of the room, he leaned upon the table, near which the other was
+standing, and said--
+
+"Monsieur Keppel has told me all that you have said, and, moreover,
+what you have refused to say. First, let me tell you that I am much
+obliged to you for the intelligence you have brought; and next, let
+me exhort you to make it more full and complete to render it
+effectual."
+
+"I have made it as complete, my lord," replied his visitor, "as it is
+possible for me to do without betraying men who were once my friends,
+and who have only lost my friendship by such schemes as these. I must
+not say any more even at your request; for I must not take from you
+the power of saying, that you saved the life of a man of honour. You
+must contrive means to secure the Great Personage we speak of, and I
+doubt not you will be able to do so. I had but one object in coming
+here, my lord, and that object was not a personal one; it was to tell
+you of the danger, and thereby enable you to guard against it; it was
+to tell you, that a body of rash and criminal men have conspired
+together, to assassinate a Personage who stands in the way of their
+schemes."
+
+"Are there many of them?" demanded his companion.
+
+"A great many," he replied--"enough to render their object perfectly
+secure, if means be not taken to frustrate it."
+
+"But," said the other, "the men must be mad, for many of them must be
+taken and executed very soon."
+
+"True," answered his visitor, "if we were to suppose the country
+would remain quiet all the while. But assassination might only be the
+prelude to insurrection and to civil war, and to the restoration of
+our old monarchs to the throne."
+
+"Such was the purpose, was it?" replied his companion.
+
+"Assassination is a pitiful help, and has never yet been called in to
+aid a great or good cause."
+
+"Ay, my lord," replied his informant; "but in this instance it is a
+base adjunct affixed to the general scheme of insurrection by a few
+bloody-minded men, without the knowledge of thousands who would have
+joined the rising, and without the knowledge, I am sure, of King
+James himself."
+
+"I really do not see," said the other, "what should have caused such
+hatred against the person they aim at--the post of King of England is
+no bed of roses; and a thousand, a thousand-fold happier was he, as
+Stadtholder of Holland, governing a willing people and fighting the
+battles of freedom throughout the world, than monarch of this great
+kingdom, left without a moment's peace, by divisions and factions in
+the mass of the nation, which called him to the throne, and seeing
+union nowhere but in that small minority of the people who oppose his
+authority, and even attempt his life.  His is no happy fate."
+
+"Sir, there are some men," replied the other, "in whom certain
+humours and desires are so strong, that the gratification thereof is
+worth the whole of the rest of a life's happiness, and gratified
+ambition may be sufficient in this case to compensate for the
+sacrifice of peace. I mean not to speak one word against the master
+that you serve. He has, as you say, fought the battles of liberty for
+many years: he is a brave and gallant soldier, too, as ever lived: I
+doubt not he is a kind friend and a good master"
+
+"Stay, stay," replied the other, holding up his hand "before you go
+farther, let me tell you that you are under a mistake. I am the
+personage of whom you speak--I am the King. When I prevented the
+soldiers from killing you, Bentinek was near me. He is taller than I
+am: the Dutch guards saw him before me, and shouted his name, which
+led to your error."
+
+The effect of these words upon the other can hardly be imagined. He
+turned pale--he turned red; but he yielded to the first impulse both
+of gratitude and respect, and without taking time to think or
+hesitate, he bent his knee and kissed the King's hand.
+
+"Rise, rise!" said William--"I ask nothing of you, sir, but to speak
+to me as you would have done if I had really been Lord Portland. I
+could not let you go on without explanation, for you had said all
+that could be pleasant to a king's ears to hear; and you seemed about
+to say those things which you might not have been well pleased to
+remember, when you discovered my real situation."
+
+"I thank you, sir, most deeply," replied the other, "for that act of
+kindness, as well as for that which went before.  I have hitherto, as
+I need scarcely say, been a strenuous and eager supporter of King
+James. I have served him with all my ability, and had he at any time
+returned to this country, would have served him with my sword. That
+sword, sir, however, can never now be drawn against the man who has
+saved my life; and, indeed, though I have known many changes and
+chances, yet I remember no one moment of joy and satisfaction greater
+than this, when I think that, spontaneously, I have refused to take a
+share in criminal designs against my benefactor, though I knew him
+not to be so, and have revealed the schemes against his life, who
+generously spared my own."
+
+"I intended," said the King, "in the character of Lord Portland, to
+press you to farther explanations; but now that you know who I am, I
+may feel a greater difficulty in so doing. I must leave it to
+yourself, then, to tell me all that you may think necessary for my
+safety."
+
+The other put his hand to his head, and for a few minutes seemed
+embarrassed and pained. "The discovery, sir," he said, at length,
+"alters my situation also; and yet I pray and beseech you, do not
+press me to perform an act that is base and dishonourable; grant me
+but one or two conditions, and I will go to the very verge of what I
+ought to do, towards you."
+
+"I will press you to nothing, sir," replied William; "what are the
+conditions?"
+
+"First," replied the other, "that I may not be asked to name any
+names; secondly, that I may never be called upon to give any evidence
+upon this subject in a court of justice."
+
+"The names, of course, are important," said William, "as by having
+them we are placed most upon our guard. However, you have come
+voluntarily to render me a service, and I will not press hard upon
+you. The conditions you ask shall be granted. The names shall not be
+required of you, and you shall not be called upon to give evidence.
+Call in Keppel! Arnold!" he added, raising his voice; and immediately
+the door was opened, and Keppel entered, bowing low as he did so.
+
+"I have promised this gentleman two things, Keppel," said the King.
+"First, that he shall not be pressed to give up the names of the
+conspirators; and, secondly, that he shall not be called upon to give
+evidence against them."
+
+"Your majesty is very gracious," replied Keppel: "without the
+names of the persons, I scarcely think--"
+
+William made a sign with his hand, saying, "That is decided. Now,
+sir, what more have you to add?"
+
+"Merely this, sir," replied the other: "it is not much, indeed, but
+it will enable you to take greater measures for your safety. The
+design to assassinate you has existed some time, but the period for
+putting it in execution was formerly fixed for the month of April. My
+opposition to the bloody design, and to the purpose of bringing
+French troops into Great Britain, has deranged all the plans of these
+base men.  I had fancied that such opposition, and the falling away
+of many others on whom the assassins counted, would have induced them
+to abandon the whole design. Last night, however, I received
+intelligence that, instead of so doing, their purpose was but
+strengthened, and their design only hastened; that instead of April,
+the assassination was to take place whenever it could be
+accomplished; that even to-morrow, when it is believed you dine with
+the Lord Romney, if it were found possible absolutely to surround the
+house so as to prevent escape, the deed was to be attempted there; or
+as you went; or as you came back. If none of these occasions suited,
+you were to be assailed the first time that you went out to hunt; and
+dresses such as those worn by many of your attendants in the chase
+are already ordered for the purpose of facilitating the execution of
+the murder, and the escape of the assassins. It has been calculated,
+I find, that on the night of next Saturday you are likely to pass
+across Turnham Green towards ten o'clock, and that is one of the
+occasions which is to be made use of, if others fail."
+
+William looked at Lord Albemarle, and Albemarle at the King; but the
+latter remained silent for a minute or two, as if to give his
+informant time to go on. The other, however, added nothing more; and
+the King, after this long pause, said, "I must not conceal from you,
+sir, that we have heard something of this matter, and may probably
+soon have farther tidings."
+
+"It is high time, sir," replied the other, "that you should have
+farther tidings, for the first attempt will certainly be to-morrow
+night."
+
+"Perhaps we have acted somewhat rashly," said Keppel; "but to say
+truth, there have been so many reports of plots, that we thought it
+but right to discourage the matter; his Majesty justly observing,
+that if he were to give attention to everything of the kind, he would
+have nothing to do but to examine into the truth of stories composed
+for the purpose of obtaining rewards. We therefore gave this matter
+not so much attention as it would seem to require."
+
+"It requires every attention, sir," replied their visitor; "and from
+whomsoever you may have obtained the information, if possible, obtain
+more from him immediately. If he tell you what I have told, he tells
+you truth; and if so, it is probable that any farther information he
+may give will be true likewise. Did I know his name, perhaps I could
+say more."
+
+"Suppose his name were Johnstone?" said the King.
+
+"I know of none such," replied the other, "who could give you much
+information. There are many persons, whom men call Jacobites, of that
+name, and many very gallant gentlemen who would sooner die than
+become assassins.  But none that I know of, in this business."
+
+"What would you say, then," the King continued, "to the name of
+Williamson, or Carter, or Porter?"
+
+"Porter!" replied the other, gazing in the King's face--"Porter!--I
+believe, sir," he added, "you are too generous to attempt to wring
+from me the names of persons connected with this business in any
+underhand manner; and therefore I reply to you straightforwardly,
+that if Captain Porter should give you any information upon this
+matter consistent with the tidings that I have given, or in
+explanation thereof, you may believe him. He is not a gentleman I
+either very much respect or esteem; but I do not believe that he is
+one who would willingly take a part in assassination, or who would
+falsify the truth knowingly."
+
+"Sir, you confirm my good opinion of you," replied the King: "we have
+intimation of some of these proceedings from Porter, and have had
+intimation from other quarters also, but none such as could be relied
+upon till the information that you have given us to-night. Porter's,
+indeed, might have proved more satisfactory; but he does not bear a
+good reputation, and it was judged better to discourage the thing
+altogether. He shall now be heard, and very likely the whole will be
+explained. On the complete discovery of the plot, I need hardly say
+that any reward within reason which you may require shall be given
+you."
+
+The stranger waved his hand somewhat indignantly.  "There was a man
+found, sir," he said, "to sell the blood of Christ himself for thirty
+pieces of silver; and therefore it can scarcely be considered as
+insulting to any of the sons of men to suppose that they would follow
+that example. I, however, do not trade in such things, and I require
+no reward whatsoever for that which I have done. I trust and see now
+that it will prove effectual, and I am perfectly satisfied. If these
+men fall into your hands by other means than mine, and incur the
+punishment they have justly deserved, I have not a word to say for
+them, but I have only to beseech you, sir, to separate the innocent
+from the guilty; to be careful--oh! most careful, in a moment of
+excitement and just indignation--not to confound the two, and to make
+a just distinction between fair and open enemies of your government,
+and base and treacherous assassins."
+
+"I shall strive to do so, sir," answered the King, "and would always
+rather lean towards mercy than cruelty. And now, as it grows late, I
+would fain know your name, and would gladly see you again."
+
+"My name, sir," replied the other, "must either be kept secret, or
+revealed to your Majesty alone. I have long been a nameless man,
+having lost all, and spent all, in behalf of that family opposed to
+your dynasty."
+
+"Who have, doubtless, shown you no gratitude," said William.
+
+"They have had no means, sir," replied the Jacobite, "and I have made
+no demand upon them."
+
+"It is but right, however," said the King, changing the subject,
+"that I should know your name. When I inquired who you were when we
+last met--the only time, indeed, we have met, till now--they gave me
+a name which I now see must have been a mistaken one. Do you object
+to give it before this gentleman?"
+
+"To give my real name, sir," replied the other, "I do.  But I have no
+objection to give it to you yourself in private."
+
+"Leave us, Arnold," said the King; and Lord Albemarle immediately
+quitted the presence.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+The day which we have just seen terminate at Kensington we must now
+conduct to a close in another quarter, where events very nearly as
+much affecting the peace and safety of this realm, and far more
+affecting the peace of various personages mentioned in this history
+than the events which took place at the palace, were going on at the
+same time. It was a bright, clear, frosty day, with everything
+sparkling in the sunshine, the last dry leaves of the preceding year
+still lingering in many places on the branches of the trees, and
+clothing the form of nature in the russet livery of decay.
+
+Wilton Brown was up long before daylight, and ready to set out by the
+first streak of dawn in the east. Not having seen the Duke on the
+preceding night--as that nobleman, worn with anxiety and grief, had
+fallen ill and retired to seek repose--he sat down and wrote him a
+note, while waiting for the Messenger, informing him that he had
+obtained information concerning Lady Laura's situation, and doubted
+not to be enabled to set her free in the course of the following day.
+The Messenger was somewhat later up than himself, and Wilton sent
+twice to hasten his movements. When he did appear, he had to be
+informed of the young gentleman's purposes, and of the information he
+had obtained the night before; and this information Wilton could of
+course communicate only in part. When told in this mysterious manner,
+however, and warned that there might be some danger in the enterprise
+which they were about to undertake, he seemed to hesitate, as if he
+did not at all approve of the affair. As soon as Wilton remarked
+this, he said, in a stern tone, "Now, Mr. Arden, are you or are you
+not willing to go through this business with me? If you are not, let
+me know at once, that I may send for another messenger who has more
+determination and spirit."
+
+"That you wont easily find," replied the Messenger, a good deal hurt.
+"It was not at any danger that I hesitated at all, for I never have
+in my life, and I wont begin now, when I dare say there is not half
+so much danger as in things that I do every day.--Did not I apprehend
+Tom Lambton, who fired two pistols at my head? No, no, it is not
+danger; but what I thought was, that the Earl very likely might not
+like any of these bargains about not taking up the folks that we find
+there, and all that. However, as he told me to obey your orders in
+everything, I suppose that must be sufficient."
+
+"It must, indeed," answered Wilton; "for I have no time to stop for
+explanations or anything else; and if you hesitate, I must instantly
+send for another messenger."
+
+"Oh, I shall not hesitate, sir," replied the Messenger; "but you must
+take all the burden of the business on yourself.  I shall do exactly
+as you order me, neither more nor less; so that if there comes blame
+anywhere, it must rest at your door."
+
+"Come, come, Arden," said Wilton, seeing that he was likely to have a
+lukewarm companion where a very ardent and energetic one was much
+wanted, "you must exert yourself now as usual, and I am sure you will
+do so. Let us get to our horses as fast as possible."
+
+Wilton tried to soothe the Messenger out of his ill-humour as they
+rode along, but he did not succeed in any great degree. The man
+remained sullen; being one of those who like, when clothed with a
+little brief authority, to rule all around them rather than be
+directed by any. So long as he had conducted the search himself, it
+had been pleasant enough to him to have one of the minister's
+secretaries with him, following his suggestions, listening to his
+advice, and showing deference to his experience; but when the young
+gentleman took the business into his own hands, conducted the whole
+proceedings, and did not make him acquainted even with all the
+particulars, his vanity was mortified, and he resolved to assist as
+little as possible, though he could not refuse to act according to
+the directions which he received. This determination was so evident,
+that, before they had reached Gravesend, Wilton felt cause to regret
+that he had not put his threat in execution, and sent for another
+messenger.  His companion's horse must needs be spared, though he was
+strong, quick, and needed nothing but the spur; he must be fed here,
+he must be watered there; and the young gentleman began to fear that
+delays which were evidently made on purpose, might cause them to be
+late ere they arrived at the place of their destination. He had
+remarked, however, that the Messenger was somewhat proud of the beast
+that carried him, and he thought it in no degree wrong to make use of
+a stratagem in order to hurry his follower's pace.
+
+After looking at the horse for some time with a marking and critical
+eye, he said, "That is a fine, powerful horse of yours, Mr. Arden. It
+is a pity he's so heavy in the shoulder."
+
+"Heavy in the shoulder, Mr. Brown!" said Arden--"I don't think he
+can be called that, sir, any how; for a really strong, serviceable
+horse, he's as free in the shoulder as any horse in England."
+
+"I did not exactly mean," replied Wilton, "to say that he was heavy;
+I only meant that he could not be a speedy horse with that shoulder."
+
+"I don't know that, sir; I can't say that," replied the Messenger,
+evidently much piqued: "you reckon your horse a swift horse, I should
+think, Mr. Brown, and yet I'll bet you money, that at any pace you
+like, for a couple of miles, mine wont be a yard behind."
+
+"Oh, trotting will do, trotting will do," replied Wilton--"there's
+no such made horse as mine in England. Let him once get to his full
+pace, and he will out-trot any horse I ever saw."
+
+"Well, sir," replied his companion, "let us put to our spurs and
+see."
+
+"With all my heart," answered Wilton, and away they accordingly went,
+trotting as hard as they could go for the next four or five miles.
+Nevertheless, although the scheme was so far successful, Wilton and
+the Messenger did not reach the village of High Halstow above an hour
+before sunset. The horses were by this time tired, and the riders
+somewhat hungry. Provisions were procured in haste to satisfy the
+appetite of the travellers, and the horses, too, were fed. It was
+some time, however, before the tired animals would take their food,
+and Wilton and his companion at length determined to proceed on foot.
+Before they did so, as both were perfectly ignorant of the way,
+application was made to the host for directions, and the reply, "Why,
+there are three roads you can take!" somewhat puzzled the inquirers,
+especially when it was followed by a demand of where they were going
+exactly.
+
+"When I know that," said the landlord, "I shall be able to tell you
+which is the best road."
+
+"Why, I asked the way to Cowley Castle," said Wilton, both
+embarrassed and annoyed; for the Messenger stood coolly by, without
+any attempt to aid him, and, in truth, enjoying a little difficulty.
+
+"But you are not going to Cowley Castle at this time of night," said
+the man: "why, the only house there is the great house, and that is
+empty."
+
+"My good friend," said Wilton, "I suppose the next question you will
+ask me is, what is my business there? I ask you the way to Cowley
+Castle, and pray, if you can, give me a straightforward answer."
+
+"I beg your pardon, sir," replied the man, with a determined air--"I
+have given you a straightforward answer.  There are three roads, all
+of them very good ones, and there is, besides, a footpath."
+
+As he spoke, he stared into Wilton's face with a look half dogged,
+half jocular; but in the end, he added,--
+
+"Come, come, sir--you might as well tell me the matter at once. If
+you are going to Master Plessis's--the mountseer, as we call him
+here--I'll put you upon your road in a minute: I mean the gentleman
+that, folks think, has some dealings with France."
+
+It struck Wilton, instantly, that this gentleman, who was supposed to
+have dealings with France, must have something to do with the
+detention of Laura, and he therefore replied, "Perhaps it may be as
+you suppose, my good friend. At all events, put me upon the principal
+horse-road towards Cowley Castle."
+
+"Well, sir, well," replied the host, "you have nothing to do but to
+turn to the right when you go out of the door, and then you will find
+a road to the left; then take the first road to the right, which will
+lead you straight down to Cowley Church. Now, if you're going to
+Master Plessis's, you had better not go farther than that."
+
+"That way will not be difficult to find," replied Wilton; and
+followed by the Messenger, he quitted the little inn, or rather
+public-house, for it was no better, and traced accurately the road the
+landlord had pointed out.
+
+"He had better go no farther than Cowley Church, indeed," said a man
+who was sitting in the bar, as soon as he was gone; "for if he be
+going to Master Plessis's, he'll be half a mile beyond the turning by
+that time."
+
+"Jenkin, Jenkin!" cried the landlord, not minding what his guest
+said, but addressing a boy who was cleaning some pewter stoups in a
+kitchen at the end of the passage--"come here, my man. Run down by
+the lanes as fast as you can go, and tell Master Plessis that there
+are two gentlemen coming to his house, whose looks I don't like at
+all. One is a state messenger, if I'm not much mistaken. I've seen
+his face before, I'm sure enough, and I think it was when Evans the
+coiner was taken up at Stroud. You can get there half an hour before
+them, if you run away straight by the lanes."
+
+The boy lost not a moment, very sure that any one who brought
+Monsieur Plessis intelligence of importance would get something at
+least for his pains.
+
+In the meantime, Wilton and his companion walked on.  The sky was
+clear above, but it had already become very dark, and a doubt
+occurred, both at the first and second turning, as to whether they
+were right. Wilton and the Messenger had furnished themselves with
+pistols, besides their swords; and the young gentleman paused for a
+moment to ascertain that the priming had not fallen out; but nothing
+would induce the Messenger to do so likewise; for his sullen mood had
+seized upon him again more strongly than ever, and he merely replied
+that his pistols would do very well, and that it would be lucky if
+Mr. Brown were as sure of his way as he was of his pistols.
+
+"I should like you to give me my orders, Mr. Brown," he added, in the
+same dogged tone, "for I am always glad to know beforehand what it is
+I am to do, that I may be ready to do it."
+
+"I shall of course give orders," replied Wilton, somewhat sharply,
+"when they are required, Mr. Arden. At the present moment, however, I
+have only to tell you that I expect every minute to meet a person who
+will lead us to the house where Lady Laura is detained. At that
+house, we shall have to encounter, I understand, a number of persons
+whose interest and design is to carry her off, probably to the coast
+of France. I intend to demand her in a peaceable and tranquil manner,
+and in case they refuse to give her up, must act according to
+circumstances. I expect your support on all the legal points of the
+case, such as the due notice of our authority, et cetera; and, in case
+it should become necessary or prudent either to menace or to use
+force, I will tell you at the time."
+
+The Messenger made no reply, but sunk again into sullen silence; and
+Wilton clearly saw that little help, and indeed little advantage, was
+to be derived from the presence of his self-sufficient attendant,
+except in as much as the appearance of such a person in his company
+was likely to produce a moral effect upon those to whom he might be
+opposed. Messengers of state were in those days very awful people,
+and employed in general in the arrest of such criminals as were very
+unlikely to escape the axe if taken. Yet it seldom if ever happened
+that any resistance was offered to them; and we are told that at the
+appearance of a single individual of this redoubted species, it often
+happened three or four traitors, murderers, spies, or pirates, whose
+fate if taken was perfectly certain, would seem to give up all hope,
+and surrendering without resistance, would suffer themselves to be
+led quietly to the shambles.
+
+Thus if Arden did but his mere duty, Wilton knew that the effect of
+his presence would be great; but as he walked on, he began to
+entertain new apprehensions. For nearly two miles, no one appeared to
+guide them to the place of their destination; at length a church,
+with some cottages gathered round it, announced that they had reached
+the little hamlet of Cowley, where, as several roads and paths
+branched off in different directions, he found it advisable to follow
+the counsel of the landlord, and not go any farther.
+
+He consequently turned back again; but a thin white fog was now
+beginning to come on--a visitation to which that part of the country
+near the junction of the Thames and the Medway is very often subject.
+The cloud rolled forward, and Wilton and the Messenger advanced
+directly into it; so that at length the hedge could only be
+distinguished on one side of the road, and beyond it, on either side,
+nothing could be seen farther than the distance of five or six yards.
+
+The Messenger lingered somewhat behind, muttering, "This is
+pleasant;" but ere long, as they were approaching the top of a narrow
+lane which Wilton had before remarked, as they passed, he thought he
+heard people speaking at a distance, and stopped to listen. The tones
+were those of a male and a female voice conversing evidently with
+eagerness, though with slow and measured words and long pauses.
+Wilton thought that the sound of one voice was familiar to him,
+though the speaker was at such a distance that he could not catch any
+of the words.
+
+Not doubting at all, however, that one of the interlocutors was the
+person who was to guide him on his way, Wilton paused, determined to
+wait till they came up.
+
+A loud "So be it then!" was at length uttered; and the next moment
+steps were heard advancing rapidly towards him, and the figure of a
+man made its appearance through the mist, first like one of the
+fabled shades upon the dim shores of the gloomy river, but growing
+into solidity as it came near.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+For the right understanding of all that is to follow--strange as it
+may appear to the reader, we are only just at the beginning of the
+story--it may be necessary to go back to the house of Monsieur
+Plessis, and to trace the events of the past day, till we have
+brought them exactly down to that precise time Wilton was walking, as
+we have described, with a mist around him both moral and physical,
+upon the road between High Halstow and Cowley. We must even go beyond
+that, and introduce the reader into a lady's bedchamber, on the
+morning of that day, as she was dressing herself after the night's
+repose; though, indeed, repose it could scarcely be called, for those
+bright eyes had closed but for a short period during the darkness,
+and anxiety and grief had been the companions of her pillow. Yet it is
+not Lady Laura of whom we speak, but of that gentle-looking and
+beautiful lady whom we have described as sitting in the saloon of
+Plessis's house, shortly before the conspirators assembled there.
+
+Without any of the aids of dress or ornament, she was certainly a very
+beautiful being, and as, sitting before the glass, she drew out with
+her taper fingers the glossy curls of her rich dark hair, nothing
+could be more graceful than the attitudes into which the whole form
+was cast. Often as she did so, she would pause and meditate, leaning
+her head upon her hand for a moment or two. Sometimes she would raise
+her eyes imploringly towards Heaven, and once those eyes became full
+of tears. She wiped them away hastily, however, as if angry with
+herself for giving way, and then proceeded eagerly with the task of
+the toilet.
+
+While she was thus engaged, some one knocked at the door, which she
+unlocked, and the next instant, another lady, to whom the reader has
+been already introduced, entered the chamber. It was the same person
+whom we have called the Lady Helen, in her interview with Wilton
+Brown; and there was still in the expression of her countenance that
+same look of tender melancholy which is generally left upon the face
+by long grief acting upon an amiable heart. It was, indeed, less the
+expression of a settled gloom on her own part, than of sympathy with
+the sorrows of others, rendered more active by sorrows endured
+herself. On the present occasion she had a note in her hand, which
+she held out towards the fair girl whom she had interrupted at her
+toilet, saying, with a faint smile, "There, Caroline--I hope it may
+bring you good news, dear girl." The other took it eagerly, and broke
+the seal, with hands that trembled so much that they almost let the
+paper drop.
+
+"Oh, Lady Helen," cried the younger lady, while the colour came and
+went in her cheek, and her eyes sparkled, and then again nearly
+overflowed, "we must, indeed, we must stay over to-day. He says he
+will come down to see me this afternoon. Indeed we must stay; for it
+is my last chance, Helen dear, my last chance of happiness in life."
+
+"We will stay, of course, Caroline," replied the other; "but I trust,
+my poor girl, that if you see him, you will act both wisely and
+firmly. Let him not move you to yield any farther than you have done;
+left him not move you, my sweet Caroline, to remain in a degrading
+and painful state of doubt. Act firmly, and as you proposed but
+yesterday, in order, at least, if you do no more, not to be, as it
+were, an accomplice in his ill-treatment of yourself."
+
+"Oh no!" replied the other--"oh no! Fear not, dear lady, that I will
+deal with him otherwise than firmly. But yet you know he is my
+husband, Helen, and I cannot refuse to obey his will, except where he
+requires of me a breach of higher duties."
+
+"Ay," replied the Lady Helen. "When he claims you openly as his wife,
+Caroline, then he has a right to command, and no one can blame you
+for obeying; but he must not take the whole advantage of his
+situation as your husband, without giving you the name and station,
+or suffering you to assume the character of his wife. Let him now do
+you justice in these respects, or else, dear Caroline, leave him!
+fly from him! strive to forget him! Look upon yourself as widowed,
+and try to bear your sorrow as an infliction from the hand of Heaven,
+for having committed this action without your father's knowledge and
+consent."
+
+"Oh, Helen!" replied the other, mournfully, "you know my father was
+upon the bed of death; you know that Henry was obliged to depart in
+three weeks; you know that I loved him, and that if I had parted with
+him then, without giving him the hand I had promised, it might have
+been years before I saw him again; for then I should have had no
+title to seek him as his wife, and the ports of France were not
+likely to be opened to him again. Would you have had me agitate my
+father at that moment? Could I refuse to be his, under such
+circumstances, when I believed every word that he said, when I
+thought that if he departed without being my husband, I might not
+behold him for many years to come?"
+
+"Forgive me for glancing at the past, poor child," replied her
+friend--"I meant not to imply a reproach, Caroline; but all I wish is
+to counsel you to firmness. Let not love get the better of your
+judgment. But tell him your determination at once, and abide by it
+when it is told. If you would ever obtain justice for yourself,
+Caroline, now is the moment. He himself will love and respect you
+more for it hereafter. He assigns no reason for farther delay; and
+his letters, hitherto, have certainly suggested no motives which
+could lead either your judgment or your affection to consent to that
+which is degrading to yourself. I have seen enough of these things,
+Caroline, and I know that they always end in misery."
+
+"Misery!" replied the younger lady, "alas! Helen, what have I to
+expect but misery? Oh, Helen, it is not that he does not openly
+acknowledge our marriage, and forbids me to proclaim it--it is not
+that which makes me unhappy.  Heaven knows, were that all, I could
+willingly go on without the acknowledgment. I could shut myself from
+the day, devote myself to him alone, forswear rank, and station, and
+the pleasures of affluence, for nothing but his love; so long that,
+knowing I myself was virtuous, I also knew that he continued to love
+me well. It is not that, Helen, it is not that; but all which I have
+heard assures me, that notwithstanding every vow of amendment, of
+changed life, of constant affection towards me, he is faithless to me
+in a thousand instances; that his wish of longer concealment
+proceeds, not from necessity, but from a libertine spirit; in short,
+Helen, that I have been for a week the creature of his pleasure, but
+that he never really loved me; that his heart rested with me for an
+hour, and has now gone on to others."
+
+As she spoke, she sank again into her chair, and clasping her hands
+together as they rested on her knee, fixed her eyes upon the ground
+during a moment or two of bitter thought.
+
+The other lady advanced toward her, and after gazing at her for a
+minute, she kissed her beautiful brow affectionately, saying,
+"Nevertheless, Caroline, he does love you. He is a libertine by
+habit, Caroline, I trust not a libertine in heart; and I see in every
+line that he writes to you that he loves you still, and always will
+love you. It is my belief, dear Caroline, that if you behave well to
+him now, firmly, though kindly, gently, though decidedly; if you
+yield nothing, either to love, or importunity, or remonstrance, but
+tell him that you now bid him farewell for ever if he so chooses it,
+and that you will never either see him, or hear from him, or write to
+him, till he comes openly as your husband, and gives you the same
+vows and assurance of future affection and good conduct that he did
+at first--it is my firm conviction, I say, that the love for you
+which I see is still strong within him, the only good thing perhaps
+in his heart, will bring him back to you at last. Passion may lead
+him astray, folly may get the better of reason, evil habits may rule
+him for a time; but the memory of your sweetness, and your beauty,
+and your firmness, and your gentleness, will come back upon his mind,
+even in the society of the gay, the light, and the profligate, and
+will seem like a diamond beside false stones."
+
+"Hush, hush, hush!" said the younger lady, blushing deeply--"I must
+not hear such praises, Helen: praises that I do not deserve."
+
+"Nay, my dear child, I speak but what I mean," replied the Lady
+Helen--"I say that the recollection of you and your young fresh
+beauty, and your generous mind, will return to his remembrance, my
+Caroline, at all times and in all circumstances, even the most
+opposite: in the midst of various enjoyments, in the heated revel,
+and in the idle pageant; when lonely in his chamber, when suffering
+distress, or pain, or illness; amidst the reverses and the strife, as
+well as in the prosperity and the vanities, of the world, he will
+remember you and love you still. That memory will be to him as a
+sweet tune that we have loved in our youth, the recollection of which
+brings with it always visions of the only joys that we have known
+without alloy. But still, remember, Caroline, that the condition on
+which this is to be obtained, the condition on which his recollection
+of you is to be, as it were, a precious antidote to the evils of his
+heart, is, that you now act towards him with firmness and with
+dignity."
+
+"But suppose, dear lady," said the other, "that he were to ask me to
+remain with him, still concealing our marriage.  Nay, look not
+terrified--I am not going to do it. I have told you how I am going to
+act, and, on my honour, I will keep to my determination. I only ask
+you what you think would then be the consequences?"
+
+"Destruction both to you and to him," replied the Lady Helen: "he
+would never look upon you entirely as his wife, he would never treat
+you entirely as such. You would dwell with him almost as a
+concubine.--Forgive me, but it must be spoken.--He would grow tired
+of your beauty, weary of your society; your virtues would be lost
+upon him, because he would see that firmness was not amongst them,
+and he would not respect you because you had not respected yourself.
+There is something, Caroline, in the state and dignity, if I may so
+call it, which surrounds a virtuous married woman, that has a great
+effect upon her husband, ay, and a great effect upon herself. There
+is not one man, Caroline, out of a million, who has genuine nobility
+of heart enough to stand the test of a long concealed private
+marriage.  I never saw but one, Caroline, and I have mingled with
+almost every scene of human life, and seen the world with almost all
+its faces. However, here, there can be no cause which should justly
+induce you to consent to live with him under such circumstances, and
+there are a thousand causes to prevent you from so doing. If you were
+to do it, you would lose your respect for yourself, and how then
+could you expect that he would retain any for you?"
+
+The conversation was some time protracted in the same tone, and
+nearly a whole hour was thus passed ere the younger lady was dressed
+and ready to accompany her friend to breakfast.
+
+Monsieur Plessis was there to do the honours of his table, treating
+his fair guests not exactly as his equals, but yet behaving not at
+all as an Englishman, under such circumstances, could have demeaned
+himself He was polite, attentive, deferential; but he was still
+Monsieur Plessis in his own house. There can be no doubt that all he
+furnished them with was amply paid for; but yet he had an air of
+conferring a favour, and indeed felt that he did so when he received
+them into his dwelling at all.  There was thus an air of gallantry
+mingled with his respectfulness, a sweet smile that bent his lips
+when he pressed either of them to their food, a courteous and affable
+look when he greeted them for the first time that clay, all of which
+spoke that Monsieur Plessis felt that he was laying them under an
+obligation, and wished to do it in the most graceful manner possible.
+The breakfast table was beautifully laid out, with damask linen of
+the finest quality, and more silver than was usually displayed at
+that day even in families of distinction. Both the ladies seated
+themselves; and Plessis was proceeding to recommend some of the most
+exquisite chocolate which had ever been brought from Portugal--at
+least so he assured them--when the elder lady interrupted its praises
+by saying, "Had we not better wait a little, Monsieur Plessis, for
+the young lady whom we saw yesterday?"
+
+Plessis, however, put his finger on his large nose, saying, "Her
+breakfast will be taken to her in her chamber, Miladi. There are
+mysteries in all things, as you well know. Now here you are; and
+there are nine or ten gentlemen meet at my house every night, from
+whom I am obliged to hide that you are in the place at all. Here is
+this young lady, whom, it seems, I should have concealed from you in
+the same way:  only I could not refuse to let you see her and speak
+to her yesterday, in order that you might be kind to her on board the
+ship; for she is to go in the ship with you, you know, and she seems
+quite helpless, and not accustomed to all these things. When the
+worthy gentlemen found that the ship was not to sail last night, they
+were in great embarrassment, and charged me strictly not to let her
+see any one till the ship sailed; and I find they have put a man to
+watch on both sides of the house, so that no one can go out or come
+in without being seen. They told me nothing about it; and that was
+uncivil; but, however, I must keep her to her own room; for the man
+that they left in the house, with my consent, to keep guard over her,
+watches sharply also."
+
+The elder lady said nothing, but the colour of the younger heightened
+a good deal at this detail, and she started up indignantly as soon as
+Plessis had finished, exclaiming, "Nonsense, sir. I never heard of
+such a thing!--You, a man of honour and gallantry," she continued,
+with a gay smile, such as had once been common to her countenance,
+passing over it for a moment--"you, a man of honour and gallantry,
+Monsieur Plessis, consenting to see a lady discourteously used and
+maltreated in your house, and a stranger put as a spy upon you in
+your own dwelling. Fie!  For shame! I never heard of such a thing! I
+shall go immediately to her, with your compliments, and ask her to
+come to breakfast. And let me see if this spy upon you will dare to
+stop me."
+
+"Oh no, Miladi," replied Plessis, "he is not a spy upon me; but I
+said myself I would have nothing to do with the young lady being
+detained; that it was no part of my business, and should not be done
+by my people; that they might have the rooms at the west corner of
+the house if they liked, but that I would have nothing to do with it.
+I beseech you, dear lady," he continued, seeing Caroline moving
+towards the door--"I beseech you, do not meddle; for this is a very
+dangerous and bad business, and I fear it will end ill, Nay, nay!"
+and springing towards the door, he placed himself between it and the
+lady, bowing lowly, with his hand upon his heart, and exclaiming,
+"Humbly on my knees I kiss your beautiful feet, and beseech you not
+to meddle with this bad business."
+
+"A very bad business, indeed," said Caroline; "and it is for that
+very reason that I am going to meddle, Monsieur Plessis. Do me the
+favour of getting out of my way. I thought you were a man of
+gallantry and spirit, Monsieur Plessis.--I am determined; so there is
+no use in opposing me."
+
+Plessis shrugged up his shoulders, bowed his head low, and with a
+look which said as plainly as any look could say, "I see there is
+never any use of opposing a woman," he suffered the fair lady to pass
+out, while her friend remained sitting thoughtfully at the table.
+
+The lady whom we have called Caroline walked quietly along one of the
+corridors of the house till she came to a spot where a man in the
+garb of a sailor was sitting on a large chest, with his elbows on his
+two knees, and his chin on his two hands, looking very much wearied
+with his watch, and swinging one of his feet backwards and forwards
+disconsolately. There was a door farther on, and towards it the lady
+walked, but found that it was locked, though the key was on the
+outside.  The sailor personage had started up as she passed, and then
+gazed at her proceedings with no small surprise; but as she laid her
+hand upon the lock, he came forward, saying, "Ma'am, what do you want
+there?".
+
+"I want," replied the lady, turning round, and looking at him from
+head to foot, "I merely to call this young lady to breakfast. Be so
+good as to open the door: the lock is rather stiff."
+
+She spoke so completely with the tone of calm authority, that the man
+did not even hesitate, but opened the door wide, taking it for
+granted that she had some right to enter. The lady was about to go
+in; but suddenly a feeling of apprehension seized her, lest the man
+should shut the door and lock it upon her also; and pausing in the
+doorway, she addressed Lady Laura, who we need scarcely tell the
+reader was within,--"I have come to ask you," she said, "if you will
+go with me to breakfast."
+
+"Oh gladly, gladly!" cried the poor girl, darting forward, and
+holding out her hands to her; and Caroline, drawing one fair arm
+through her own, led her onward to the room where she had left the
+Lady Helen.
+
+The man paused and hesitated, and then followed the two ladies along
+the passage; but before he was near enough to hear what was said,
+Caroline had whispered to her companion, "It is already done: I have
+had an answer to my note, which went in the same packet, so that the
+place of your detention is now certainly known to those who will not
+fail to send you aid."
+
+The bright joy that came up in the eyes of Laura might very well have
+betrayed to the man who guarded her, had he seen her face, that she
+has received more intelligence than his employers could have wished.
+He followed, however, at some distance, without taking any notice;
+and seeming to think it enough to watch her movements, and prevent
+her egress from the house, he seated himself again near the door of
+the chamber where breakfast had been prepared, while Laura and her
+fair companion entered the room.
+
+They found the Lady Helen and Monsieur Plessis in eager conversation,
+the lady having just announced to him her intention of delaying their
+departure till another day; and he, who was in fact part proprietor
+of the vessel which was to bear them to France, and was actuated by
+very different views, urging her eagerly to follow her first
+intention of sailing that night. He made representations of all sorts
+of dangers and difficulties which were to arise from the delay; the
+two ladies were likely to be arrested; he was likely to be ruined;
+the master of the ship would sail without them; and in short,
+everything was represented as about to happen which could induce them
+to take their departure with all speed.
+
+The Lady Helen, however, was resolute. She replied that, from what
+she had heard in London, she was convinced there was not the least
+chance whatsoever of their even being inquired after, and much less
+of their being arrested; that his ruin was only likely to be a
+consequence of the arrest, and therefore that was disposed of. Then
+again, in regard to the captain of the vessel sailing without them,
+she said that was improbable, inasmuch as he would thereby lose the
+large sum he was to receive, both for bringing them thither and
+taking them back.
+
+Now, though Monsieur Plessis was, in his way, a very courageous and
+determined person, who in dealing with his fellow men could take his
+own part very vigorously, and, as we have shown, successfully, yet he
+was much feebler in the presence of a lady, and on the present
+occasion, with three to one, they certainly made him do anything they
+liked. The consequence was, that Laura was permitted to spend a great
+part of that day with the two accidental tenants of Monsieur
+Plessis's house; and not a little comfort, indeed, was that
+permission to her.
+
+It was a moment when any society would have been a great consolation
+and relief. But there was in the two ladies with whom she was now
+associated for the time much more to interest and to please. The
+manners of each were of the highest tone; the person of each was
+highly pleasing; and when Laura turned to the Lady Helen, and marked
+the gentle pensiveness of her beautiful countenance, listened to the
+high, pure, noble words that hung upon her lips, and marked the deep
+feelings which existed beneath an exterior that people sometimes
+thought cold, the remembrance of her own mother rose up before her,
+and she felt a sort of clinging yearning towards a being who
+resembled her in so many respects.
+
+With the younger lady, too, she had many a thought and many a feeling
+in common. Caroline was a few years older than herself, and evidently
+more acquainted with the world; but there were deep strong feelings
+apparent in every word she uttered--a thoughtfulness (if we may so
+express ourselves) which blended with an air of carelessness--a depth
+to be seen even through occasional lightness, which was only like a
+profound river rippled by a rapid breeze. Each had subjects for
+thought; each had more or less matter for grief or apprehension; but
+each found relief in the society of the other; and the day passed
+over more happily than Laura could have imagined it would have done
+in such circumstances.
+
+Towards evening, indeed, she became anxious and apprehensive, for no
+attempt to deliver her had, apparently, been made, and she had been
+warned that she was to embark for France that night. From this
+apprehension, however, the Lady Helen speedily relieved her, by
+assuring her that there was no other ship to convey her but that
+which was hired to take herself and her young friend to France, and
+that they had determined upon putting off their departure till the
+succeeding night.
+
+About the same hour, however, Caroline became uneasy and agitated.
+She rose often; she looked often at her watch; she gazed out froth
+the window; she turned her eyes to the sky; and in the end she
+retired for a time to her own chamber, and returned shortly after,
+dressed for going out, with a short black cloak, richly trimmed, cast
+over her shoulders, and a silk hood, stiffened with whalebone and
+deeply fringed with lace, covering her head and the greatest part of
+her face.
+
+"Who are you going to take with you, my dear child, to show you the
+way?" said the Lady Helen.
+
+"No one, sweet lady," replied the other. "While you were away from me
+in London I had plenty of opportunity to explore every path round
+this house, and the place is so distinctly marked, that neither he
+nor I can mistake it."
+
+Lady Helen looked in her face for a moment with an expression
+somewhat sad as well as inquiring; and her beautiful companion, as if
+comprehending at once what she meant, advanced quietly towards her,
+knelt on the footstool at her feet, and putting her two hands in
+hers, she said, "I promise you most solemnly, dearest lady--most
+solemnly and firmly do I promise, not to suffer myself to be shaken
+in any one of the resolutions which I have taken with your advice."
+
+"Thank you, my child, thank you," cried the elder lady, "thank you
+for giving me the prospect, Caroline, of seeing you ultimately happy.
+But oh, do not be late, my sweet child. Return to us soon. The
+country is in a distracted state--the hour is very late. You see it
+is already growing dusk."
+
+"I will return as soon as I can," replied Caroline, and left the
+room.
+
+The man who was still on watch in the passage looked at her
+attentively, but said nothing; and Plessis, who was at the door
+speaking to two ship-boys, said merely, "It is very cold and very
+late, madame. I wonder you don't get cold with such late walks."
+
+She made no reply, but went on: and taking one or two turns through
+the tortuous lanes in the neighbourhood, arrived at a spot where a
+small obelisk, of no very graceful form or great dimensions, planted
+in the middle of the road, marked the boundary of four distinct
+parishes. She paused there for a moment, and leaned upon the
+landmark, as if from fatigue, weakness, or agitation. The light was
+now dim, but it was not yet dark; and in a moment or two she saw a
+figure appear suddenly in the lane before her.
+
+It advanced rapidly towards her, and she pressed her hand tight upon
+her heart. One might have heard it throbbing.  The gentleman came on
+with a pace like lightning, and held out his hand towards her. She
+gave him her hand, but turned away her head; and after gazing on her
+for a moment, he drew her gently to his bosom, saying, "One kiss at
+least, my Caroline."
+
+She did not refuse it, and he pressed her warmly to his heart. There
+was a moment's silence, and then his arms relaxed their hold, and he
+exclaimed, "Oh Heaven!"
+
+He then drew her arm within his, and walked on with her.
+
+"Oh, Caroline," he said at length, "would that you did know how I
+love you!"
+
+"If I did know, Sherbrooke," she replied, "that you really did love
+me, it would make me far, far happier than I am. But how can I
+believe it, Sherbrooke? how can I believe it?"
+
+"Is it," he demanded, "is it because I have asked you to conceal our
+marriage a little longer? Is it for that reason that you doubt my
+love? Is it for that reason that you have come over to England,
+risking all and everything, affecting my fate in ways that you have
+no idea of? Is it for this, Caroline?"
+
+There was a pause for several minutes, and at length she answered,--
+
+"Not entirely. There may have been many reasons, Sherbrooke, joined
+therewith. There were many that I stated in my letters to you. There
+were others that you might have imagined. Was it unnatural that I
+should wish to see my husband? Was it unnatural I should believe that
+he would be glad to see me? As I told you, the circumstances were
+changed; my father was dead; I had none to protect me in France; the
+Lady Helen was coming to England. When she was gone, I was left quite
+alone. But oh, Sherbrooke, tell me, tell me, what cause have I had to
+believe that you love me? Have you not neglected me? Have you not
+forgotten me? Have you not----"
+
+"Never, never, Caroline!" he cried, vehemently--"in my wildest
+follies, in my rashest acts, I have thought of you and loved you. I
+have remembered you with affection, and with grief, and with
+tenderness.  Memory, sad memory, has come upon me in the midst of the
+maddest efforts for gaiety, and cast me into a fit of deep, anxious,
+sorrowful, repentant, remorseful thought, which I could not shake
+off: it seemed as if some vengeful spirit seized upon me for its
+prey, and dinned in my ears the name of love and Caroline, till my
+heart was nearly broken."
+
+"And the moment after," she said, "what was it, Sherbrooke, that you
+did? Did you sit down and write to Caroline, to her who was giving
+every thought to you? or did you fly to the side of some gay
+coquette, to dissipate such painful thoughts in her society? or did
+you fly to worse, Sherbrooke?"
+
+He was silent. "Sherbrooke," she added, after a time, "I wish not to
+reproach you. All I wish is to justify myself, and the firm
+unchangeable resolution which I have been obliged to take. I have
+always tried to close my ears against everything that might make me
+think less highly of him I love. But tales would reach me--tales most
+painful to hear; and at length I was told that you were absolutely on
+the eve of wedding another."
+
+"They told you false!" exclaimed Lord Sherbrooke, wildly and
+vehemently--"whoever said so, lied. I have been culpable, and am
+culpable, Caroline; but not to that extent. I never dreamed of
+wedding her. Did I not know it could not be? But you speak of your
+resolutions.  Let me know what they are at once! To declare all, I
+suppose! Publicly to produce the proofs of our marriage! To announce
+to my father, already exasperated against me, that in this, too, I
+have offended him! To call down, even upon your own head, the revenge
+of a man who has never yet, in life, gone without it! To tell
+all--all, in short?"
+
+"No, no, no, Sherbrooke!" she said--"I am going to do none of all
+these things. Angry and thwarted, you do not do that justice to your
+wife which you ought. You speak, Sherbrooke, as if you did not know
+me. I will do none of these things. You do not choose to acknowledge
+me as your wife. You are angry at my having come to England. I will
+not announce our marriage till the last moment. I will not publish it
+till my dying hour, unless I be driven to it by some terrible
+circumstance. I will return to France. I will live as the widow of a
+man that I have loved. But I will never see you more, Sherbrooke; I
+will never hear from you more; I will never write to you more; till
+you come openly and straightforwardly to claim me as your wife in the
+face of all the world.  Whenever you declare me to be your wife, I
+will do all the duties of a wife: I will be obedient to your will,
+not alone from duty but from love; but till you do acknowledge me as
+your wife, you can plead no title to such submission."
+
+"Ah, Caroline," replied Lord Sherbrooke, "you speak well and wisely,
+but coldly too. You can easily resign the man that you once loved. It
+costs you but little to give him over to his own course; to afford
+him no solace, no consolation, no advice; to deprive him of that
+communication, which, distant as it was, might have saved him from
+many an error. It costs you nothing to pronounce such words as you
+have spoken, and to sever our fate for ever."
+
+"It is you that sever it," she replied, in a sad and reproachful
+tone.  "Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, you do me wrong--you know you do me
+wrong--Oh, how great wrong! Do you think I have shed no tears? Do you
+think my heart has not been wrung? Do you think my hours have not
+passed in anguish, my days in sadness, and my nights in weeping? Oh,
+Sherbrooke, since you left me, what has been my fate? To watch for
+some weeks the death-bed of a father, from whose mind the light had
+already departed; to sorrow over his tomb; to watch the long days for
+the coming of my husband--of the husband whom all had doubted, all
+had condemned, but my own weak heart, whose vows of amendment I had
+believed, to whose entreaties I had yielded, even to that rashest of
+all acts, a secret marriage; to find him delay his coming from day to
+day, and to see the sun that rose upon me in solitary sadness go down
+in grief; to lose the hope that cheered me; to look for his letters
+as the next boon; to read them and to weep over them; to remain in
+exile, not only from my native land, but also from him to whom I had
+given every feeling of my heart, to whom I had yielded all that a
+virtuous woman can yield; to remain in a strange court, to which I
+had no longer any tie, in which I had no longer any protector; and
+every time I heard his name mentioned, to hear it connected with some
+tale of scandal, or stigmatized for some new act of vice; and worse,
+worse than all, Sherbrooke, to be sought, idly sought, by men that I
+despised, or hated, or was indifferent to, and forbade to say the
+words which would have ended their pursuit at once, 'I am already a
+wife.' Sherbrooke, you have given me months and months of misery
+already. I weep not now, even with the thought of parting from you
+for ever; but it is, I believe, that the fountain of my tears is
+dried up and exhausted. Oh, Sherbrooke, when first I knew you, who
+was so blithe and joyous as myself?  and now, what have you made me?"
+
+He was much moved, and was about to speak; but she held up her hand
+beseechingly, and said, "Let me go on--let me go on. You said it
+costs me little to act as I proposed to act. Think, Sherbrooke, think
+what it does really cost me. Even were I all selfishness, how bitter
+is the part that I have assigned myself to play! To pass my time in
+solitude, without the pleasures of youth and gaiety; debarring myself
+from all the advantages of an unmarried woman, yet without the name,
+the blessings, the station, the dignity, of a wife; voluntarily
+depriving myself of every sort of consolation, relinquishing even
+hope. But if I am not altogether selfish, Sherbrooke--and you have no
+cause to say I am so--if, as you know too well, there is deep, and
+permanent, and pure and true affection for you at the bottom of my
+heart, judge what the after-hours of life will be, judge what a long
+dreary lapse lies before me, between the present instant and the
+grave."
+
+Sherbrooke was moved, and again and again he assured her that he
+loved her more than any other being upon earth; and the conversation
+continued for nearly half an hour longer. He begged her to stay with
+him in England, still concealing their marriage; he pressed her in
+every way to break her resolution; he urged her, if it were but for
+one week, to remain with him, in order to see whether he could not
+make arrangements to render their marriage public. But she remembered
+her resolution, and held to it firmly, and even rejected that last
+proposal, fearing consequences equally dangerous to herself and to
+him. Opposition began to make him angry; he entered not into her
+reasons; he saw not the strength of her motives; he spoke some harsh
+and unkind words, which caused her to weep, and then again he was
+grieved at having pained her, and kissed the tears away, and urged
+and argued again. Still she remained firm, however, and again he
+became irritated.
+
+At the end of half an hour, both Caroline and her husband heard the
+sound of feet approaching them on both sides; and though it seemed
+that the people who were coming from the direction of Plessis's house
+walked lightly and with caution, yet there were evidently many of
+them, and Caroline became alarmed for her husband.
+
+"The people are coming from the house, Sherbrooke," she cried--"they
+must not, oh, they must not find you here!"
+
+"Why not?" he demanded, sharply.
+
+"Oh, because they are a dangerous and a desperate set," she
+said--"bent, I am sure, from what I have heard, upon bloody and
+terrible schemes. Me they will let pass, but I fear for you--the very
+name of your father would be sufficient to destroy you, with them. We
+must part, indeed we must part!"
+
+"And can you, Caroline," he demanded, still lingering, but speaking
+in a bitter and irritated tone, angry alike with himself, and her, and
+with the interruption--"can you hold to your cold and cruel
+resolution, now?"
+
+"I can, I must, Sherbrooke," she replied,--"nothing shall shake me."
+
+"Well, then, be it so!" he answered sharply; and turning away, walked
+rapidly up the lane.
+
+Caroline stood, for a single instant, on the spot where he left her;
+but then all the feelings with which she had struggled during the
+whole of that painful conversation with her husband, seemed to break
+loose upon her at once, and over-power her. Her head grew giddy, a
+weary faintness seemed to come over her heart, and she sank,
+unconscious, on the ground.
+
+The next moment six or seven men came quickly up.
+
+"Here's a woman murdered!" cried one--"and the fellow that did it is
+off up the lane."
+
+A few hasty exclamations of surprise and pity followed, and then
+another man exclaimed, in a hasty and impatient tone, "Take her up in
+your arms, Jim, and bring her along.  Perhaps we may find this
+Messenger the boy talked of, and the murderer together; but let us
+make haste, or we shall lose both."
+
+"Mind," said another, speaking almost at the same time, "don't knock
+the Messenger's brains out. We will just take and plant him in the
+marsh, tie his arms, and put him up to the arm-pits. The boys will
+find him there, when they come to drive back the cattle.--The lady
+don't seem quite dead, I think."
+
+"Bring her along! bring her along!" cried another voice--"we shall
+miss all, if you are so slow;" and thus speaking, the leader of the
+party quickened his pace, while the others, having raised the lady
+from the ground, bore her onward towards the end of the lane.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+We have said that Wilton Brown paused and gazed through the mist at
+the figure of a man advancing towards him, and to the reader it need
+not be told who the person was that thus came forward. To Wilton,
+however, the conviction was brought more slowly; for though he had
+heard the sound of a familiar voice, yet it seemed so improbable that
+voice should be the voice of Lord Sherbrooke, that the idea never
+struck him, till the figure became so distinct as not to leave a
+doubt.
+
+"Good God, Sherbrooke!" he exclaimed, advancing towards him at
+length--"can it be you?"
+
+"And I may well ask, Wilton, if it be you," said Lord Sherbrooke, in
+a tone so sharp and angry, so unlike his usual voice and manner of
+speaking, that Wilton drew back astonished, imagining that he had
+given his friend some unknown offence. But Lord Sherbrooke grasped his
+arm, exclaiming, "Hark! There they are! They are close upon us,
+Wilton! I have fallen in with a nest of Jacobites, I fancy, ready for
+an outbreak, and they are after me. Have you any arms?"
+
+"Here are plenty of pistols, my lord," said the Messenger, who knew
+him.
+
+"Ah, Arden, is that you?" he exclaimed. "Give me a pistol!" and he
+took one from the Messenger's hand. "Here are three of us now,
+Wilton," he exclaimed, with a laugh, "and one of us a Messenger:
+enough surely for any dozen Jacobites in England."
+
+There was something wild, hasty, and strange in Lord Sherbrooke's
+manner, which startled and alarmed Wilton a good deal.
+
+"For Heaven's sake, Sherbrooke," he said, "do nothing rashly. Let us
+see who they are before you act."
+
+"Oh, I will do nothing rash," replied Sherbrooke. "But here they
+come! just like Jacobites, gabbling at every step.  Who goes there,
+my masters?" he exclaimed, at the same moment. "Don't advance, don't
+advance! We are armed!  The first man that advances, I shoot upon the
+spot!"
+
+"Those are the men! those are the men!" cried a loud voice from the
+other party, who were now seen coming up in a mass. "Rush upon them!
+Rush upon them, and tie the Messenger!"
+
+"Oh, oh!" cried Arden. "They have found me out, have they! Stand by
+me, my lord! Stand by me, Mr. Brown!  They are rushing on!"
+
+"Then here's for the midst of them!" cried Lord Sherbrooke; and
+instantly levelling his pistol, he fired, though Wilton was in the
+very act of holding forth his hand to stop him.
+
+The moment the fatal flash had taken place, there was a reel back
+amongst the advancing party, though they were at several yards'
+distance when the pistol was fired. A confusion, a gathering together,
+a murmur, succeeded; and while Lord Sherbrooke was in the very act of
+exclaiming, "Give me another pistol, Arden!" there was heard, from
+amongst the party who had been approaching, a loud voice, exclaiming,
+"By, he has shot the lady!--and she was only fainting, after all. See
+how the blood flows!"
+
+The words were perfectly distinct. Lord Sherbrooke's hand, which had
+just seized the other pistol that the Messenger had held out to him,
+suddenly let it drop upon the ground. It was not possible to see the
+expression of his face fully, for his head was turned away; but
+Wilton felt him grasp his arm, as if for support, trembling in every
+limb.
+
+"Good God! What have you done, Sherbrooke?" exclaimed his friend.
+
+"I have killed her! I have killed her!" cried Lord Sherbrooke,
+gasping for breath--"I have killed the dear unfortunate girl!" and
+letting go Wilton's arm, he rushed forward at once into the midst of
+the other party, exclaiming, "Stand back! Let me forward! She is my
+wife! Stand out of my way! How, in the name of Heaven, did she--"
+
+He left off, without concluding; and nobody answered. But the tone of
+bitter grief and agony in which Lord Sherbrooke spoke was not to be
+mistaken: there was in it the overpowering energy of passionate
+grief; and everybody made way for him. In a moment he bad snatched
+the form of the unhappy lady from the man who held her in his arms,
+and supporting her himself, partly on his knee, partly on his bosom,
+he kissed her again and again vehemently, eagerly, we may almost say
+frantically, exclaiming, "And I have killed thee, my Caroline! I
+have killed thee, my beloved, my wife, my own dear wife! I have
+killed thee, noble, and true, and kind! Oh, open your eyes, dear
+one, open your eyes and gaze upon me for a minute! She is living, she
+is living!" he added wildly--"she does open her eyes!--Quick, some
+one call a surgeon!--A hundred guineas to the first who brings me a
+surgeon!--God of Heaven!  how has this happened?--Oh yes, she is
+living, she is reviving!--Wilton, for pity's sake, for mercy's sake,
+help me!"
+
+Wilton Brown had followed Lord Sherbrooke rapidly; for a sudden
+apprehension had crossed his mind immediately the words were
+pronounced, "He has shot the lady," lest by some accident Lady Laura
+had fallen into the hands of the people who were approaching, and
+that she it was who had been wounded or killed by the rash act of his
+friend. The moment he came up, however, he perceived that the lady's
+face was unknown to him, and he saw also that the men who stood
+round, deprived of all power and activity by a horrible event, which
+they only vaguely comprehended, were anything but the persons he had
+expected to see. They seemed to be almost all common sailors; and
+though they were in general evidently Englishmen, they were habited
+more in the fashion of the Dutch seamen of that day. They were well
+armed, it is true, but still they bore not the slightest appearance
+of being connected with Sir John Fenwick and the party to which lie
+was attached; and the horror and consternation which seemed to have
+taken possession of them all, at the injury which had been inflicted
+on the unhappy lady, showed that they were anything but feelingless
+or hardened.
+
+One rapid glance over the scene before his eyes had shown Wilton
+this; and he now stood beside Lord Sherbrooke, gazing with painful
+interest on a picture, the full horror of which he divined better
+than the others who surrounded them.
+
+Almost as Lord Sherbrooke spoke, however, and before Wilton could
+reply, the lady made a slight movement of her hand, and raised her
+head. Her eyes were open, and she turned to Lord Sherbrooke, gazing
+on his face for a moment, as if to be certain who he was.
+
+"Oh, Sherbrooke," she said at length, in a faint voice, "fly, fly!--I
+was very foolish to faint.--I am better now. The men will be upon
+you in a minute--Oh Heaven, they are all round us! Oh how weak it was
+to faint and keep you here till they have taken you.--I am better
+now," she said, in answer to a whispered inquiry of Lord Sherbrooke,
+as he pressed her to his heart. "But I must have hurt my shoulder in
+falling, for it pains me very much." And putting her hand towards it,
+she drew it suddenly away, exclaiming, "Good Heaven, it is blood!"
+
+"Yes, dearest--yes, beloved," replied Lord Sherbrooke--"it is
+blood--blood shed by your husband's hand; but oh, inadvertently,
+clear girl. I rashly fired amongst the men that were pursuing me, and
+have killed the only woman that I ever loved!" And he struck his hand
+vehemently against his forehead, with a gesture of despair that could
+not be mistaken.
+
+"Come, come, young gentleman," said a man who seemed the leader of
+the bluff sailors around him, "don't take on so. Some one has gone
+for a surgeon. There's a clever one at Halstow, I know, and mayhap
+the young lady is not so much hurt. At all events, you did not do it
+to hurt her, that's clear enough; and I rather fancy we've all been
+in a mistake together. For if you were flying from people looking out
+to take you, you were not the goods we were after--for we were
+looking for people that were coming to take us.
+
+"They came down and said that a gentleman had come down with a
+Messenger to look after our little traffic, and have some of us up
+for it. Now we intended to plant the Messenger in the bog till we had
+got all things ready and the ship off, and it was him and his people
+we were after. But come along--bring down the lady to Master
+Plessis's. She will be taken good care of there, I warrant you. Here,
+Jack Vanoorst!--you're a bit of a surgeon yourself, for you doctored
+my head when the Frenchman broke my crown one day. See if you can't
+stop the blood, at least till we get the lady to old Plessis's, and
+the surgeon comes."
+
+A broad-built elderly man advanced, and, with whatever materials
+could be obtained upon the spot, made a sort of bandage and compress
+by the dim light, and applied it dexterously enough, while Caroline
+lay with her head upon her husband's bosom, and her hand clasped in
+his.
+
+Sherbrooke looked down in her face while this was done with agony
+depicted in his countenance; nor was that agony rendered the less by
+seeing a faint look of happiness come over her face as she thus
+rested, and by feeling her hand press gently upon his. It all seemed
+to say, "I could willingly die thus."
+
+When the bandage had been applied, Lord Sherbrooke, though he shook
+in every limb with agitation and anxiety, took her in his arms and
+raised her, saying to the men, "Now show me the way."
+
+But that way was long. The young nobleman put forth his strength too
+much at first in the effort to carry her quickly, and after bearing
+her on for about a mile, he paused and faltered.
+
+"Let one of our people carry her," said the captain of the vessel,
+which was lying in the river at no great distance from Plessis's
+house--"there is near a mile to go yet."
+
+Lord Sherbrooke turned and looked round.  Wilton was close by his
+side.
+
+"Wilton," he said, "Wilton, you take her.  With the exception of
+herself, you are my best friend.  Gently, oh gently!  She is my wife,
+Wilton, and I know you will not mind the burden."
+
+"Pardon me, lady," said Wilton, as he took her gently out of Lord
+Sherbrooke's arms, and she raised her head with a faint look of
+inquiry; "it is your husband's sincere friend, and I will bear you as
+carefully as if I were your brother."
+
+She made no opposition; but no answer, only stretching forth her left
+arm, which was the unwounded one, to Lord Sherbrooke: she let her
+hand rest in his, as if she wished him to retain it; and Wilton
+remarked, but not displeased, that she suffered not her head to rest
+upon his bosom, as it had done upon that of his friend.
+
+Considerably taller, and altogether of a more powerful frame than
+Lord Sherbrooke, he bore her with greater ease; but still anxiety
+made it seem an age till a glimmering light was seen through the
+trees at no great distance.
+
+Lord Sherbrooke was then in the act of proposing to carry her again;
+but the good sailor who had spoken before interfered, saying, "No, no,
+let him carry her.  It will only hurt her to change so.  There's the
+house close by, and he's stronger than you are; and not knocked down
+with fright, you see, either, as you are, naturally enough.--Run on,
+boy, run on," he continued, somewhat sharply, to a lad who was with
+them--"run on, and tell old Plessis to get down a mattress to carry
+the lady up in."
+
+The boy sped away to execute this kind and prudent order; and in a
+few minutes more, the whole party stood upon the little stone
+esplanade before the dwelling of Monsieur Plessis. That worthy
+personage himself was down, and already in a state of great anxiety
+and tribulation, being one of those who have an excessive dislike to
+anything which may bring upon them too much notice of any kind.
+
+The mattress, too, had been brought down, but when Wilton gazed
+through the door, he turned quickly to his friend, saying, "I had
+better carry her up at once, Sherhrooke.  I can do it easily, and it
+will save her the pain of changing her position more than once."
+
+Without waiting for any one's consent, he accordingly began to mount
+the staircase, and had just reached the balustrade of the little sort
+of square vestibule at top, when the door of an opposite room opened,
+and the Lady Helen stood before him.
+
+To Wilton, who knew nothing of all the secrets of Plessis's house,
+which the reader is already informed of, the sight was like that of
+an apparition; and to the Lady Helen herself, the sight of Wilton
+bearing Caroline in his arms, while the light of the lamp that
+Plessis carried before them shone upon the pale but still beautiful
+countenance of the poor girl, and showed her dress and that of Wilton
+both thickly stained and spotted with blood, was not less astounding.
+
+"Oh, Wilton, Wilton," she cried--"what is this?--Caroline, my sweet
+Caroline, for Heaven's sake speak!--for Heaven's sake look at me!"
+
+The next moment, however, her eyes fell upon Lord Sherbrooke; his
+countenance also as pale as death, his coat, and collar, and face
+also bloody.
+
+"Oh young man, young man," she cried, "is it you that have done
+this?"
+
+"Yes, Lady Helen," he answered, rather bitterly--"yes, after nearly
+killing her in another way, it is I who have shed her blood. But the
+first was the criminal act, not the last.  The shot was
+unintentional: the wounds given by my words were the guilty ones."
+
+"No, no, Sherbrooke!" said Caroline, raising her head faintly, and
+again stretching out her hand towards him--"No, no, dear Henry.  You
+love me; that is enough!"
+
+She could speak no more; and Plessis, whose senses were in a state of
+greater precision than those of any other person, exclaimed, eagerly,
+"Don't stand here talking about it, but carry the lady to her
+bedchamber.--This way, young gentleman; this way, this way!"
+
+And passing by, he led onward to the room in which the unfortunate
+lady had received her husband's note that very morning.  Wilton laid
+her gently on the bed; and closing her eyes for a moment, she gave a
+slight shudder, either with chilliness or pain.  But a movement in
+the apartment caused her to look round again, and she said, eagerly,
+"Do not leave me, Sherbrooke!  Do not leave me, my husband.  You must
+stay with me NOW."
+
+"Leave you, my Caroline!" he said, "oh no!  I will never leave you
+more!  I must atone for what I have done.  Only promise me, promise
+me, Caroline, to live, to forgive, and to bless me."
+
+"I do forgive you, I do bless you, Sherbrooke," she answered.
+
+Before he could reply, a gentleman habited in a riding dress, and a
+large red roquelaure, entered the room hastily, threw off his hat and
+cloak, and advanced at once with a somewhat rough air to the bedside.
+
+"What is this?" he said, quickly, but not in an ungentle tone. "Where
+is the lady hurt?--Bring me linen and water.--You may give her a
+little wine too.--She is faint from loss of blood;" and advancing to
+the bedside, he took Caroline's hand kindly in his own, saying, "Do
+not be alarmed, my dear.  These things happen every day in battle;
+and women get well better than soldiers, for they are more patient
+and resigned.  I see where the wound is.  Do not be afraid;" and he
+put his hand upon her shoulder, running it round on both sides.  The
+moment he had done so, he looked about him with a bright and beaming
+smile upon his lip, and the colour coming somewhat up into his cheek.
+
+"She will do well," he said--"let no one alarm themselves:  the ball
+has passed upon the right of the artery, and I feel it just above the
+scapula.  She will do well!"
+
+An audible "Thank God!" burst from every lip around; and Caroline
+herself, at the sudden change, from the apprehension of death to the
+hope of life, burst into silent tears.
+
+"What are all these men doing here?" demanded the good surgeon,
+turning bluffly round.  "Leave none but the women with me, and not
+too many of them."
+
+The sailors began to move away at this command, and Wilton followed;
+but Lord Sherbrooke kept his place, saying, "I must remain!"
+
+"And why should you remain, sir?" demanded the surgeon.  "Who are
+you?"
+
+"I am her husband, sir," replied Lord Sherbrooke, firmly and
+distinctly.
+
+"Oh, sir, that makes a very great difference," replied the surgeon.
+"I make you a very low bow, and have nothing to say; only I hope you
+will behave quietly and rationally, and talk as little as possible."
+
+"I will do everything, sir," replied Lord Sherbrooke, with a somewhat
+stately look--"I will do everything that may tend to promote the
+recovery of one I love so well."
+
+At this moment, Wilton was in the doorway: but the Lady Helen laid
+her hand upon his arm, saying, "Wait for me in the neighbouring room,
+Wilton.  I must speak with you before you go."
+
+Wilton promised to remain, and quitted the chamber.  He found at the
+top of the stairs the greater part of the sailors whom he had seen
+before, and with them Plessis himself and another man.
+
+The sailors were talking with Plessis vehemently; and Wilton soon
+found that the worthy Frenchman was using all his powers of
+vituperation in various tongues--French and English, with a word or
+two of Dutch every now and then, and some quaint specimens of
+Portuguese--to express his indignation at the sailors for the unlucky
+business in which they had engaged.
+
+The master of the vessel was defending himself stoutly, saying, "Why,
+didn't I meet the boy from the Blackamoor's Head at the very door of
+the place here? and didn't he tell me that there was a man coming
+down with a Messenger of State to seize the ship and the cargo, and
+you, and I, and every one else?"
+
+"Poo! nonsense, nonsense!" cried Plessis: "all stuff and
+exaggeration.  No Messenger, I dare say, at all.  So be off, all of
+you, as fast as you can go; and get out of the way, for fear of any
+inquiries being made."
+
+"Why here's the young gentleman himself!" cried the master: "he don't
+look like a Messenger, sure enough.  But there was another man that
+ran away, he may have been the Messenger."
+
+The man looked to Wilton as he spoke, who instantly replied, "You are
+right, sir. He was a Messenger; but neither he nor I came hither
+about anything referring to you.  Indeed, neither of us even knew of
+your existence before we saw you."
+
+At that moment, the stranger who was standing beside Plessis, and who
+was very different from the sailors in appearance, stepped forward to
+Wilton, and said in a low tone, "May I, sir, ask your name?"
+
+The countersign that Green had given him immediately returned to
+Wilton's memory, and he replied, "My name is Brown, sir, but it might
+as well have been Green."
+
+"Oh no, sir," replied the stranger, in the same tone, "every man
+should keep his right name, and be in his right place, which is the
+case with yourself in both respects at present;" and turning to
+Plessis, he said, "This is a friend of the Colonel's, Plessis.  He
+sent me down to meet him and bring him here, because he could not
+come himself."
+
+"Oh, oh!" said Plessis, looking wise, "that's all right, then.  I saw
+that he spoke to the Lady Helen.  Take him into the saloon, Captain,
+and I'll come to you in a minute, as soon as I've got the house
+clear, and everything quiet again.  I expect some gentlemen to meet
+here to-night, to take their bowl of punch, you know."
+
+"This way, sir," said the person whom the Frenchman had called
+Captain, turning to Wilton, and leading him on into the large room,
+which was now quite vacant.  The moment that he was there, and the
+door closed, the stranger came close up to him, saying, "Where is the
+Messenger?  Had you not a Messenger with you?  I waited on the road
+for you three-quarters of an hour."
+
+"I rather think," replied Wilton, "that I was misdirected by the
+landlord of the inn, and a series of unhappy mistakes has been the
+consequence."
+
+"Which are not over yet," exclaimed the other; "for here are we, only
+two men, with very likely a dozen or two against us, with no power or
+authority to take the lady from out of their hands, and with nothing
+but our swords and pistols."
+
+"Oh no!" answered Wilton--"you mistake.  I have sufficient authority
+both from her father and from the Secretary of State."
+
+"Ay, but not like the face of a Messenger!" replied the other--"that
+is the best authority in the world with people like these.  By
+Heaven, the only way that we can act is to make a bold push for it at
+once, to get hold of the young lady, and carry her off before these
+men arrive.  Plessis is sending away all the sailors: he'll not try
+much to oppose us himself.  There is one man, I see, at the end of
+the other corridor, but we can surely manage him; and very likely we
+may get the start of the others by an hour or so."
+
+"Let us lose not a moment," answered Wilton.  "I will send for the
+Lady Helen, who may give us more information."
+
+"Let me go and get it from Plessis himself," replied the man "I will
+be back in a minute.  I know how to deal with the rogue of a
+Frenchman better than you do.  If he comes back with me, take a high
+tone with him; determination is everything."
+
+Thus saying, he quitted the room, and for about five minutes Wilton
+remained alone meditating over what had passed, if that could be
+called meditating, which was nothing but a confused series of
+indistinct images, all out of their proper form and order.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+THE first person that entered the room was the Lady Helen, who came
+forward towards her young friend with her eyes sparkling and a smile
+upon her lips.
+
+"Oh, my dear boy," she cried, "this has been a terrible night, but
+she is better: there is every hope of her doing well. The ball has
+been extracted in a moment, the bleeding has ceased, and the comfort
+of her husband's love will be more to her--far more to her, than the
+best balm physician or surgeon could give. But now tell me, Wilton,
+what brings you here? Did you come with this gay gallant, or have
+you--though I trust and believe that you have not--have you taken any
+part in the wild schemes of these rash, intemperate, and vicious
+men?"
+
+"I am taking part in no schemes, dear lady," replied Wilton. "I only
+come here to frustrate evil purposes. I came furnished with
+authority, and accompanied by a Messenger of State, to deliver Lady
+Laura Gaveston, who, I understand, is at this very moment in this
+house."
+
+"That is most strange," said the Lady Helen--"I wrote to--to him
+who--who--whom you saw me with; in short, to tell him that they had
+brought the poor girl here, never thinking that you, my boy--"
+
+"It was the person you speak of," interrupted Wilton, "who told me of
+her being here. One of his people is in the house with me at this
+present moment; but the Messenger has fled in the late affray. I
+understand that a number of the men who brought her hither are to be
+here to-night: we shall be then but two against many, if we delay;
+and it is absolutely necessary that we should find out where the lady
+is, and carry her off at once."
+
+"Oh! I will find her in a moment," replied the Lady Helen. "But I
+know not whether they will suffer her to pass out of her chamber."
+
+At that moment, however, Plessis, and the personage whom he called
+Captain, entered the room in eager conversation.
+
+"It will be ruin and destruction to me," cried Plessis--"I cannot
+permit it! I cannot hear of it! nor can you manage it. There are
+three men here, one in the house, and one at each gate. You are only
+two."
+
+"But we are two men together, and two strong men, too," replied the
+Captain, "and they are all separate. So I tell you we will do it."
+
+"Oh, if you choose to use force, you may," replied Plessis; "but the
+consequence be upon your own head."
+
+"Come, come, Plessis," replied the other--"you know you don't like a
+noise and a piece of work more than any one else.  Do the matter
+cunningly, man, as you are accustomed to do.  Get the fellow in the
+hall, there, down quietly out of the passage into the brandy
+cellar--I will follow him and lock him in.  When that's done, all the
+rest is easy."
+
+Plessis smiled at a trick exactly suited to his taste; but he
+hesitated, nevertheless, at putting it in execution, lest the fact of
+his having taken any part therein should come to the knowledge of
+men, from whom, at different times, he derived considerable
+advantage. Present evils, however, are always more formidable than
+distant ones, and Wilton bethought him of trying what a little
+intimidation would do with the good Frenchman.
+
+"Listen to me, sir," he said, in a stern tone.  "Instantly do what
+you are told, or take the consequences.  Here is my authority from
+the Secretary of State, to demand the person of this young lady from
+the hands of any one with whom I may find her.  A Messenger came down
+with me to High Halstow, with a warrant for the arrest of any person
+who may be found detaining her.  It is, however, my wish to do all
+things quietly, if you will allow me. The Duke, her father, does not
+desire the business to be conducted with harshness--"
+
+"A duke!" exclaimed Plessis, opening his eyes with astonishment.  "A
+duke and peer!  Why, they only told me that she was the daughter of
+some turncoat, who would betray them, they feared, if they had not
+his daughter in pawn."
+
+"They deceived you!" replied Wilton--"she is the daughter of the Duke
+of Gaveston.  But I have no time to discuss such points with you.
+Instantly do what you are told.  Get the man out of the way quietly;
+give the lady up into my hands, as you are hereby formally required
+to do, or I immediately quit the house, raise the hue and cry, and in
+less than an hour this place shall be surrounded by a hundred men."
+
+Plessis hesitated no longer.  "Force majeure!" he cried.  "Force
+majeure!  No one can resist that.  What am I to do?  I will act
+exactly according to your bidding.  You are witness, madam, that I
+yield to compulsion."
+
+"Yes, Monsieur Plessis," replied the Lady Helen, "lawful compulsion."
+
+"Well, Plessis, do as I bid you, at once," replied the Captain. "Get
+the man down into the brandy cellar, quickly!--I saw the door open as
+I passed--and either lock him in or let me do it."
+
+"You are a tall man, and I am a small man," replied Plessis--"I have
+not the gift of turning keys, Captain. I'll send him down, however;"
+and taking a Venice glass from the mantelpiece, he went to the little
+vestibule at the top of the stairs, and called to the man who was
+sitting in the corridor beyond.
+
+"Here, Harrison," he said--"I wish you'd go down and get the gentleman
+a glass of brandy out of the cellar. The door's open. Make haste, and
+don't drink any--there's a good fellow."
+
+The tone in which Master Plassis spoke showed that he was no bad
+actor when well prompted. The man, who was completely deceived, came
+forward without the slightest hesitation, took the glass out of his
+hand, and went down stairs.
+
+The moment he had passed, Plessis put in his head, and beckoned with
+his finger to the Captain, who ran down after the other in a moment,
+leaving the door open, and Plessis listening beyond, with some slight
+apprehension. That apprehension was increased, by hearing a word or
+two spoken sharply, a struggle, and the sound of glass falling and
+being broken. Wilton sprang out of the room to aid his companion; but
+at that moment there was the sound of a door banged sharply to, a key
+turned, and he met the Captain coming up the stairs laughing aloud.
+
+"By Heaven, the fellow had nearly bolted," he said. "But there he is
+now, safe enough, and I dare say will find means to console himself
+with Master Plessis's brandy casks. He might have made himself quite
+comfortable if he hadn't dropped the glass, like a fool.--Now,
+Plessis," he continued, entering the room, "go for the lady as quick
+as lightning.  Let us lose no time, but make sure of the business
+while we can; and I dare say, if you get yourself into any little
+scrape soon--as indubitably you will, for you never can expect to die
+unhanged--this gentleman will speak a good word for you to those who
+can get your neck out of the noose before it is drawn too tight.
+Come, make haste, man! or we may all get into trouble."
+
+"I will go," said the Lady Helen, "I had better go. It will alarm her
+less, and she has been terrified and agitated too much already, poor
+thing."
+
+Thus saying, she left them; but the lady returned alone in a moment
+after, saying, with some consternation, that the man had got the key
+of the door with him.
+
+"Oh, that is nothing!" exclaimed Plessis, laughing; "I am never
+without my passe-partout;" and producing a key attached to a large
+ring, from his pocket, he gave it into the hands of the Lady Helen,
+who returned to her kind task once more.
+
+Scarcely had she left the room when there came the sound of a man's
+step from the passage, and Plessis darted out.  The footfall which he
+heard was that of Lord Sherbrooke, who was seeking Wilton; and as
+soon as the young nobleman saw him, he advanced towards him with both
+his hands extended, saying,--
+
+"Oh, Wilton, dear friend, this has been a terrible night.  But it is
+in the fiery furnace of such nights as this that hard hearts are
+melted and cast in a new mould.  I feel that it is so with mine.  But
+to the business that makes me seek you," he continued, in a low tone,
+seeing that there was another person in the room, and drawing Wilton
+on one side.  "Listen to me!  Quit this house as fast as possible.  I
+find you are in a nest of furious Jacobites, and there may be great
+danger to you if found here.  I remain with my poor Caroline; and far
+away from all the rest, have nothing to fear, although the warning
+that she gave was intended for me.  You speed away to London as fast
+as possible.  But remember, Wilton! remember: mention no word of this
+night's event to my father.  He does not expect me in town for
+several days, and I must choose my own time and manner to give him
+the history of all this affair.  He holds me by a chain you know not
+of--the chain of my heavy debts.  I am at liberty but upon his
+sufferance, and one cold look from him to Jew or usurer would plunge
+me in a debtor's prison in an hour.  The man who has debts he cannot
+pay, Wilton, is worse than any ordinary slave, for he is a slave to
+many masters.  But I must away," he continued, in his rapid manner,
+"for I have left her with no one but the servant girl, and I must
+watch her till all danger be past."
+
+"I trust she is better," said Wilton; "I trust there is no danger."
+
+"They tell me not, they tell me not, Wilton," replied Lord
+Sherbrooke; "but now that I have been upon the very eve of losing a
+jewel, of which I was but too careless before, I feel all its value,
+and would fain hide it trembling in my heart, lest fate should snatch
+it from me.  Say nothing of these things--remember, say nothing of
+them."
+
+"But Arden, but Arden," said Wilton, as Lord Sherbrooke was turning
+away--"but the Messenger, Sherbrooke. May he not tell something?"
+
+"The cowardly villain ran away so soon," replied Lord Sherbrooke, "he
+could hear nothing, and understand less. He is a cautious scoundrel,
+too, and will hold his tongue. Yet you may give him a warning, if you
+see him, Wilton."
+
+"Here is the lady, sir," said Plessis, entering, and addressing
+Wilton.  "I will go down stairs and see that all is safe below."
+
+"He will not let the man out of the cellar?" demanded Wilton, as
+Plessis departed.
+
+"I have taken care of that," replied the Captain, holding up a key;
+"but let us not lose time."
+
+While these few words were passing, Lady Helen and Laura entered, the
+latter, pale, agitated, and trembling, less with actual apprehension
+than from all she had lately undergone. At that moment, she knew not
+with whom she was going, or what was the manner of escape proposed.
+All that the Lady Helen had told her was, that somebody had come to
+set her free, and that she must instantly prepare to depart. She had
+paused but for an instant, while the lady who brought her these glad
+tidings wrapped round her some of the garments which had been
+procured for her journey to France, by those who had carried her off;
+and all the agitation consequent upon a sudden revival of hopes that
+had been well nigh extinguished was still busy in her bosom, when, as
+we have said, she entered the room.
+
+The first object, however, which her eye fell upon was the fine
+commanding form of Wilton Brown. It were scarcely fair to ask
+whether, in the long and weary hours of captivity, she had thought
+much of him.  But one thing at least may be told, that with him, and
+with a hurried and timid examination of the feelings of her own bosom
+regarding him, her thoughts had been busied at the very moment when
+she had been dragged away from her own home. The sight of him,
+however, now, was both joyful and overpowering to her; the very idea
+of deliverance had been sufficient to agitate her, so that she shook
+in every limb as she entered the room; but when she saw in her
+deliverer the man whom, of all others, she would have chosen to
+protect her, manifold emotions, of a still more agitating kind, were
+added to all the rest. But joy--joy and increased hope--overcame all
+other feelings, and stretching out her hands towards him, she ran
+forward as he advanced to meet her, and clung with a look of deep
+confidence and gladness to his arm.
+
+"Do not be frightened, do not be agitated," he said--"all will go
+quite well. Are you prepared to quit this place immediately?"
+
+"Oh yes, yes, instantly!" she cried; but then her eyes turned upon
+Lord Sherbrooke, and the sight of him in company with Wilton seemed
+to cloud her happiness; for though she still looked up to Wilton's
+countenance with the same affectionate and confiding glance, yet
+there was evidently a degree of apprehension in her countenance,
+when, for a moment, she turned her eyes to Lord Sherbrooke. She bowed
+her head gracefully to him, however, and uttered some broken thanks to
+him and to Wilton, for coming to her deliverance.
+
+"Pardon me, dear Lady Laura," replied Lord Sherbrooke. "I must accept
+no part of your thanks, for my being here is entirely accidental, and
+I cannot even offer to escort you on your departure. It is Wilton who
+has sought you bravely and perseveringly, and I doubt not you will go
+with him with perfect confidence."
+
+"Anywhere, anywhere," said Lady Laura, with a tone and a look which
+at another moment might have called up a smile upon Lord Sherbrooke's
+countenance; but his own heart was also so full of deep feelings at
+that time, that he could not look upon them lightly enough even for a
+smile, when he detected them in another.
+
+"I will go down and make sure that there is no trickery below," said
+the man called the Captain; "and when I call--Now! come down with the
+lady, Mr. Brown."
+
+Lord Sherbrooke at the same moment took leave of them, and left the
+room; and Lady Laura, without quitting her position by Wilton's side,
+which she seemed to consider a place of sure refuge and support, held
+out her hand to the Lady Helen, saying, "Oh, how can I thank you,
+lady, for all your kindness? Had it not been for you, I should never
+have obtained this deliverance."
+
+"I need no thanks, my sweet friend," replied the lady "the only
+things that give sunshine to the memories of a sad life are some few
+acts of kindness and sympathy which I have been able to perform
+towards others.  But if you want to thank me," she added, looking
+with a smile upon Wilton, "thank him, Lady Laura, for he is the being
+dearest to me upon earth."
+
+Lady Laura looked somewhat surprised; but Wilton held up his finger,
+thinking he heard their companion's call. It was not so, however, but
+only a quick step upon the stairs; and the next moment the Captain
+entered, with some marks of agitation on his countenance.
+
+"By ---!" he said, "there seems to me to be a whole troop of horse
+before the house--such a clatter of iron-shod feet.  I fear we have
+the enemy upon us, and Plessis has run to hide himself; frightened
+out of his wits.  What can we do?"
+
+"Come all into the lady's chamber, or into mine," said Lady
+Helen--"perhaps they may not think of searching for her.  At all
+events, it gives us a chance, if we can but get across the vestibule
+before they come up.  Quick, Wilton!  come, quick!" and she was
+leading the way.
+
+Before she got to the door, however, which the Captain had closed
+behind him, the tramp of heavy boots was heard upon the stairs, and a
+voice calling, "Plessis!  Plessis!  Where the devil are you?  The
+whole house seems to be deserted!  Why, what in Satan's name is
+here?  Here's blood all the way down the stairs!  By Heaven, it
+wouldn't surprise me if the Orangemen had got into the house.  We
+must take care that there isn't a trap.  Give me that lamp,
+Cranburne.  You had better have your pistols ready, gentlemen.  How
+can we manage now?--Two of you stay and guard each corridor, while we
+go in here."
+
+There seemed now to take place a low-toned conversation amongst them,
+and the Lady Helen, with a pale countenance, drew back towards Wilton
+and Laura.  The Captain, on his part, unbuttoned his coat, and drew
+out a pistol from the belt that he wore underneath: but Wilton said,
+"Put it up, my good friend, put it up.  Do not let us set any example
+of violence.  Where there are nine or ten against two, it is somewhat
+dangerous to begin the affray.  We can always have recourse to
+resistance at last."
+
+"Oh, not for my sake! not for my sake!" said Lady Laura, in a low
+voice.  "For Heaven's sake, risk not your life for me!"
+
+"Let us keep this deep window behind us," said Wilton, speaking to
+his companion, "for that will give us some advantage, at all events.
+Draw a little behind us, dear Lady Laura.  We will manage all things
+as gently as we can."
+
+"Let me speak to them, Wilton," said the Lady Helen--"from one
+circumstance or another, I must know them almost all."
+
+As she spoke, the large heavy latch was lifted, and the door slowly
+and cautiously opened.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+A PAUSE of expectation, even if it be but for a minute, is sometimes
+the most painful thing in the world; and the heart of poor Laura at
+that moment, while the door was being slowly opened, and all their
+eyes were fixed eagerly upon it, felt as if the blood were stayed in
+it till it was nearly bursting. Wilton, who saw all that took place
+more calmly, judged by the careful opening of the door, that there
+was a good deal of timidity in the persons whom it hid from their
+view. But when it was at length opened, the sight that it presented
+was not well calculated to soothe any one's alarm.
+
+In the doorway itself were three well-armed men, with each his sword
+drawn in his hand, while behind these again were seen the faces of
+several more. The countenance of the first, Sir George Barkley, which
+we have already described, was certainly not very prepossessing, and
+to the eyes of Laura, there was not one who had not the countenance
+of an assassin. It was evident that Sir George Barkley expected to
+see a much more formidable array than that presented to him and his
+companions, in the persons of two ladies and two armed gentlemen, for
+his eyes turned quickly from the right to the left round the room, to
+assure himself that it contained no one else. There was a momentary
+pause at the door; but when it was clear that very little was to be
+apprehended, the troop poured in with much more hasty and confident
+steps than those with which they had first approached.
+
+Two or three of Sir George Barkley's party were advancing quickly to
+the spot where Wilton and the lady stood; but the young gentleman
+held up his right hand suddenly, putting his left upon one of the
+pistols which he carried, and saying, "Stand back, gentlemen! I do
+not permit men with swords drawn to come too close to me, till I know
+their purpose--Stand back, I say!" and he drew the pistol from his
+belt.
+
+"We mean you no harm, sir," said Sir George Barkley, pausing with the
+rest. "But we must know who you are, and what you are doing here, and
+that immediately."
+
+"Who I am, can be of no more consequence to you, sir," replied
+Wilton, "than who you are is to me--which, by your good leave, I
+would a great deal rather not know, if you will suffer me to be
+ignorant thereof;--and as to what I am doing here, I do not see that
+I am bound to explain that to anybody but the master of the house, or
+to some person authorized by law to inquire into such particulars."
+
+"Mighty fine, sir," said the voice of Sir John Fenwick, as he
+advanced from behind--"Mighty fine! But this is a mere waste of time.
+In the first place, what are you doing with that lady, who, as her
+father's friend, I intend immediately to take under my protection."
+
+"Her father, sir," replied Wilton, with a contemptuous smile, "judges
+that the lady has been somewhat too long under your careful but
+somewhat forcible protection already. I beg leave to give you notice,
+Sir John Fenwick, that I am fully authorized by the Duke of Gaveston,
+Lady Laura's father, by a writing under his own hand, to seek for and
+deliver her from those who have taken her away. I know you have been
+too wise and prudent to suffer yourself to be seen in this business
+hitherto, and if you will take my advice, you will not meddle with it
+now.--Stand back, sir; for as I live, I will shoot you through the
+head if you take one single step forward; and you know I will keep my
+word!"
+
+"But there is more to be inquired into, sir," exclaimed Sir George
+Barkley--"there is blood--blood upon the stairs, blood--"
+
+"Hear me, Sir George," said Lady Helen, advancing. "You know me well,
+and must believe what I say."
+
+"I have the pleasure of recollecting your ladyship very well,"
+replied Sir George; "but I thought that you and Miss Villars had
+sailed back for France by this time."
+
+"Alas! Sir George," replied the lady--"poor Caroline, I fear, will
+not be able to be moved. She has met with a severe accident to-night,
+and it is her blood, poor child, that you saw upon the stairs. This
+gentleman has had nothing farther to do with the matter, except
+inasmuch as he was accidentally present, and kindly carried her
+upstairs to the room where she now lies."
+
+"That alters the case," said Sir George Barkley: "but who is he? We
+have heard reports by the way which give us alarm. Will he pledge his
+honour, as a gentleman, never to mention anything he has seen this
+night--or, at least, not for six months?"
+
+"On that condition," demanded Wilton, "will you give me perfect
+freedom of egress with this lady and the gentleman who is with me?"
+
+"Not with the lady!" exclaimed Sir George Barkley, sharply; and at
+the same moment Sir John Fenwick, Rookwood, and Parkyns all
+surrounded the Jacobite leader, speaking eagerly, but in a low tone,
+and evidently remonstrating against his permitting the departure of
+any of the party.  He seemed puzzled how to act.
+
+"Come out here again," he said--"come out here, where we can speak
+more at ease.  They cannot get out of this room, if we keep the
+door."
+
+"Not without breaking their neck from the window," replied Rookwood.
+
+"What is that small door there at the side?" said Sir George
+Barkley.  "Let some one see!"
+
+"'Tis nothing but a cupboard," said Sir John Fenwick--"I examined it
+the other night, for fear of eavesdroppers.  There is no way out."
+
+"I shall consider your proposal, sir," said Sir George Barkley,
+turning to Wilton: "stay here quietly.  We wish to offer no violence
+to any man; we are very harmless people in our way."
+
+A grim smile hung upon his thin lip as he spoke; and looking from
+time to time behind him, as if he feared the use which Wilton might
+make of the pistol in his hand, he left the room with his
+companions.  The moment after, the lock of the door was heard to
+turn, and a heavy bar that hung beside it clattered as it was drawn
+across.
+
+"A few minutes gained is a great thing," cried Wilton.  "I have heard
+of people defending themselves long, by forming a sort of temporary
+barricade.  A single cavalier in the time of Cromwell kept at bay a
+large force for several hours.  In this deep window we are defended
+on all sides but one.  Let us do what we can to guard ourselves on
+that also."
+
+The furniture was scanty; but still the large table in the middle of
+the room, and a sideboard which stood in one corner, together with
+chairs and various smaller articles, were speedily formed into a
+little fortress, as it were, which enclosed the opening of the window
+in such a manner as to leave a space open towards the enemy of not
+more than two feet in width.  Wilton exerted himself to move all
+these without noise, and the Captain aided him zealously; while Laura
+clung to Lady Helen, and hid her eyes upon her new friend's bosom,
+anticipating every moment the return of the other party, and the
+commencement of a scene of strife and bloodshed.
+
+It is to the proceedings of those without the room, however, that we
+must more particularly direct our attention.
+
+"In the name of Heaven, Sir George," exclaimed both Rookwood and
+Fenwick, as soon as they were on the outside of the door--"do not let
+them go, on any account.  Our whole plan is blasted, and ourselves
+ruined for ever, if such a thing is to take place!"
+
+"Why," continued Fenwick, "this youth, this Wilton Brown, is
+secretary to the Earl of Byerdale, a natural son of Lord Sunbury, it
+is supposed, brought up from his infancy in the most violent Orange
+principles; and he will think himself justified in breaking his word
+with us the moment he is out of the house, and bringing upon us the
+troops from Hoo.  He knows me well by sight, too; and if he be let
+loose, I shall not consider my life worth a moment's purchase."
+
+"Even if you could trust him," said Rookwood, "there is the other,
+Captain Byerly as they call him, Green's great friend, who threw the
+money, which Lowick offered him to quit Green, in his face.  If the
+tidings we just now heard, that the matter has taken some wind, be
+true, this fellow Byerly will bring down the soldiers upon us, and
+swear to us anywhere."
+
+"But what am I to do?" demanded Sir George Barkley, hesitating.  "We
+shall have bloodshed and much noise, depend upon it."
+
+"Leave them all, locked in, where they are," said Sir William
+Parkyns--"they can do no harm there.  Let us ourselves, like brave
+and determined men, carry into execution at once the resolution we
+have formed.  Let us turn our horses' heads towards London; meet at
+Turnham Green, as was proposed; and while people are seeking for us
+here in vain, the usurper's life will be brought to an end, and his
+unsteady government overthrown for ever.  Everything in the country
+will be in confusion; our friends will be rising in all
+quarters;--the Duke of Berwick, I know, was at Calais yesterday;--the
+army can land in two days; and the advantages of our situation will
+all be secured by one prompt and decided blow.  I say, leave them
+where they are.  Before they can make their escape, the whole thing
+will be over, and we shall be safe."
+
+"Nonsense, Sir William," cried Fenwick, "nonsense, I say.  Here is
+Plessis, has evidently played into their hands; the man we put to
+guard the girl has been bribed off his post; the window itself is not
+so high but that an active man might easily drop from it, if he could
+see clearly where to light below; ere noon, to-morrow, the tidings of
+our assemblies would reach Kensington.  William of Orange would not
+stir out, and the whole plan would be frustrated.  We should be
+hunted down through the country like wild beasts, and you would be
+one of the first to repent the advice you have given."
+
+"But my good friend, Fenwick," said Sir George Barkley, "all this is
+very well.  But still you do not say what is to be done.  Every one
+objects to the plan which is proposed by another, and yet no one
+proposes anything that is not full of dangers."
+
+"For my part," said Charnock, who had hitherto scarcely spoken at
+all--"for my part, if you were to ask my opinion, I should say, Let
+us walk in--we are here eleven or twelve in all; twelve, I think--and
+just quietly make a circle round, and give them a pistol-shot or
+two.  If people WILL come prying into other persons' affairs, and
+meddling with things they have no business to concern themselves
+about, they must take the consequences."
+
+"Not in cold blood! not in cold blood!" exclaimed Rookwood.
+
+"And the women!" said Sir John Fenwick, "Remember the women!"
+
+"I hope William of Orange won't have a woman with him to-morrow,"
+said Charnock, coolly, "or if he has, that she'll not be upon my side
+of the carriage; I would never let a woman stand in the way when a
+great deed was to be done."
+
+"Well, for my part," said Fenwick, "I agree with Sir William Parkyns,
+that no time is to be lost in the execution of this business; but I
+agree also with Captain Rookwood, that it would be horrible to cut
+these men's throats in cold blood. What I propose is this, that we at
+once demand that they lay down their arms, and that, pledging our
+word of honour no evil shall happen to them, we march them down one
+by one to the boat, and ship them off for France.  It will be an
+affair of three hours to get them embarked; but that will be time
+well bestowed.  We can then proceed to the execution of our scheme at
+once, and in far greater safety.  If they make any resistance, the
+consequence be upon their own head."
+
+"But," said Sir George Barkley, "depend upon it they will not go.
+There is a determination in that young fellow's look which is not to
+be mistaken.  He will submit to no power but that of the law."
+
+"Well, then," said Sir John Fenwick, "frighten him with the law!
+Declare that you will take them all before a magistrate, to give an
+account of the blood that has been shed here.  There is blood on his
+collar, and his face too, for I saw it; and the whole stairs is
+spotted with blood.  Tell them that both the men must surrender and
+go before a magistrate.  The ladies, you can say, may go where they
+like, and do what they like, but the men must surrender.  Let half of
+us go down with the men, and lead or force them to the ship, while
+the rest bring down the two women a few minutes after."
+
+"That is not a bad plan at all, Fenwick," said Sir George Barkley.
+"Let us see what can be done by it.  We can but come to blows at
+last."
+
+While the latter part of this conversation had been going on between
+Fenwick and Barkley, the Jacobite called Charnock and a dull-looking
+man not unlike himself, but only shorter and more broadly made, had
+been speaking together in a low voice behind.  At first their
+conversation was carried on in a whisper; but at length the man said
+somewhat louder, "Oh, I'll do it!  That's the only way to settle
+it.  You take the one, and I'll take the other.  We don't readily
+miss our mark either of us."
+
+"Let Sir George begin his story," replied Charnock.  "There must be
+some talk at first, you know.  Then get quietly up behind our timid
+friends here, and when I give a nod, we will both fire at once."
+
+"I understand," answered the other.  "You had better see that your
+pistols are primed, Charnock, and that the balls are not out, for you
+rode at a rate down that hill which would shake almost any ball into
+the holster."
+
+"I looked just now," said Charnock--"it's all right.  Let us keep
+pretty near Sir George;" and turning round, he came nearer to Sir
+George Barkley, who was just finishing his conversation with Fenwick,
+as we have described.
+
+While holding this long consultation, the insurgents had not been
+many paces from the door, and they now turned and re-entered the
+room.  The state of defence in which Wilton and his companion had
+placed themselves showed a degree of determination that seemed to
+surprise and puzzle them a good deal; for Sir George Barkley again
+paused, and spoke to Sir John Fenwick, who was close behind him.
+
+"The more reason for doing as we propose," replied Sir John to his
+friend's observation.  "They will not resist going before a
+magistrate--at least, Wilton Brown will not, and we can easily manage
+the other."
+
+Sir George Barkley then advanced another step, saying to Wilton, who,
+notwithstanding the barrier he had raised, was still quite visible as
+far as the waist, "We have consulted, sir, on what it is necessary to
+do with you, and if your own account of yourselves be true, you will
+readily acquiesce in our determination. If you resist it, you show
+that you know yourselves to be guilty of some crime, and we must deal
+with you accordingly."
+
+"Pray, sir, what is your determination?" asked Wilton.  "For my part,
+I require free permission to quit this place with this gentleman and
+Lady Laura Gaveston; and nothing shall prevent me from so doing at
+the risk of my life."
+
+"You shall do so, sir," replied Sir George Barkley, "but you shall go
+before a magistrate in the first instance. Here are evident marks of
+violence having been committed upon the person of some one; the
+staircase, the vestibule, the corridors, are covered with blood; your
+coat, your collar, your face, are also bloody; and we feel ourselves
+bound, before we let you depart, to have this matter strictly
+inquired into."
+
+"Oh, go before a magistrate at once," said Laura, in a low voice: "we
+have nothing to fear from that, and they have everything."
+
+"Showing clearly that it is a pretence, dear lady," replied Wilton,
+in the same low tone. "Keep behind the barricade.  I see one of those
+men creeping up from the door with a pistol in his hand.--Sir," he
+continued, addressing Sir George Barkley, "in those circumstances,
+the best plan for you to pursue will be to bring a magistrate here. I
+neither know who you are, nor what are your views; but I find this
+young lady, who has been carried off from her father's house,
+illegally brought hither, and detained. I know the house to be a
+suspected one; and although, as I have before said, I neither know
+who you are, nor what are your views, and do not by any means wish to
+know, yet the circumstances in which I find you are sufficiently
+doubtful to justify me in refusing to quit this spot, and place
+myself in your hands, unless every man present gives me his word of
+honour as a gentleman that I shall go free whithersoever I will. If,
+therefore, you think a magistrate requisite to inquire into this
+business, send for one. I think, however, that you would do much
+better to plight me your word at once, and let me go. I know no one
+but Sir John Fenwick here:  therefore I can betray no one but him;
+and to Sir John Fenwick I pledge my word that I will not mention
+him."
+
+It was evident that Sir John Fenwick put no trust in such assurances,
+and he was seen speaking vehemently with Sir George Barkley. At the
+same moment, however, a low conversation was carried on in a slow and
+careless sort of manner by Charnock and the other, who were just
+behind.
+
+"I can't get a shot at the Captain," said Charnock, calmly.  "His
+head is covered by that table they've set on end.--Stop a bit, stop
+a bit!"
+
+"Better let me settle this young fellow first," said the other, "and
+then the stupid fools will be obliged to make a rush upon the
+Captain. When once blood is drawn, they must go on, you know."
+
+"Very well," replied Charnock, "I don't care"--and there was the
+sudden click of a pistol-lock heard behind.  "His eye is upon you,"
+said Charnock. "Make haste!  He is cocking his pistol!"
+
+The man instantly raised the weapon that was in his hand, and was in
+the very act of firing over the shoulder of Sir George Barkley, when
+his arm was suddenly knocked up by a blow from behind, and the ball
+passed through the window, a yard and a half above Wilton's head.
+
+Wilton instantly dropped the muzzle of his pistol, without returning
+the shot. But there was a cause for his so doing, which none of the
+conspirators themselves, who were all eagerly looking towards the
+spot where he stood, had yet perceived.
+
+While Charnock and the other had been speaking, a young gentleman had
+suddenly entered the room, and pushing rapidly forward through the
+group in the doorway, he had advanced to the front and knocked up the
+hand of the assassin just as he was in the very act of firing. The
+new comer was dressed in dark-coloured clothes, and more in the
+French than in the English costume of that day, with a curious sort
+of cravat of red silk tied in a bow beneath the chin. He wore his
+hat, which was trimmed with feathers, and a large red bow of ribands,
+and in his hand he bore nothing but a small cane with an amber head,
+while his person displayed no arms whatever, except a small riding
+sword, which every gentleman wore in that day.
+
+His figure was tall and commanding; his countenance open, noble, but
+somewhat stern; and there was to be remarked therein the peculiar
+expression which the pictures of Vandyke have handed down to us in
+the portraits of Charles I.  It was a melancholy expression; but in
+Charles that melancholy seemed somewhat mingled with weakness; while
+on the stern brow and tightly-compressed lips of the young stranger,
+might be read, by the physiognomist, vigour and determination almost
+approaching to obstinacy.
+
+The same, perhaps, might have been said of him which was said by the
+Roman sculptor when he beheld the picture of Charles, "That man will
+not die a natural death;" and in this instance, also, the prophecy
+would have been correct.  But there was something that might have
+spoken, too, of death upon the battle-field, or in the deadly breach,
+or in some enterprise where daring courage needed to be supported by
+unshrinking pertinacity and resolution.
+
+The sound of the pistol-shot fixed all eyes, for an instant, upon
+that particular point in the room towards which it had been fired;
+but the moment that the conspirators beheld the person who now stood
+amongst them, they instantly drew back in a circle. Every sword was
+thrust into its sheath, every hat was taken off, while, with a
+flashing eye and frowning brow, the young stranger turned to Sir
+George Barkley, exclaiming, "What is all this, sir? What is this,
+gentlemen? Are ye madmen? or fools? or villains?"
+
+"Those are hard words, your grace," replied Sir George Barkley, "and
+hard to stomach."
+
+"Not more than those persons deserve, sir," replied the stranger,
+"who betray the confidence of their King, when they know that he is
+powerless to punish them."
+
+"We are serving our King, my lord duke," replied Sir John Fenwick,
+"and not betraying his confidence. Are we not here in arms, my Lord
+of Berwick, perilling our lives, prepared for any enterprise, and all
+on the King's behalf?"
+
+"I say again, sir," replied the Duke of Berwick, "that those who
+abuse the trust reposed in them, so as to ruin their monarch's
+honour, his character, and his reputation, are tenfold greater
+traitors than those who have stripped him of his crown. There is but
+one excuse for your conduct, that you have acted with mistaken zeal
+rather than criminal intent. But you have aggravated the guilt of
+your plans by concealing them till the last moment, not only from
+your King, but from your Commander-in-chief. All here who hold
+commissions, or at least all but one or two, hold them under my hand
+as generalissimo of my father's forces. Those commissions authorize
+you to raise men for the service of your lawful sovereign, and to
+kill or take prisoner his enemies arrayed in arms against you, but to
+assassinate no man; and I feel heartily ashamed that any person
+leagued in this great cause with me, should not be able to
+distinguish between war and murder. However, on these subjects let us
+speak no more at present, for there are matters even more important
+to be thought of I heard of this but yesterday morning, and at the
+imminent peril of my life have come to England to stop such deeds. I
+sought you in London, Sir George Barkley, and have followed you
+hither; and from what I have heard, I have to tell you that your
+coming to England has been discovered, and that for the last four or
+five days a warrant has been out against you, without your knowing
+it. This I learned, beyond all doubt, from my Lady Middleton. There
+is reason, also, to believe that your whole designs are known, sirs,
+though it would seem all your names have not yet been obtained. My
+advice, therefore, is, that you instantly disperse to different parts
+of the country, or effect your escape to France. For you, Sir George,
+there is no chance but to retire to France at once, as the warrant is
+out."
+
+"It most fortunately happens," said Sir George Barkley, "that a ship
+is on the point of sailing, and lies in the river here, under Dutch
+colours. Your grace will, of course, go back in her?"
+
+"No, sir," replied the Duke--"I shall go as I came, in an open boat.
+But you have no time to lose, for I know that suspicion is attached
+to this spot. In the first place, however, tell me, what you have
+here. What new outrage is this that I have just seen attempted? If I
+had not entered at the very moment, cold and cowardly bloodshed would
+have taken place five minutes ago."
+
+The Duke's eyes were fixed upon Wilton as he spoke; and that
+gentleman, now seeing and understanding whom he had to deal with, put
+back the pistol into his belt, and advanced, saying,--
+
+"My lord, it is probable I owe my life to your inter-position; and
+to you the circumstances in which I am placed will be explained in a
+moment. In your honour and integrity, I have confidence; but the
+murderous purpose which you have just disappointed shows how well I
+was justified in doubting the intentions of the men by whom I was but
+now surrounded."
+
+"Had you given them no offence, sir?" demanded the Duke of Berwick.
+"I can scarcely suppose that so dark and sanguinary an act would have
+been attempted had you not given some cause. I saw the pistol
+levelled over Sir George Barkley's shoulder, while he seemed speaking
+to you. That I considered a most unfair act, and stopped it. But you
+must surely have done something to provoke such deeds.--Good
+heavens! the Lady Helen Oswald!" he continued, as the elder lady
+advanced, with Laura clinging to her.  "Madam, I fully thought you
+were at St. Germain.--Can you tell us anything of this strange
+affair?"
+
+"But too much, my lord," replied the lady, speaking eagerly, "but too
+much for the honour of these men, who have thought fit to violate
+every principle of justice and humanity. This young lady beside me
+has been dragged from her father's house by the orders of some of
+these gentlemen here present, beyond all doubt. This young gentleman
+has traced her hither, legally authorized to carry her back to her
+father; and although he plighted his honour, and I pledged my word
+for him, that he would do nothing and say nothing to compromise any
+of the persons here present, they not only refused to let him depart,
+but have, as you saw yourself, most treacherously attempted to take
+his life while they were affecting to parley with him."
+
+"Madam," said the Duke of Berwick, in a sorrowful tone, "I am deeply
+grieved and pained by all that has occurred.  I confess I never felt
+despondency till I discovered that persons, pretending to be my
+father's friends, have made his cause the pretext for committing
+crimes and acts like these.  I have already heard this young lady's
+story. All London is ringing with it; and the Earl of Aylesbury gave
+me this morning, what is probably the real explanation of the whole
+business. We will not enter upon it now, for there is no time to be
+spared. I feel and know--and I say it with bitter regret--that the
+deeds which these gentlemen have done, and the schemes which they
+have formed, will do more to injure the cause of their legitimate
+sovereign than the loss of twenty pitched battles. Sir George
+Barkley, I beg you would make no reply. Provide for your safety, sir.
+Your long services and sufferings are sufficient to make some
+atonement; and I will take care to conceal from the ears of the King,
+as far as possible, how you have misused his authority. Sir John
+Fenwick and the rest of you gentlemen must act as you think fit in
+regard to remaining in England, or going to the Continent. But I am
+inclined to recommend to you the latter, as the safest expedient. You
+will leave me to deal with this gentleman and his friends; for I need
+not tell you that I shall suffer no farther injury or insult to be
+offered to them. As to the personage who actually fired the pistol, I
+have merely to tell him, that should I ever meet with him in
+circumstances where I have the power to act, I will undoubtedly
+punish him for his conduct this night."
+
+The conspirators whispered for a moment amongst themselves; and at
+length Sir William Parkyns took a step forward, saying, "Are we to
+understand your grace that you will give us no assistance from the
+French forces under your command?"
+
+"You are so to understand me," replied the Duke of Berwick, sternly:
+"I will not, sir, allude distinctly to the schemes that you have
+formed. But you are all well aware of them; and I tell you that I
+will give no aid, support, or countenance whatsoever, either to such
+schemes or to the men who have formed them. At the same time, let me
+say, that had there been--instead of such schemes--a general rising
+against the usurper--ay, or even a partial rising--nay, had I found
+twenty gentlemen in arms who needed my help in the straightforward,
+honest, upright intent of re-seating their sovereign on his lawful
+throne, I would not have hesitated for a moment to land the troops
+under my command, and to have made a last determined stand for honour
+and my father's rights. As it is, gentlemen, I have nothing farther
+to say, but take care of yourselves. I shall remain here for a couple
+of hours, and then return with all speed to France."
+
+"But does not your grace run a great risk," said Sir George Barkley,
+"in remaining so long?"
+
+"I fear no risk, sir," said the Duke of Berwick, "in a righteous
+cause; and I do not wish that any man should say I was amongst the
+first to fly after I had warned others. You have all time, gentlemen,
+if you make use of it wisely. Some, I see, are taking advantage of my
+caution already. Sir George, you had better not be left behind in the
+race. You say there is a ship in the river--get to her, and be gone
+with all speed."
+
+"But the captain will not sail without the Lady Helen," said the
+conspirator, with some hesitation: "she, it seems, has hired the
+vessel, and he refused this morning to go without her."
+
+"That shall be no impediment," said the lady. "You may tell the
+captain that I set him free from his engagement, and I will give an
+order to his grace that the money may be paid which is the man's due.
+I told you before, Miss Villars had met with a severe accident, and I
+can neither quit her in such circumstances, nor go till she has
+recovered."
+
+"Will you be kind enough, madam," replied Sir George, who always had
+thoughts for his own safety, "to write what you have said in these
+tablets? Here is a pencil."
+
+The lady took the tablets and wrote; and while she did so, two or
+three, more of the conspirators dropped quietly out of the room. The
+Duke of Berwick at the same time advanced, and said a few kindly
+words to Lady Laura, and spoke for a moment to Wilton, with a
+familiar smile, in regard to the risk he had run.
+
+"To tell the truth," he said, "I was almost afraid that I should
+myself meet with a shot between you; for I saw you had your pistol
+cocked in your hand, and expected that the next fire would have been
+upon your side."
+
+"I saw you knock his arm up, sir," replied Wilton; "and though I was
+not aware of the name of the person who entered, I was not a little
+rejoiced to see, at least, one man of honour amongst them."
+
+"Alas! sir," replied the Duke, in a lower tone, "they are all, more
+or less, men of honour; but you must remember that there is a
+fanaticism in politics as well as in religion, and men will think
+that a great end will justify any intermediate means. An oak, planted
+in the sand, sir, is as soon blown down as any other tree; and it is
+not every heart that is firm and strong enough constantly to support
+the honour that is originally implanted in it against the furious
+blasts of passion, interest, or ambition. You must remember, too,
+that those who are called Jacobites in this country have been hunted
+somewhat like wolves and wild beasts; and nothing drives zeal into
+fanaticism so soon as persecution."
+
+"My lord, I am now ready to depart," said Sir George Barkley,
+approaching, "and doubt not to be able to make my views and motives
+good to my royal master."
+
+"There is none, sir, who will abhor your views so much," replied the
+Duke of Berwick, proudly, "though he may applaud your motives. But
+you linger, Sir George. Can I do anything for you, or for those other
+gentlemen by the door?"
+
+"Nothing, your grace," replied Sir George Barkley; "but we would fain
+see you provide for your own safety."
+
+"Oh, no fear, no fear," replied the Duke. "Gentlemen, good night. I
+trust to hear, when in another land, that this bad affair has ended
+without evil consequences to yourselves.  To the cause of your
+sovereign it may be a great detriment; but I pray God that no whisper
+of the matter may get abroad so as to affect his honour or bring
+suspicion on his name.  Once more, good night!"
+
+Sir George Barkley bowed his head, and followed by three others, who
+had still lingered, quitted the room.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+
+There came a pause after the conspirators were gone, and the Duke of
+Berwick gazed down upon the floor for a moment or two, as if thinking
+of what was next to be done.
+
+"I shall be obliged to stop," he said at length, "for an hour or so,
+till my horses can feed, for they want refreshment sadly. To say the
+truth, I want some myself, if I can obtain it. I must go down to the
+stable, and see; for though that is not exactly the place to procure
+food for a man, yet, in all probability, I shall get it nowhere else.
+I found the good master of the house, indeed, who is an old
+acquaintance of mine, hid in the farthest nook of his own stable,
+terrified out of his life, and assuring me that there would certainly
+be bloodshed up stairs."
+
+"I will go down and look for him, your grace," replied Captain
+Byerly, coming more forward than he had hitherto done. "You will find
+no lack of provisions, depend upon it, in Monsieur Plessis's house."
+
+"One moment, sir," said the Duke, stopping him as he was going: "have
+I not seen your face before?"
+
+"Long ago, sir, long ago," replied the Captain. "I had the honour of
+commanding a troop, sir, in your regiment, during all that sad
+business in Ireland--Byerly is my name."
+
+"I remember you well, sir," said the Duke, "and your good services.
+Should we meet in France, I may be able to repay them--especially if
+your views are still of a military kind."
+
+Byerly bowed his head, without reply, but looked much gratified; and
+while he proceeded to look for Plessis, the Duke once more turned to
+the Lady Helen.
+
+"I am sorry," he said, "to hear, from your account, madam, that an
+accident has happened to Miss Villars. I have been so long absent
+from St. Germain myself, that it is not very long since I heard of
+her father's death. May I inquire if she is seriously hurt? for I
+should apprehend that, after what has occurred, persons holding our
+opinions would run considerable risks in this country, and be
+subjected to a persecution even more severe than heretofore."
+
+The Lady Helen replied simply that her young friend was seriously
+hurt, and could not be removed; but she avoided carefully all
+reference to the nature of the injury she had received. The Duke then
+turned the conversation to indifferent subjects, spoke cheerfully and
+gaily with Lady Laura and Wilton, and showed that calm sort of
+equanimity in circumstances of danger and difficulty which is partly a
+gift of nature, and partly an acquisition wrung from many perils and
+evils endured. Ere long, Byerly returned with Plessis, and food and
+wine were speedily procured. The tables were set in order, and the
+Duke remained for about a quarter of an hour refreshing himself;
+while Wilton and the two ladies continued to converse with him,
+delaying their departure at his request, lest any of the more
+unscrupulous conspirators should still be lingering in the
+neighbourhood.
+
+Plessis, however, was evidently uneasy; and he did not scruple at
+length to express his fear, that amongst all the events of that
+night, something might have happened to call the attention of the
+world at large upon what was going on in his dwelling.
+
+Wilton's apprehensions, in regard to the Duke, were somewhat of the
+same nature; for he remembered that Arden, the Messenger, whom he now
+knew to be a thorough coward, had fled at the beginning of the whole
+business, and would most likely return accompanied by as large a
+force as he could raise in the neighbourhood.
+
+These fears he failed not to communicate to the Duke of Berwick; but
+that nobleman looked up with a gay smile, replying, "My good sir,
+my horse can go no farther. I rode one to death yesterday, and this
+one, which I bought in London, is already knocked up: if I must be
+caught like a rat in a rat-trap, as well here as anywhere."
+
+"But will it not be better," said Wilton, "to accompany me and the
+Lady Laura to High Halstow, where you can instantly procure a horse?
+We must proceed thither on foot.  I suppose you are not likely to be
+known in this part of the country, and my being with you may shield
+you from some danger."
+
+"By no means a bad plan," said the Duke, starting up--"let us go at
+once! When anything feasible is proposed, we should lose no time in
+executing it."
+
+Wilton was ready to depart, and Lady Laura was eager to do so. Every
+moment, indeed, of their stay made her feel fresh apprehensions lest
+that night should not be destined to close without some more painful
+event still, than those which she had already witnessed.
+
+She turned, however, to the Lady Helen before she went, and with the
+peculiar sort of quiet grace which distinguished her, approached her
+gently and kissed her cheek, saying, "I can never thank you
+sufficiently, dear lady, for the kindness you have shown me, or the
+deliverance which I owe, in the first place, to you; and I thank you
+for the kindness you have shown me here, as much as for my
+deliverance: for if it had not been for the comfort it gave me, I do
+believe I should have sunk under the sorrow, and agitation, and
+terror, which I felt when I was first brought hither. I hope and
+believe, however, that I do not leave you here never to see you
+again."
+
+Lady Helen smiled, and laid her hand gently upon Wilton's arm.
+
+"There is a link between him and me, lady," she said, "which can
+never be broken; and I shall often, I hope, hear of your welfare from
+him, for I trust that you will see him not infrequently."
+
+Lady Laura blushed slightly, but she was not one to suffer any fine
+or noble feeling of the heart to be checked by such a thing as false
+shame.
+
+"I trust I shall," she answered, raising her eyes to Wilton's face--"
+I trust I shall see him often, very often; and I shall never see him,
+certainly, without feelings of pleasure and gratitude. You do not
+know that this is the second time he has delivered me from great
+danger."
+
+The Duke of Berwick smiled, not, indeed, at Lady Laura's words, but
+at the blush that came deeper and deeper into her cheek as she spoke.
+He made no observation, however, but changed the conversation by
+addressing Wilton, "Wherever I am to procure a horse under your good
+guidance, my dear sir," he said, "I must, I believe, take another
+name than my own; for though Berwick and London are very distant
+places, yet there might be compulsory means found of bringing them
+unpleasantly together. You must call me, therefore, Captain
+Churchill, if you please;--a name," he added, with a sigh, "which,
+very likely, the gentleman who now fills the throne of England might
+be very well inclined to bestow upon me himself. Lady Helen, I wish
+you good night, and take my leave. Master Plessis, I leave the horse
+with you: he never was worth ten pounds, and now he's not worth five;
+so you may sell him to pay for my entertainment."
+
+Bowing to the very ground from various feelings of respect, French,
+English, and Jacobite, Plessis took a candle and lighted the Duke
+down stairs, while Wilton followed, accompanied by Laura and Captain
+Byerly. The outer door was then opened, and the whole party issued
+forth into the field which surrounded the house, finding themselves
+suddenly in the utter darkness of a moonless, starless, somewhat
+foggy night.
+
+From the little stone esplanade, which we have mentioned, lay a
+winding road up to the gate in the walls, and along that Wilton and
+his companion turned their steps, keeping silence as they went, with
+the listening ear bent eagerly to catch a sound. It was not, indeed,
+a sense of general apprehension only which made Wilton listen so
+attentively, for, in truth, he had fancied at the very moment when
+they were issuing forth from the house, that he had heard a low
+murmur as if of people talking at some distance.
+
+The same sound had met the ears of the Duke of Berwick, and had
+produced the same effect; but nothing farther was heard till they
+reached the gate, and Wilton's hand was stretched out to open it;
+when suddenly a loud "Who goes there?" was pronounced on the opposite
+side of the gate, and half-a-dozen men, who had been lying in the
+inside of the wall, surrounded the party on all sides.
+
+Several persons now spoke at once. "Who goes there?" cried one voice
+again; but at the same time another exclaimed, "Call up the
+Messenger, call up the Messenger from the other gate."
+
+These last words gave Wilton some satisfaction, though they were by
+no means pleasant to the ears of the Duke of Berwick.
+
+The former, however, replied to the challenge, "A friend!" and
+instantly added, "God save King William!"
+
+"God save King William!" cried one of the voices: "you cry that on
+compulsion, I've a notion. Pray, who are you that cry `God save King
+William'?"
+
+"My name, sir, is Wilton Brown," replied the young gentleman,
+"private secretary to the Earl of Byerdale. Where is the Messenger
+who came down with me? Be so good as to call him up immediately."
+
+"Oh! you are the young gentleman who came down with the Messenger,
+are you?" said one of the others: "he was in a great taking lest you
+should be murdered."
+
+"It was not his fault," replied Brown, somewhat bitterly, "that I was
+not murdered; and if it had not been for Captain Churchill and this
+other gentleman, who came to my assistance at the risk of their
+lives, I certainly should have been assassinated by the troop of
+Jacobites and smugglers amongst whom I fell."
+
+The Duke of Berwick could not refrain from a low laugh at the
+description given of the persons whom they had just seen; but Wilton
+spoke loud again, in order to cover the somewhat ill-timed merriment
+of his companion, asking of the person who had replied, "Pray, who
+are you, sir?"
+
+"I am head constable of High Halstow," replied the man, "and I
+remained here with our party, while Master Arden and the rest, with
+the soldiers from Hoo, went round to the other gate."
+
+"Why did not the cowardly rascal go in by this gate himself,"
+demanded Wilton, "instead of putting you, my friend, at the post of
+danger?"
+
+"Ay, it was shabby enough of him," replied the man; "but I don't fear
+anything; not I."
+
+"I'm afraid, my good fellows, it is too late," replied Wilton.  "All
+the gang have got off near an hour ago. If that stupid Messenger had
+known what he was about, this affair would have had a different
+result; but he ran away at the first shot that was fired--Have you
+sent for him?" he continued, after a moment's pause.
+
+"Oh yes, sir, we've sent for him," said the man, "though it's not
+much use, if they are all gone, sir."
+
+"Oh yes," replied Wilton, "you may as well make a good search amongst
+the grounds and in the hedges. It will say something for your
+activity, at all events. I shall go on to Halstow, but I wish one or
+two of you would just show us the way, and when Arden comes up, tell
+him to come after me immediately. I have a great mind to put him
+under arrest, and send him up to the Earl, for his bad conduct."
+
+The tone in which Wilton spoke, and the very idea of his arresting
+the arrestor of all men, and sending up the Messenger of State as a
+common prisoner to London, proved so impressive with the personages
+he addressed, that they made not the slightest opposition to his
+purpose of proceeding, but sent one of their number to show him the
+way.
+
+Accompanied, therefore, by Lady Laura, the Duke of Berwick, and
+Captain Byerly, Wilton proceeded as fast as possible up the lane.
+When they had gone about a hundred yards, however, he said, "Captain
+Churchill, will you have the kindness to give the lady your arm? I
+will follow you somewhat more slowly, for I want to speak a few words
+to this fellow Arden.--He must not see you, if it can be avoided,"
+he added, in a low tone; "and I think I hear him coming."
+
+It was indeed as Wilton imagined. Arden had come round with all
+speed, and joined the head constable of High Halstow, demanding
+eagerly, "Where is Mr. Brown?"
+
+"He is gone on," replied the constable, "with the other gentlemen;
+and a mighty passion he is in, too, at you, Mr.  Arden. He vows that
+you left him to be murdered, and that he would have been murdered
+too, if it had not been for that Captain Churchill that is with him."
+
+"Captain Churchill!" cried the Messenger--"Captain Churchill! Why,
+Captain Churchill was sick in bed yesterday morning, to my certain
+knowledge!"
+
+After a moment's thought, however, he concluded that the person who
+chose to assume that name might be Lord Sherbrooke, and he asked,
+"What sort of a man was he? Was he a slight young gentleman, about my
+height?"
+
+"Oh bless you, no," replied the constable. "There wasn't one of them
+that was not three or four inches taller than you."
+
+"Captain Churchill!" said the Messenger--"Captain Churchill!" and he
+added, in a lower voice, "I'll bet my life this is some d---d
+Jacobite, who has imposed himself upon this foolish boy for Captain
+Churchill. I'll be after them, and see."
+
+Thus saying, he set off at full speed after Wilton and his party, and
+reached them within a minute after that gentleman had dropped behind.
+
+"Is that you, Mr. Arden?" demanded Wilton, as he came up. "Stop a
+moment, I wish to speak to you."
+
+"And I wish to go on, and see who you've got there, sir," said Arden,
+in a somewhat saucy tone, at the same time endeavouring to pass
+Wilton.
+
+"Stop, sir!" cried the young gentleman, catching him by the collar.
+"Do you mean to say, that you will now disobey my orders, after
+having left me to provide for my own security, with the dastardly
+cowardice that you have displayed? Did not the Earl direct you to
+obey me in everything?"
+
+"I will answer it all to the Earl," replied the man, in an insolent
+tone. "If he chooses to put me under a boy, I do not choose to be
+collared by one. Let me go, Mr. Brown, I say."
+
+"I order you, sir," said Brown, without loosing his hold, "to go
+instantly back, and aid the people in searching the grounds of that
+house!--now, let me see if you will disobey!"
+
+"I will search here first, though," said the man. "By, I believe
+that's Sir George Barkley, on before there. He's known to be in
+England. Let me go, Mr. Brown, I say, or worse will come of it!" and
+he put his hand to his belt, as if seeking for a pistol.
+
+Without another word, Wilton instantly knocked him down with one blow
+of his clenched fist, and at the same moment he called out aloud,
+"Captain Byerly! and you constable, who are showing the way--come back
+here, and take this man into custody, and bear witness that he
+refuses to search for the Jacobites in the way I order him.
+Constable, I shall want you to take him to town in custody this
+night.  I will show you my warrant for what I do when we get to the
+inn."
+
+The two persons whom he addressed came back instantly at his call;
+and when the Messenger rose--considerably crest-fallen from Wilton's
+sudden application to measures which he had not expected--he found
+himself collared by two strong men, and led along unwillingly upon
+the road he had before been treading.
+
+"Do not let him chatter, Captain," Wilton whispered to Captain
+Byerly, as he passed on; and then immediately walking forward, he
+joined the Duke and the Lady Laura.  Byerly, who understood what he
+was about, kept the Messenger at some distance behind; but,
+nevertheless, some sharp words passing between them reached Wilton's
+ear during the first quarter of an hour of their journey; then came a
+dogged silence; but at length the voice of Byerly was again heard,
+exclaiming, "Mr. Brown, Mr. Arden says, that, if you will overlook
+what has passed, he will go back, and do as you order."
+
+"I shall certainly not look over the business," replied Brown, aloud,
+"unless he promises not only to obey my orders at present, but also
+to make a full apology to me to-morrow."
+
+"He says he will do what you please, sir," replied Byerly; and Wilton
+turning back, heard the sullen apologies of the Messenger.
+
+"Mr. Arden," he said, "you have behaved extremely ill, well knowing,
+as you do know, that you were placed entirely under my orders.
+However, I shall pardon your conduct both upon the first occasion,
+and in regard to the present business, if you now do exactly as you
+are told. By your running away at the time you ought to have come
+forward to assist me, you have lost an opportunity of serving the
+state, in a manner which does not occur every day. In regard to the
+gentleman who has gone on, and whom you were foolish enough to think
+Sir George Barkley, I pledge you my honour that such is not the case.
+Sir George Barkley cannot be less than twenty years older than he is,
+and may be thirty."
+
+"He's not Captain Churchill, though," replied the man, doggedly.
+
+"Do not begin to speak impertinently again, sir!" said Wilton, in a
+sharp tone. "But go back, as I before ordered, with the constable:
+you know nothing of who that gentleman is, and my word ought to be
+sufficient for you, when I tell you that he has this very night not
+only aided me in setting free the Lady Laura, but absolutely saved my
+life at the risk of his own from the very gang of Jacobites in whose
+hands you most negligently left me. To drop this subject, however, I
+have one more caution to give you," he added, in a lower voice. "It
+is Lord Sherbrooke's wish that you should say not one syllable in
+regard to his share in the events of this night."
+
+"Ay, sir, but I ought to ascertain whether he be safe or not. I know
+he has his wild pranks as well as most young men; but still one ought
+to know that he's safe."
+
+"If my word for you is not sufficient on that score," replied
+Wilton, "you will find him at the house to which I directed you to
+go. It is now clear of all its obnoxious tenants, and I doubt not,
+Lord Sherbrooke will speak to you for a moment, if you wish it."
+
+Thus saying, Wilton turned upon his heel, and walking quickly onward,
+soon overtook the Duke of Berwick and Lady Laura. They were now not
+far from High Halstow, and the rest of the way was soon accomplished.
+But as they passed into the door of the public-house, Captain Byerly,
+who came last, touched Wilton on the arm, and whispered, "Do you know
+that fellow is following you?"
+
+"No, indeed," answered Wilton: "what can be done?"
+
+"Go and speak to the master of the house," said Byerly, quickly. "I
+will wait here in the door, and take care he does not come in. The
+landlord will find means to get the Duke away by the back."
+
+"I dare not trust him," replied Wilton, in the same low tone. "I feel
+sure he has betrayed me once to-night already."
+
+"If he did," answered Byerly, hastily, "it was because he thought you
+on the wrong side of the question. He's a well-known man hereabouts,
+and you may trust him with any secrets on that side."
+
+Wilton followed the Duke of Berwick and Laura as fast as possible,
+and found the landlord showing them into a small sanded parlour on
+the left hand, after passing a door which swung to and fro with a
+pulley.
+
+"Come in here, landlord," he said, as he passed; "come in, and shut
+the door. Have you a horse saddled?" he continued.
+
+"I have one that can be saddled in a minute," said the landlord,
+looking first at Berwick and then at Wilton.
+
+"Have you any back way," continued Wilton, "by which this gentleman
+can get out of the town without going through the street?"
+
+"Ay have I," answered the man; "through our stable, through the
+garden, lead the horse down the steps, and then away to Stroud.
+There's no missing the way."
+
+"Well then, sir," said Wilton, grasping the Duke's hand, "this is
+your only chance for safety. That rascally Messenger has followed us
+to the door, and doubtless if there be any magistrates in the
+neighbourhood, or constables left in the place, we shall have them
+down upon us in ten minutes."
+
+"Come with me, my lord, come with me!" cried the landlord, bursting
+into energy in a moment. "I know who you are well enough. But they
+shan't catch you here, I warrant you. Come into the stable: there's
+not a minute to be lost; for there's old Sir John Bulrush, and Parson
+Jeffreys, who's a magistrate too, drinking away up at the rectory
+till the people come back from Plessis's house." Berwick lingered
+not; but taking a quick leave of Lady Laura, and shaking Wilton's
+hand, he followed the landlord from the room.  Laura and Wilton stood
+silent for a minute or two, listening to every sound, and calculating
+how long it might be before the horse was saddled and the Duke upon
+his way.  Before they imagined it possible, however, the landlord
+returned, saying, in a low voice, but with an air of joyful triumph,
+"He is gone; and if they were after him this minute, the way through
+my garden gives him the start by half a mile."
+
+"And now, landlord," said Wilton, "send off some one on horseback to
+get us a conveyance from Stroud to carry this young lady on the way
+to London. I suppose such a thing is not to be procured here."
+
+"That there is not," replied the landlord; "and unless I send your
+horse, sir, or the Messenger's, or the Captain's, I have none to go."
+
+"Send mine, then, send mine!" replied Wilton. "But here comes Captain
+Byerly himself, bringing us news, doubtless."
+
+"No news," answered Byerly, "except that the rascal went up the
+street, and I followed him to the door of the parsonage. Your
+parson's a magistrate--isn't he, Wicks?"
+
+The landlord gave a nod; and Byerly continued, "By Jove, I'll be off
+then, for I'm not fond of magistrates, and he'll be down here soon."
+
+"You had better bid them bring down a chaise for the gentleman and
+lady from Stroud," said the landlord. "That will save me from sending
+some one on the gentleman's horse."
+
+"No, no, landlord, no, no!" answered Byerly, "you are not up to a
+stratagem. Send your ostler with me on Mr.  Brown's horse. We'll go
+clattering along the street like the devil, if we can but get off
+before the justices come down, and they'll take it into their wise
+noddles that one of us is the gentleman who has just gone. Come,
+Wicks, there's no time to spare. We shall meet again, Mr. Brown; good
+night, good night. I shall tell the Colonel that we've done the
+business much more tidily than I could have expected." And without
+further ceremony he quitted the room.
+
+Another pause ensued, during which but a few words passed between
+Wilton and Lady Laura, who sat gazing thoughtfully into the fire.
+Wilton stood by the window and listened, thinking he heard some
+distant sounds as of persons speaking, and loud tongues at the
+further end of the street.  A minute after, however, there came the
+clatter of horses' feet upon the pavement of the yard; and in
+another instant Byerly's voice was heard, saying, "Come, put to your
+spurs," and two horses galloped away from the inn as hard as they
+could go.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+IT is wonderful how scenes of danger and difficulty--it is wonderful
+how scenes of great excitement of any kind, indeed--draw heart to
+heart, and bind together, in bonds indissoluble, the beings that have
+passed through them side by side.  They are never to be broken, those
+bonds; for between us and the persons with whom we have trod such
+paths there is established a partnership in powerful memories, out of
+which we can never withdraw our interest. But it is not alone that
+they are permanent which renders them different from all lighter
+ties; it is that they bring us closer, more entirely to each other;
+that instead of sharing the mere thoughts of what we may call the
+outward heart, we enter into the deepest recesses, we see all the
+hidden treasures, we know the feelings and the ideas that are
+concealed from the general eye of day, we are no longer kept in the
+porch, but admitted into the temple itself.
+
+Wilton was left alone in the small parlour of the inn with Lady
+Laura; and as soon as he heard the horses' feet gallop away, he
+turned towards her with a glad smile. But when he did so, he found
+that her beautiful eyes were now fixed upon him with a gaze deep and
+intense--a gaze which showed that the whole thoughts and feelings of
+her heart were abstracted from everything else on earth to meditate
+on all that she owed to him, and on the things alone that were
+connected therewith.
+
+She dropped her eyes as soon as they met his; but that one look was
+overpowering to the man who now certainly loved her as deeply as it
+is possible for man to love woman.  Many a difficulty and doubt had
+been removed from his mind by the words which Lord Sherbrooke had
+spoken while affecting to seek for the warrant; and there were vague
+hopes of high destinies in his heart. But it must be acknowledged,
+that if there had been none, he would have given way, even as he did.
+
+He advanced towards her, he took her hand in his, he pressed it
+between both his own, he kissed it tenderly, passionately, and more
+than once. Lady Laura lifted up her eyes to his face, not blushing,
+but very pale.
+
+"Oh, Wilton," she said, "what do I not owe you!" and she burst into
+tears. The words, the look, the very tears themselves, were all more
+than sufficient encouragement.
+
+"You owe me nothing, Laura," Wilton said. "Would to God that I had
+such an opportunity of serving you as to make me forgive in myself
+the rash, the wild, the foolish feelings that, in spite of every
+struggle and every effort, have grown up in my heart towards you, and
+have taken possession of me altogether. But, oh, Laura, I cannot hope
+that you will forgive them, I cannot forgive them myself. They can--I
+know they can, only produce anguish and sorrow to myself, and excite
+anger, perhaps indignation, in you."
+
+"Oh no, no, no, Wilton!" she cried, eagerly, "not that, not that!
+neither anger, nor indignation, nor anything like it, but grief--and
+yet not grief either--oh no, not grief!--Some apprehension, perhaps,
+some anxiety both for your happiness and my own. But if you do feel
+all you say, as I believe and am sure you do, such feelings, so far
+as depends upon me, should produce you no anguish and no pain; but I
+must not conceal from you that I very much fear, my father would
+never--"
+
+An increasing noise at the door of the house broke in upon what Laura
+was saying. There were cries, and loud tongues, and vociferations of
+many kinds; among which, one voice was heard, exclaiming, "Go round
+to the back door!"
+
+Another person, apparently just under the window, shouted, "I am very
+sure that was not the man!" and then added, "Bring out my horse,
+however, bring out my horse! I'll catch them, and raise the hue and
+cry as I go!"
+
+At the same time there were other voices speaking in the passage, and
+one loud sonorous tongue exclaiming, "Ali, Master Wicks, Master
+Wicks! I thought you would get yourself into a scrape one of these
+days, Master Wicks;" to which the low deep voice of the landlord was
+heard, replying--
+
+"I have got myself into no scrape, your reverence. I don't know what
+you mean or what you wait.--Search?  You may search any part of the
+house you like. I don't care!  If there were twenty people here, I
+have nothing to do with it. I can't refuse gentlemen to put up their
+horses, or to give them a bowl of punch, or a mug of ale. There, sir,
+there's a gentleman and lady in that parlour. Pray, sir, walk in, and
+see whether they are Jacobites or smugglers or what riots."
+
+As these words sounded close to them, Lady Laura sunk down again into
+her chair; and Wilton, drawing a little back, hesitated, for a
+moment, whether he should go out himself and notice what was taking
+place, or not. The question, however, was decided for him by the door
+of the room being thrown suddenly open, and the rotund person of the
+clergyman of the parish, bearing, in the "fair round belly with fat
+capon lined," the sign and symbol affixed by Shakspeare to the
+"Justice of Peace," entered the apartment. He gazed with some
+surprise upon two persons, who, notwithstanding some slight disarray
+in their apparel from all the events which had lately taken place,
+still bore the appearance of belonging to the highest class of
+society.
+
+The reverend justice had entered the room with a look of pompous
+importance, which was diminished, but not entirely done away, by
+evident surprise at the appearance of Laura and Wilton. The young
+gentleman, however, was not particularly well pleased with the
+interruption, and still less with this domineering air, which he
+hastened to extinguish as fast as possible.
+
+"Pray, sir, what do you want?" he demanded, addressing the
+magistrate, "and who are you?"
+
+"Nay, sir," answered the reverend gentleman, "what I want is, to know
+who you are. I have here information that there is in this house a
+notorious Jacobite malefactor, returned from beyond seas, contrary to
+law, named Sir George Barkley. I am a magistrate for the county, sir,
+and I have information, I say."
+
+"Upon oath, sir?" demanded Wilton.
+
+"No, sir, not upon oath, not upon oath," replied the clergyman, "but
+what is quite as good, upon the word of a Messenger of State, sir--of
+Mr. Arden, the Council Messenger, sir."
+
+"Landlord!" exclaimed Wilton, seeing the face of Wicks amongst
+several others at the door, "be so good as to bring Mr. Arden, the
+Messenger, here. Bring him by the collar, if he does not come
+willingly. I will be answerable for the consequences."
+
+The magistrate looked astounded; but the landlord came forward with a
+grin and a low bow, saying, "The gentleman has mounted his horse,
+sir, and ridden after those other two gentlemen who went away a
+quarter of an hour ago; but, Lord bless you, sir," he added, with a
+sly look, "he'll never catch them. Why, his horse is quite lame."
+
+"The fact is," replied Wilton, "this man Arden did not choose to come
+in here, as he well knew I should certainly send him to London in
+custody, to answer for his bad conduct this night.--Sir, I beg to
+inform you, that I am private secretary to the Earl of Byerdale; and
+that this young lady, the daughter of the Duke of Gaveston, having
+been carried off from the terrace near his house by agents, it is
+supposed, of the late King James II., for the purpose of drawing over
+her father to support that faction, the Duke, who is pleased to
+repose some trust in me, authorized me, by this paper under his hand,
+to search for and deliver the lady, while at the same time the Earl
+of Byerdale intrusted me with this warrant for the purposes herein
+mentioned, and put this man Arden, the Messenger, under my direction
+and control. At the very first sight of danger the Messenger ran
+away, and by so doing left me with every chance of my being murdered
+by a gang of evil-disposed persons in this neighbourhood.  On his
+return with a large body of constables and some military to the house
+of a person who is named Plessis, I understand, he refused to obey
+the orders I gave him, and followed me hither, alleging that one of
+two gentlemen who had come to my assistance, and to whom I owe my own
+life and the liberation of this lady, was the well-known personage
+called Sir George Barkley. Those gentlemen both departed, as soon as
+they saw us in safety, and I am ready to swear that neither of them
+was Sir George Barkley; the person this Messenger mistook for him
+being a young gentleman of four or five and twenty years of age."
+
+"Phoo!" cried the magistrate, with a long sort of whistling
+sound--"Sir George Barkley is a man of fifty, with a great gash on
+his cheek. I remember him very well, when--"
+
+But then seeming to recollect himself, he paused abruptly, adding,
+"But pray, who was this young gentleman who so came to your
+assistance, sir?"
+
+"I never saw him in my life before," replied Wilton, "and the name he
+gave himself was Captain Churchill."
+
+"To be sure, to be sure!" cried the clergyman; "a younger brother of
+my Lord of Marlborough's."
+
+"Some relation of the Marlborough family, I believe," replied Wilton,
+dryly. "However, I do not know the Earl's brother myself, nor am I
+aware whether there is any other Captain Churchill or not; but this
+was a young gentleman, evidently under thirty, and consequently he
+could not be Sir George Barkley."
+
+"I have searched the house high and low," said the voice of another
+stout gentleman, who now pushed his way into the room; "and I can
+find nothing but a sick cat up in the garret."
+
+"Ay, ay, Brother Bulrush, ay, ay!" replied the clergyman; "ay, ay, it
+is all explained. It is all that Messenger's fault, and he has now
+run away again. This worshipful young gentleman is secretary to the
+Earl of Byerdale, the great minister; and I'm sure we are both very
+sorry to have given him any trouble."
+
+"You have given me no trouble at all, gentlemen," replied Wilton,
+"and I have only to beg that if the Messenger return after I am gone,
+you will send him up to town to-morrow morning in the custody of a
+constable. I shall not fail to report to Lord Byerdale your activity
+and zeal upon the present occasion; which, indeed, may be of some
+service, as I am sorry to say, that serious remonstrances have been
+made regarding this part of the country, it being intimated, that
+smuggling, coining, and even treasonable meetings and assemblies, are
+more common here than in any other part of Kent."
+
+"Indeed, sir," replied one of the justices, somewhat alarmed,
+"indeed, it is not our fault. They are an unruly set, they are a most
+unruly set. We do the best we may, but cannot manage them.--But, sir,
+the young lady looks fatigued and tired. Had she not better come up
+to the parsonage, and rest there this night. She shall have a good
+warm bed, and Mrs. Jeffreys, who is a motherly sort of woman, will be
+quite delighted to take care of her ladyship."
+
+"Or Lady Bulrush either, I am sure," said the other magistrate. "The
+manor-house is but half a mile."
+
+Wilton turned to Laura, to inquire what she thought fit to do; but
+the young lady, not very much prepossessed in favour either of the
+motherly sort of clergyman's wife, or the more elevated Lady Bulrush,
+by the appearance and manners of their marital representatives,
+leaned both her hands upon Wilton's arm, feeling implicit confidence
+in him alone, and security with him only; and, raising her eyes
+imploringly to his face, she said in a low voice, "Indeed, indeed,
+Wilton, I would rather not--I would rather go home to Beaufort House
+at once, to relieve my poor father's anxiety."
+
+"In truth," he replied, in the same tone, "I cannot but think it
+would be better for you to obtain a night's rest, if you can, rather
+than to take a long journey after such terrible agitation as you have
+undergone."
+
+"Do not ask me--nay, do not ask me," she said; and then turning to
+the magistrates, who were conferring together, and settling in their
+own mind that a match was undoubtedly to take place between the Lady
+Laura and the Earl of Byerdale's secretary, she added, "I am very
+anxious to return to my father, gentlemen, and as a carriage has been
+already sent for from Stroud, I would certainly prefer going on
+to-night.  I will very gratefully," she added--her apprehensions of
+some new dangers occurring at the little public-house coming back
+upon her mind--"I will very gratefully accept the shelter of the
+parsonage, till the carriage arrives from Stroud, if by so doing I
+shall not keep the lady up beyond her usual hour."
+
+"Oh, not at all, madam, not at all," replied the clergyman: "Mrs.
+Jeffreys will be delighted to see you.--Let us lose no time.--Wicks,
+when the carriage comes, send it up to my house.--Ma'am, I will show
+your ladyship the way."
+
+Laura, however, still clung to Wilton's arm, as her best support; and
+following the clergyman together, they proceeded to the parsonage,
+escorted by a number of footmen, farming servants, and people
+collected in haste, who had come to the examination of Wicks's house.
+On their arrival, they were ushered into a tall dining-room with
+carved panels, the atmosphere of which was strongly imbued with the
+mingled odour of punch and tobacco, an unsavoury but at that time
+very ordinary perfume in the dining-room of almost every country
+gentleman. The mistress of the mansion, however, proved, in point of
+manners and appearance, considerably superior to her lord and master,
+and did all that she could in a very kind and delicate manner to
+render the beautiful girl, cast for the time on her hospitality, as
+comfortable as the circumstances would admit.
+
+It is not to be denied, indeed, that both Wilton and Laura could at
+that time have very well spared the presence of any other persons,
+for there were feelings in the hearts of both which eagerly longed
+for voice. There was much to be told; there was much to be explained;
+there was much to be determined between them. There was, indeed, the
+consciousness of mutual love, which is no slight blessing and
+comfort, under any circumstances; but that very consciousness
+produced the longing thirst for farther communion which nothing but
+love can give.
+
+When all has been said, indeed--when the whole heart has been poured
+forth--when the first intense feelings of a new passion have worn
+away, or, having grown familiar to our bosoms, surprise us no longer,
+we can better bear the presence of others; for a look, an occasional
+word, even a tone, will convey to the mind of those we love, all that
+we could wish to say. But when love is fresh, and every feeling
+produced thereby is new and wonderful to our hearts; when we make
+hourly discoveries of new sensations in our own bosoms, and neither
+know how to express them, nor how to conceal them, the presence of
+others--cold, indifferent, strange--is no slight punishment and
+privation.
+
+Laura endeavoured, as far as possible, to keep down such feelings,
+but yet she could not drive them from her bosom.  The minutes seemed
+long, tedious, and heavy: from time to time she would fall into a fit
+of musing; from time to time she would answer wide from the question;
+but it fortunately so happened, that the events which had lately
+occurred, and her anxiety to rejoin her father, were causes
+sufficient to account for greater inequalities of conduct than these.
+
+In the meantime, Wilton was subjected to the same, or even greater
+pain, from the impossibility of saying all that he could have wished
+to say; and he had, moreover, to contend both against the civility of
+his landlord, individually, and the curiosity of the two magistrates,
+conjointly, who did not fail, during the time that he remained, both
+to press him to eat and drink, in spite of all denials and
+remonstrances, and to torment him with questions, many of them
+frivolous in the extreme, not only concerning the events in which he
+had been lately engaged, but also in regard to everything that was
+taking place in London.
+
+Nearly two hours passed in this unpleasant manner; but at length the
+joyful sound of carriage-wheels announced that the man who had been
+sent to Stroud had returned. Laura was eager to set out; but the
+motherly care of good Mrs. Jeffreys detained her for some time
+longer, by insisting upon wrapping her warmly up in cloaks, and
+mantles, and hoods, to guard against the cold of the wintry night.
+
+At length all was ready; and Wilton led her down to the carriage,
+which it seems had been procured with difficulty; the machines called
+post-chaises being not so common in those days as they became within
+fifty years afterwards. The two magistrates stood bowing low to the
+young lady as she entered the tall, long-backed, but really not
+uncomfortable vehicle. The landlord of the inn, too, and his ostler,
+were there; and Wilton failed not to pay them liberally for the
+services they had rendered. He then briefly gave his own address, and
+that of the Duke to his reverend entertainer, and entered the
+carriage beside the Lady Laura, with a heart beating high with the
+hope and expectation of saying all and hearing all that the voice of
+love could speak.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+
+For once--perhaps the only time that ever such a thing happened in
+this world--hope and expectation were not disappointed. Wilton seated
+himself by the side of Laura, the postilion cracked his whip, which
+was then as common in England as it is now in France, the horses went
+forward, and the wheels rolling through the little street of High
+Halstow, were soon upon the road to Stroud.
+
+There was a silent pause between Wilton and Laura for some minutes,
+neither of them could very well tell why; for both of them had been
+most anxious for the opportunity, and both of them had been not a
+little grieved that their former conversation had been interrupted.
+The truth is, however, that very interruption had rendered the
+conversation difficult to renew; for love--sometimes the most
+impudent of all powers--is at other times the most shy and bashful.
+Wilton, however, found that he must not let the silence go on much
+longer, and he gently took Laura's hand in his, saying, perhaps
+somewhat abruptly--
+
+"Dear Laura, everything that we have to say to each other, must be
+said now."
+
+"Oh, Wilton!--" was her only reply; but she left her hand in his, and
+he went on.
+
+"You had just spoken, when we were interrupted," he said, "words that
+made me very, very happy, though they were coupled with expressions
+of fear and apprehension. I have nothing to tell you, dear Laura,
+that can altogether remove those fears and apprehensions, but I can
+say something, perhaps, that may mitigate them. You are not aware of
+the circumstances in which I have had the happiness of seeking you
+and finding you this night; but you doubtless heard me mention, that
+it was your father who intrusted me with the search; and surely, dear
+Laura, that must show no slight trust and confidence on his part--may
+I add, no slight regard."
+
+"Oh, I am sure he feels that for you," replied Laura, "quite sure!
+but yet such a trust shows, indeed, far more regard than I knew he
+entertained, and that gives me some degree of hope. Still, I cannot
+judge, Wilton, unless I had seen the manner in which my father did
+it. You must tell me all that has been done and said in this
+unfortunate business: you must tell me everything that has occurred.
+Will you?--and I will tell you, upon my word, exactly what the
+impression is that it all makes upon my mind."
+
+Wilton had not spoken of their love; Laura had not mentioned the
+subject either; but they had done fully as much, they had referred to
+it as a thing known and acknowledged.  Wilton had recalled words that
+had made him very happy, and Laura had spoken of hopes which could
+only apply to her union with himself.
+
+He now, however, told her all that had occurred, briefly though
+clearly. He dwelt not, indeed, on his own feelings during the painful
+events lately past; but the few words that he did speak on that
+subject were of such a kind as to show Laura instantly the distress
+and anxiety which her disappearance had caused him, the agony that he
+had suffered when he thought that she was lost to him for ever. The
+whole of her father's conduct, as displayed by Wilton, seemed to her
+strange and unaccountable; and well it might do so! for her lover
+told her the terrible state of mind in which the Duke had been at
+first, and yet he did not think fit to explain, in any degree, the
+causes which he felt sure had prevented her father from joining in
+the search himself. Notwithstanding all that had taken place in the
+presence of Laura, he judged it far better to avoid any mention of
+the unfortunate hold which Sir John Fenwick had obtained over the
+Duke, by drawing him in to take a share, however small, in the great
+Jacobite conspiracy of the day.
+
+Laura, then, was greatly surprised at all she heard; and that Wilton
+should be employed in the affair seemed to her not the least strange
+part of the whole business. An expression of this surprise, however,
+induced Wilton to add, what he still in some degree feared, and had
+long hesitated to say.
+
+"I do not, indeed, believe, dear Laura," he said, "that your father
+would have trusted me so entirely in this business, if it had not
+been for some words concerning myself which were spoken to him by
+Lord Byerdale when I was not present. They were repeated to me
+afterwards by Sherbrooke, and were to the effect, that although, in
+consequence of some of the late unfortunate disturbances in the
+country--the rebellions, the revolutions, the changes of dynasties
+that have happened within the last twenty years--it was necessary to
+conceal my birth and station, yet my blood was as pure and ancient as
+that of your father himself. This, I think, made a change in all his
+feelings towards me."
+
+Wilton felt the small rounded fingers of Laura's hand rest, for a
+single instant, more heavily in his own, while she drew a deep long
+breath, as if a weight had been taken from her bosom.
+
+"Oh, Wilton!" she said, "it makes all the difference in his views. It
+will make all the difference in our fate. You know that it would make
+none to me; that the man I loved would be loved under any
+circumstances of fortune or station, but with him it is the first,
+the greatest consideration. There may be difficulties still; there
+may be opposition; for, as you know, I am an only child, and my
+father thinks that nothing can equal what I have a right to expect;
+but still that opposition will vanish when he sees that my happiness
+is concerned, if the great and predominant prejudice of his education
+is not arrayed against us. Oh! Wilton, Wilton, your words have made
+me very happy."
+
+Her words certainly made Wilton happy in return;--indeed, most
+happy. His fate had suddenly brightened from all that was dark and
+cheerless, from a situation in which the sweet, early dream of love
+itself but rendered everything that was sombre, painful, and
+distressing in his course, more gloomy, more bitter, more full of
+despair, it had changed, to the possession and the hope of all that
+the most sanguine imagination could have pictured of glad, and
+joyful, and happy, to the prospect of wealth and station, to the hope
+of obtaining the being that he loved best on earth, and to the
+certainty of possessing her early, her first, her warm, her full
+affection.
+
+Had Wilton given way to what he felt at that moment, he would have
+clasped her to his heart and sealed the covenant of their love on the
+sweet lips that gave him such assurance of happiness. But he
+remembered that she was there alone with him, in full confidence,
+under the safeguard of all his best feelings, and he would not for
+the world have done one thing that in open day could have called the
+colour into her cheek. He loved her deeply, fully, and nobly, and
+though, under other circumstances, he might scarcely have hesitated,
+he now forebore. But again and again he pressed his lips upon her
+hand, and thanked her again and again for all that she had said, and
+for all the hopes and glad tidings that her words implied.
+
+Their conversation then turned to love, and to their feelings towards
+each other. How could it be helped? And Wilton told her all; how the
+passion had grown upon him, how he had struggled hard against it, how
+not even despair itself had been able to crush it; how it had gone on
+and increased in spite of himself; how intense, how ardent it had
+become. He could not tell her exactly, at least he would not, what he
+had felt on her account, when he believed that she was likely to
+become the bride of Lord Sherbrooke; but he told her fully, ay, and
+eloquently, what agony of mind he had endured when he thought of
+seeing her give her hand to any other man, without affording him an
+apparent chance of even making an effort for himself. In short, he
+gave her the whole picture of his personal feelings; and there is no
+woman that is not gratified at seeing such a picture displayed, when
+she is herself the object. But to a mind such as that of Lady
+Laura, and to feelings such as were in her bosom, the tale offered
+higher and nobler sources of delight. The love, the deep love, which
+she felt, and which was now acknowledged to her own heart, required
+every such assurance of full and ample return as his words afforded,
+to render it confident and happy.  But from the display of his
+feelings which he now made, she felt, she saw, she knew that she was
+loved as she could wish to be--loved as fully, as intensely, as
+deeply, as she herself loved--loved with all those feelings, high,
+and bright, and sweet, which assured her beyond all question that the
+affection which she had inspired would be permanent as well as
+ardent.
+
+Wilton won her, too, to speak upon the same subject as himself,
+though, of course, he could not expect her to dwell upon what she
+felt in the same manner. There was a great difference: on the one
+hand, all the sensations of his heart towards her were boldly avowed
+and minutely detailed; the history of his love was told in language
+straightforward, eager, and powerful. The love of her bosom, on the
+contrary, was shadowed forth rather than spoken, admitted rather than
+told, her feelings were referred to, but not depicted.
+
+"You make me glad, Wilton," she said, "by telling me all this, for I
+almost feared--and was teasing my own heart about it at the rectory,
+lest I should have done the unwomanly thing of loving first--I will
+not call it, being too easily won; for I should certainly despise the
+woman who thought anything necessary to win her, when once she
+really loved, further than the conviction of her lover's sincerity,
+and honour, and nobility of spirit. But yet I thought, that even you
+might somewhat despise me, if you found that I had loved you before
+you loved me. And yet, Wilton," she added, after a momentary pause,
+"I cannot help thinking that even if it had been so, I should have
+been more pardonable than many people, on account of the very great
+services you have rendered me at various times, and the perils you
+have encountered in my behalf. How could I help loving a man who has
+twice risked his life for me?"
+
+"Oh, dear Laura," replied Wilton, "those services have been very
+small ones, and not worthy of your naming. I certainly did strive to
+conceal my love," he continued; "but I believe that, let us struggle
+against our feelings as we will, there are always some signs and
+tokens which show to the eyes of those we love--if there be any
+sympathy between their hearts and ours--that which is passing in
+regard to themselves within the most secret places of our bosom.
+There is a cabalistic language in love, Laura--unknown to any but
+those who really do love, but learnt in a moment, when the mighty
+secret is communicated to our hearts. We speak it to each other
+without knowing it, dear Laura, and we are understood, without an
+effort, if there be sympathy between us."
+
+In such conversation wore the night away, as the carriage wended
+slowly onward. Two changes of horses were required to carry Laura and
+her lover back to the metropolis, and bells had to be rung, ostlers
+and postilions wakened, horses brought slowly forth, and many another
+tedious process to be gone through, which had brought the night
+nearly to a close, before the carriage crossed the wide extent of
+Blackheath, and passed through a small part of the town of Greenwich,
+which had then never dreamt of the ambitious project that it has
+since achieved, of climbing up that long and heavy hill.
+
+Wilton and Laura had sufficient matter for conversation during the
+whole way: for when they had said all that could be said of the
+present and the past, there still remained the future to be
+considered; and Laura entreated her lover by no precipitate eagerness
+to call down upon them opposition, which, if it showed itself of a
+vehement kind at first, might only strengthen, instead of diminishing
+with time. She besought him to let everything proceed as it had
+hitherto done, till his own fate was fully ascertained, and any doubt
+of his birth and station in society was entirely removed.
+
+"Till that is the case," she said, "to make any display of our
+feelings towards each other might only bring great pain upon us both.
+My father might require me not to see you, might positively forbid
+our thinking of each other; whereas, were all difficulties on that
+one point removed, he might only express a regret that fortune had
+not been more favourable to you, or require a delay, to make him
+certain of our sincere and permanent attachment. After that point is
+made clear, let us be open as the day with him. In the meanwhile, he
+must receive you as a friend who has rendered him the greatest and
+deepest of services; and I shall ever receive you, Wilton, I need not
+tell you, as the only dear and valued friend that I possess."
+
+"But suppose, dear Laura," said Wilton, "suppose I were to see you
+pressed to marry some one else; suppose I were to see some suitor in
+every respect qualified to hope for and expect your hand--"
+
+"You do not doubt me, Wilton?" said Lady Laura.
+
+"Oh no!" he replied. "Not for a moment, Laura. But it would be very
+painful."
+
+"It would be so to us both," she replied; "but I would take care that
+the pain should soon be brought to an end.  Depend upon it, Wilton,
+it will be better as I say; let us not, in order to avoid uncertain
+pains and dangers, run into certain ones."
+
+Wilton at once yielded to her views, and promised to be entirely
+guided by her opinion.
+
+The day broke upon them just as they were passing through London, on
+their way to Beaufort House; but the night which had just passed had
+left them with changed feelings in many respects. It had been one of
+those eventful periods which come in, from time to time, like
+revolutions in states, to change entirely the very constitution of
+our whole thoughts and feelings, to give a new character and entirely
+new combinations to the strange microcosm within us. That great
+change had been effected in Laura by that which is the great first
+mover of a woman's destinies. She loved and had avowed her love: she
+was married in spirit to the man beside her, and she felt that to a
+heart like hers eternity itself could not dissolve the tie which had
+that night been voluntarily established between them. She viewed not
+such things as many, nay, most other women view them; she looked not
+on such engagements, she looked not on such affections, as things to
+be taken up and dropped, to be worn to-day, in the gloss of novelty,
+and cast away to-morrow, like a fretted garment; she judged not that
+it was the standing before the altar and receiving the ring upon her
+finger, and promising to wear out earthly existence with another
+human being, that constitutes the union which must join woman to the
+man of her heart. But she regarded the avowal of mutual love, the
+promise of unchanging affection, as a bond binding for ever; as, in
+fact, what we have called it, the marriage of the spirit:  as a thing
+never to be done away, which no time could break, no circumstances
+dissolve: it was the wedding of--forever.  The other, the more
+earthly union, might be dear in prospect to her heart, gladdening to
+all her hopes, mingled with a thousand bright dreams of human joy,
+and tenderness, and sweet domestic peace: but if circumstances had
+separated her the next hour from Wilton for ever, she would have felt
+that she was still his wife in heart, and ended life with the hope of
+meeting him she had ever loved, in heaven. To take such ties upon
+herself, then, was in her estimation no light thing; and, as we have
+said, the period, the short period, of that night, was sufficient to
+effect a great, a total change in all the thoughts and feelings of
+her bosom.
+
+The change in Wilton was of a different kind, but it was also very
+great. It was an epoch in man's destiny. His mind was naturally
+manly, powerful, and decided; but he was very young. The events of
+that night, however, swept away everything that was youthful or light
+from his character for ever. He had acted with vigour, and power, and
+determination, amongst men older, better tried, and more experienced
+than himself. He had taken a decided and a prominent part in a scene
+of strife, and danger, and difficulty, and he had (to make use of
+that most significant though schoolboy phrase) "placed himself." His
+character had gone through the ordeal: without any previous
+preparation, the iron had been hardened into steel; and if any part
+had remained up to that moment soft or weak, the softness was done
+away, the weakness no longer existed.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+If we were poets or fabulists, and could invest inanimate objects
+with all the qualities and feelings of animate ones; if, with all the
+magic of old AEsop, we could make pots and kettles talk, and endue
+barn-door fowls with the spirit of philosophy, we should be tempted
+to say that the great gates of Beaufort House, together with the
+stone Cupids on the tops of the piers, ay, and the vases of carved
+flowers which stood between those Cupids, turned up the nose as the
+antiquated, ungilt, dusty, and somewhat tattered vehicle containing
+the Lady Laura Gaveston and Wilton Brown rolled up.
+
+The postboy got off his horse; Wilton descended from the vehicle, and
+applied his hand eagerly to the bell; and Laura, who had certainly
+thought no part of the journey tedious, did now think the minutes
+excessively long till the gates should be thrown open. In truth, the
+hour was still an early one; the morning cold and chilly, with a grey
+biting east wind, making the whole scene appear as if it were looked
+at through ground glass; and neither the porter nor the porter's wife
+had thought it expedient to venture forth from their snug bed at such
+an unpropitious moment. A second time Wilton applied his hand to the
+bell, and with more success than before, for in stays and petticoat,
+unlaced and half tied, forth rushed the grumbling porter's wife, with
+a murmured "Marry come up: people are in great haste: I wonder who is
+in such a hurry!"
+
+The sight of Wilton, however, whom she had seen very lately with the
+Duke, but still more the sight of her young lady, instantly altered
+her tone and demeanour, and with a joyful swing she threw the gates
+wide open. The chaise was drawn round to the great doors of the
+house, and here a more ready entrance was gained.
+
+"Is the Duke up?" demanded Wilton, as the servant opened the door.
+
+"Oh yes, sir," replied the man: "he was up before day-break: but he
+is not out of his dressing-room yet."
+
+Laura ran up the steps into the vestibule, to see her father, and to
+relieve his mind at once from all that she knew he was suffering on
+her account. She paused, however, for a moment at the top to see if
+Wilton followed; but he merely advanced a few steps, saying, "I will
+leave you to converse with your father; for, of course, I have very
+much to do; and he will be glad to spend some time with you alone,
+and hear all that you have to tell him."
+
+"But you will come back," said Lady Laura, holding out her hand to
+him: "you will not be away long."
+
+"Until the evening, perhaps," said Wilton, pressing that fair hand in
+his own: "I may have many things to do, and the Earl may also require
+my presence."
+
+"Oh, but you must come to dinner--I insist," said Lady Laura. "You
+know I have a right to command now," she added, in a lower tone, "and
+therefore I will tell my father to expect you at dinner."
+
+"I will come if I can," replied Wilton, "but--"
+
+His sentence was interrupted, however, by the Duke's voice at the top
+of the stairs, exclaiming, "Surely that is Laura's voice? Laura,
+Laura! My child, my dear child!"
+
+And the next moment, Lady Laura, darting on, was in her father's
+arms.
+
+Wilton Brown turned away; and without waiting to press a third person
+upon a scene which should always be enacted between two alone, he got
+into the post-chaise, and bade the postilion drive him back into
+London, for it must be recollected that Beaufort House was out of the
+town. This was easily accomplished, as the reader may imagine; and
+having dressed himself, and removed the traces of blood and travel
+from his face, he hastened to the house of Lord Byerdale, to give
+him an account of the success of his expedition.
+
+The Earl had not been long up; but he had already gone to his cabinet
+to write letters, and take his chocolate at the same time. On
+entering, Wilton, without any surprise, found Arden, the Messenger,
+in the presence of the Earl; for the man, knowing that the situation
+in which he stood was a somewhat perilous one, was of course anxious
+to make the best of his story before the young gentleman appeared.
+What did very much surprise Wilton, however, was the gracious and
+even affectionate manner in which the Earl received him.  He rose
+from his chair, advanced two or three steps to meet him, and shaking
+him warmly by the hand, exclaimed, "Welcome back, my dear Wilton. So
+you have been fully and gallantly successful, I find. But what is all
+this that Arden is telling me? He is making a terrible accusation
+against you here, of letting off Sir George Barkley, one of the most
+notorious Jacobites in Europe--a very dangerous person, indeed."
+
+"My lord," replied Wilton, "Mr. Arden is repeating to you a falsehood
+which he devised last night. It is quite true, indeed, that if he had
+not been a most notorious coward, and run away at the first
+appearance of danger, there might have been a chance, though a very
+remote one, of our securing Sir George Barkley."
+
+"Indeed!" exclaimed the Earl: "then you did meet with him?"
+
+"Amongst the persons whom I had to encounter," replied Wilton, "there
+was a gentleman whom they called Sir George, and who, from his
+height, his age, and a deep scar upon his cheek, I have no earthly
+doubt, is Sir George Barkley: but he had been gone for an hour before
+this mighty brave gentleman, having collected forty or fifty people
+to keep his own head from harm, thought fit to come back and seek for
+me. The person who was with me when he did return was a tall
+fine-looking young man of five or six and twenty."
+
+"Indeed!" said the Earl. "Who could that be?"
+
+"He called himself Captain Churchill," replied Wilton.  "I do not
+mean to say, my lord, that I believe such was his real name; for I do
+not: but I never saw Captain Churchill at all; and I never saw this
+gentleman till the moment when he came to my aid and rescued me, with
+the assistance of another, from the hands of as desperate a set of
+men as I ever met in my life, and who would certainly have murdered
+me had it not been for his arrival. I have a report to make to your
+lordship upon all Mr. Arden's proceedings, who, notwithstanding your
+most positive commands to obey me in all things, has refused to obey
+me in anything, and by the delays he has occasioned, and the
+obstructions he has thrown in my way, very nearly prevented me from
+effecting the liberation of Lady Laura at all."
+
+"Your lordship will believe what you choose," replied Arden, in a
+saucy tone. "All I mean to say is, I am sure that gentleman was not
+Captain Churchill; and so you will find, if you inquire. Whoever he
+was, Mr. Brown aided his escape, and prevented me from doing my
+duty."
+
+"Your duty, sir, was to obey Mr. Brown," replied the Earl, sternly;
+"for that I shall take care that you are punished; and if it should
+prove that this gentleman was really Captain Churchill, you shall be
+dismissed from your office.  You will attend here again at two
+o'clock, by which time I shall have written to Captain Churchill, to
+know whether he was the person present or not.--Now leave the room."
+
+Arden slunk doggedly away, seeing that Wilton's star happened to be
+in the ascendant. Had he known how much it was so, however, having
+often heard the Earl speak sharply and discourteously to the young
+gentleman, he would have been more surprised even than he was at the
+change which had taken place. The moment he was gone, and the door
+closed, the Earl again shook Wilton by the hand.
+
+"You have accomplished your task most brilliantly, Wilton," he said,
+"and I shall take care that you reap the reward of your diligence and
+activity, by any effort that depends upon me; but from all that I
+have seen, and heard, and know, you are likely to obtain, from the
+very act itself, far higher recompences than any that I could bestow.
+You are indeed a fortunate young man."
+
+"I am fortunate in your lordship's approbation," replied Wilton; "but
+I see not why you should call me so in any other respect, except,
+indeed, in being so fortunate as to effect this young lady's
+liberation."
+
+"In that very respect," replied the Earl, with a look full of
+meaning. "Good heavens! my dear Wilton, are you blind? If you are so,
+I am not; and at your age, certainly I should not have been blind to
+my own advantage. You think, perhaps, that because Lady Laura has
+refused to marry Sherbrooke, and broken off the proposed alliance
+between our families, it would make me angry to find she had placed
+her affections anywhere else. But I tell you no, Wilton! Quite the
+contrary is the case. The discovery that she has done so, at once
+banished all the anger and indignation that I felt. If with a free
+heart she had so decidedly refused my son, I should have considered
+it as little less than an insult to my whole family, and, in fact,
+did consider it so till Sherbrooke himself expressed his belief that
+she was, and has been for some time, attached to you. His words
+instantly recalled to my memory all that I had remarked before, how
+the colour came up into her cheek whenever you approached her, how
+her eye brightened at every word you said. That made the matter very
+different. I could not expect the poor young lady to sacrifice her
+first affection to please me: nor could I wish her, as you may well
+imagine, to marry Sherbrooke, loving you. This is the reason that
+makes me say that you are a most fortunate man; for the service that
+you have rendered her, the immense and important service, gives you
+such a claim upon her gratitude, as to make it easy for her at once
+to avow her attachment. It gives you an enormous claim upon the Duke,
+too; and I have one or two little holds upon that nobleman which he
+knows not of--by which, indeed, he might be not a little injured, if
+I were a revengeful man, but which I shall only use for your best
+interests."
+
+"But, my lord," replied Wilton, "you seem totally to forget my humble
+birth and station. How--situated as I am--could I dare to ask the
+Duke for his daughter's hand, the only remaining child of such a
+house, the heiress of such immense wealth?"
+
+"Fear not, fear not, Wilton," said the Earl, laying his hand upon his
+arm. "Fear not: your blood is as good as the Duke's own; your family,
+older and as noble."
+
+"I have sometimes thought, my lord," replied Wilton, wishing to gain
+as much information as possible--"I have sometimes thought, in the
+utter ignorance wherein I have been left of my own history, that I am
+the son of one who has indeed been a father to me, Lord Sunbury,--the
+natural son, I mean."
+
+"Oh no!" cried the Earl, with an air almost of indignation: "you are
+no relation of his whatsoever. I knew not who you were when you first
+came hither; but I have since discovered, and though at present I
+must not reveal anything farther to you, I tell you, without
+hesitation, to set your mind at ease, to pursue your suit towards
+Lady Laura, if you have really any regard for her, and to aspire to
+her hand. In a very few months more you shall know all."
+
+Wilton cast down his eyes, and mused.
+
+"This is not a little strange," he said; "but I know I may place
+implicit reliance on your lordship's word, and proceed in a matter
+where I own my heart is deeply engaged, without the risk of calling
+upon myself a charge of gross presumption."
+
+"You may, you may," answered the Earl, eagerly; "and if the Duke
+should discover your mutual affection, and make any objection, merely
+refer him to me. But now let us hear more of your adventures of
+yesterday and last night."
+
+Wilton would have been very well contented to muse for a few minutes
+over what the Earl said. Although his experience of the world was not
+great, yet he had a sufficient portion of good sense to supply
+experience in a high degree.  This good sense told him, that a sudden
+and extraordinary change in the demeanour of any man, but more
+especially in that of a man both subtle and determined, was more or
+less to be suspected. He would fain, then, have obtained time to seek
+for the real motives and views of the Earl of Byerdale, in the
+extraordinary fit of kindness and condescension which had seized upon
+him; for he could almost fancy that the Earl was contriving his ruin,
+by engaging him in some rash endeavour to obtain the hand of Lady
+Laura.
+
+Strong, however, in her love, he resolved to go on, to deal with her
+and with her father in all honour, and, supposing even that the Earl
+was endeavouring to play him false, to try whether straightforward
+and upright honesty, guided by a clear head, a firm heart, and a well
+prepared mind, might not win the game against subtilty and worldly
+cunning.
+
+The Earl marked him as he mused for a minute, but saying nothing more
+upon the subject of his hopes, still pressed him to speak of the
+events of the preceding day. It was somewhat difficult for Wilton so
+to shape his words as not to mention Lord Sherbrooke, and not to
+involve himself in any such distinct account of the Jacobites and
+their proceedings as might lead to their arrest, and force him at
+some future period to become a witness against them. He succeeded
+tolerably well, however. He could not, and indeed he did not, think
+it right to conceal, that he was perfectly certain the men he met
+with were engaged in the most dark and dangerous designs. But he
+stated, at the same time, that such was merely the impression upon
+his mind, for that no distinct avowal of their purposes had been made
+in his presence, so as to justify him in charging them with treason.
+
+"Nevertheless, my lord," he added, "I think it highly and absolutely
+necessary for you to take the same measures as if you knew that a
+general insurrection was contemplated, for I feel perfectly certain
+that something of the kind is in agitation."
+
+The Earl smiled. "Now tell me, Wilton," he said, "amongst these
+worthy conspirators, did you see any one that was personally known to
+you?"
+
+Wilton hesitated.
+
+"Come, come, my young friend," said the Earl--"you must speak out. We
+will not make an evidence of you, I promise you; and, indeed, both
+the King himself and all his ministers would be very glad that these
+persons should get beyond sea, and relieve us of their troublesome
+presence, provided--mark me--provided, there does not exist the
+clearest and most distinct proof, not alone that they are conspiring
+to overthrow the present dynasty--for such conspiracies have been
+going on in every corner of the kingdom, and in the heart of every
+family, for the last ten years, so that we should only make them
+worse by meddling with them--but that these men are conspiring in a
+darker, a more dangerous, a more treasonable, or a more dishonourable
+manner, than has ever been clone before. I must explain this business
+to you, Wilton, and my views upon it. Politicians have adopted as a
+maxim that a plot discovered and frustrated always strengthens the
+hands of the existing government; but this maxim is far too general,
+and consequently often proves false and dangerous in application.
+The conditions under which the discovery and frustration of a plot do
+really strengthen the hands of government are peculiar. There must be
+circumstances attending upon the whole transaction which, when the
+plot is exposed, either destroy the means of future conspiracies
+formed upon the same basis, remove for ever the objects of the
+conspirators, or cause a great change in public feeling, in regard to
+their views and motives. If the discovery be so general, the
+frustration so complete, and the punishment so severe, as to raise
+the power and authority of the government in the eyes of the people,
+to awaken a wholesome fear in the disaffected, and to encourage and
+elevate the well disposed and the friends of the state, a very great
+object is certainly gained; and that which was intended to ruin a
+government or overthrow a dynasty, serves but to root it more
+firmly than before.  There is another case, also, which is very
+applicable at the present moment. If there be something in the nature
+and designs of the conspiracy, so odious in its means, its character,
+and its objects, as to enlist against the conspirators sensations of
+horror, indignation, and contempt, one gains from public feeling very
+much more by its discovery and exposure, than even by the power of
+fear over the disaffected, and the elevation of triumph on the part
+of the well disposed. But in other circumstances, either when partial
+discoveries are made, when the success is not of the most absolute,
+general, and distinct kind, when the objects of the conspirators
+excite many sympathies, the errors they commit admit of easy
+palliation, the means they employ are noble, generous, and
+chivalrous, and the fate they undergo is likely to produce
+commiseration, the detection and crushing of them only tends to
+multiply and strengthen similar endeavours. With such conspiracies as
+these, no wise minister will ever meddle, if he can help it; the more
+quiet the means he can adopt to frustrate them, the better; the less
+he exposes them and brings them into light, the greater will be his
+success; for they are like the Lernwan serpent, whose heads
+multiplied as they were smitten off; and it is far more easy to
+smother them privately than to smite them in public. This is the view
+I myself take of the matter; this is the view the King takes of it;
+and you may have remarked that there has been no attempt made for
+many years to investigate or punish plots here and there, although we
+have had the proofs that hundreds existed every year. In this
+instance, however, the matter is different. There is reason to
+believe that the present conspiracy is one of such a dark and
+horrible nature, as instantly to excite the indignation of the whole
+people, to make all the better part of the Jacobites ashamed of the
+deeds of their friends, and to rouse up universal feelings of loyalty
+throughout the land. The fact is, the thing is already discovered.
+Information has long been tendered to the government by various
+persons implicated: but acting upon the plan which we have generally
+pursued, such advances have been met coldly, till last night more
+distinct, and definite information was given by some one, who, instead
+of being actuated by motives of gain, or of fear, as we suspected in
+all other cases, came forward, it seems, from personal feelings of
+gratitude towards the King himself. His majesty promised this person
+not to bring him forward in the business at all, and has refused to
+give up his name, even to me. But his conviction of the truth of all
+that was told was so strong, that the previous informer was sent for
+last night at one o'clock to the palace at Kensington, to which place
+I also had been summoned. The whole facts, the names, the designs of
+everybody concerned, were then completely discovered, and I have been
+busying myself ever since I rose, in adopting the proper measures for
+arresting and punishing the persons directly implicated. Having
+explained to you these views, I must now put my question again. Did
+you see any one amongst these conspirators with whose person you were
+acquainted? I only ask for my own satisfaction, and on every account
+shall abstain from bringing your name forward, in the slightest
+degree."
+
+"There was only one person, my lord," replied Wilton, who had
+listened with deep interest to this long detail; "there was only one
+person, my lord, that I had ever knowingly seen before, and that was
+Sir John Fenwick."
+
+"I signed a warrant for his arrest half an hour ago," rejoined the
+Earl, "and there are two Messengers seeking him at this moment. I
+think you said you saw Sir George Barkley?"
+
+"I cannot absolutely say that, my lord," replied Wilton; "but I
+certainly saw a gentleman whom I believed, and most firmly do still
+believe, to be him: he was a tall, thin, sinister-looking man, of a
+somewhat saturnine complexion, with a deep scar on his cheek."
+
+"The same, the same," said the Earl, "undoubtedly the same. Listen,
+if you know any of these names;" and he read from a list--"Sir
+William Parkyns, Captain Rookwood, Captain Lowick, Sir John Friend,
+Charnock, Cranburne, the Earl of Aylesbury--"
+
+"The Earl certainly was not there, my lord," replied Wilton; "for I
+know him well by sight, and I saw no one, I can assure you, whom I
+knew, but Sir John Fenwick."
+
+"And this Plessis, at whose house you saw them," continued the
+Earl--"did he seem to be taking a share in the business with them? He
+is an old friend of mine, this Master Plessis; and obtains for me
+some of the best information that I ever get from abroad. I do not
+know what I should do without Plessis. He is the most useful man in
+the world.  We must let him off, at all events; but it will be no bad
+thing to have a rope round his neck, either."
+
+"I cannot say, my lord," replied Wilton, "that he took any part
+whatsoever in the business. In the matter of setting free Lady Laura,
+he showed himself more afraid of these good gentry than fond of them,
+and after their arrival, he ran away and hid himself."
+
+"And yet," said the Earl, "he's a rank Jacobite, too. But that does
+not signify. He's an excellent creature, and the greatest rogue in
+Christendom. All this chocolate comes from him; there's nothing like
+it in Europe. Won't you take some, Wilton? I forgot to ask if you had
+broken your fast."--Wilton replied that he had not, and the Earl made
+him sit down and follow his example, of writing letters and taking
+his chocolate at the same time. One of the notes, however, which the
+Earl himself wrote, attracted his secretary's attention in some
+degree; for as soon as Lord Byerdale had concluded it, he rang the
+bell and gave it to a servant, saying, "Take that to Captain
+Churchill's lodgings. You know where he lives, just in Duke Street.
+Wait for an answer."
+
+The man went away, and business proceeded. At the end of about an
+hour, however, the servant returned, saying, as an excuse for his
+long absence, that Captain Churchill was in bed when he reached his
+house, and that his valet had refused to wake him.
+
+"When he did wake, however, my lord," added the man, "he said he
+would not detain me to write a note, as I had been kept so long
+already; but would wait upon your lordship at the hour you named."
+
+Shortly after the return of the servant, the Earl took up his papers,
+and prepared to proceed to Whitehall. Before he went, however, he
+paused opposite to the table at which Wilton was writing, and looking
+at him for a moment with a smile, he said,--
+
+"You are surprised, Wilton, and have been puzzling yourself with the
+reason why I take so much more interest in you than I used to do. I
+will explain it all to you, Wilton, in one word. I did not at first
+know who you were. I now do, as I have before hinted; and my conduct
+to one whom I believed to be a natural son of the Earl of Sunbury,
+and who was forced upon me somewhat against my own will, was of
+course very different from that which I show towards a young
+gentleman of a high and noble family, not very distantly related to
+myself.--Now are you satisfied?"
+
+And with these words he left the room. Yet, strange to say, Wilton,
+though not a little surprised at what he heard, knew the Earl of
+Byerdale, and was NOT satisfied. But at all events, the words which
+had passed set his mind at ease, in regard to Laura. He now felt that
+he was committing no breach of confidence; that he was pursuing no
+presumptuous suit, in seeking the object of his dearest and his
+brightest hopes; that though fortune might still be adverse, and such
+wealth might never be his, as to place him in a position equal, in
+that respect, to herself, yet he had every right and title to strive
+for her hand with the noblest of the land.
+
+Wilton did not, indeed, entertain the vain thought that he brought
+with him a treasury of distinguished talents, high and noble
+feelings, a generous spirit, and a gallant heart--qualities which
+many a competitor, if not most, would want:--he did not, indeed, so
+argue the matter with himself; but there was in his bosom the proud
+consciousness of deserving well, and the still more strengthening and
+emboldening confidence, of loving well, truly, nobly, as Laura
+deserved to be loved.
+
+Still, however, he was not satisfied with the sudden change in the
+Earl of Byerdale: there was something in it that roused suspicion;
+and he resolved to watch all that noble man's proceedings steadily
+and keenly, and if possible never to be off his guard for a moment.
+
+Before the time appointed for the return of Arden, the Messenger, the
+Earl himself came home, bearing a smile of dark satisfaction on his
+countenance.
+
+"Four or five of these gentry," he said, as he entered, "are already
+in custody, and one or two have been brought before the council. A
+man of the name of Cook, and another, seem well inclined to become
+approvers. If so, the matter will be easily managed. I find the
+rumour is spreading all over the town, with various additions and
+improvements, of course. I even hear that there were reports of it
+all yesterday, though neither the King, nor I, nor any one else, knew
+aught of the matter then."
+
+"Are any of the principals caught, my lord?" demanded Wilton. "I
+confess, I believe that man, Sir John Fenwick, to be as great a
+villain as any upon earth; nor do I look upon him as a man of much
+courage either."
+
+"He is not caught," replied the Earl; "but we have got one poor
+foolish fellow, called Sir John Friend, who has shown himself a
+friend to anybody but himself;" and he laughed at his own joke. "I
+rather suspect," he continued, "that there are a good many people not
+a little anxious for Fenwick's escape. With the exception of Sir
+George Barkley, he is undoubtedly the man of most importance amongst
+them. He is nearly connected, you know, with all the Howards, and was
+very intimate with your good friend the Duke. He is well acquainted
+with Lord Aylesbury, too; and I can tell you there are a good many
+suspicions in that quarter. There is another noble lord, Lord
+Montgomery, implicated; and all these good folks are suspected," and
+he proceeded to read a list of some twenty or thirty names.  "But
+there is no intention of dealing harshly," he added; "and a
+distinction will be made between the more culpable and the less. Pray
+has Captain Churchill been here?"
+
+"Not yet that I have heard of, my lord," replied Wilton; "but I
+fairly tell your lordship that I do not think he was the man I saw,
+though that was the name given."
+
+The Earl rang the bell which stood upon the table, and when a servant
+appeared, demanded if Captain Churchill had been there.
+
+The servant replied in the negative, but added that Mr.  Arden was
+waiting. The Earl ordered him to be sent in; and the Messenger
+accordingly entered, bearing on his face an air of triumph and
+insolence which provoked Wilton's anger a good deal.
+
+"Well, my lord," he said, not waiting for the Earl of Byerdale to
+speak--"I have got proof positive now, for I have been at Captain
+Churchill's lodgings, pumping his servants, and they tell me that he
+was very ill all yesterday, as, indeed, I knew he was, and in bed the
+greater part of the day."
+
+"Indeed!" said the Earl. "This is strange enough! But as you say,
+Wilton, that you do not think it was really Captain Churchill, the
+name might be given merely as a nom de guerre, and the person giving
+it might be a very honest man, too."
+
+Before he could conclude, one of the servants announced that Captain
+Churchill waited without; and in a moment after he was admitted,
+presenting to Wilton's eyes a person not very unlike in size and form
+the Duke of Berwick, and somewhat resembling him in countenance, but
+several years older, and somewhat darker in complexion.
+
+He entered with a gay and smiling air, and with a grace of carriage
+and demeanour which was common to himself and his brother, afterwards
+the famous Duke of Marlborough.
+
+"Why, my lord," he said, advancing towards Lord Byerdale, and shaking
+him by the hand, "I am almost alarmed at your unexpected summons,
+especially after all the terrible doings which I hear have taken
+place. Why, they tell me that the gates of Newgate have never ceased
+turning upon their hinges all the morning, and that the Tower itself
+is full."
+
+"Not quite so bad as that," replied the Earl: "but I am sure, my dear
+Captain, you have nothing to fear in such a matter."
+
+"Not that I know of," answered Churchill, "and I would have come at
+once when you wrote; but, to say the truth, I was up late last night,
+and slept till nearly noon this morning.--But, bless my soul!" he
+continued, turning towards Wilton--to that gentleman's utter
+surprise and astonishment "is not this my good friend, Mr. Wilton
+Brown, your lordship's secretary?" and advancing a step or two, he
+shook Wilton heartily by the hand.
+
+"How is the young lady?" he continued. "I hope you got quite safe to
+London with your fair charge?"
+
+The countenance of Arden, the Messenger, presented a ludicrous
+picture of disappointment and consternation.  Wilton was certainly
+even more surprised than himself; but he did not suffer his face to
+betray any expression of wonder, though, it must be owned, he felt a
+strong inclination to laugh.  He replied, however, calmly to
+Churchill's question,--
+
+"I thank you very much, sir: she got quite safe to London. At an
+early hour this morning I left her with her father."
+
+"Then, Captain Churchill," said the Earl, "you are neither more nor
+less than the person who rendered my young friend Wilton, here, such
+very good assistance last night."
+
+Churchill made a low and complimentary bow, replying, "Oh, my lord,
+you are too good! The assistance that I rendered him was little
+enough, I can assure you. His own gallantry and good conduct did much
+more than I could possibly do.--But I hope and trust my good friend,
+Arden, the Messenger, there, is not waiting for me; for I can assure
+your lordship that, though I was upon a little frolic last night,
+which I might not very well like to have inquired into, it was
+certainly nothing of a Jacobitical nature, as you may well suppose,
+and as my good friend, Mr. Brown, here, can testify."
+
+"I do not in the slightest degree suspect you, Churchill," replied
+the Earl. "The only point was to ascertain whether it was you or Sir
+George Barkley who was with my friend Wilton, here, last night;
+Arden, the Messenger, who has behaved very ill throughout the whole
+business, positively swearing, this morning, that Wilton was
+accompanied along part of the road by Sir George Barkley, the
+well-known traitor, and that he, Wilton, my private secretary,
+connived at and aided his escape."
+
+"I can assure your lordship," replied Churchill, in a perfectly grave
+tone, "on my honour as a gentleman, I have the most perfect
+certainty, and could prove, if necessary, that the charge is entirely
+and totally false; that Sir George Barkley did not accompany your
+young friend for a single step, and that he was only accompanied by a
+fair lady with very bright eyes, by another gentleman whom I
+understand to be a certain Captain Byerly--a very respectable man,
+only that he rides a little hard upon the King's Highway--and by a
+person, of perhaps less importance and repute, named Captain
+Churchill."
+
+"That is quite satisfactory, my dear sir," replied the Earl.  "You
+hear, Mr. Arden. Be so good as to quit the room, and to remember,
+that from this moment you are no longer a Messenger of State."
+
+Wilton could almost have found it in his heart to interpose, knowing
+all that he did know; but when he recollected the whole course of the
+man's bad conduct, he felt that the retribution which had fallen upon
+him was but just, and he left the matter to take its course.
+Churchill then conversed for a few minutes with the Earl, in an under
+tone; and as the business of the day seemed over, Wilton prepared to
+take his departure.
+
+"Wait one moment, Mr. Brown," said Churchill, "and if you are going
+my way, I will accompany you."
+
+"You will not fail, my dear Wilton, I trust," said the Earl, "to
+visit the young lady, and inquire after her health.  Pray present my
+most devoted homage to her, and assure her that I have been most
+uneasy at her situation, and grieved for all that she must have
+undergone. I shall certainly wait upon her to-morrow. In the
+meantime," he added, in a lower tone, "do not entertain any
+apprehensions in regard to your situation. Go boldly forward, make
+sure of her heart, and all the rest will be rendered much more easy
+than you imagine. Nothing that I can do for you shall be wanting; and
+you have only to let me know when you have any engagement at Beaufort
+House, and I will find means to do without your attendance here.--I
+beg your pardon, Captain Churchill; I only wished to give this young
+gentleman a word of good advice before he left me."
+
+"And I only waited till he was ready, my lord," replied Churchill,
+"to take my leave of your lordship, wishing you full success in
+dealing with the nest of vagabonds you have got hold of."
+
+Thus saying, he took his leave, and quitting the house together with
+Wilton, put his arm through his, and walked on as familiarly as if
+they had been old acquaintances.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+It may be made a question of very great doubt, whether the
+faculty--and it is indisputably a faculty of the mind in its first
+freshness--the faculty of wondering at anything extraordinary, or out
+of the common course of our knowledge, is or is not productive of
+advantage as well as pleasure to us.  But there can be no question
+whatsoever, that very great advantages are attached to the power of
+concealing our wonder. Nothing, indeed, should surprise us in life,
+for we are surrounded by daily miracles; nothing should surprise,
+because the combination of means in the hand of Almighty Power must
+be infinite; and to permit our wonder to appear at anything, is but
+to confess ourselves inexperienced, or unobserving, or thoughtless;
+and yet with all that, it is a very pleasant sensation.
+
+Wilton Brown, from his commerce with the world, and especially from
+the somewhat hard lessons which he had received in the house of the
+Earl of Byerdale, had been taught, in communicating with persons
+unknown and indifferent to him, to put a strong restraint upon the
+expression of his feelings. On the present occasion, not having the
+slightest knowledge or conception of Captain Churchill's character,
+he walked on beside him, as their way seemed to lie together, without
+the slightest inquiry or expression of surprise in regard to what had
+taken place; and Captain Churchill was almost inclined to believe
+that his young companion was dull, apathetic, and insensible,
+although he had good reason to know the contrary. The silence,
+however, did somewhat annoy him; for he was not without a certain
+share of good-humoured vanity; and he thought, and thought justly,
+that he had acted his part to admiration. He resolved, therefore, to
+say nothing upon the subject either, as far as he could avoid it; and
+thus, strange to say, after the extraordinary scene which had taken
+place, the two people who had borne a part therein had got as far as
+the door of Captain Churchill's house in Duke-street, without
+interchanging a word upon the subject. There, however, Wilton was
+about to take his leave; but Churchill stopped him, saying,--
+
+"Do me the favour of coming in for a moment or two, Mr. Brown. I have
+something which I wish to give you."
+
+Wilton followed him up stairs, with merely some reply in the common
+course of civility; and Churchill, opening a cabinet in the
+drawing-room, took out a handsome diamond ring, saying, "I have
+received a commission this morning from a near relation of mine, who
+considers that he owes his life to you, to beg your acceptance of
+this little token, to remember him by when you look upon it. He sent
+it to me by a messenger at the moment that he was embarking for
+France, together with a letter of instructions as to how he wished me
+to act in case of there being any question regarding the transactions
+of last night."
+
+"I saw," replied Wilton, "that you must have got information some
+way; but in whatever way you did get that information, you certainly
+played your part as admirably as it was possible to conceive. I fear
+I did not play mine quite so well, for I was taken by surprise."
+
+"Oh, quite well enough, quite well enough," replied Captain
+Churchill. "To say the truth, my task was somewhat of a delicate one,
+for in these days one might easily involve one's self in imputations
+difficult to be got rid of again. My family have chosen our parts so
+strongly and decidedly, that my young relation did not venture to see
+me when he was in London; not, indeed, from any fear of my betraying
+him, for that, of course, was out of the question,--but rather from
+the apprehension of committing me. He trusted me with this other
+matter, however, probably not knowing, first, that I was ill, and had
+been in bed all yesterday, and, next, that this diabolical plot for
+assassinating the King and admitting the enemy into the heart of the
+land has been discovered.  The letter came about an hour after Lord
+Byerdale's, and just in time to save me from denying that I was out
+of my own house all yesterday. But you do not take the ring, Mr.
+Brown: pray accept it as a mere token of gratitude and esteem on the
+part of the Duke. His esteem, I can assure you, is worth having."
+
+"I doubt it not in the least, my dear sir," replied Wilton; "but yet
+I must beg to decline his gift: in the first place, because I am
+entitled to no gratitude; and in the next, because the Duke must be
+considered as an enemy of the government I serve. He certainly saved
+my life; for I do not suppose the man who was in the act of firing at
+me would have missed his mark, if his hand had not been knocked up.
+After that I could not, of course, suffer the Duke to be arrested by
+my side, if I could help it, and therefore I did what I could to
+assist him, but that was little."
+
+Churchill endeavoured, by various arguments, to persuade his young
+companion to receive the ring; but Wilton would not suffer himself to
+be moved upon the subject; and had, at all events, the satisfaction
+of hearing Churchill himself acknowledge, as he was taking his leave,
+"Well, after all, I believe you are right."
+
+Their conference was not very long; for it may be easily imagined,
+that one of the party, at least, was anxious to proceed on his way in
+another direction; and leaving Captain Churchill as soon as he
+decently could, Wilton returned to his house, changed his dress, and
+entered one of those vehicles called hackney coaches, which, in the
+days of King William III, were as rumbling and crazy, and even more
+slow, than at present.
+
+Before he reached Beaufort House, Wilton's patience was well nigh
+exhausted; but if we may tell the truth, there was one as impatient.
+as himself. When they had arrived that morning at Beaufort House,
+Laura's thoughts had been divided. Her anxiety to see her father, to
+tell him she was safe, to give joy to the heart of one she loved with
+the fullest feelings of filial affection, had a strong share in all
+her sensations; but that was over, and her mind turned to Wilton
+again. In telling her father all that had occurred, in recounting
+everything that Wilton had done, in hearing from the Duke himself all
+her lover's exertions and anxiety, till he obtained some clue to the
+place where she was detained, vivid images were continually brought
+up before her mind of things that were most sweet to contemplate.
+When she retired to her own chamber, although she strove, at her
+father's request, to obtain sleep, those sweet but agitating images
+followed her still, and every word, and tone, and look of him she
+loved, returned to her memory, and banished slumber altogether from
+her pillow.
+
+On whatever part of his conduct memory rested, to the eyes of
+affection it seemed all that could be desired. If she thought of him
+standing boldly in the presence of superior numbers--calm, cool,
+unintimidated, decided; or if she recalled his conduct to the Duke of
+Berwick, generously risking all rather than not repay that nobleman's
+gallant interposition in his favour by similar efforts in his behalf;
+or if she recollected his behaviour to herself; when alone under his
+care and guidance, the tenderness, the gentleness, the delicate
+forbearance, the consideration for all her feelings, and for every
+difficult point of her situation which he had displayed--each part of
+his behaviour seemed to her partial eyes all that she could have
+dreamed of excellent and good, and each part stood out in bright
+apposition with the other; the gentle kindness contrasting strongly
+with the firm and courageous determination; the generous and
+unhesitating protection of an upright and gallant enemy, seeming but
+the more bright from his calm and prudent bearing towards a body of
+low-minded and ill-designing traitors.
+
+Thus, during the time that she remained alone, her thoughts were all
+of him, and those thoughts were all sweet. Gratitude, it is true,
+might derive a great portion of its brightness from love: but Laura
+fancied that she had not said half enough in return for all that he
+had done in her behalf: she fancied that she had scarcely spoken her
+thanks sufficiently warmly, and she longed to see him again, to talk
+over all that had taken place, to assure him of her deep, deep
+gratitude, and, perhaps--though she did not acknowledge that purpose
+to her own heart--to assure him also still more fully of her
+unchanging affection. Laura had never felt, even in the least degree,
+what love is before. She was not one of the many who trifle away
+their heart's brightest affections piece by piece. She had given her
+love all at once, and the sensation was the more overpowering.
+
+At length, then, as the hour approached when she supposed he might be
+likely to return, she rose and dressed herself, and perhaps that day
+she thought more of her beauty than she had ever done before in life;
+but it was not with any vain pleasure; for she thought of it only
+inasmuch as it might please another whom she loved. We can all surely
+remember how, when in the days of our childhood we have had some
+present to give to a dear friend, we have looked at it and considered
+it, and fancied it even more valuable and delightful than it really
+was, with the bright hope of its appearing so to the person for whom
+it was destined. Thus with her toilet, Laura let her maid take as
+much pains as she would; and when she saw in the glass as lovely a
+face and form as that instrument of vanity ever reflected, and could
+not help acknowledging that it was so, she smiled with a pleasure
+that she had never felt before, to think that beauty also was a part
+of the dowry of bright things which she was to bring to him she
+loved.
+
+Though the maid was somewhat longer with her mistress's toilet than
+usual, delaying it for a little, perhaps, with a view of obtaining
+farther information than Lady Laura was inclined to give her, upon
+all the events of the two or three days preceding, yet Laura was down
+in the saloon some time before the dinner-hour, and she looked not a
+little anxiously for the coming of Wilton. She was not inclined to
+chide him for delay, for she knew that it would be no fault of his if
+he were not there early. The Duke, not knowing that she had risen,
+had gone out; but he, too, had left her heart happy in the morning
+when they parted, by answering her, when she told him of the
+invitation she had given, with such encomiums of her deliverer, of
+his manner, of his character, of his person, and of his mind, that
+Laura was almost tempted into hopes more bright than the reality.
+
+Notwithstanding all delays Wilton did at length arrive, and that,
+too, before the Duke returned, so that Laura had time to tell him how
+happy her father's praises of him had made her, and to insinuate
+hopes, though she did not venture absolutely to express them. Her
+words, and her manner, and her look, in consequence of all that had
+been passing in her mind during the morning, were more warm, more
+tender than they had even been before; and who could blame Wilton, or
+say that he presumed, if he, too, gave way somewhat more to the warm
+and passionate love of his own heart, than he had dared to venture
+during their preceding intercourse?
+
+Laura did not blame him. She blushed, indeed, as he pressed her to
+his heart, though he was the man whom she loved best on earth; but
+yet, though she blushed, she felt no wrong:  she felt, on the
+contrary, the same pure and endearing affection towards him that he
+felt for her, and knew that gentle pressure to be but an expression,
+on his part, of the same high, holy, and noble love with which she
+could have clung to his bosom in any moment of danger, difficulty or
+distress.
+
+At length the Duke made his appearance; and eagerly grasped Wilton's
+hand in both his own, thanking him a thousand and a thousand times
+for restoring to him his beloved child, and telling him that no words
+or deeds could ever express his gratitude. Indeed, so much more
+eager, so much more demonstrative, was his whole demeanour, than that
+of his daughter, that he blamed Laura for coldness in expressing what
+she felt only too warmly for words; and until dinner was announced,
+he continued talking over all that had occurred, and inquiring again
+and again into each particular.
+
+As they went into the dining-room, however, he made a sign to his
+daughter, whom he had cautioned before, and whispered to Wilton, "Of
+course, we must not talk of these things before the servants."
+
+All that had passed placed Wilton now in a far different situation
+with the Duke and his daughter from that in which he had ever stood
+before. His mind was perfectly at ease with them, and the relief had
+its natural effect on his conversation: all the treasures of his mind,
+all the high feelings of his heart, he knew might be displayed
+fearlessly. He did not, indeed, seek to bring those treasured
+feelings forward; he did not strive to shine, as it is called, for
+that striving must in itself always give a want of ease. But poor,
+indeed, must be the mind, dull and slow the imagination, which, out
+of the ordinary things of life--ay! even out of the every-day
+conversation of beings inferior to itself--does not naturally and
+easily derive immense, unfathomable currents of thought, combinations
+of fancy, of feeling, and of reflection, which only want the licence
+of the will to flow on and sparkle as they go.  It is, that the Will
+refuses that licence when we are with those that we despise or
+dislike: it is, that we voluntarily shut the flood-gates, and will
+not allow the streams to rush forth.  But with Wilton it was very,
+very different now: he was in the presence of one whose eye was
+sunshine to him, whose mind was of an equal tone with his own; and
+there was besides in his bosom that strong passion in its strongest
+form which gives to everything it mingles with its own depth, and
+intensity, and power--which, like a mountain torrent, suddenly poured
+into the bed of some summer rivulet, changes it at once in force, in
+speed, in depth--that passion which has made dumb men eloquent, and
+cowards brave.
+
+Thus, though the conversation began with ordinary subjects, touched
+but upon matters of taste and amusement, and approached deeper
+feelings only as a deviation from its regular course, yet at every
+turn it took, Wilton's mind displayed its richness and its power;
+till the Duke, who had considerable taste and natural feeling, as
+well as high cultivation of mind, looked with surprise and admiration
+towards his daughter; and every now and then Laura herself, almost
+breathless with mingled feelings of pleasure, pride, and affection,
+turned her eyes upon her father, and marked his sensations with a
+happy smile.
+
+And yet it was all so natural, so easy, so unaffected, that one felt
+there was neither effort nor presumption. There was nothing of what
+the vulgar mass of common society call eloquence about it; but there
+was the true eloquence, which by a single touch wakes the sound that
+we desire to produce in the heart of another: which by one bright
+instantaneous flash lights up, to the perception of every one around,
+each point that we wish them to behold. Eloquence consists not in
+many words, but in few words: the thoughts, the associations, the
+images, may be many, but the acme of eloquence is in the rapidity of
+their expression.
+
+Wilton, then, did not in any degree presume. He discoursed upon
+nothing; he did not even attempt to lead. The Duke led the
+conversation, and he followed: but it was like that famous entry of
+the Roman emperor, where an eagle was seen hovering round and round
+his head: the royal bird followed, indeed, the monarch; but in his
+flight took ten times a wider scope: the people hailed with loud
+gratulations the approach of Caesar, but in the attendant bird
+they recognised Jove. The Duke, however, who had taste, as we have
+said, and feeling, and who, in regard to conversational powers, was
+not a vain roan, was delighted with his guest, and laid himself out
+to lead Wilton on towards subjects on which he thought he would
+shine: but there was one very extraordinary thing in the history of
+that afternoon. There was not a servant in the hall--no, neither the
+laced and ribanded lackey lately hired in London, the old blue
+bottles from the country mansion, the stately butler and his
+understrapper of the cellaret, nor the Duke's own French gentleman,
+who stood very close to his master's elbow during the whole of dinner
+time--there was not one that did not clearly and perfectly perceive
+that their young lady was in love with her handsome deliverer, and
+did not comment upon it in their several spheres, when they quitted
+the room. Every one felt positive that the matter was all arranged,
+and the wedding was soon to take place; and, to say the truth, so
+much had Wilton in general won upon their esteem by one means or
+another, that the only objection urged against him, in the various
+councils which were held upon the subject, was, that his name was
+Brown, that he had not a vis-a-vis, and that he kept only two horses.
+
+The two or three last sentences, it must be owned, are lamentable
+digressions; for we have not yet stated what the extraordinary thing
+was. It was not in the least degree extraordinary that the servants
+should all find out the secret of Laura's heart; for her eyes told it
+every time that she looked at Wilton; but it is very extraordinary,
+indeed, that her father should never find it out, when every one else
+that was present did. Is it that there is a magic haze which
+surrounds love, that can never be penetrated by the eyes of parents
+or guardians, till some particular allotted moment is arrived?  I
+cannot tell; so, however, has it always proved, and so in all
+probability it ever will.
+
+Such was the case with the Duke at the present moment.  Although
+there was every opportunity for his daughter and Wilton falling in
+love with each other; although there was every reasonable cause
+thereunto them moving--youth, and beauty, and warm hearts, and
+gratitude, and interesting situations: although there was every
+probability that time, place, and circumstance could afford; although
+there was every indication, sign, symptom, and appearance, that it was
+absolutely the case at that very moment, yet the Duke saw nothing of
+it, did not believe it existed, did not imagine that it was likely
+ever to exist, and was quite prepared to be astonished, surprised, and
+mortified, at whatever period the fact, by the will of fate, should
+be forced upon his understanding.
+
+Such was the state of all parties at the time when Laura rose from
+the table, and left her father and Wilton alone.  Now the bad custom
+of men sitting together and drinking immense and detrimental
+quantities of various kinds of wine, was at that time at its very
+acme; so much so, indeed, that there is more than one recorded
+instance, in the years 1695 and 1696, of gentlemen--yes, reader;
+actually gentlemen, that is to say, persons who had had every
+advantage of birth, for time, and education--killing themselves with
+intoxication, exactly in the manner which a noble but most unhappy
+bard of our own days has described, in--
+
+                   --"the Irish peer
+    Who kill'd himself for love, with wine, last year."
+
+On this subject, however, we shall not dwell, as we may be fated,
+perhaps, in the very beginning of the next chapter, to touch upon
+some of the other peculiar habits of those days.
+
+Now neither Wilton nor the Duke were at all addicted to the vice we
+have mentioned; and Wilton had certainly much stronger attractions in
+another room of that house than any that the Duke's cellar could
+afford him. The Duke, too, had small inclination usually to sit long
+at table; but on the present occasion he had an object in detaining
+his young friend in the dining-room after Lady Laura had departed.
+Wilton's eyes saw him turn towards him several times, while the
+servants were busy about the table, and had, indeed, even during
+dinner, remarked a certain sort of restlessness, which he attributed,
+and rightly, to an anxiety regarding the plots of the Jacobites, in
+which the peer had so nearly involved himself.
+
+At length, when the room was cleared and the door closed, the Duke
+drew round his chair towards the fire, begging his young friend to do
+the same, and mingling the matter of alarm even with his invitation
+to the first glass of wine, "My dear Wilton," he said--"you must
+permit me to call you so, for I can now look upon you as little less
+than a son--I wish you to give me a fuller account of all this
+business than poor Laura can, for there is news current about the
+town to-day which somewhat alarms me, though I do not think there is
+any need of alarm either. But surely, Wilton, they could not bring me
+in as at all accessory to a plot which I would have nothing to do
+with."
+
+"Oh no, my lord, I should think not," replied Wilton, without much
+consideration. "I know it is the wish of the government only to
+punish the chief offenders."
+
+"Then you think it is really all discovered, as they say?" demanded
+the Duke.
+
+"I know it is," replied Wilton. "Several of the conspirators are
+already in custody, and warrants are issued, I understand, against
+the rest. As far as I can judge, two or three will turn King's
+evidence, and the rest will be executed."
+
+"Good God!" exclaimed the Duke. "I heard something of the business
+when I was out, but scarcely gave it credit.  It seemed so suddenly
+discovered."
+
+"I believe the government have had the clue in their hands for some
+time," replied Wilton, "but have only availed themselves of it
+lately."
+
+"Have you heard any one named, Wilton?" demanded the Duke again; "any
+of those who are taken, or any of those who are suspected?"
+
+"Sir John Friend has been arrested this morning," replied Wilton; "a
+person named Cranburne, and another called Rookwood. I heard the
+names of those who are suspected also read over."
+
+"Then I adjure you, my dear young friend," cried the Duke, starting
+up, and grasping his hand in great agitation--"I adjure you, by all
+the regard that exists between us, and all that you have done for me
+and my poor child, to tell me if my name was amongst the rest."
+
+"No, it certainly was not," replied Wilton; and as he spoke, the Duke
+suffered himself to sink back into his chair again, with a long and
+relieved sigh.
+
+The moment Wilton had uttered his reply, however, he recollected that
+there was one name in the list at which Lord Byerdale had hesitated;
+and he then feared that he might be leading the Duke into error.
+Knowing, however, that Laura's father had been but at one of the
+meetings of the conspirators, and being perfectly sure, that,
+startled and dismayed by what he had heard of their plans, he had
+instantly withdrawn from all association with them, he did not doubt
+that no serious danger could exist in his case, and therefore thought
+it unnecessary to agitate his mind, by suggesting the doubt which had
+suddenly come into his own.
+
+He knew, indeed, that any alarm which the Duke might feel, would but
+make Laura's father lean more entirely day by day upon him, who, with
+the exception of the conspirators themselves, was the only person who
+possessed the dangerous secret which caused him so much agitation.
+But Wilton was not a man to consider his own interests in any such
+matter, and he determined, after a moment's consideration, to say
+nothing of the doubts which had just arisen. A pause had ensued,
+however, for the Duke, busied with his own feelings, had suffered his
+thoughts to run back into the past; and, as is the case with every
+human being whose mind dwells upon the acts that are irrevocable, he
+found matter for sorrow and regret. After about five minutes'
+silence, during which they both continued to gaze thoughtfully into
+the fire, the Duke returned to the matter before them by saying--
+
+"I wish to heavens, my dear young friend, I had taken your advice,
+and not gone to this meeting at all; or that you had given me a
+fuller intimation of what was intended."
+
+"I could not, indeed, my lord," replied Wilton, "for I had no fuller
+knowledge myself; I only conveyed to you a message I had received."
+
+The Duke shook his head doubtingly. "Oh! Wilton, Wilton!" he said,
+"you are training for a statesman! You have much better information
+of all these things than you will suffer to appear. Did you not warn
+me of this before any one else knew anything of it? Did you not in a
+very short time find out where Laura was when nobody else could?"
+
+It was in vain that Wilton denied any superior knowledge.  The Duke
+had so completely made up his mind that his young friend had been in
+possession of all the secret information obtained by the ministers,
+and, indeed, of more and earlier information than they had possessed,
+that nothing would remove the impression from his mind; and when he
+at length rose, finding that Wilton would drink no more wine, he
+said--
+
+"Well, Wilton, remember, I depend entirely upon you, with the fullest
+and most implicit confidence. No one possesses my secret but you, and
+one or two of these men, who will have enough to do in thinking of
+themselves without implicating others, I trust. Most of those who
+were present--for the meeting was very large--did not know who I
+was, and the rest who did know, must know also very well, that I
+strenuously objected to their whole proceedings, and quitted them as
+soon as I discovered what were their real objects.  A word said upon
+the subject, however, might ruin me; for rank and fortune in this
+world, Wilton, though they bear their own inconveniences with them,
+are always objects of envy to those who do not possess them; and
+malice as surely treads upon the steps of envy as night follows day.
+I trust to you, as I have said, entirely, and I trust to you even
+with the more confidence, because I find that you have been wise and
+prudent enough not even to communicate to Laura the fact of my having
+attended any of these meetings at all.  While all this is taking
+place, however, my dear Wilton--as of course the matter will be a
+very agitating one to me, when the trials come on (for fear any of
+the traitors should name me)--let me see you frequently, constantly,
+every day, if you can, and bring me what tidings you can gain of all
+that passes."
+
+Wilton easily promised to do that which the Duke desired, in this
+respect at least, and they then joined her he loved, with whom he
+passed one of those calm, sweet evenings, the tranquil happiness of
+which admits of no description.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+Amongst all the curious changes that have taken place in the
+world--by which expression I mean, upon the world, for the great
+round ball on which we roll through space is the only part of the
+whole that remains but little altered--amongst all the changes, then,
+which have taken place in the world, moral, political, and social,
+there has been none more extraordinary, perhaps, than the rise,
+progress, extension, and dominion of that strong power called
+Decorum. I have heard it asserted by a very clever man, that there
+was nothing of the kind known in England before the commencement of
+the reign of George III., and that decorum was, in fact, a mere
+decent cloak to cover the nakedness of vice. I think he was mistaken:
+the word was known long before; and there has been at all times a
+feeling of decorum in the English nation, which has shown itself in
+gradually rooting out from the ordinary commerce of society
+everything that is coarse in expression, or doubtful in conduct. The
+natural tendency of this is to mark more strongly the limits of the
+realms of vice and virtue; and vice, as a matter of course, in order
+to obviate the detrimental effect which such a clear definition of
+her boundaries must produce, loses no opportunity of travelling over
+into the marches or debateable land which is left under the warden
+ship of decorum.
+
+The name was not, perhaps, applied as now it is, in former years, but
+still the spirit existed, as may be seen by any one who takes up and
+reads the works of one of our purest but coldest of writers, Addison,
+who, about the time of the peace, which took place in the beginning
+of the eighteenth century, laments the loss of much of the delicacy
+(or, in other terns, decorum) of English society which was likely to
+ensue from a free intercourse with France. It must, indeed, be
+admitted that at that period the reign of decorum had not made nearly
+so great a progress as it has at present. It was then a constitutional
+monarchy, where it is now a despotism, but was probably not a bit
+less powerful from being decidedly more free. People in those days
+did certainly speak of things that we now speak not of at all. They
+called things by their plain straightforward names, for which we have
+since invented terms perhaps less definite and not more decent. But
+people of refined minds and tastes were refined then as now, and
+loved and cultivated all those amenities, graces, and proprieties,
+which form not alone the greatest safeguards, but also the greatest
+charms of human existence. Perhaps the difference was more in the
+thoughts than in the expressions, and that the refined of those days
+bound themselves to think more purely in the first place, so that
+there was less need of guarding their words so strictly.
+
+We shall not pause to investigate whether it was that greater purity
+of thought, or any other cause, which produced a far more extensive
+liberty of action, especially in the female part of society, than
+that which is admitted at present. It is certain, however, that it
+was so, and that there was something in virtue and innocence which in
+those days was a very strong safeguard against the attacks of
+scandal, calumny, and malice.  In the present day, even the servants
+of virtue are found to be the absolute slaves of decorum; but in
+those days, so long as they obeyed the high commands of their
+rightful mistress, they had but little occasion to apprehend that the
+scourge of calumny, or the fear thereof, would drive them continually
+back into one narrow and beaten path.
+
+It is, indeed, the greatest satire upon human nature which the world
+has ever produced, that acts perfectly innocent, high, and pure as
+God's holy light, cannot be permitted to persons even of tried
+virtue, simply because they would afford the opportunity of doing
+ill. It is, in fact, to say, that no one is to be trusted; that there
+is nothing which keeps man or woman virtuous but want of opportunity.
+It is a terrible satire; it is more than a satire; it is a foul
+libel, aimed by the vicious against those who are better than
+themselves.
+
+Such things did not exist in the days whereof I write, or existed in
+a very, very small degree. It is true, from time to time, a woman's
+reputation might suffer falsely; but it was in general from her
+having approached very near the confines of evil, and the punishment
+that ensued, though perhaps even then disproportioned to the fault,
+had no tendency whatever to diminish the innocent liberty of others.
+We find from all the writers who painted the manners of those
+days--Addison, Swift, Steele, and others--that a lady, especially an
+unmarried lady, feared no risk to her reputation in going hither or
+thither, either perfectly alone, or with any friend with whom she was
+known to be intimate. She might venture upon an excursion into the
+country, a party of pleasure, nay, a journey itself in many
+instances, with any gentleman of honour and reputation, without
+either friends or enemies casting an imputation upon her character,
+or the world immediately giving her over to him in marriage.
+
+It was left indeed to her own judgment whom she would choose for her
+companion, and the most innocent girl might have gone anywhere
+unreproved with a man of known honour and virtue, who would have
+ruined her own character had she placed herself in the power of a
+Rochester or a Bucking ham. These were rational boundaries; but
+perhaps the liberty of those days went somewhat beyond even that. In
+the early part of the eighteenth century, many of the habits of the
+Continent were introduced into England at a time that continental
+society was so corrupt as to require licence instead of liberty, and
+so far from attending to propriety, to give way to indecency itself.
+It became common in the highest circles of society for ladies,
+married and single alike, to dispense almost entirely with a female
+attendant, and following that most indecent and beastly of all
+continental habits, to permit all the offices of a waiting woman to
+be performed for them by men. The visits of male acquaintances were
+continually received in their bed-rooms, and that, also, before they
+had risen in the morning. This, perhaps, was too much, though
+certainly far less indecent than the other most revolting of all
+immodest practices which I have just mentioned. Others, again,
+admitted no visitors further than their dressing-room, and thought
+themselves very scrupulous; but there were others, as there must be
+at all times, who, with feelings of true modesty and perfect
+delicacy, hesitated not to use all proper and rational liberty, yet
+shrunk instinctively from the least coarseness of thought or
+language, and never yielded to aught that was immodest in custom or
+demeanour.
+
+Of these was Lady Laura Gaveston; and though she had no fear of
+becoming the talk of the town, or losing the slightest particle of a
+bright and pure reputation, by treating one who had rendered her
+important services in all respects as she would a brother, by being
+seen with him often and often alone, by showing herself with him in
+public places, or by any other act of the kind that her heart
+prompted her to, she in no way gave in to the evil practices which
+the English had learned from their continental neighbours, and,
+indeed, never thought or reasoned upon the subject, feeling that
+decency as well as morality is a matter of sentiment and not of
+custom.
+
+The peculiar situation in which the Duke and Wilton were placed
+towards each other; the Duke's repeated entreaties that Wilton would
+see him every day, if possible; the intimacy that had arisen from
+services rendered and received, produced that constant and continual
+intercourse which was necessary to the happiness of two people who
+loved as Wilton and Laura did; not a day passed without their seeing
+each other, scarcely a day passed without their being alone together,
+sometimes even for hours; and every moment that they thus spent in
+each other's society increased their feelings of love and tenderness
+for each other, their hopes, their confidence, their esteem.
+
+Not a secret of Laura's bosom was now concealed from him she loved,
+not a thought, not a feeling. She delighted to tell him all: with
+whatever subject her mind was employed, with whatever bright thing
+her fancy sported, Wilton was always made the sharer; and it was the
+same with him. The course that their thoughts pursued was certainly
+not always alike, but they generally arrived at the same conclusion,
+she by a longer and a softer way, he by a more rapid, vigorous, and
+direct one. It was like the passing of a hill by two different roads;
+the one, for the bold climber, over the steepest brow; the other, for
+gentler steps, more easy round the side.
+
+In the meantime, the Duke proceeded with his young friend even as he
+had commenced. He treated him as his most intimate and dearest
+confidant; he gradually went on to consult and trust him, not alone
+with regard to the immediate subject of his situation, as affected by
+the conspiracy, but upon a thousand other matters; and as Wilton's
+advice, clear-sighted and vigorous, was always judicious, and
+generally successful, the Duke, one of whose greatest weaknesses was
+the habit of putting his own judgment under the guidance of others,
+learned to lean upon his young companion, as he had at first done
+upon his wife, and then upon his daughter.
+
+The various changes and events of the day, as they kept the Duke's
+mind in a state of frequent suspense and anxiety, made him more often
+recur to Wilton than otherwise would have been the case. London was
+filled with rumours of every kind regarding the discovery of the
+plot, and the persons implicated. The report of Lady Laura's having
+been carried off by the Jacobites, for the purpose of inducing her
+father to join in their schemes, spread far and wide, and filled
+Beaufort House, during a great part of the morning, with a crowd of
+visitors, all anxious to hear the facts, and to retail them with what
+colouring they thought fit.
+
+Some argued, that though the Duke had always been thought somewhat of
+a Jacobite, at least he had now proved his adherence to the existing
+dynasty, beyond all manner of dispute, by what he and his daughter
+had suffered from their resistance to the Jacobites. Others, again,
+curled the malicious lip, and declared that the Duke must have given
+the conspirators some encouragement, or they would never have
+ventured upon such deeds. All, however, to the Duke himself, affected
+to look upon him and his family as marked by the enmity of the other
+faction; and he, on his part, perhaps, did feel his importance in a
+little degree increased by the sort of notoriety which he had
+acquired.
+
+If there was any pleasure in this--and when is not increased
+importance pleasurable?--it was speedily brought to an end, as soon
+as the trials of the conspirators began, and intelligence of more and
+more traitors being arrested in different parts, and increased
+rumours of the number suspected, or actually implicated, reaching the
+ears of the Duke.  Persons who one day appeared perfectly free and
+stainless, were the next marked out as having a share in the
+conspiracy. Fear fell upon all men: the times of Titus Oates and his
+famous plot presented themselves to everybody's imagination, and the
+Duke's head lay more and more uneasy on his pillow every night.
+
+Sir John Fenwick, however, was not yet taken: Sir William Parkyns and
+Sir John Friend died with firmness and with honour, compromising no
+man. Sir George Barkley had escaped; the Earl of Aylesbury, though
+implicated by the testimony of several witnesses in the lesser
+offences of the conspiracy, was not arrested; and not a word had yet
+been spoken of the Duke's name.
+
+It was about this period, however, that Laura's father suddenly
+received a note from Lord Aylesbury to the following effect:--
+
+    "Your grace and I being somewhat similarly situated in
+    several respects, I think fit to give you intimation of my
+    views at the present moment. While gentlemen, and men of
+    honour, were the only individuals made to suffer in
+    consequence of the late lamentable events, people, who knew
+    themselves to be innocent of any bloody or treasonable
+    designs, might feel themselves tolerably safe, even though
+    they were well acquainted with some of the persons accused.
+    I hear now, however, that there is a certain Rookwood,
+    together with men named Cranburne, Lowick, Knightly, and
+    others, some of them small gentry of no repute, and others
+    merely vulgar and inferior persons, who are about to be
+    brought to immediate trial; and I have it from a sure hand,
+    that some of these persons, for the purpose of saving their
+    own miserable lives, intend to charge men of much higher
+    rank than themselves with crimes of which they never had
+    any thought, simply because they were acquainted with
+    some of the unfortunate gentlemen by whom these evil and
+    foolish things were designed. Such being the case, and
+    knowing myself to be somewhat obnoxious to many persons
+    in power, I have determined to remove from London for the
+    time, that my presence may not excite attention, and perhaps
+    call upon my head an accusation which may be levelled at
+    any other if I should not be here. I by no means purpose
+    to quit the kingdom, and would rather, indeed, surrender
+    myself, and endeavour to prove my innocence, even against
+    the torrent of prejudice, and all the wild and raging outcry
+    which this business has produced, both in the parliament
+    and in the nation. At the same time, I think it best to
+    inform you of these facts, as an old friend, well knowing that
+    your grace has a house ready to receive you in Hampshire,
+    within thirty-five miles of the city of London, in case your
+    presence should be wanted, and about the same distance
+    from the sea-coast. I will beg your grace to read this, and
+    then instantly to burn it, believing that it comes with a very
+    good intent, from
+                       "Your humble servant,
+                                            "AYLESBURY."
+
+This letter once more excited all the apprehensions of the Duke, who
+well knew that Lord Aylesbury would never have written such an
+epistle without intending to imply much more than he directly said.
+
+His recourse was immediately to Wilton, who was engaged to dine with
+him on that day, together with a large party.  As Wilton's
+engagements, however, were always made with a proviso, that his
+official duties under the Earl of Byerdale permitted his fulfilling
+them, the Duke sent off a special messenger with a note beseeching
+him not to fail. The dinner hour, however, arrived; the various
+guests made their appearance; the cook began to fret, and to declare
+to his understrappers that the Duke always spoilt the dinner; but
+Wilton had not yet come, and the Duke was anxious, if but to obtain
+five words with him.
+
+At length, however, the young gentleman arrived; and it was not a
+little to the surprise of all the guests, and to the indignation of
+some, that they saw who was the person for whom the meal had been
+delayed. Wilton, though always well dressed, and in any circumstances
+bearing the aspect of a gentleman, had evidently made his toilet
+hastily and imperfectly; and notwithstanding the distance he had
+come, bore about his person distinct traces of heat and excitement.
+
+"I have not failed to obey your summons, my lord," he said, following
+the Duke into the opening of one of the windows, "though it was
+scarcely possible for me to do so.  But I have much that I wish to
+say to you."
+
+"And I to you," replied the Duke; and he told him the contents of the
+letter he had received from Lord Aylesbury that morning.
+
+"The Earl says true, my lord," replied Wilton. "But I have this very
+day seen Cook myself--I mean Peter Cook, the person that it is
+supposed will be permitted to turn king's evidence. He did certainly
+slightly glance at your grace; but I believe that the orders of Lord
+Byerdale will prevent him from implicating any persons but those who
+were actually engaged in the worst designs of the conspirators."
+
+"Had I not better go into the country at once?" demanded the Duke,
+eagerly.
+
+"Far from it, far from it, my lord," replied Wilton: "the way, of all
+others, I should think, to cause yourself to be arrested. On the
+contrary, if you would take my advice, you would immediately sit down
+and write a note to Lord Byerdale, saying that I had told you--for he
+did not forbid me to mention it--that Cook had made some allusion to
+you. Tell him that it was, and is, your intention to go out of town
+within a few days, but that knowing your own innocence of every
+design against the government, you will put off your journey, or even
+surrender yourself at the Tower, should he judge, from any
+information that he possesses, that even a shade of suspicion is
+likely to be cast upon you by any of the persons about to be tried. I
+will answer for the success, if your grace follows my advice. A bold
+step of this kind disarms suspicion. Lord Byerdale will, in all
+probability, intimate to Cook, that nothing at all is to be said in
+regard to you, feeling sure that you are innocent of any great
+offence; whereas, if the charge were once brought forward, the set of
+low-minded villains concerned in this business might think it
+absolutely necessary to work it up into a serious affair, from which
+your grace would find a difficulty in extricating yourself."
+
+"You are right, Wilton, you are right," replied the Duke:  "I see you
+are right, although I judged it hazardous at first.  You shall see
+what confidence I have in you. I will write the letter directly;" and
+he turned away with him from the window.
+
+Laura had watched the conference with some anxiety, and the Duke's
+guests with some surprise; but when the Duke ended by saying aloud,
+"I fear I must beg your pardon, ladies, for two minutes, but I must
+write a short note of immediate importance; Wilton, my dear young
+friend, be kind enough to order dinner, and help Laura to entertain
+my friends here till I return, which will be before they have covered
+the table," every one looked in the face of the other; and they all
+mentally said, "The matter is clearly settled, and the hand of this
+rich and beautiful heiress is promised to an unknown man of no rank
+whatever."
+
+Knowing the feelings that were in his own heart, being quite sure of
+the interpretation that would be put upon the Duke's words, and yet
+having some doubts still whether the Duke himself had the slightest
+intention of giving them such a meaning, Wilton cast down his eyes
+and coloured slightly.  But Laura, to whom those words were anything
+but painful--though she blushed a little too, which but confirmed
+the opinion of those who remarked it--could not restrain altogether
+the smile of pleasure that played upon her lips, as she turned her
+happy eyes for a moment to the countenance of the man she loved.
+
+There was not an old lady or gentleman, of high rank, in the room,
+possessed of a marriageable son, who would not at that moment have
+willingly raised Wilton to the final elevation of Haman, by the same
+process which that envious person underwent; and yet it is wonderful
+how courteous and cordial, and even affectionate, they all were
+towards the young gentleman whom, for the time, they mortally hated.
+Wilton felt himself awkwardly situated for the next few minutes, not
+choosing fully to assume the position in which the Duke's words had
+placed him. He well knew that if he did enact to the full the part of
+that nobleman's representative, every one would charge him with gross
+and shameful presumption, and would most likely talk of it, each in
+his separate circle, during the whole of the following day.
+
+He was soon relieved, however, by the return of the Duke, who had
+sent the letter, but who continued evidently anxious and thoughtful
+during the whole of dinner. Wilton was also a little disturbed, and
+showed himself rather silent and retiring than otherwise. But before
+dinner was over--for such meals were long protracted in those
+days--one of the servants brought a note to the Duke, who, begging
+pardon for so far violating all proprieties, opened, read it, and,
+while the cloud vanished from his countenance, placed it on the
+salver again, saying to the servant, "Take that to Mr.  Brown."
+
+The note was in the hand of Lord Byerdale, and to the following
+effect:--
+
+         "MY DEAR LORD DUKE,
+    "Your grace's attachment to the government is far too
+    well known to be affected by anything that such a person as
+    Peter Cook could say. I permitted our dear young friend
+    Wilton to tell you what the man had mentioned, more as a
+    mark of our full confidence than anything else. But I doubt
+    not that he will forbear to repeat the calumny in court; and
+    if he does, it will receive no attention. Go out of town, then,
+    whenever you think fit, and to whatsoever place you please,
+    feeling quite sure that in Wilton you have a strenuous
+    advocate, and a sincere friend in
+              "Your grace's most humble and
+                                 "most obedient servant,
+                                             "BYERDALE."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+For nearly ten days after the events which we have recorded in the
+thirtieth chapter of this volume, and while the principal part of the
+events were taking place of which we have just spoken, Lord
+Sherbrooke remained absent from London.  Knowing the circumstances in
+which he was placed, Wilton felt anxious lest the delay of his return
+might attract the attention of Lord Byerdale, and lead him to suspect
+some evil. No suspicion, however, seemed to cross the mind of the
+Earl, who was more accustomed than Wilton knew to find his son absent
+without knowing where he was, or how employed.
+
+At length, however, one morning Lord Sherbrooke made his appearance
+again; and Wilton saw that he was on perfect good terms with his
+father, who never quarrelled with his vices, or interfered with his
+pursuits, when there was any veil of decency thrown over the one, or
+the Earl's own views were not openly opposed by the other.
+
+When Wilton entered the room where the father and son were seated at
+breakfast, he found Lord Sherbrooke descanting learnedly upon the
+fancy of damask table-cloths and napkins.  He vowed that his father
+was behind all the world, especially the world of France, and that it
+was absolutely necessary, in order to make himself like other men of
+station and fashion, that he should have his coronet and cipher
+embroidered with gold in the corners, and his arms, in the same
+manner, made conspicuous in the centre.
+
+"And pray, my good son," said Lord Byerdale to him, "as your intimacy
+with washerwomen is doubtless as great as your intimacy with
+embroiderers and sempstresses, pray tell me how these gilded napkins
+are to be washed?"
+
+"Washed, my lord!" exclaimed Lord Sherbrooke in a tone of horror. "Do
+you ever have your napkins washed?  I did not know there was a
+statesman in Europe whose fingers were so clean as to leave his
+napkin in such a state that the stains could ever be taken out, after
+he had once used it."
+
+"I am afraid, my dear boy," replied Lord Byerdale, "that, if you had
+not--as many men of sharp wit do--confounded a figure with a reality,
+for the purpose of playing with both, and if there were in truth such
+a thing as a moral napkin, what you say would be very true. But as
+far as I can judge, my dear Sherbrooke, yours would not bear washing
+any better than mine."
+
+"It would be very presumptuous of me if it did, my dear father,"
+replied Lord Sherbrooke, "and would argue that precept and example
+had done nothing for me. Come, Wilton," he added, "come in to my
+help, for here are father and son flinging so hard at each other,
+that I shall get my teeth dashed down my throat before I've done. Now
+tell me, did you ever see such a napkin as that in the house of a
+nobleman, a gentleman, or a man of taste, three states, by the way,
+seldom united in the same person?"
+
+"Oh yes," replied Wilton, "often; and, to tell the truth, I think
+them in much better taste than if they were all covered with gold."
+
+"Surely not for the fingers of a statesman?" said Lord Sherbrooke.
+"However, I abominate them; and I will instantly sit down and write
+to a good friend of mine in France, to smuggle me over a few dozens
+as a present to my respectable parent."
+
+"A present which he will have to pay for," replied the Earl, somewhat
+bitterly. "My dear Sherbrooke, your presents to other people cost
+your father so much one way, that I beg you will make none to him,
+and get him into the scrape the other way also."
+
+"Do not be alarmed, my dear and most amiable parent," replied Lord
+Sherbrooke: "the sweet discussion which we had some time ago, in
+regard to debts and expenses, has had its effect: though it is a very
+stupid plan of a son ever to let his father see that what he says has
+any effect upon him at all; but I intend to contract my expenses."
+
+"Intentions are very excellent things, my dear Sherbrooke," replied
+his father. "But I am afraid we generally treat them as gardeners do
+celery,--cut them down as soon as they sprout above ground."
+
+"I have let mine grow, my lord, already," replied Sherbrooke.  "I
+last night gave an order for selling five of my horses, and now keep
+only two."
+
+"And how many mistresses, Sherbrooke?" demanded his father.
+
+"None, my lord," replied Sherbrooke.
+
+Not a change came over Lord Byerdale's countenance; but ringing the
+bell which stood before him on the table, he said to the servant,
+"Bring me the book marked 'Ephemeris' from my dressing-room, with a
+pen and ink.--We will put that down," continued he; and when the
+servant brought the book he wrote for a moment, reading aloud as he
+did so, "Great annular eclipse of the sun--slight shock of an
+earthquake felt in Cardigan--Sherbrooke talks of contracting his
+expenses."
+
+Wilton could not help smiling; but he believed and trusted, from all
+that he knew of Lord Sherbrooke's situation, that new motives and
+nobler ones than those which had ever influenced him before, produced
+his present resolution, and would support him in it.
+
+The business which he had to transact with the Earl proved very
+brief; and after it was over, he sought Lord Sherbrooke again, with
+feelings of real and deep interest in all that concerned him. He
+found the young nobleman seated with his feet on the fire-place, and
+a light book in his hand, sometimes letting it drop upon his knee,
+and falling into a fit of thought, sometimes reading a few lines
+attentively, sometimes gazing upon the page, evidently without
+attending to its contents.
+
+He suffered Wilton to be in the room several minutes without speaking
+to him; and his friend, knowing the eccentricities that occasionally
+took possession of him, was about to quit the room and leave him,
+when he started up, threw the book into the midst of the fire, and
+said, "Where are you going, Wilton? I will walk with you."
+
+They issued forth together into the streets, and entering St. James's
+Park, took their way round by the head of the decoy towards the side
+of the river. While in the streets they both kept silence; but as
+soon as they had passed the ever-moving crowds that swarm in the
+thoroughfares of the great metropolis, Wilton began the conversation,
+by inquiring eagerly after his friend's wife.
+
+"She is nearly well," replied Lord Sherbrooke, coldly--"out of all
+danger, at least. It is I that am sick, Wilton--sick at heart."
+
+"I hope not cold at heart, Sherbrooke," replied Wilton, somewhat
+pained by the tone in which the other spoke. "I should think such a
+being as I saw with you might well warm you to constancy as well as
+love. I hope, Sherbrooke, those feelings I beheld excited in you have
+not, in this instance, evaporated as soon as in others."
+
+Lord Sherbrooke turned and gazed in his friend's face for a moment
+intently, even sternly, and then replied, "Love her, Wilton? I love
+her better than anything in earth or in heaven! It is for her sake I
+am sad; and yet she is so noble, that why should I fear to bear what
+she will never shrink from."
+
+"Nay, my dear Sherbrooke," replied Wilton. "The very resolution which
+I see you have taken to shake yourself free of the trammels of your
+debts ought to give you joy and confidence."
+
+"Debts!" said Lord Sherbrooke--"debts! Do you think that it was debts
+I had in view when I ordered my horses to be sold, and my carriages
+to follow them, and kicked my Italian valet down stairs, and
+dismissed my mistresses, and got rid of half-a-dozen other
+blood-suckers?--My debts had nothing to do with it. By Heaven,
+Wilton, if it had been for nothing but that, I would have spent
+twenty thousand pounds more before the year was over; for when one
+has a mind to enrage one's father, or go to gaol, or anything of that
+kind, one had better do it for a large sum at once, in a gentleman-
+like way. Oh no, I have other things in my head, Wilton, that you
+know nothing about."
+
+"I will not try to press into your confidence, Sherbrooke," replied
+Wilton, "though I think in some things I have shown myself deserving
+of it. But I need hardly tell you, that if I can serve you, I am
+always most willing to do so, and you need but command me."
+
+"Alas! my dear Wilton," replied Lord Sherbrooke--"this is a matter
+in which you can do nothing. It is like one man trying to lift Paul's
+church upon his back, and another coming up and offering to help
+him. If I did what was right, and according to the best prescribed
+practice, I should repay your kind wishes and offers by turning round
+and cutting your throat."
+
+"Nay, nay, my dear Sherbrooke," replied Wilton, "you are in one of
+your misanthropical fits, and carry it even further than ordinary.
+The world is bad enough, but not so bad as to present us with many
+instances of people cutting each other's throats as a reward for
+offers of service."
+
+"You are very wise, Wilton," replied Lord Sherbrooke, "but
+nevertheless you will find out that at present I am right and you are
+wrong. However, let us talk of something else;" and he dashed off at
+once into a wild gay strain of merriment, as unaccountable as the
+grave and gloomy tone with which he had entered into the
+conversation.
+
+This morning's interview formed the type of Lord Sherbrooke's conduct
+during the whole time of his stay in town.  Continual fluctuations,
+not only in his own spirits, but in his demeanour towards Wilton
+himself; evidently showed his friend that he was agitated internally
+by some great grief or terrible anxiety. Indeed, from time to time,
+his words suffered it to appear, though not, perhaps, in the same
+manner that the words of other men would have done in similar
+circumstances. The only thing in which he seemed to take pleasure was
+in attending the trials of the various conspirators; and when any of
+them displayed any fear or want of firmness, he found therein a vast
+source of merriment, and would come home laughing to Wilton, and
+telling him how the beggarly wretch had showed his pale fright at the
+block and axe.
+
+"That villain Knightly," he said, one day, "who was as deep or deeper
+in the plot than any of the others, and surveyed the ground for the
+King's assassination, came into court the colour of an old woman's
+green calamanco petticoat, gaping and trembling in every limb like a
+boar's head in aspic jelly; and Heaven knows that I, who stood
+looking and laughing at him, would have taken his place for a
+dollar."
+
+The perfect conviction that some very serious cause existed for this
+despondency induced Wilton to deviate from the line of conduct he had
+laid down for himself, and to urge Lord Sherbrooke at various times
+to make him acquainted with the particulars of his situation, and to
+give him the opportunity of assisting him if possible. Lord
+Sherbrooke resisted pertinaciously. He sometimes answered his friend
+kindly and feelingly, sometimes sullenly, sometimes angrily.  But he
+never yielded; and on one occasion he expressed himself so harshly
+and ungratefully, that Wilton turned round and left him in the park.
+They were on horseback at the time; and Lord Sherbrooke rode on a
+little way, without taking the slightest notice of his companion's
+departure. He then suddenly turned his horse, however, and galloping
+after him at full speed, he held out his hand to him, saying,
+"Wilton, you must either fight me or forgive me, for this state
+must not last five minutes."
+
+Wilton took his hand, replying, "I forgive you with all my heart,
+Sherbrooke, and let me once more explain that my only view, my only
+wish, is to be of assistance to you.  I see, Sherbrooke, that you are
+melancholy, wretched, anxious. I wish much to do anything that I can
+to relieve that state of mind; and though I have no power, and very
+little interest, yet there do occasionally occur opportunities to me,
+which, as you have seen in the case of Lady Laura, afford me means of
+doing things which might not be expected from my situation."
+
+"You can neither help me, nor relieve me, nor assist me in the least,
+Wilton," replied Lord Sherbrooke, "unless, indeed, you could entirely
+change beings with me; unless you become me, and I become you. But it
+cannot be, and I cannot even explain to you any part of my situation.
+Therefore ask me nothing more upon the subject, and only be contented
+that it is from no want of confidence in you that I hold my tongue."
+
+"I hope and trust that it is not," replied Wilton; "but now that we
+are speaking upon the subject, let me still say one word more. I can
+conceive, from various reasons, that you may not think fit to confide
+in me. I am a man of your own age, with less wit, less experience,
+less knowledge of the world than you have--"
+
+"You have more wit in your little finger, more knowledge of the
+world, and experience--Heaven knows how you got it--more common
+sense, ay, and uncommon sense too, than ever I shall have in my
+life," replied Lord Sherbrooke, hastily.
+
+"But hear me, Sherbrooke, hear me," said Wilton--"whatever may be the
+cause, it does not suit you to take my advice and assistance. Now
+there is one person in whom you may fully rely, who will never betray
+your confidence, who will give you the very best advice, and I am
+sure will, if it be in his power, render you still more important
+assistance--I mean Lord Sunbury. He is now at Geneva, on his way
+home, waiting for passports from France. In his last letter, he
+mentioned you with much interest, and desired me--"
+
+"Good God!" cried Lord Sherbrooke, "that I should ever create any
+interest in anybody! However, Wilton, your suggestion is not a bad
+one. Perhaps you have pointed out the only man in Europe in whom I
+could confide with propriety, strange as that may seem. But in the
+first place, I must consult with others.--Have you seen your friend
+Green lately?"
+
+"Not since the night before all that business in Kent," replied
+Wilton. "I have sought to see him, but have never been able; and I
+begin to apprehend that he must have taken a part in this conspiracy,
+different from that I imagined, and has absented himself on that
+account."
+
+"Not he, not he!" replied Lord Sherbrooke; "I saw him but two days
+ago. But who have we here, coming up on foot? One of the King's
+servants, it would seem, and with him that cowardly rascal Arden.
+They are snaking towards us, Wilton, doubtless not recognising us.
+Suppose we take Master Arden, and horsewhip him out of the park."
+
+"No, no," replied Wilton, "no such violent counsels for me, my dear
+Sherbrooke. The man is punished more than I wished already."
+
+The two men directed their course at once towards Lord Sherbrooke and
+his companion; and as they approached, the King's servant advanced
+before the other, and with a respectful bow addressed Wilton, saying,
+"I have the King's commands, sir, to require your presence at
+Kensington immediately. I was even now about to seek you in St.
+James's Square, and then at Whitehall. But I presume Mr.  Arden has
+informed me rightly, that you are that Mr. Brown who is private
+secretary to Lord Byerdale."
+
+"The same, sir," replied Wilton. "Am I to present myself to his
+majesty in my riding dress?"
+
+"His majesty's commands were for your immediate attendance, sir,"
+replied the servant: "the council must be over by this time, and then
+he expects you."
+
+"Then I will lose no time," replied Wilton, "but ride to the palace
+at once."
+
+"What can be the meaning of this, Wilton?" said Lord Sherbrooke, as
+he put his horse into a quick pace, to keep up with that of his
+friend.
+
+"On my word, I cannot tell," replied Wilton. "I trust for no evil,
+though I know not that any good can be in store."
+
+"Well, I will leave you at the palace gates," replied Lord
+Sherbrooke, "and ride about in the neighbourhood till I see you come
+out. I hope it will not be in custody."
+
+"I trust not, indeed," replied Wilton. "I know of no good reason why
+it should be so: but in these days of suspicion, and I must say of
+guilt and treason also, no one can tell who may be the next person
+destined for abode in Newgate."
+
+In such speculations the two young gentlemen continued till they
+reached the palace, where Lord Sherbrooke turned and left his friend;
+and Wilton, if the truth must be confessed, with an anxious and
+beating heart, applied to the porter for admittance.
+
+The moment that his name was given, he was led by a page to a small
+waiting room on the ground floor. The carriages which had surrounded
+the entrance seemed to indicate that the council was not yet over;
+but in a few minutes after, the sound of many feet and of various
+people talking was heard in the neighbouring passage; and then came
+the roll of carriages followed by a dead silence. To the mind of
+Wilton the silence continued for an exceedingly long time; but at
+length a voice was heard, apparently at some distance, pronouncing a
+name indistinctly; but Wilton imagined that it sounded like his own
+name.
+
+The next instant, another voice took it up, and it was now
+distinctly, "Mr. Brown to the King." The door then opened, and a page
+appeared, saying, "Mr.  Brown, the King commands your presence."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+William III. was seated in a small cabinet, with a table to his right
+hand on which his elbow rested; an inkstand and paper were beside
+him; and on the other hand, a step behind, stood a gentleman of good
+mien, with his hand upon the back of the King's chair, in an attitude
+familiar, but not disrespectful. The harsh and somewhat coarse
+features of the monarch, which abstractedly seemed calculated to
+display strong passions, were in their habitual state of cold
+immobility; and Wilton, though he knew his person well, and had seen
+him often, could not derive from the King's face the slightest
+intimation of what was passing in his mind. There was no trace of
+anger, it is true; the brow was sufficiently contracted to appear
+thoughtful, but no more; and, at the same time, there was not one
+touch even of courteous affability to be seen in those rigid lines to
+tell that the young gentleman had been sent for upon some pleasurable
+occasion.  Dignity, to a certain extent, there must have been in his
+demeanour, that sort of dignity which is communicated to the body by
+great powers of mind, and great decision of character--in fact,
+dignity divested of grace. Nobody could have taken him for a vulgar
+man, although his person, as far as mere lines and colouring go,
+might have been that of the lowest artizan; but what is more, no one
+could see him, however simple might be his dress, without feeling
+that there sat a distinguished man of some kind.
+
+Wilton had been accustomed too much and too long to mingle with the
+first people in the first country of the world, to suffer himself to
+be much affected by any of the external pomp and circumstance of
+courts, or even by the vague sensations of respect with which fancy
+invests royalty; but he could not help feeling, as he entered the
+presence of William, that he was approaching a man of vast mind as
+well as vast power.
+
+William looked at him quietly for several minutes, letting him
+approach within two steps, and gazing at him still, even after he had
+stopped, without uttering a single word. Wilton bowed, and then stood
+erect before the King, feeling a little embarrassed, it is true, but
+determined not to suffer his embarrassment to appear.
+
+At length, the King addressed him in a harsh tone of voice, saying,
+"Well, sir, what have you to say?"
+
+"May it please your majesty," replied Wilton, "I do not know on what
+subject your majesty wishes me to speak. I met one of the royal
+servants in the Park who commanded me to present myself here
+immediately, and I came hither accordingly, without waiting to
+inquire for what purpose."
+
+"Oh! then you do not know?" said the King. "I thought you did know,
+and most likely were prepared. But it is as well as it is. I doubt
+not you will answer me truly. Where were you on Friday, the 22d of
+February last?"
+
+"I cannot exactly say where I was, Sire," replied Wilton; "for during
+the greater part of that day I was continually changing my place.
+Having set out for a small town or village called High Halstow, in
+Kent, at an early hour in the day, I arrived there just before
+nightfall, and remained in that place or in the neighbourhood for
+several hours, indeed, till nearly or past midnight."
+
+"Pray what was your business there?" demanded the King.
+
+"I fear," replied Wilton, "I must trouble your majesty with some long
+details to enable you to understand the object of my going."
+
+"Go on," was William's laconic reply; and the young gentleman
+proceeded to tell him, that having been employed in recovering Lady
+Laura from those who had carried her off, he had learned in the
+course of his inquiries in London that she was likely to be heard of
+in that neighbourhood.
+
+"I judged it likely to be so myself, sire," continued Wilton,
+"because I believed her to have been carried off by some persons
+belonging to a party of Jacobites who were known to be caballing
+against the government, though to what extent was not then
+ascertained."
+
+"And what made you judge," demanded the King, "that she had been
+carried off by these men?"
+
+"Because, sire," replied Wilton, "the lady's father had been an
+acquaintance of Sir John Fenwick, one of the most notorious of the
+persons now implicated in the present foul plot against your
+majesty's life and crown. With him the Duke of Gaveston, I found, had
+quarrelled some time previously, and I suspected, though I had no
+proof thereof, that this quarrel had been occasioned by the Duke
+strongly differing from Sir John Fenwick in his political views, and
+refusing to take any part in any designs against the government."
+
+"I am glad to hear this of the Duke, sir," replied the King. "Then it
+was out of revenge, you believe, they carried away the young lady?"
+
+"Rather out of a desire to have a hold upon the Duke," replied
+Wilton. "I found afterwards, your majesty, that their intention was
+to send the young lady to France, and I judged throughout that their
+design was to force the Duke into an intrigue which they found he
+would not meddle with willingly."
+
+William III., though he was himself of a very taciturn character, and
+not fond of loquacity in others, was yet fond of full explanations,
+always sitting in judgment, as it were, upon what was said to him,
+and passing sentence in his own breast. He now made Wilton go over
+again the particulars of Lady Laura's being taken away, though it was
+evident that he had heard all the facts before, and obliged him to
+enter into every minute detail which in any way affected the
+question.
+
+When this was done, without any other comment than a look to the
+gentleman on his left hand, he fixed his eyes again upon Wilton, and
+asked,--"Now, where did you learn that these conspirators were likely
+to be found in Kent?"
+
+"I heard it from a gentleman named Green," replied Wilton, "whom I
+met with at a tavern in St. James's-street."
+
+"Green is a very common name," said the King.
+
+"I do not believe that it is his real name," replied Wilton; "but
+what his real name is I do not know. I had not seen him often before;
+but he informed me of these facts, and I followed his advice and
+directions."
+
+"That was rash," said the King. "You are sure you do not know his
+real name?"
+
+"I cannot even guess it, sire," replied Wilton; and the King, after
+exchanging a mute glance with his attendant, went on,--"Well, when
+you had discovered the place of meeting of these conspirators, and
+reached it, what happened then?"
+
+"I did not go, may it please your majesty, to discover their place of
+meeting, but to discover the place where Lady Laura was detained,
+which, when I had done, aided by a person I had got to assist
+me--after Arden, formerly Messenger of State, had fled from me in a
+most dastardly manner, in a casual rencounter with some
+people--smugglers, I believe--I made the master of the house and some
+other persons whom we found there, set the Lady Laura at liberty.  I
+informed her of the authority that her father had given me, and she
+was but too glad to accept the assistance of any friend with whom she
+was acquainted."
+
+"So, so; stop!" said the King. "So, then, Arden was not with you at
+this time?"
+
+"No, sire," replied Wilton--"he had run away an hour before."
+
+"That was not like a brave man," said William.
+
+"No, indeed, sire," replied Wilton, "nor like one of your majesty's
+friends, for it is your enemies that generally run away."
+
+A faint smile came upon William's countenance, and he said, "Go on.
+What happened next?"
+
+"Before we could make our escape from the house," replied Wilton, "we
+were stopped by a large party of men, who entered; and, principally
+instigated by Sir John Fenwick, who was one of them, they opposed, in
+a violent manner, our departure."
+
+Hitherto Wilton had been very careful of his speech, unwilling to
+compromise any one, and especially unwilling to mention the name of
+Lord Sherbrooke, the Lady Helen Oswald, or anybody else except the
+conspirators who had taken a part in the events of that night. Now,
+however, when he had to dwell principally upon the conduct of the
+conspirators and himself; he did so more boldly, and gave a full
+account of all that had been said and done till the entrance of the
+Duke of Berwick. He knew, or rather divined, from what had already
+passed, that this was in reality the point to which the examination
+he underwent principally tended. But yet he spoke with more ease,
+for, notwithstanding the danger which existed at that moment in
+acknowledging any communication whatsoever with Jacobites, he well
+knew that the conduct of the Duke of Berwick himself only required to
+be truly reported, to be admired by every noble and generous mind;
+and he felt conscious that in his own behaviour he had only acted as
+became an upright and an honourable heart. He detailed then,
+particularly, the fact of his having seen one of his opponents in the
+act of pointing a pistol at him over the shoulder of their principal
+spokesman: he mentioned his having cocked his own pistol to fire in
+return, and he stated that at the time he felt perfectly sure his
+life was about to be made a sacrifice to apprehensions of discovery
+on the part of the conspirators; and he then related to the King how
+he had seen a stranger enter and strike up the muzzle of the pistol
+pointed at him, at the very moment the other was in the act of
+firing.
+
+"The ball," he said, "passed through the window above my head, and
+seeing that new assistance had come to my aid, I did not fire."
+
+"Stay, stay!" said the King. "Let me ask you a question or two first.
+Did you see, in the course of all this time, the person called Sir
+George Barkley amongst these conspirators?"
+
+"I saw a person, sire," replied Wilton, "whom I believed at the time
+to be Sir George Barkley, and have every reason to believe so still."
+
+"And this person who came to your assistance so opportunely was not
+the same?" demanded the King.
+
+"Not the least like him, sire," replied Wilton. "He was a young
+gentleman, of six or seven and twenty, I imagine, but certainly no
+more than thirty."
+
+"What was his name?" demanded the King.
+
+"The name he gave," replied Wilton, "was Captain Churchill."
+
+"Go on," said William, and Wilton proceeded.
+
+Avoiding all names as far as possible, he told briefly, but
+accurately, the severe and striking reprehension that the Duke of
+Berwick had bestowed upon Sir George Barkley and the rest of the
+conspirators: he dwelt upon the hatred he had displayed of the crime
+they were about to commit, and of the noble and upright tendency of
+every word that he had spoken. William's eyes glistened slightly, and
+a glow came up in his pale cheek, but he made no comment till Wilton
+seemed inclined to stop. He then bade him again go on, and made him
+tell all that had happened till he and Lady Laura had quitted the
+house, to make the best of their way to Halstow. He then said--
+
+"Three questions. Why did you not give instant information of this
+conspiracy when you came to town?"
+
+"May it please your majesty," replied Wilton, "I found immediately on
+my arrival that the conspiracy was discovered, and warrants issued
+against the conspirators. Nothing, therefore, remained for me to do,
+but to explain to Lord Byerdale the facts, which I did."
+
+"If your majesty remembers," said the gentleman on the King's left,
+mingling in the conversation for the first time, "Lord Byerdale said
+so."
+
+"Secondly," said the King, "Is it true that this gentleman who came
+to your assistance went with you, and under your protection, to the
+inn at Halstow, and thence, by your connivance, effected his escape?"
+
+The King's brow was somewhat dark and ominous, and his tone stern, as
+he pronounced these words: but Wilton could not evade the question so
+put without telling a lie, and he consequently replied at once,
+"Sire, he did."
+
+"Now for the third question," said the King,--"What was his real
+name?"
+
+Wilton hesitated. He believed he had done right in every respect;
+that he had done what he was bound to do in honour; that he had done
+what was in reality the best for the King's own service; but yet he
+knew not by any means how this act might be looked upon. The minds of
+all men were excited, at that moment, to a pitch of indignation
+against the whole Jacobite faction, which made the slightest
+connivance with any of their practices, the slightest favour shown to
+any of their number, a high crime in the eyes of every one. But
+Wilton knew that he was, moreover, actually and absolutely punishable
+by law as a traitor for what he had done: what he was called upon to
+confess was, in the strict letter of the law, quite sufficient to
+send him to the Tower, and to bring his neck under the axe; for in
+treason all are principals, and he had aided and abetted one marked
+as a traitor. But, nevertheless, though he hesitated for a moment
+whether he should speak at all, yet he had resolved to do so, and of
+course to do so truly, when the King, seeing him pause, and mistaking
+the motives, added,--
+
+"You had better tell the truth, sir. Captain Churchill has confessed,
+that though out of consideration for you he had admitted that he was
+present on this occasion, yet that in reality he had never quitted
+his house during the whole of the day in question."
+
+"Sire," replied Wilton, looking him full in the face, with a calm,
+but not disrespectful air, "your majesty may have seen by my answers
+hitherto that whatever I do say will be the truth, plain and
+undisguised. I only hesitated whether I should not beg your majesty
+to excuse my answering at all, as you know by the laws of England no
+man can be forced to criminate himself; but as I acted in a manner
+that became a man of honour, and also in a manner which I believed at
+the time to be fitted to promote your majesty's interests, and to be
+in every respect such as you yourself could wish, I will answer the
+question, though, perhaps, my answer might in some circumstances be
+used against myself."
+
+The slightest possible shade of displeasure had come over the King's
+countenance, when Wilton expressed a doubt as to answering the
+question at all; but whether it was from his natural command over his
+features, the coldness of a phlegmatic constitution, or that he
+really was not seriously angry, the cloud upon his brow was certainly
+not a hundredth part so heavy as it would probably have been with any
+other sovereign in Europe. He contented himself, then, when Wilton
+had come to the end of the sentence, by merely saying, with evident
+marks of impatience and curiosity, "Go on.  What was his real name?"
+
+"The name, sire, by which he is generally known," replied Wilton, "is
+the Duke of Berwick."
+
+For once the King was moved. He started in his chair, and turning
+round, looked at the gentleman by his side, exclaiming, "It was not
+Drummond, then!"
+
+"No, sire," replied Wilton; "although he never expressly stated his
+name to me, yet from all that was said by every one around, I must
+admit that I knew perfectly it was the Duke of Berwick. But, sire,
+whoever it was, he had saved my life: he had said not one word
+disrespectful to your Majesty's person: he had reprobated in the most
+severe and cutting terms those conspirators, some of whom have
+already bowed the head to the sword of justice; and he had
+stigmatized the acts they proposed to commit with scorn, contempt,
+and horror. All this he had done in my presence to ten or twelve
+armed men, whose conduct to myself, and schemes against you, showed
+them capable of any daring villany. These, sire, may be called my
+excuses for aiding a person, known to be an enemy of your crown, to
+escape from your dominions; but, if I may so far presume to say--it,
+there was a reason as well as an excuse which suggested itself to my
+mind at the time, and in which your majesty's interests were
+concerned."
+
+The King had listened attentively: the frown had gone from his brow;
+and he had so far given a sign of approbation, as, when Wilton
+mentioned the conduct of the Duke of Berwick, to make a slight
+inclination of the head. When the young gentleman concluded, however,
+he paused in order to let him go on, always more willing that others
+should proceed, than say a single word to bid them do so.
+
+"What is your reason?" he said at last, finding that nothing was
+added.
+
+"It was this, sire," replied Wilton; "that I knew the Duke of Berwick
+was connected with your majesty's own family; that he was one person
+of high character and reputation amongst a vast number of low and
+infamous conspirators; that he was perfectly innocent of the dark and
+horrible crimes of which they were guilty; and yet, that he must be
+considered by the law of the land as a traitor even for setting his
+foot upon these shores, and must be concluded by the law and its
+ministers under the same punishment and condemnation as all those
+assassins and traitors who are now expiating their evil purposes on
+the scaffold. In these circumstances, sire, I judged that it would be
+much more agreeable to your majesty that he should escape, than that
+he should be taken; that you would be very much embarrassed, indeed,
+what to do with him, if any indiscreet person were to stop him in his
+flight; and that you would not disapprove of that conduct, the first
+motive of which, I openly confess, was gratitude towards the man who
+had saved my life."
+
+"Sir, you did very right," said William, with scarcely a change of
+countenance. "You did very right, and I am much obliged to you."
+
+At the same time, he held out his hand. Wilton bent his knee, and
+kissed it; and as he rose, William added, "I don't know what I can do
+for you; but if at any time you want anything, let me know, for I
+think you have done well--and judged well. My Lord of Portland here,
+on application to him, will procure you audience of me."
+
+With those few words, which, however, from William III., conveyed a
+great deal of meaning, the King bowed his head to signify that
+Wilton's audience was over; and the young gentleman withdrew from his
+presence, very well satisfied with the termination of an affair,
+which certainly, in some hands, might have ended in evil instead of
+good.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+Wilton Brown, on quitting the King, did not find Lord Sherbrooke
+where he expected; but little doubting that he should have to
+encounter a full torrent of wrath from the Earl of Byerdale, on
+account of his having concealed the fact of the Duke of Berwick's
+visit to England, he set spurs to his horse to meet the storm at
+once, and proceeded as rapidly as possible to the Earl's office at
+Whitehall. His expectations were destined to be disappointed,
+however.  Lord Byerdale was all smiles, although as yet he knew
+nothing more than the simple fact that Captain Churchill had
+acknowledged his presence at a scene in which he had certainly played
+no part. His whole wrath seemed to turn upon Arden, the Messenger,
+against whom he vowed and afterwards executed, signal vengeance,
+prosecuting him for various acts of neglect in points of duty, and
+for some small peculations which the man had committed, till he
+reduced him to beggary and a miserable death.
+
+He received Wilton, however, without a word of censure; listened to
+all that passed between him and the King, appeared delighted with the
+result; and although, to tell the truth, Wilton had no excuse to
+offer for not having communicated the facts to him before, which he
+had abstained from doing simply from utter want of confidence in the
+Earl, yet his lordship found an excuse himself, saying,--
+
+"I'm sure, Wilton, I am more obliged to you even than the King must
+be, for not implicating me in your secret at all.  I should not have
+known how to have acted in the least. It would have placed me in the
+most embarrassing situation that it is possible to conceive, and by
+taking the responsibility on yourself you have spared me, and, as you
+see, done your self no harm."
+
+Wilton was puzzled; and though he certainly was not a suspicious man,
+he could not help doubting the perfect sincerity of the noble lord.
+All his civility, all his kindness, which was so unlike his character
+in general, but made his secretary doubt the more, and the more
+firmly resolve to watch his conduct accurately.
+
+A few days after the events which we have just related, the Duke of
+Gaveston and Lady Laura left Beaufort House for the Earl's seat in
+Hampshire, which Lord Aylesbury had pointed out as the best suited to
+the occasion. It was painful for Wilton to part from Laura; but yet
+he could not divest his mind of the idea that Lord Byerdale did not
+mean altogether so kindly by the Duke as he professed to do, and he
+was not sorry the latter nobleman, now that he could do so without
+giving the slightest handle to suspicion, should follow the advice of
+Lord Aylesbury.
+
+By this time Wilton had become really attached to the Duke; the
+kindness that nobleman had shown to him; the confidence he had placed
+in him; the leaning to his opinions which he had always displayed,
+would naturally have excited kindly and affectionate feelings in such
+a heart as Wilton's, even had the Duke not been the father of her he
+loved best on earth. But in the relative situation in which they now
+stood, he had gradually grown more and more attached to the old
+nobleman, and perhaps even the very weaknesses of his character made
+Wilton feel more like a son towards him.
+
+To insure, therefore, his absence from scenes of political strife, to
+guard against his meddling with transactions which he was unfitted to
+guide, was a great satisfaction to Wilton, and a compensation for the
+loss of Laura's daily society.  Another compensation, also, was found
+in a general invitation to come down whenever it was possible to
+Somersbury Court, and a pressing request, that at all events he would
+spend the Sunday of every week at that place. In regard to all his
+affairs in London, and more especially to everything that concerned
+Sir John Fenwick and the conspiracy, the Duke trusted implicitly to
+Wilton; and the constant correspondence which was thus likely to take
+place afforded him also the means of hearing continually of Laura.
+
+He was not long without seeing her again, however; for it was evident
+that Lord Byerdale had determined to give his secretary every sort of
+opportunity of pursuing his suit with the daughter of the Duke.
+
+"Did you not tell me, Wilton," he said one day, "that your good
+friend the Duke of Gaveston had invited you to come down and stay
+with him at Somersbury?"
+
+"He has invited me repeatedly, my lord," replied Wilton, "and in a
+letter I received yesterday, pressed his request again; but seeing
+you so overwhelmed with business, I did not like to be absent for any
+length of time. I should have gone down, indeed, as I had promised,
+on Saturday last, to have come up on Monday morning again; but if you
+remember, on Saturday you were occupied till nearly twelve at night
+with all this business of Cook."
+
+"Who, by the way, you see, Wilton, has said nothing against your
+friend," said the Earl.
+
+"So I see, indeed, my lord," replied Wilton. "What will be done with
+the man?"
+
+"Oh, we shall keep the matter over his head," said the Earl, "and
+make use of him as an evidence. But to return to your visit to the
+Duke--I can very well spare you for the next week, if you like to go
+down on Monday; and now that I know your arrangements, will contrive
+that you shall always have your Saturday evenings and Monday
+mornings, so as to be able to go down and return on those days, till
+you become his grace's son-in-law, though I am afraid fair Lady Laura
+will think you but a cold lover."
+
+Wilton smiled, well knowing that there was no such danger.  The
+Earl's offer, however, was too tempting to be resisted, and
+accordingly he lost no time in bearing down, in person, to Somersbury
+Court the happy intelligence that Cook, who was to be the conspirator
+most feared, it seemed, had said nothing at his trial to inculpate
+the Duke.
+
+His journey, as was not uncommon in those days, was performed on
+horseback with a servant charged with his valise behind him, and it
+was late in the day before he reached Somersbury; but it was a bright
+evening in May; the world was all clad in young green; the calm rich
+purple of the sunset spread over the whole scene; and as Wilton rode
+down a winding yellow road, amidst rich woods and gentle slopes of
+land, into the fine old park that surrounded the mansion, he could
+see enough to show him that all the picturesque beauty, which was far
+more congenial to his heart and his feelings than even the finest
+works of art, was there in store for him on the morrow.
+
+On his arrival, he found the Duke delighted to receive him, though
+somewhat suffering from a slight attack of gout. He was more
+delighted still, however, when he heard the news his young friend
+brought; and when, after a few moments, Laura joined him and the
+Duke, her eyes sparkled with double brightness, both from the
+feelings of her own heart at meeting again the man she loved best on
+earth, and from the pleasure that she saw on her father's
+countenance, which told her in a moment that all the news Wilton had
+brought was favourable.
+
+The result to the Duke, however, was not so satisfactory as it might
+have been. In the joy of his heart he gave way somewhat more to his
+appetite at supper than was prudent, ate all those things that Sir
+George Millington, his good physician, forbade him to eat, and drank
+two or three glasses of wine more than his usual portion. At the
+time, all this seemed to do him no harm, and he spoke somewhat
+crossly to his own servant who reminded him of the physician's
+regulations.  He even shook his finger playfully at Laura for her
+grave looks upon the occasion, and during the rest of the evening was
+as gay as gay could be. The consequence, however, was, that about a
+quarter of an hour after Wilton had descended to the breakfast-room
+on the following morning, Laura came down alone.
+
+"I am sorry to say, Wilton," she said, with a slight smile, "that my
+dear father has greatly increased his pain by exceeding a little last
+night. He has scarcely slept at all, I find, and begs you will excuse
+him till dinner-time. He leaves me to entertain you, Wilton. Do you
+think I can do it?"
+
+Wilton's answer was easily found; and Laura passed the whole morning
+with him alone.
+
+Certainly neither of the two would have purchased the pleasure at the
+expense of the Duke's suffering; but yet that pleasure of being alone
+together was, indeed, intense and bright. They were both very young,
+both fitted for high enjoyment, both loving as ardently and deeply as
+it is possible for human beings to love. Through the rich and
+beautiful woods of the park, over the sunny lawns and grassy
+savannas--where the wild deer, nested in the tall fern, raising its
+dark eyes and antlered head to gaze above the feathery green at the
+passers by--Wilton and Laura wandered on, pouring forth the tale of
+affection into each other's hearts, gazing in each other's eyes, and
+seeming, through that clear window lighted up with life, to see into
+the deepest chambers of each other's bosom, and there behold a
+treasury of joy and mutual tenderness for years to come.
+
+In the midst of that beautiful scene their love seemed in its proper
+place--everything appeared to harmonize with it--whereas, in the
+crowded city, all had jarred. Here the voices of the birds poured
+forth the sweetest harmony upon their ear as they went by; everything
+that the eye rested upon spoke softness, and peace, and beauty, and
+happy days; everything refreshed the sight and made the bosom expand;
+everything breathed of joy or imaged tranquillity.
+
+The words, too, the words of affection, seemed more easily to find
+utterance; all the objects around suggested that imagery which
+passion, and tenderness, and imagination, can revel in at ease; the
+fanciful clouds, as they flitted over the sky, the waving branches of
+the woods, the gay sparkling of the bright stream, the wide-extending
+prospect here and there, with the hills, only appearing warmer and
+more glowing still, as the eye traced them into the distance--all
+furnished to fancy some new means of shadowing forth bright hopes,
+and wishes, and purposes. Each was an enthusiastic admirer of nature;
+each had often and often stood, and pondered and gazed, and admired
+scenes of similar loveliness; each, too, had felt deep and ardent
+affection for the other in other places; and each had believed that
+nothing could exceed the joy that they experienced in their
+occasional solitary interviews; but neither had ever before known the
+same sensations of delight in the beautiful aspect of unrivalled
+nature, neither had tasted the joy which two hearts that love each
+other can feel in pouring forth their thoughts together in scenes
+that both are worthy to admire.
+
+Nature had acquired tenfold charms to their eyes; and the secret of
+it was, that the spirit of love within their hearts pervaded and
+brightened it all. Love itself seemed to have gained an intensity and
+brightness in those scenes that it had never known before, because
+the great spirit of nature, the inspiring, the expanding genius of
+the scene, answered the spirit within their hearts, and seemed to
+witness and applaud their affection.
+
+Oh, how happily the hours went by in those sweet words and caresses,
+innocent but dear! oh, how glad, how unlike the world's joys in
+general, were the feelings in each of those young hearts, while they
+wandered on alone, with none but love and nature for their companions
+on the way! On that first day, at least to Laura, the feeling was
+altogether overpowering: she might have had a faint and misty dream
+that such things could exist, but nothing more; but now that she felt
+them, they seemed to absorb every other sensation for the time, to
+make her heart beat as it had never beat before, to cast her thoughts
+into strange but bright confusion, so that when she returned with
+Wilton, and found that her father had come down, she ran to her own
+room, to pause for a few moments, and to collect her ideas into some
+sort of order once more.
+
+Day after day, during Wilton's stay, the same bright round of happy
+hours succeeded. During the whole of the first part of his sojourn,
+the Duke was unable to go out, and Wilton and Lady Laura were left
+very much alone. Wilton felt no hesitation in regard to his conduct.
+He could not believe, he scarcely even feared, that the Duke was
+blind to the mutual love which existed between Laura and himself; and
+he only waited till his own fate was cleared up, to speak to her
+father upon the subject openly.
+
+Thus passed his visit; and we could pause upon it long, could paint
+many a scene of sweet and sunshiny happiness, warm, and soft, and
+beautiful, like the pictures of Claude de Lorraine: but we have other
+things to do, and scenes far less joyous to dwell upon. The time of
+his stay at length expired, and of course seemed all the more brief
+for being happy.
+
+If the sojourn of Wilton at Somersbury Court had given pleasure to
+Laura, it gave scarcely less to the Duke himself, though in a
+different way; and when his young visitor was gone, he felt a want
+and a vacancy which made the days seem tedious. Thus, shortly after
+Wilton's arrival in town, he received a letter from the Duke, begging
+him not to forget his promise of another speedy visit of longer
+duration, nor neglect the opportunity of each week's close to spend
+at least one day with him and Laura. The origin of these feelings
+towards his young friend was certainly to be traced to the somewhat
+forced confidence which he had been obliged to place in him, in
+regard to Sir John Fenwick; but the feelings survived the cause; and
+during six weeks which followed, although Sir John Fenwick was
+universally supposed to have made his escape from England, and the
+Duke felt himself quite safe, Wilton experienced no change of manner,
+but was greeted with gladness and smiles whenever he presented
+himself.
+
+On every occasion, too, the Earl of Byerdale showed himself as kind
+as it was possible for him to be; and in one instance, in the middle
+of the year, spoke to him more seriously than usual, in regard to his
+marriage with Lady Laura. The tone he took was considerate and
+thoughtful, and Wilton found that he could no longer give a vague
+reply upon the subject.
+
+"I need not say to your lordship," he said, "how grateful I feel to
+you in this business; but I really can tell you no more than you see.
+I am received by the Duke and Lady Laura, upon all occasions, with
+the greatest kindness and every testimony of regard. I am received,
+indeed, when no one else is received, and I have every reason to
+believe that the Duke regards me almost as a son; but of course I
+cannot presume, so long as I can give no information of who I am,
+what is my family, what are the circumstances and history of my
+birth, to seek the Duke's approbation to my marriage with his
+daughter. Fortuneless and portionless as I must be, the proposal may
+seem presumptuous enough at any time; and though the legend told us,
+my lord, to 'be bold, and bold, and everywhere be bold,' it told us
+also to 'be not too bold.'"
+
+"You are right, you are right, Wilton," replied the Earl.  "But leave
+it to me: I myself will write to the Duke upon the subject, and doubt
+not shall find means to satisfy him, though I cannot flatter you,
+Wilton--and I tell you so at once--I cannot flatter you with the
+idea of any unexpected wealth.  Your blood is your only possession;
+but that is enough. I will write myself in a few days."
+
+"I trust, my lord, you will not do so immediately," replied Wilton.
+"You were kind enough to promise me explanations regarding my birth.
+Others have done so, too." (The Earl started.) "Lord Sunbury,"
+continued Wilton, "promised me the same explanation, and to give me
+the papers which he possesses regarding me, even before the present
+period; but he returns in September or October, and then they will of
+course be mine."
+
+"Ha!" said the Earl, musing. "Ha! does he? But why does he not send
+you over the papers? he is no farther off than Paris now; for I know
+he obtained a passport the other day, and promised to look into the
+negotiations which are going on for peace."
+
+"I fancy, my lord," replied Wilton, "that in the distracted state of
+both countries he fears to send over the papers by any ordinary
+messenger."
+
+"Oh, but from time to time there are council messengers," replied the
+Earl. "There is not a petit maitre in the whole land who does not
+contrive, notwithstanding the war, to get over his embroidery from
+France, nor any old lady to furnish herself with bon-bons."
+
+"I suppose he thinks, too," replied Wilton, "that, as he is coming so
+soon, it is scarcely worth while, and, perhaps, the papers may need
+explanations from his own mouth."
+
+"Ah! but the papers, the papers, are the most important," replied the
+Earl, thoughtfully. "In September or October does he come? Well, I
+will tell you all before that myself, Wilton. I thought I should
+have been able to do it ere now; but there is one link in the chain
+incomplete, and before I say anything, it must be rendered perfect.
+However, things are happening every day which no one anticipates; and
+though I do not expect the paper that I mentioned for a fortnight, it
+may come to-morrow, perhaps."
+
+About ten days after this period, Wilton, as he went to the house of
+the Earl of Byerdale, remarked all those external signs and symptoms
+of agitation amongst the people, which may always be seen more or
+less by an observing eye, when any event of importance takes place in
+a great city. They were, perhaps, more apparent than usual on the
+present occasion; for in the short distance he had to go he saw two
+hawkers of halfpenny sheets bawling down unintelligible tidings to
+maids in the areas, and two or three groups gathered together in the
+sunshiny morning at the corners of the streets.
+
+When he reached the Earl's house, he found him more excited than he
+usually suffered himself to be, and holding up a letter, he
+exclaimed,--
+
+"Here's an account of this great event of the day, which of course
+you heard as you came here. This is a proof how things are brought
+about unexpectedly. Not a man in England, statesman or mechanic,
+could have imagined, for the last six weeks, that this dark,
+cold-blooded plotter, Sir John Fenwick, had failed to effect his
+escape."
+
+"And has he not?" exclaimed Wilton, eagerly. "Is he in England? Has
+he been found?"
+
+"He has not escaped," replied the Earl, dryly. "He is in England; and
+he is at the present moment safe in Newgate.  Some spies or other
+officers of the Duke of Shrewsbury discovered him lingering about in
+Kent and Sussex, and he has since been apprehended, in attempting to
+escape into France."
+
+"This is indeed great intelligence," replied Wilton. "I suppose there
+is no chance whatever of his being acquitted."
+
+"None," answered the Earl; "none whatever, if they manage the matter
+rightly, though he is more subtle than all the rest of the men put
+together. It seems likely that the whole business will fall upon me,
+and I shall see him in a few days; for he already talks of giving
+information against great persons, on condition that his life be
+spared."
+
+Wilton concealed any curiosity he might feel as well as he could, and
+went on with the usual occupations of the day, not remarking as
+anything particular, that the Earl wrote a long and seemingly tedious
+letter, and gave it to one of the porters, with orders to send it off
+by a special messenger.
+
+On going out afterwards, he found that the tidings of Sir John
+Fenwick's arrest had spread over the whole town; and the rumour,
+agitation, and anxiety which had been caused by the plot, and had
+since subsided, was, for the time, revived with more activity than
+ever. As no one, however, was mentioned in any of the rumours but Sir
+John Fenwick himself, Wilton did not think it worth while to make the
+mind of the Duke anxious upon the subject till he could obtain
+farther information; and he therefore refrained from writing, as it
+was now the middle of the week, and his visit was to be renewed on
+the Saturday following. A day passed by without the matter being any
+farther cleared up; but on the Friday, when Wilton visited the Earl
+at his own house, he found him reading his letters with a very cloudy
+brow, which however, grew brighter soon after he appeared.
+
+Wilton found that some painful conversation must have taken place
+between the Earl and his son; for Lord Sherbrooke was seated in the
+opposite chair, with one of those listless and indifferent looks upon
+his countenance which he often assumed during grave discussions, to
+cover, perhaps, deeper matter within his own breast. The Earl, though
+a little irritable, seemed not angry; and after he had concluded the
+reading of his letters, he said, "I must answer all these tiresome
+epistles myself, Wilton: for the good people who wrote them have so
+contrived it, in order, I suppose, to spare you, and make me work
+myself. I shall not need your aid to-day, then; and, indeed, I do not
+see why you should not go down to Somersbury at once, if you like it;
+only be up at an early hour on Monday morning.--Sherbrooke, I wish
+you would take yourself away: it makes me angry to see you twisting
+that paper up into a thousand forms like a mountebank at a fair."
+
+"Dear papa," replied Lord Sherbrooke, in a childish tone, "you ought
+to have given me something better to do, then.  If you had taught me
+an honest trade, I should not have been so given to making penny
+whistles and cutting cockades out of foolscap paper. Nay, don't look
+so black, and mutter, 'Fool's cap paper, indeed!' between your teeth.
+I'll go, I'll go," and he accordingly quitted the room.
+
+"Wilton," said the Earl, as soon as his son was gone, "I have one
+word more to say to you. When you are down at Somersbury, lose not
+your opportunity--confer with the Duke about your marriage at once.
+The political sky is darkening. No one can tell what another hour may
+bring.  Now leave me."
+
+Wilton obeyed, and passed through the ante-room into the hall. The
+moment he appeared there, however, Lord Sherbrooke darted out of the
+opposite room and caught him by the arm, almost overturning the fat
+porter in the way.
+
+"Come hither, Wilton," he said, "come hither. I want to speak to you
+a moment. I want to show you a present that I've got for you."
+
+Wilton followed him, and to his surprise found lying upon the table a
+pair of handsome spurs, which Lord Sherbrooke instantly put in his
+hand, saying, "There, Wilton! there. Use them to-night as you go to
+Somersbury; and, amongst other pretty things that you may have to say
+to the Duke, you may tell him that Sir John Fenwick has accused him
+of high treason. My father is going to write to him this very night,
+to ask him civilly to come up to town to confer with him on business
+of importance. You yourself may be the bait to the trap, Wilton, for
+aught I know. So to your horse's back and away, and have all your
+plans settled with the Duke before the post arrives to-morrow
+morning."
+
+The earnestness of Sherbrooke's manner convinced his friend that what
+he said was serious and true, and thanking him eagerly, he left him,
+and again passed through the hall.  Lord Byerdale was speaking at
+that moment to the porter; but he did not appear to notice Wilton,
+who passed on without pausing, sought his own lodgings with all
+speed, mounted his horse, and set out for Somersbury.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+The world was in all its summer beauty, nature smiling with her
+brightest smiles, the glorious sunshine just departing from the sky,
+and glowing with double brightness in its dying hour, the woods still
+green and fresh, the blackbird tuning his evening song, and
+everything speaking peace and promising joy, as Wilton rode through
+the gates of Somersbury park.
+
+When he dismounted from his horse and rang the bell, his own servant
+took the tired beast and led it round towards the stable with the air
+of one who felt himself quite at home in the Duke's house. But the
+attendant who opened the doors to him, and who was not the ordinary
+porter, bore a certain degree of sadness and gravity in his
+demeanour, which caused Wilton instantly to ask after the health of
+the Duke and Lady Laura.
+
+"My young lady is quite well, sir," replied the servant; "but the
+Duke has had another bad fit of the gout in the beginning of the
+week--which has made him wonderfully cross," he added, lowering his
+voice and giving a marked look in Wilton's face, which made the young
+gentleman feel that he intended his words as a sort of warning.
+
+"I am afraid," thought Wilton, "what I have to tell him will not
+diminish his crossness."
+
+But he said nothing aloud, and followed the servant to wards the
+Duke's own particular sitting room. He found that nobleman alone,
+with his foot upon a stool. He had calculated as he went thither how
+he might best soften the tidings he had to bring; but the Duke began
+the conversation himself, and in a manner which instantly put all
+other thoughts to flight, and, to say the truth, banished Sir John
+Fenwick and his whole concerns from his young companion's mind in a
+moment.
+
+"So, sir, so," he began, using none of the friendly and familiar
+terms that he generally applied to Wilton, "so you have really had
+the goodness to come down here again."
+
+"My lord duke," replied Wilton, "your invitation to me was not only
+so general but so pressing, that always having found you a man of
+sincerity and truth, I took it for granted that you wished to see me,
+or you would not have asked me."
+
+"So I am, sir, so I am," replied the Duke; "I am a man of sincerity
+and truth, and you shall find I am one, too. But from your manner, I
+suppose my Lord of Byerdale has not told you the contents of my
+letter to him this morning."
+
+"He never told me," replied Wilton, "that your grace had written to
+him at all; but so far from even hinting that my visit could be
+disagreeable to you, he told me that as he did not require my
+assistance I had better come down here."
+
+"He did, he did?" said the Duke. "He is marvellous kind to send
+guests to my house, whom he knows that I do not wish to see."
+
+Wilton now began to divine the cause of the Duke's present behaviour.
+It was evident that Lord Byerdale, without letting him know anything
+about it, had interfered to demand for him the hand of Lady Laura.
+How or in what terms he had done so, Wilton was somewhat anxious to
+ascertain, but he was so completely thunderstruck and surprised by
+his pre sent reception, that he could scarcely play the difficult
+game in which he was engaged with anything like calmness or
+forethought.
+
+"My lord," he replied, "it is probable that the Earl of Byerdale was
+more moved by kindness towards me than consideration for your grace.
+As you do not tell me what was the nature of your correspondence, I
+can but guess at Lord Byerdale's motives--"
+
+"Which were, sir," interrupted the Duke, "to give you a farther
+opportunity of engaging my daughter's affections against her father's
+wishes and consent. I suppose this was his object, at least."
+
+"I should think not, my lord," replied Wilton, resolved not to yield
+his point so easily. "I should rather imagine that Lord Byerdale's
+view was to give me an opportunity, on the contrary, of pleading my
+own cause with the Duke of Gaveston--to give me an opportunity of
+recalling all those feelings of kindness, friendship, and generosity
+which the Duke has constantly displayed towards me, and of urging him
+by all those high feelings, which I know he possesses, not to crush
+an attachment which has grown up under his eyes, and been fostered by
+his kindness."
+
+The Duke was a little moved by Wilton's words and his manner; but he
+had taken his resolution to make the present discussion between
+himself and Wilton final, and he seized instantly upon the latter
+words of his reply.
+
+"Grown up under my eye, and fostered by my kindness!" he exclaimed.
+"You do not mean to say, sir, I trust, that I gave you any
+encouragement in this mad pursuit. You do not mean to say that I saw
+and connived at your attachment to my daughter?"
+
+Wilton might very well have said that he certainly did give such
+encouragement and opportunity that the result could scarcely have
+been by any possibility otherwise than that which it actually was.
+But he knew that to show him in fault would only irritate the Duke
+more, and he was silent.
+
+"Good God!" continued the peer, "such a thing never entered into my
+head. It was so preposterous, so insane, so out of all reasonable
+calculation, that I might just as well have been afraid of building
+my house under a hill for fear the hill should walk out of its place
+and crush it. I could never have dreamed of or fancied such a thing,
+sir, as that you should forget the difference between my daughter,
+Lady Laura Gaveston, and yourself, and presume to seek the hand of
+one so much above you. It shows how kindness and condescension may
+be mistaken. Lord Byerdale, indeed, talks some vague nonsense about
+your having good blood in your veins; but what are your titles, sir?
+what is your rank? where are your estates? Show me your rent-rolls.
+I have never known anything of Mr. Wilton Brown but as the private
+secretary of the Earl of Byerdale--HIS CLERK he called him to me one
+day--who has nothing but a good person, a good coat, and two or three
+hundred a year. Mr. Wilton Brown to be the suitor for the only child
+of one of the first peers in the land, the heiress of a hundred
+thousand per annum! My dear sir, the thing was too ridiculous to be
+thought of. If people had told me I should have my eyes picked out by
+a sparrow I should have believed them as much;" and he laughed aloud
+at his own joke, not with the laugh of merriment, but of anger and
+scorn.
+
+Wilton felt cut to the heart, but still he recollected that it was
+Laura's father who spoke; and he was resolved that no provocation
+whatsoever should induce him to say one word which he himself might
+repent at an after period, or with which she might justly reproach
+him. He felt that from the Duke he must bear what he would have borne
+from no other man on earth; that to the Duke he must use a tone
+different from that which he would have employed to any other man. He
+paused a moment, both to let the Duke's laugh subside, and the first
+angry feelings of his own heart wear off: but he then answered,--
+
+"Perhaps, my lord, you attribute to me other feelings and greater
+presumption than I have in reality been actuated by.  Will you allow
+me, before you utterly condemn me--will you allow me, I say, not to
+point out any cause why you should have seen, or known, or
+countenanced my attachment to your daughter, but merely to recall to
+your remembrance the circumstances in which I have been placed, and in
+which it was scarcely possible for me to resist those feelings of
+love and attachment which I will not attempt to disown, which I never
+will cast off, and which I will retain and cherish to the last hour
+of my life, whatever may be your grace's ultimate decision, whatever
+may be my fate, fortune, happiness, or misery, in other respects?"
+
+The Duke was better pleased with Wilton's tone, and, to say the
+truth, though his resolution was in no degree shaken, yet the anger
+which he had called up, in order to drown every word of opposition,
+had by this time nearly exhausted itself.
+
+"My ultimate decision!" said the Duke; "sir, there is no decision to
+be made: the matter is decided.--But go on, sir, go on--I am
+perfectly willing to hear. I am not so unreasonable as not to hear
+anything that you may wish to say, without giving you the slightest
+hope that I may be shaken by words: which cannot be. What is it you
+wish to say?"
+
+"Merely this, your grace," replied Wilton. "The first time I had the
+honour of meeting your grace, I rendered yourself, and more
+particularly the Lady Laura, a slight service, a very slight one, it
+is true, but yet sufficient to make you think, yourself, that I was
+entitled to claim your after-acquaintance, and to justify your
+reproach for not coming to your box at the theatre. You must admit
+then, certainly, that I did not press myself into the society of the
+Lady Laura."
+
+"Oh, certainly not, certainly not," replied the Duke--"I never
+accused you of that, sir. Your conduct, your external demeanour, has
+always been most correct. It is not of any presumption of manners
+that I accuse you."
+
+"Well, my lord," continued Wilton, "it so happened that an accidental
+circumstance, not worth noticing now, induced your lordship to place
+much confidence in me, and to render me a familiar visitor at your
+house. You on one occasion called me to your daughter your best
+friend, and I was more than once left in Lady Laura's society for a
+considerable period alone. Now, my lord, none can know better than
+yourself the charms of that society, or how much it is calculated to
+win and engage the heart of any one whose bosom was totally free, and
+had never beheld before a woman equal in the slightest degree to his
+ideas of perfection. I will confess, my lord, that I struggled very
+hard against the feelings which I found growing up in my own bosom.
+At that time I struggled the more and with the firmer determination,
+because I had always entertained an erroneous impression with regard
+to my own birth, an impression which, had it continued, would have
+prevented my dreaming it possible that Lady Laura could ever be
+mine--"
+
+"It is a pity that it did not continue," said the Duke, dryly; but
+Wilton took no notice, and went on.
+
+"At that time, however," he said, "I learned, through the Earl of
+Byerdale, that I had been in error in regard to my own
+situation--though the distance between your grace and myself might
+still be great, it was diminished; and you may easily imagine that
+such joyful tidings naturally carried hope and expectation to a
+higher pitch than perhaps was reasonable."
+
+"To a very unreasonable pitch, it would seem, indeed, sir," answered
+the Duke.
+
+"It may be so, my lord," replied Wilton, "but the punishment upon
+myself is very severe. However, not even then--although I had the
+fairest prospects from the interest and promises of the Earl of
+Byerdale, and from the whole interest of the Earl of Sunbury, who has
+ever treated me as a son--although I might believe that a bright
+political career was open before me, and that I might perhaps raise
+myself to the highest stations in the state--not even then did I
+presume to think of Lady Laura with anything like immediate hopes.
+Just at this same period, however, the daring attempt to mix your
+grace with the plans of the conspirators by carrying off your daughter
+took place, and you were pleased to intrust to me the delicate and
+somewhat dangerous task of discovering the place to which she had
+been carried, and setting her free from the hands of the bold and in
+famous men who had obtained possession of her person.  Now, my
+lord--feeling every inclination to love her, I may indeed say loving
+her before--you can easily feel how much such an attachment must have
+been increased; how much every feeling of tenderness and affection
+must have been augmented by the interest, the powerful interest of
+that pursuit; how everything must have combined to confirm my love
+for her for ever, while all my thoughts were bent upon saving her and
+restoring her to your arms; while the whole feelings of my heart and
+energies of my mind were busy with her, and her fate alone. Then, my
+lord, when I came to defend her, at the hazard of my life; when I
+came to contend for her with those who withheld her from you; when we
+had to pass together several hours of danger and apprehension, with
+her clinging to my arm, and with my arm only for her support and
+protection, and when, at length, all my efforts proved successful,
+and she was set free, was it wonderful, was it at all extraordinary,
+that I loved her, or that she felt some slight interest and regard
+for me? Since then, my lord, reflect on all that has taken place; how
+constantly we have been together; how she has been accustomed to
+treat me as the most intimate and dearest of her friends; how you
+your self have said you looked upon me as your son--"
+
+"But never in that sense, sir, never in that sense!" exclaimed the
+Duke, glad to catch at any word to cut short a detail which was
+telling somewhat strongly against him. "A son, sir, I said, a son,
+not a son-in-law. But, however, to end the whole matter at once, Mr.
+Wilton Brown, I am very willing to acknowledge the various services
+you have rendered me, and which you have recapitulated somewhat at
+length, and to acknowledge that there might be a great many motives
+for falling in love with my daughter, without my attributing to you
+any mercenary or ambitious motives. It is not that I blame you at all
+for falling in love with her; that was but a folly for which you must
+suffer your own punishment: but I do blame you very much, sir, for
+trying to make her fall in love with you, when you must have known
+perfectly well that her so doing would meet with the most decided
+disapprobation from her father, and that your marriage was altogether
+out of the question. I think that this very grave error might well
+cancel all obligations between us; but, nevertheless, I am very
+willing to recompense those services--" Wilton waved his hand
+indignantly--"to recompense those services," continued the Duke; "to
+testify my sense of them, in short, in any way that you will point
+out."
+
+"My lord, my lord," replied Wilton, "you surely must wish to give me
+more pain than that which I feel already.  The services which I have
+rendered were freely rendered.  They have been repaid already, not by
+your grace, but by my own heart and feelings. The only recompence I
+ever proposed to myself was to know that they were really serviceable
+and beneficial to those for whom they were done. I ask nothing of
+your grace but that which you will not grant.  But the time will
+come, my lord,--"
+
+"Do not flatter yourself, to your own disappointment!" interrupted
+the Duke: "the time will never come when I shall change in this
+respect. I grant my daughter a veto, as I promised her dear mother I
+would, and she shall never marry a man she does not love; but I claim
+a veto, too, Mr. Wilton Brown, and will not see her cast herself
+away, even though she should wish it. The matter, sir, is altogether
+at an end:  it is out of the question, impossible, and it shall never
+be."
+
+The Duke rose from his chair as he spoke; and then went on, in a cold
+tone:--"I certainly expected that you might come to-morrow, sir, but
+not to-night, and I should have made in the morning such preparations
+as would have prevented any unpleasant meeting between my daughter
+and yourself in these circumstances. I must now give orders for her
+to keep her room, as I cannot consent to your meeting, and of course
+must not treat you inhospitably; but you will understand that the
+circumstances prevent me from requesting you to protract your visit
+beyond an early hour to-morrow morning."
+
+"Your grace, I believe, mistakes my character a good deal," replied
+Wilton: "I remain not an hour in a house where I am not welcome, and
+I shall beg instantly to take my leave, as Somersbury must not be my
+abode to-night."
+
+His utterance was difficult, for his heart was too full to admit of
+his speaking freely, and it required a great effort to prevent his
+own feelings from bursting forth.
+
+"But your horse must be tired," said the Duke, feeling somewhat
+ashamed of the part he was acting.
+
+"Not too tired, my lord," replied Wilton, "to bear his master from a
+house where he is unwillingly received. Were it necessary, my lord, I
+would walk, rather than force your grace to make any change in your
+domestic arrangements.  You will permit me to tell the porter to call
+round my groom;" and going out for a moment, he bade the porter in a
+loud clear voice order his horses to be saddled again, and his groom
+to come round. He then returned to the chamber where the Duke
+remained, and both continued silent and embarrassed. It was some
+time, indeed, before Wilton's orders could be obeyed, for his valise
+had been carried up to his usual apartments. At length, however, the
+horse was announced, and Wilton went towards the door,--
+
+"I now take my leave of you, my lord," he said, "and in doing so,
+shall endeavour to bear with me all the bright memories of much
+kindness experienced at your hands, and forgetfulness of one night's
+unkindness, which I trust and believe I have deserved even less than
+I did your former goodness towards me. For yourself I shall ever
+retain feelings of the deepest regard and esteem; for your daughter,
+undying love and attachment."
+
+The Duke was somewhat moved, and very much embarrassed; and whether
+from habit, embarrassment, or real feelings of regard, he held out
+his hand to Wilton as they parted. Wilton took it, and pressed it in
+his own. A single bright drop rose in his eye, and feeling that if he
+remained another moment his self-command would give way, he left the
+Duke, and sprang upon his horse's back.
+
+Two or three of the old servants were in the hall as he passed,
+witnessing, with evident marks of consternation and grief, his sudden
+departure from Somersbury. The Duke's head groom kept his stirrup,
+and to his surprise he saw the old butler himself holding the rein.
+
+As Wilton thanked him and took it, however, the man slipped a note
+into his hand, saying in a low voice, "From my young lady." Wilton
+clasped his fingers tight upon it, and with one consolation, at
+least, rode away from the house where he had known so much happiness.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+The light was fading away as Wilton took his path through the thick
+trees of the park up towards the lodge at the gates; but at the first
+opening where the last rays of the evening streamed through, he
+opened Laura's note, and found light enough to read it, though
+perhaps no other eyes than those of love could have accomplished half
+so much; and oh, what a joy and what a satisfaction it was to him
+when he did read it! though he found afterwards, that note had been
+written while the eyes were dropping fast with tears.
+
+    "Fear not, dear Wilton," it said: "I have only time to
+    bid you not to fear. I am yours, ever yours; and whatever
+    you may be told, never believe that I give even one thought
+    to any other man.
+                                        "LAURA GAVESTON."
+
+She signed her name at full, as if she felt that it was a solemn
+act--not exactly a pledge, that would bind her in the least, more
+than her own resolutions had already bound her--but a pledge to
+Wilton's heart--a pledge to which in after years she could always
+refer, if at any time the hand of another man should be proposed to
+her.
+
+She had wept while she had written it, but it had given her deep
+satisfaction to do that act; for she figured to her self the balm,
+the consolation, the support which it would be to him that she loved
+best on earth--yes, best on earth; for though she loved her father
+deeply, she loved Wilton more.
+
+When the high command went forth, "Thou shalt leave all on earth and
+cleave unto thy husband or thy wife," the God that made the ordinance
+fashioned the human heart for its accomplishment. It would seem
+treating a high subject somewhat lightly, perhaps, to say that it may
+even be by the will of God that parents so very frequently behave ill
+or unkindly to their children in the matter of their marriage, in
+order to lessen the breaking of that great tie--in order that the
+scion may be stripped from the stem more easily. But it were well if
+parents thought of the effect that they produce in their children's
+affection towards them by such conduct; for youth is tenacious of the
+memories of unkindness, and often retains the unpleasant impression
+that it makes, when the prejudices that produced it have passed away.
+
+However that might be, Laura loved Wilton, as we have said, best on
+earth; she had a duty to perform to him, and she had a duty to
+perform to her father, and she determined to perform them both; for
+she believed--and she was right--that no two duties are ever
+incompatible: the greater must swallow up the less; and to let it do
+so, is a duty in itself; but in the present instance there were two
+duties which were perfectly compatible. She would never marry Wilton
+while her father opposed; but she would never marry any one else; for
+she felt that in heart she was already wedded unto him.
+
+The words that she wrote gave Wilton that assurance, and it was a
+bright and happy assurance to him: for so long as there is nothing
+irrevocable in the future, the space which it affords gives room for
+Hope to spread her wings; and though he might feel bitterly and
+deeply depressed by the conduct of the Duke, and the stern
+determination which he had displayed, yet with love--with mutual
+love, and firmness of heart on both sides, he thought that happiness
+might be indeed delayed, but was not permanently lost.
+
+Meditating on these things, he rode on for about a couple of miles;
+but then suddenly recollected that in all the agitation of the
+moment, and the painful discussion he had under gone, he had totally
+forgotten to tell the Duke either the arrest of Sir John Fenwick, or
+the tidings which he had heard more immediately affecting himself. He
+again checked his weary horse, and asked himself, "Shall I ride
+back?" But then he thought, "No, I will not. I will stop at the first
+farm-house or inn that I may find, where I can get shelter for myself
+and food for my horses during the night, and thence I will write him
+the intelligence, take it how he will. I will not expose myself to
+fresh contumely by going back this night."
+
+He accordingly rode on upon his way, full of sad and melancholy
+thoughts, and with the bright but unsubstantial hopes which Laura's
+letter had given him fading away again rapidly under causes of
+despondency that were but too real. It was an hour in which gloom was
+triumphant over all other feelings; one of those hours when even the
+heart of youth seems to lose its elastic bound; when hope itself,
+like some faint light upon a dark night, makes the sombre colours of
+our fate look even blacker than before, and when we feel like
+mariners who see the day close upon them in the midst of a storm, as
+if the sun of happiness had sunk from view for ever. Such feelings
+and such thoughts absorbed him entirely as he rode along, and he
+marked not at all how far he went, though, from the natural impulse
+of humanity, he spared the tired horse which carried him, and
+proceeded at a slow pace.
+
+About three miles from the Duke's gates, his servant rode up, saying,
+"I see a light there, sir. I should not wonder if that were the
+little inn of the village which one passes on the right."
+
+"We had better keep our straight-forward way," replied Wilton. "We
+cannot be very far from the Three Cups, which, though a poor place
+enough, may serve me for a night's lodging."
+
+The man fell back again, and Wilton was proceeding slowly when he
+perceived three men riding towards him at an easy pace. The night was
+clear and fine, and the hour was so early, that he anticipated no
+evil, though he had come unarmed, expecting to reach Somersbury, as
+he did, before dark.
+
+He rode on quietly, then, till he met them, when he was forced
+suddenly to stop, one of the three presenting a pistol at his breast,
+and exclaiming, "Stand! Who are you?"
+
+"Is it my money you want, gentlemen?" demanded Wil ton; "for if it
+be, there is but little of it: but as much as I have is at your
+service."
+
+"I ask, who are you?" replied the other. "I did not ask you for your
+money. Are you a King's officer? And which King's?"
+
+"I am no King's officer," replied Wilton, "but a true subject of King
+William."
+
+"Pass on," replied the other man, dropping his pistol "you are not
+the person we want."
+
+Wilton rode forward, very well contented to have escaped so easily;
+but he remarked that his servant was likewise stopped, and that the
+same questions were put to him also.  He, too, was allowed to pass,
+however, without any molestation, and for the next half mile they went
+on without any further interruption. Then, however, they were met by
+a single horseman, riding at the same leisurely pace as the others;
+but he suffered Wilton to pass without speaking, and merely stopped
+the servant to ask, "Who is that gentleman?"
+
+No sooner had the man given his name than the horseman turned round
+and rode after him, exclaiming, "Mr. Brown!  Mr. Brown!"
+
+Wilton checked his horse, and in a moment after, to his surprise, he
+found no other but the worthy Captain Byerly by his side.
+
+"How do you do, Mr. Brown?" said the Captain, as he came up. "I have
+but a moment to speak to you, for I have business on before; but I
+wanted to tell you, that if you keep straight on for half a mile
+farther, and taking the road to the right, where you will see a
+finger-post, go into a cottage--that cottage there, where you can
+just see a light twinkling in the window over the moor--you will find
+some old friends of yours, whom you and I saw together the last time
+we met, and another one, too, who will be glad enough to see you."
+
+"Who do you mean?" demanded Wilton, somewhat anxiously.
+
+"I mean the Colonel," replied Captain Byerly.
+
+"Indeed!" said Wilton. "I wish to see him very much."
+
+"You will find him there, then," replied the other. "But he is sadly
+changed, poor fellow, sadly changed, indeed!"
+
+"How so?" said Wilton. "Do you mean that he has been ill?"
+
+"No, not exactly ill," answered Byerly, "and I don't well know what
+it is makes him so.--At all events, I can't stop to talk about it at
+present; but if you go on you will see him, and hear more about it
+from himself. Good night, Mr.  Brown, good night: those fellows will
+get too far ahead of me, if I don't mind." And thus saying, he rode
+on.
+
+Wilton, for his part, proceeded on his way, musing over what had
+occurred. It seemed to him, indeed, not a little strange, that a
+party of men, whose general business was hardly doubtful, should
+suffer him, without any knowledge of his person or any private
+motives for so doing, to pass them thus quietly on his way, and he
+was led to imagine that they must have in view some very peculiar
+object to account for such conduct. That object, however, was
+evidently considered by themselves of very great importance, and to
+require extraordinary precautions; for before Wilton reached the
+direction-post to which Byerly had referred, he passed two more
+horsemen, one of whom was singing as he came up, but stopped
+immediately on perceiving the wayfarer, and demanded in a civil
+tone--
+
+"Pray, sir, did you meet some gentlemen on before?"
+
+"Yes," replied Wilton, "I did: three, and then one."
+
+"Did they speak to you?" demanded the other.
+
+"Yes," replied Wilton, "they asked me some questions."
+
+"Oh, was that all?" said the man. "Good night, sir;" and on the two
+rode.
+
+At the finger-post, Wilton turned from the highway; but for some time
+he was inclined to fancy, either that he had mistaken the direction,
+or that the light had been put out in the cottage window, for not the
+least glimmering ray could he now see. At length, on suddenly turning
+a belt of young planting, he found himself in front of a low but
+extensive and very pretty cottage, or rather perhaps it might be
+called two cottages joined together by a centre somewhat lower than
+themselves. It was more like a building of the present day than one
+of that epoch; and though the beautiful China rose, the sweetest
+ornament of our cottage doors at present, was not then known in this
+country, a rich spreading vine covered every part of the front with
+its luxuriant foliage.  The light was still in the window, having
+only been hidden by the trees; and throwing his rein to the groom,
+Wilton said,--
+
+"Perhaps we may find shelter here for the night; but I must first go
+in, and see."
+
+Thus saying, he advanced and rang a bell, the handle of which he
+found hanging down by the door-post, and after having waited a minute
+or two, he heard the sound of steps coming along the passage. The
+door was opened by a pretty, neat, servant girl, with a candle in her
+hand; but behind her stood a woman considerably advanced in life,
+bowed in the back, and with a stick in her hand, presenting so much
+altogether the same appearance which the Lady Helen Oswald had
+thought fit to assume in her first interview with him, that for an
+instant Wilton doubted whether it was or was not herself. A second
+glance, however, at the old woman's face, showed the withering hand
+of time too strongly for him to doubt any farther.
+
+The momentary suspense had made him gaze at the old woman intently,
+and she had certainly done the same with regard to him. There was an
+expression of wonder, of doubt, and yet of joy, in her countenance,
+which he did not at all understand; and his surprise was still more
+increased, when, upon his asking whether he could there obtain
+shelter during the night, the woman exclaimed with a strong Irish
+accent, "Oh, that you shall, and welcome a thousand times!"
+
+"But I have two horses and my groom here," replied Wilton.
+
+"Oh, for the horses and the groom," replied the woman, "I fear me,
+boy, we can't take them in for ye; but he can go away up to the high
+road, and in half a mile he'll come to the Three Cups, where he will
+find good warm stabling enough."
+
+"That will be the best way, I believe," replied Wilton; and turning
+back to speak with the man for a moment, he gave him directions to go
+to the little public house, to put up the horses, to get some repose,
+and to be ready to return to London at four o'clock on the following
+morning.
+
+As soon as he had so done, he turned back again, and found the old
+lady with her head thrust into the doorway of a room on the
+right-hand side, saying in a loud tone--"It's himself, sure enough,
+though!"
+
+The moment she had spoken, he heard an exclamation, apparently in the
+voice of Lord Sherbrooke; and, following a sign from the girl who had
+opened the door, he went in, and found the room tenanted by four
+persons, who had been brought together in intimate association, by
+one of the strangest of those strange combinations in which fate some
+times indulges.
+
+Seated in a large arm-chair, with her cheek much paler than it had
+been before, but still extremely beautiful, was the lady whom we must
+now call Lady Sherbrooke. Her large dark eyes, full of light and
+lustre, though somewhat shaded by a languid fall of the upper eyelid,
+were turned towards the door as Wilton entered, and her fair
+beautiful hand lay in that of her husband as he sat beside her.
+
+On the opposite side of the room, with her fine face bearing but very
+few traces of time's withering power, and her beautiful figure
+falling into a line of exquisitely easy grace, sat the Lady Helen,
+gazing on the other two, with her arm resting on a small work-table,
+and her cheek supported by her hand.
+
+Cast with apparent listlessness into a chair, somewhat behind the
+Lady Helen Oswald, and shaded by her figure from the light upon the
+table, was the powerful form of our old acquaintance Green. But there
+was in the whole attitude which he had assumed an apathy, a weary
+sort of thoughtfulness, which struck Wilton very much the moment he
+beheld him. Green's eyes, indeed, were raised to mark the opening
+door, but still there was a gloomy want of interest in their glance
+which was utterly unlike the quick and sparkling vivacity which had
+characterized them in former times.
+
+The first who spoke was Lord Sherbrooke, who, still holding
+Caroline's hand in his, held out the other to his friend, saying, in
+a tone of some feeling, but at the same time of feeling decidedly
+melancholy, "This is a sight that will give you pleasure, Wilton."
+
+"It is, indeed, my dear Sherbrooke," replied Wilton; "only I do wish
+that it had been rendered more pleasant still, by seeing no remaining
+trace of illness in this lady's face."
+
+"I am better, sir, much better," she said; "for my recovery has been
+certain and uninterrupted, though somewhat long. If I could but teach
+your friend to bear a little adversity as unrepining as I have borne
+sickness, we might be very happy. I am very glad, indeed, to see you,
+sir," she continued; "for you must know, that this is my house that
+you are in," and she smiled gaily as she spoke: "but though I should
+always have been happy to welcome you as Sherbrooke's friend, yet I
+do so more gladly now, as it gives me the opportunity of thanking you
+for all the care and kindness that you showed me upon a late
+occasion."
+
+Though Wilton had his heart too full of painful memories to speak
+cheerfully upon any subject, yet he said all that was courteous, and
+all that was kind; and, as it were to force himself to show an
+interest, which he would more really have experienced at another
+moment, he added, "I often wished to know how the sad adventures of
+that night ended."
+
+The lady coloured; but he instantly continued, "I mean what was the
+result, when the constables, and other people, visited the house. I
+knew that Sherbrooke's very name was sufficient to protect him, and
+all in whom he had an interest, and therefore I took no steps in the
+matter; but I much wished to hear what followed after I had left the
+place, though, as Sherbrooke said nothing, I did not like to question
+him."
+
+"You have questioned me on deeper subjects than that, Wilton,"
+replied Lord Sherbrooke.--"But the matter that you speak of was
+easily settled. The constables found no one in the house but Plessis,
+myself, these two ladies, and some humbler women. It so happened,
+however, that I was known to one of the men, who had been a coachman
+in my father's service, and had thriven, till he had grown--into a
+baker, of all earthly things. As to Plessis, no inquiries were made,
+as there was not a constable amongst them who had not an occasional
+advantage, by his 'little commerce,' as he calls it; and the ladies
+of course passed unscathed, though the searching of the house, which
+at the time we could not rightly account for, till Plessis afterwards
+explained the whole, alarmed my poor Caroline, and, I think, did her
+no small harm. But look you, Wilton, there is your good friend, and
+mine, on the other side of the room, rousing himself from his
+reverie, to speak with you. Ay! and one who must have a share in your
+greetings, also, though, with the unrivalled patience which has
+marked her life, she waits till all have done."
+
+Wilton crossed over the room, and spoke a few words to the Lady Helen
+Oswald; and then turning to Green, he held out his hand to him; but
+the greeting of the latter was still somewhat abstracted and gloomy.
+
+"Ha! Wilton," he said. "What brought you hither this night, my good
+boy? You are on your way to Somersbury, I suppose."
+
+"No," replied Wilton; "I have just come thence."
+
+"Indeed!" said Green. "Indeed! How happens that, I wonder? Did you
+meet any of my men? Indeed you must have met them, if you come from
+Somersbury."
+
+"I met several men on horseback," replied Wilton; "one party of whom,
+three in number, stopped me, and asked me several questions."
+
+"They offered no violence? They offered no violence?" repeated Green,
+eagerly.
+
+"None," answered Wilton; "though I suppose, if I had not answered
+their questions satisfactorily, they would have done so, as they
+seemed very fit persons for such proceedings.  But I was in hopes,"
+he continued, "that all this had gone by with you, and that such
+dangerous adventures were no more thought of."
+
+"I wish I had never thought of any still more dangerous," replied
+Green; "I should not have the faces looking at me that now disturb my
+sleep. But this is not my adventure," he continued, "but his--his
+sitting opposite there. I have nothing to do with it, but assisting
+him."
+
+"Yes, indeed, my dear Wilton," replied Lord Sherbrooke, "the
+adventure is mine. All other trades failing, and having exhausted
+every other mad prank but that, I am taking a turn upon the King's
+Highway, which has become far more fashionable now-a-days than the
+Park, the puppet-show, or even Constitution Hill."
+
+"Nay, nay, Henry!" exclaimed his wife, interrupting him, "I will not
+hear you malign yourself in that way. He is not taking a turn upon
+the King's Highway, sir, for here he sits, bodily, I trust, beside
+his wife; and if the spirit have anything to do with the adventure
+that he talks of, the motive is a noble one--the object is not what
+he says."
+
+"Hush, hush, Caroline," replied Lord Sherbrooke; "you will make
+Wilton believe, first, that I am sane; next, that I am virtuous; and,
+lastly, that I love any woman sufficiently to submit to her
+contradicting me; things which I have been labouring hard for months
+to make him think impossible."
+
+"He knows, sir," said Green, interrupting him, "that you are
+generous, and that you are kind, though he does not yet know to what
+extent."
+
+"I believe he knows me better than any man now living," replied Lord
+Sherbrooke; "but it happens somewhat inopportunely that he should be
+here to-night.--Hark, Colonel!  There is even now the galloping of a
+horse round to the back of the house. Let you and I go into the other
+room, and see what booty our comrade has brought back."
+
+He spoke with one of his gay but uncertain smiles, while Green's eyes
+sparkled with some of the brightness of former times, as he listened
+eagerly, to make sure that Lord Sherbrooke's ear had not deceived
+him.
+
+"You are right, you are right, sir," he said; "and then, I hear
+Byerly's voice speaking to the old woman."
+
+But before he could proceed to put Lord Sherbrooke's suggestion in
+execution, Byerly was in the room, holding up a large leathern bag,
+and exclaiming, "Here it is! here it is!"
+
+"Alas!" said Caroline--"I fear dangerously obtained."
+
+"Not in the least, madam," replied Byerly: "if the man dies, let it
+be remarked, he dies of fright, and nothing else; not a finger has
+been laid, in the way of violence, upon his person; but he would have
+given up anything to any one who asked him. We made him promise and
+vow that he would ride back to the town he came from; and tying his
+feet under his horse's belly, we sent him off as hard as he could go.
+I, indeed, kept at a distance watching all, but the others gave me
+the bag as soon as it was obtained, and then scattered over the moor,
+every man his own way. I am back to London with all speed, and not a
+point of this will be ever known."
+
+"Come hither, then, come hither, Byerly," said Green, leading him
+away; "we must see the contents of the bag, take what we want, and
+dispose of the rest. You had better come with me too, sir," he added,
+addressing Lord Sherbrooke; "for as good Don Quixote would have said,
+'The adventure is yours, and it is now happily achieved.'"
+
+Thus saying, the three left the room together, and were absent for
+nearly half an hour.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+
+It was evident to Wilton, that whatever was the enterprise in which
+Lord Sherbrooke and Green were engaged, it was one which, without
+absolutely wanting confidence in him, they were anxious to conceal
+from his knowledge; and, to say truth, he was by no means sorry that
+such should be the case.
+
+He knew Lord Sherbrooke too well to hope that any remonstrance would
+affect him, and he was therefore glad not to be made a partaker of
+any secret regarding transactions which he believed to be dangerous,
+and yet could not prevent. In regard to Green too, there were
+particular feelings in his bosom which made him anxious to avoid any
+further knowledge of that most hazardous course of life in which he
+was evidently engaged; for he could not shut his eyes to what that
+course of life really was. Although, as we have already said, at that
+period the resource of the King's Highway had been adopted by very
+different people from those who even ten or twenty years afterwards
+trafficked thereon: though many a man of high education, gallant
+courage, and polished manners, ay, even of high birth, cast from his
+station by the changes and misfortunes of the day--like parts of a
+fine building thrown down by an earthquake, and turned to viler
+purposes--sought the midnight road as their only means of support:
+nay, though there were even some names afterwards restored to the
+peerage, which are supposed to have been well known amongst the
+august body of traffickers in powder and lead: yet Wilton could not
+but feel grieved that any one in whom he felt an interest should be
+tempted or driven to such an expedient, and at all events, he thought
+that the less he knew upon the subject the better.
+
+That, however, which struck him as the most strange, was to find two
+beings such as those who were now left alone with him, graceful,
+beautiful, gentle, high-toned in manners, distinguished in
+appearance, fitted to mingle with the highest society, and adorn the
+highest rank, cognizant of, if not taking part in, things so
+dangerous and reprehensible.
+
+A momentary silence ensued when he was left alone with the two
+ladies, and the first words that he spoke evidently showed to the
+Lady Helen what was passing in Wilton's mind. She looked at him for a
+moment with a grave smile, and after she had herself alluded more
+directly to the subject, he expressed plainly the regret that he felt
+at what he witnessed.
+
+"I regret likewise, my dear boy," she said, "much that has gone
+before, nay, almost everything that has taken place in the conduct of
+him you speak of for many years past. I regret it all deeply, and
+regret it far more than I do the present transaction. You will think
+it strange, but I see not well how this was to be avoided. Not that I
+believe," she added, thoughtfully, "that we ought to frustrate bad
+men by bad means; but nevertheless, Wilton, here was a very great and
+high object to be attained: utter destruction to all our hopes would
+have been the consequence of missing that object; and there was but
+one way of securing it. This is to be the last enterprise of the kind
+ever undertaken; and it was that very fact which made me so fearful,
+for I know how treacherously fate deals with us in regard to any rash
+or evil acts. How very often do we see that the last time--the very
+last time--men who have long gone on with impunity, are to commit
+anything that is wrong, punishment and discovery overtake them, and
+vengeance steps in before reformation."
+
+Wilton did not, of course, press the subject, as it was one, in
+regard to which he would have been forced to converse on abstract
+principles, while the others spoke from particular knowledge. Nor was
+his mind attuned at that moment to much conversation of any kind, nor
+to any thoughts but those of his own grief.
+
+The conversation lingered then till Green and Lord Sherbrooke
+returned. Captain Byerly was now no longer with them, and not another
+word was said of the transactions of that night. Green relapsed into
+gloomy silence, and very shortly after, the two ladies retired to
+rest.
+
+The moment they were gone, Lord Sherbrooke grasped Wilton's hand,
+saying, "What is the matter, Wilton? You are evidently ill at ease."
+
+Wilton smiled.
+
+"You give me none of your confidence, Sherbrooke," he said, "and yet
+you demand mine. However, I will tell you in one word what I might
+well have expected has occurred.  An explanation has taken place
+between the Duke and myself, and that bright vision has faded away."
+
+"Indeed!" said Lord Sherbrooke, thoughtfully. "Have you, too, met
+with a reverse, Wilton? I thought that you were one of the exempt,
+that everything was to smile upon you, that prosperity was to attend
+your footsteps even to the close of life. But fear not, fear not,
+Wilton--this is only a momentary frown of the capricious goddess. She
+will smile again, and all be bright. It is not in your fate to be
+unfortunate!"
+
+"Nay, nay, Sherbrooke, this is cruel jesting," said Wilton.  "Surely
+my lot is no very enviable one."
+
+"It is one of those that mend, Wilton," replied Sherbrooke, sadly. "I
+live but to lose."
+
+He spoke with a tone of deep and bitter melancholy; and Green, who
+had hitherto scarcely uttered a word, chimed in with feelings of as
+sad a kind; adding, as an observation upon what Lord Sherbrooke had
+said, "Who is there that lives past twenty that may not say the same?
+Who is there that does not live to lose?--First goes by youth, down
+into that deep, deep sea, which gives us back none of all the
+treasures that it swallows up. Youth goes down and innocence goes with
+it, and peace is then drowned too. Some sweet and happy feelings that
+belonged to youth, like the strong swimmers from some shipwrecked
+bark, struggle a while upon the surface, but are engulfed at last.
+Strength, vigour, power of enjoyment, disappear one by one. Hope,
+buoyant hope, snatching at straws to keep herself afloat, sinks also
+in the end. Then life itself goes down, and the broad sea of events,
+which has just swallowed up another argosy, flows on, as if no such
+thing had been; and myriads cross and re-cross on the same voyage the
+spot where others perished scarce a day before. It is all loss,
+nothing but loss," and he again fell into a fit of bitter musing.
+
+"Come, Wilton," said Lord Sherbrooke, after a moment's thought, "I
+will show you a room where you can sleep.  These are but melancholy
+subjects, and your fancies are grave enough already. They will be
+brighter soon--fear not, Wilton, they will be brighter soon."
+
+"I know not what should brighten them," replied Wilton.  "But I will
+willingly go and seek sleep for an hour or two, as I must depart by
+daylight to-morrow. In the meanwhile, Sherbrooke, I will ask you to
+let me write a brief note to the Duke, and trust to you to send it as
+early as may be; for to say the truth, in the bitter disappointment I
+have met with, and the harsh language which he used towards me, I
+forgot altogether to mention what you told me this morning."
+
+The materials for writing were soon furnished, although Lord
+Sherbrooke declared, that were he in Wilton's situation, he would let
+the proud peer take his own course, as he had shown himself so
+ungrateful for previous services.
+
+Wilton, however, only replied, "He is Laura's father, Sherbrooke,"
+and the note was accordingly written.
+
+"It shall be delivered early," said Lord Sherbrooke, as soon as it
+was ready. "Give it to me, Wilton; and now let us go."
+
+Ere he quitted the room, however, Wilton turned to Green, and held
+out his hand, saying, "I am grieved to see you so sad. Can I by no
+means aid you or give you comfort?"
+
+Green grasped his hand eagerly and tightly in his own, and replied,
+"No, my boy, no; nothing can give me comfort.  I have done that which
+calmly and deliberately I would do again to-morrow, were I so called
+upon, and which yet, in the doing it, has deprived my mind of peace.
+There may be yet one ray of comfort reach me, and it will reach me
+from you, Wilton; but it may be that you may wish to speak with me
+from time to time; if so, you will hear of me here, for I go no more
+to London. I have seen bloody heads and human quarters enow. Seek me
+here; and if you want anything, ask me: for though powerless to cure
+the bitterness of my own heart, I have more power to serve others
+than ever I had."
+
+"I have tried more than once in vain to see you," replied Wilton;
+"not that I wanted anything, but that I was anxious to hear tidings
+of you, and to thank you for what you had already done. I will now,
+however, bid you good night, and trust that time, at least, may prove
+an alleviation of your burdens as well as those of others."
+
+Green shook his head with a look of utter despondency, and Wilton
+quitted him, seeing that further words were vain.  Lord Sherbrooke
+then conducted him to a small neat room, and left him to lie down to
+rest, saying--
+
+"I know not, Wilton, whether I can conquer my bad habits so much as
+to be up before you go. If not, I may not see you for many days, for
+I have leave of absence," he added, with one of his light laughs,
+"from my most honoured and respected parent. Should you need me, you
+will find me here; and I would fain have you tell me if anything of
+import befals you. I shall hear, however--I shall hear."
+
+Thus saying, he left him, and at an early hour on the following day
+Wilton was on his way homeward. He reached London before the time at
+which it was usual for him to present himself at the house of Lord
+Byerdale; but when, after pulling off his riding dress, he went
+thither, he found that the Earl had already gone to Whitehall, and
+consequently he followed him to that place.
+
+The statesman seemed not a little surprised to see him, and instantly
+questioned him in regard to his interview with the Duke. That
+interview was soon told by Wilton, who loved not to dwell upon the
+particulars, and consequently related the whole as briefly as
+possible.
+
+He told enough, however, to move the Earl a good deal, but in a
+different manner from what might have been expected. Once or twice he
+coloured and frowned heavily, and then laughed loud and bitterly.
+
+"His pride is almost more absurd than I had fancied, Wilton," he
+said, at length; "but to tell you the truth, I have in some degree
+foreseen all this, though not quite to this extent.  If he had
+willingly consented to your marriage with his daughter, he might have
+saved himself, perhaps, some pain, for he must consent in the end,
+and it would not surprise me some day to see him suing you to the
+alliance that he now refuses you. His grace is certainly a very great
+and haughty peer, but nevertheless he may some day find you quite a
+fitting match for his daughter."
+
+"I trust it may be so, my lord," replied Wilton; "but yet I see not
+very well how it can be so."
+
+"You will see, you will see, Wilton," replied Lord Byerdale: "it
+matters not at present to talk of it. But now sit down and write me a
+letter to the Lord Lieutenant of Hampshire, telling him that I must
+beg he and the Sheriff would take prompt measures for restoring peace
+and security in the county. Let him know that one of the government
+couriers was stopped and plundered on the road last night. Luckily
+the bag of despatches has been found upon the highway unopened, but
+still the act was a most daring one. The same sort of thing has been
+of frequent occurrence in that county: it is evident that a large
+troop of these gentry of the road make that part of the world their
+field, and we must put a stop to it."
+
+Wilton sat down and did as he was bid, feeling, it is true, that he
+could give a good deal more information upon the subject than the
+Earl possessed, if he thought fit to do so.  This, of course, he did
+not choose to do; and after the letter to the Lord Lieutenant was
+written, the Earl allowed him to depart, saying--"Our business is
+somewhat light to-day, Wilton; but do not be the least afraid on
+account of this fair lady. The Duke's foolish pride will come down
+when he hears more."
+
+Wilton departed, in a meditative mood; for notwithstanding every
+assurance given him, he could not but feel apprehensive, sad, and
+despondent. He might ask himself, in deed--for the Earl's words
+naturally led to such a mistaken question--"Who, then, am I? Who is
+it they would have me believe myself, that so proud a man should seek
+the alliance which he now scorns, as soon as he knows who I am?" But
+there seemed to him a sort of mockery in the very idea, which made
+him cast it from him as a vain delusion.
+
+Though freed from ordinary business, and at liberty to go where he
+liked, with a thousand refined tastes which he was accustomed to
+gratify in his own dwelling, yet Wilton felt not the slightest
+inclination to turn his steps homeward on the present occasion.
+Music, he knew full well, was by no means calculated to soothe his
+mind under the first effects of bitter disappointment. Had it been
+but the disappointment of seeing Laura at the time he expected to do
+so--had circumstances compelled him to be absent from her for a week
+or a month longer than he had expected--had the bright dreams which
+he always conjured up of pleasant hours and happy days, and warm
+smiles and sweet words, when he proposed to go down to Somersbury,
+been left unrealized by the interposition of some unexpected
+event--the disappointment would certainly have been great; but
+nevertheless he might have then found a pleasure, a consolation in
+music, in singing the songs, in playing the airs, of which Laura was
+fond; in calling up from memory the joys that were denied to hope,
+which can never so well be done, so powerfully, as by the magic voice
+of song.
+
+But now all was uncertain: his heart was too full of despondency and
+grief to find relief by re-awakening even the brightest memories of
+the past: he could not gaze upon the days gone by, like the painter
+or the poet looking upon some beautiful landscape, for his situation
+he felt to be that rather of some unhappy exile looking back upon a
+bright land that he loved, when quitting it, perhaps never to return.
+Neither could books afford him relief; for his own sorrowful feelings
+were now too actively present to suffer him to rove with the gay
+imagination of others, or to meditate on abstracted subjects with the
+thoughtful and the grave.
+
+To fly from the crowds that at that time thronged the streets--to
+seek solitary thought--to wander on, changing his place
+continually--to suffer and give way to all the many strange and
+confused ideas and feelings of grief, and disappointment, and
+bitterness of heart, and burning indignation, at ill-merited scorn,
+and surprise and curiosity in regard to the hopes that were held out
+to him, and despairing rejection of those hopes, even while the voice
+of the never-dying prophetess of blessings was whispering in his heart
+that those very hopes might be true--was all that Wilton could do at
+that moment.
+
+The country, however, was sooner reached in those days than it is at
+present; and after leaving Whitehall, he was in a few minutes in the
+sweet fields, with their shady rows of tall elms, which lay to the
+westward of St. James's-street.  Here he wandered on, musing, as we
+have said, for several hours, with his arms crossed upon his chest,
+and his eyes scanning the ground. At length he turned his steps
+homeward, thinking that it was a weakness thus to give way; but still as
+he went, the same feelings and the same thoughts pursued him; and
+that black care, which in the days of the Latin poet sat behind the
+horseman, was his companion, also, by the way.
+
+On reaching his lodgings, the door was opened by the servant of the
+house, and he was passing on, but the girl stopped him,
+saying--"There is a lady, sir, up stairs, who has been waiting for
+you near an hour."
+
+"A lady!" exclaimed Wilton, with no slight surprise; for though such
+a visit in those days might have passed without scandal, he knew no
+one who was likely to call upon him, unless, indeed, it were the Lady
+Helen Oswald, whose interest in him seemed to be of such a kind as
+might well produce a visit upon any extraordinary occasion.
+
+He mounted the stairs with a rapid step, however, for he knew that it
+must be something out of the common course of events which had
+brought her, and opening the door quickly, entered his small
+sitting-room. But what was his surprise to behold, seated on the
+opposite side of the room, and watching eagerly the door, none other
+but Lady Laura Gaveston herself.
+
+Astonishment certainly was the first sensation, but joy was the
+second; and advancing quickly to her, he took her in his arms and
+held her to his heart, and kissed her cheek again and again. For
+several moments he asked no question.  It was sufficient that she was
+there, pressed to his bosom, returning his affection, and whatever
+might be the consequences, for the tine at least he was happy. The joy
+that was in his countenance--the tenderness--the deep devoted love of
+his whole manner--gave as much happiness to Laura herself as she was
+capable of receiving from anything at that moment.
+
+Her thoughts, also, for a minute or two, were all given up to love
+and happiness; but it was evident from the tears on her cheeks that
+she had been weeping bitterly ever since she had been there; and the
+moment that he had recovered himself a little, Wilton led her back
+to her seat, and placing himself beside her, still holding her hand,
+he said--"Dear, dear Laura! I fear that something very painful, I may
+say very terrible, has driven you to this step; but indeed, dear
+girl, you have not placed your confidence wrongly; and I shall value
+this dear hand only the more, should your love for me have deprived
+you of that wealth which you have been taught to expect. I will
+labour for you, dear Laura, with redoubled energy, and I fear not to
+obtain such a competence as may make you happy, though I can never
+give you that affluence which you have a right to claim."
+
+The tears had again run over Laura's cheek; but as she returned the
+pressure of his hand, she replied--"Thank you, dear Wilton--thank
+you: I know you would willingly do all for me, but you mistake, and I
+think cannot have heard what has happened."
+
+Those words instantly guided Wilton's mind back to the right point,
+though for a moment thought hovered round it vaguely. He recollected
+all that Lord Sherbrooke had said with regard to Sir John Fenwick,
+and the charge against the Duke, and he replied, "I had mistaken,
+Laura--I had mistaken. But what has happened? I have been out wandering
+long in the fields, thinking of but one subject, and melancholy
+enough, dear girl."
+
+"I know it, dear Wilton--oh, I know it!" she replied, leaning her
+head upon his shoulder; "and I, too, have passed a wretched night,
+thinking of you. Not that I ever feared all would not in the end go
+right, but I knew how miserable what had occurred would make you; and
+I knew how angrily my father sometimes speaks, how much more he says
+than he really means, and what pain he gives with out intending it.
+The night was miserable enough, dear Wilton; but I knew not indeed
+how much more miserable the morning was to be.--You have not heard,
+then, what has taken place?"
+
+"I have heard nothing, dearest Laura," replied Wilton; "I have heard
+nothing of any consequence since I came to town: but I fear for your
+father, Laura; for I heard yesterday that some accusation had been
+brought against him by Sir John Fenwick; and though last night, in
+the agitation and pain of the moment, I forgot to tell him, I wrote a
+note, and sent it early this morning."
+
+"He got it before eight this morning," replied Laura, "and sent to
+call me down in haste. I found him partly angry, partly frightened,
+partly suspicious, and hesitating what to do. I besought him, Wilton,
+to fly with all speed.  I pledged my word that Wilton, however
+ill-treated he might have been, and however he might feel that the
+services which he had rendered had been undervalued, would say
+nothing but that which was actually true, and absolutely necessary
+for the safety of those he loved."
+
+"Surely," said Wilton, "he did not suspect me of falsifying the truth
+to give myself greater importance in his eyes?"
+
+"Whatever were his suspicions, dear Wilton," replied Lady Laura,
+"they were too soon painfully removed; for he had scarcely given
+orders to have breakfast immediately, and the carriage prepared
+without loss of time, when two Messengers arrived with a warrant for
+his committal to the Tower. They treated us with all kindness,"
+continued Lady Laura, "waited till our preparations were made,
+permitted me to accompany him, and have promised that to-morrow or
+the day after--as soon, in short, as a proper order can be made for
+it--I shall be permitted to be with him, and have a room near his.
+But oh, Wilton, you cannot imagine how my father's mind is
+overthrown. It seems, though I never knew it before, that he has
+really had some dealings with this Sir John Fenwick, and his whole
+reliance now appears to be upon you, Wilton."
+
+"Oh, I trust, dearest Laura, that this charge will prove nothing,"
+replied Wilton. "As far as I know, though he acted imprudently, there
+was not anything in the slightest degree criminal in his conduct. The
+days, I trust, are gone by when fictitious plots might be got up, and
+the blood of the innocent be sold for its weight of gold. It may have
+been judged necessary to secure his person, and yet there may not be
+the slightest probability of his being condemned or even tried."
+
+"I do not know, Wilton," replied Lady Laura, sadly--"I do not know.
+He seems in very great terror and agitation.  Are you sure he has
+told you all, Wilton?"
+
+"On that subject, of course, I cannot be sure," replied Wilton. "But
+I do not feel at all sure, Laura, that this charge and this
+imprisonment may not have its origin in personal revenge. If so,
+perhaps we may frustrate the plotter, though we be weak and he is
+strong. Who was the warrant against your father signed by?--Was
+it--?"
+
+"Not by Lord Byerdale," replied Laura, laying her hand upon his and
+gazing into his face, and thus showing Wilton that she instantly
+divined his suspicions.--"It was by the Duke of Shrewsbury."
+
+"That looks ill, dearest Laura," replied Wilton, thoughtfully. "The
+Duke of Shrewsbury is one above all suspicion, high, noble,
+independent, serving the state only for the love of his country,
+abhorring office and the task of governing, but wise and prudent,
+neither to be led by any art or trickery to do what is not just, nor
+even to entertain base suspicions of another, without some very
+specious cause to give them credibility. This is strange, Laura, and
+I do not understand it. Did your father express a wish that you
+should see me, so that I may act openly in the business without
+offending him?"
+
+"He not only told me to consult with you," replied Laura, "but he
+sent me direct from the Tower in the chair which you saw standing at
+the door, desiring me not to go to Beaufort House till I had seen
+you; to beseech you to come to him immediately, in order that he
+might advise with and consult you upon his situation. Indeed, he
+seems to have no hope in any one but in you."
+
+Wilton mused for a minute or two.
+
+"I do not think, my dear Laura," he said, "that the Earl of Byerdale
+knew anything of your father's arrest this morning when I saw him. I
+believe I must have done him wrong in my first suspicions. I will
+now, however, go to him at once, and endeavour to ascertain the
+precise nature of Sir John Fenwick's charge."
+
+"Might it not be better," said Laura, anxiously, "to see my father
+first?"
+
+"I must obtain an order of admission, dear Laura," replied Wilton.
+"What are the orders respecting your father's confinement I cannot
+tell, but I know that Sir John Fenwick is permitted to see no one but
+the ministers of the crown or somebody appointed by them. At all
+events, I think it will be better to converse with the Earl, and get
+the order at the same time. I will then hasten to your father with
+all speed, give him what comfort and consolation I can, and
+afterwards come for a few minutes to Beaufort House to see my Laura,
+and tell her the result--that is to say, if I may."
+
+"If you may! dear Wilton," said Lady Laura, casting herself upon his
+bosom, "if you could see my poor father now with all his pride
+subdued, you would not ask if you may."
+
+"But we must lose no time, dear Laura," replied Wilton.  "You shall
+go on to Beaufort House with all speed. But where are your servants?
+I saw none in the hall."
+
+"Oh, I have none with me," replied Lady Laura; "there was but one
+with the carriage: the others were left with orders to follow quickly
+to town; and I am sure in the agitation of the moment neither my
+father nor I thought of servants at all."
+
+"Nay, dear Laura," replied Wilton, "my own servant shall go with you
+then; for after having once lost my treasure and found it again, I
+will not trust you with two strange chairmen such a distance, and
+alone."
+
+This arrangement was soon made; and with a mind comforted and
+relieved, even from this short interview with him she loved, Lady
+Laura left him, and took her way to her solitary home.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX.
+
+Wilton was sincerely pained and grieved for the Duke; and the moment
+that he had seen Laura safely on her way towards Beaufort House, he
+hastened to seek the Earl of Byerdale, supposing that he had returned
+to his own dwelling, which was near at hand. He was still at
+Whitehall, however, and thither Wilton accordingly went. He was
+admitted immediately to the Earl's presence, and found him with a
+number of written letters before him, folded up and ready for the
+departure of the courier. Not knowing that there was anything in the
+mere addresses of the letters that was not intended for him to see,
+Wilton suffered his eye to rest upon them for a moment. The Earl
+hastily gathered them together, but not before Wilton had remarked
+that one of them was addressed to the Earl of Sunbury; and the very
+haste with which the statesman removed them from his sight naturally
+gave rise to a suspicion of something being wrong, though Wilton
+could form no definite idea of what was the motive for this
+concealment.
+
+"Have you heard that the Duke is arrested, Wilton?" was the Earl's
+first question, before Wilton himself could speak.
+
+"Yes, my lord," replied Wilton. "I have heard, and was somewhat
+surprised, as your lordship did not speak to me on the subject in the
+morning."
+
+"I knew nothing about it," replied the Earl, "except that I thought
+it likely. It was his grace of Shrewsbury's doing, and I do not doubt
+that he was very right, for one cannot punish mean offenders and let
+high ones pass."
+
+"Certainly not, my lord," replied Wilton; "but from what I know of
+the Duke, I should think that he was the last man on earth to do any
+treasonable act. I have come to ask your lordship's permission to
+visit him in the Tower, and to obtain an order to that effect,
+hoping, too, that you may tell me the particulars of the charge
+against him, for he is now very anxious to see me."
+
+"Oh ho!" exclaimed the Duke. "What! is his pride come down so soon?
+What! in one single day does he send for the man that he maltreated
+the night before? Such is human pride and human weakness. Well, well,
+Wilton, we will not mar your young fortunes. You shall have every
+opportunity, and perhaps may serve the Duke; although, I very much
+fear," he added, in a graver tone, "from the Duke of Shrewsbury
+having signed the warrant, that your good friend has been led much
+farther into these matters than you are aware of. Make out an order
+to see him, and I will sign it."
+
+"But cannot I, my lord, obtain any information," said Wilton, as he
+wrote the order, "concerning the real charges against the Duke?"
+
+"I really am not aware of them," replied Lord Byerdale.  "The
+business has not been done through this office. I have seen Fenwick,
+indeed, but he only spoke generally, and seemed inclined to accuse
+everybody indiscriminately. However, I will send to Lord Shrewsbury,
+and ask all the particulars; but, by the way, Shrewsbury went out of
+town to-day.  I must write to Vernon, his secretary, instead;" and
+sitting down, he wrote and despatched a note to a neighbouring
+ministerial office. An answer was almost immediately returned in the
+following terms:--
+
+    "MY LORD,-I have been honoured with your lordship's
+    note, and beg to inform you that the charge against the Duke
+    of Gaveston is for high treason, in having heard and connived
+    at the projected assassination of the King in the beginning
+    of this year, together with various other counts, such as
+    that of levying war, holding treasonable correspondence with
+    the enemy, and concealing the designs of traitors, &c. Your
+    lordship's order will admit Mr. Brown immediately to the
+    Tower, as no particular directions have been given in regard
+    to keeping the Duke a close prisoner. His grace of Shrewsbury
+    went out of town to Eyford at eleven this morning.--
+    I have the honour to be, your lordship's obedient servant,"
+    &c.
+
+"There, Wilton," said the Earl, putting over the note to his
+secretary, "there is all the information that I can obtain on the
+subject; and here, take the order, and go and see your friend the
+Duke. Tell him I will come and see him to-morrow, and give him what
+consolation you can; but yet do not act like a silly boy, and make
+too light of the business, for two reasons: first, because the matter
+is really serious--the good folks of London have an appetite for
+blood upon them just now, and will not be satisfied unless they see a
+head struck off every now and then; and next, because, if his
+lordship do escape the abbreviating process of Tower Hill, we shall
+have to bring down his pride still farther than it is, to make him
+give ready consent to your marriage with his daughter."
+
+"I would rather win his consent by good services, my lord," replied
+Wilton, "than drive him to give it by any harsh means."
+
+"Pshaw! you are a silly boy," replied the Earl: "there is nothing so
+tiresome to a man of experience as the false generosity with which
+young men set out in the world. Here, when you have the opportunity
+in your power of inducing the Duke easily to give his consent to that
+which is most for his own interests, for yours, and for everybody's,
+you would let it slip, remain miserable yourself, and see Laura made
+miserable too, from the mere idle fancy of not taking advantage of
+misfortunes which the Duke has brought upon himself; but I will
+consent to no such idle folly, Wilton. I am determined to take care
+of your interests, if you do not take care of them for yourself, and
+I have a right to do so, as I believe I am your nearest living
+relation. And now, my good youth, mark my words, and remember that I
+am one who will keep them to the letter. The Duke, I know, has so far
+committed himself as to be really criminal. How far his crime may be
+aggravated I do not know. If he have brought his own head to the
+block I cannot help it, and then all matters will be clear, for Lady
+Laura will be free to do as she pleases; but as his pardon for the
+offences he has really committed must pass through my hands, if it
+should be found that his errors are not of a very deep dye, I give
+you fair warning, that he shall not set his foot beyond the doors of
+the Tower till Lady Laura is your bride. Say not a word, for my
+determination is taken, and he shall find me somewhat firmer in my
+purpose than he has shown himself towards you."
+
+"I suppose your lordship means," replied Wilton, "till he has given
+his consent to the marriage. The Duke is too honourable a man to
+revoke it when once it is granted."
+
+"No, by Heaven!" answered Lord Byerdale: "she shall be yours, fully,
+irrevocably your wife, ere he sets his foot forth. There are such
+things, I tell you, Wilton, as quarrels about marriage-settlements. I
+will have none of that. I will be a better friend to you than you
+would be to yourself.  However, on second thoughts, say nothing about
+it to the Duke. I will take it all upon myself, which will spare you
+pain. You shall see that the proposal will come from the Duke
+himself."
+
+Wilton smiled; and we cannot think that he was much to blame if there
+was some pleasure mingled in his feelings at the thought of soon and
+easily obtaining her he loved, even though he experienced repugnance
+to the means which the Earl proposed to employ. He resolved,
+therefore, to let the matter take its course, feeling very sure that
+the result of the Duke's present situation would be much affected,
+and his liberation greatly facilitated, by suffering the Earl to
+manage the matter in his own way.
+
+He took the order, then, and proceeded at once to the Tower, where,
+through walls, and palisades, and courts, he was led to that part of
+the building reserved for the confinement of state prisoners. There
+was nothing very formidable or very gloomy in the appearance of the
+rooms and corridors through which he passed; but the sentry at the
+gates, the locked doors, the turning of keys, announced that he was
+in a place from which ever-smiling liberty was excluded; and the very
+first aspect of the Duke, when his young friend was admitted to the
+apartments assigned to that nobleman, showed how deeply he felt the
+loss of freedom. In the few hours that had passed since Wilton last
+saw him, he had turned very pale; and though still slightly lame, he
+was walking up and down the room with hasty and irregular steps. The
+sound of the opening door made him start and turn round with a look
+of nervous apprehension; and when he beheld the countenance that
+presented itself, his face, indeed, lighted up with a smile, but that
+smile was so mingled with an expression of melancholy and agitation,
+that it seemed as if he were about to burst into tears.
+
+"This is very kind of you, indeed, Wilton!" he exclaimed, stretching
+out his hand towards him: "pray let us forget all that took place
+last night. Indeed, your kindness in coming now must make a very
+great difference in my feelings towards you: not only that, indeed,
+but your note, which reached me early this morning, and which had
+already made such a difference, that I should certainly have sent for
+you to talk over all matters more calmly, if this terrible misfortune
+had not happened to me."
+
+Was the Duke endeavouring to deceive Wilton?--No, indeed, he was not!
+Though there can be scarcely a doubt that, had he not been very much
+brought down by fear and anxiety, he would not have sent for Wilton
+at all. The truth was, he had first deceived himself, and at that
+moment he firmly believed that he would have done everything that was
+kind and considerate towards Wilton and his daughter, even had he not
+been arrested.
+
+"We will not think of any of these things, your grace," replied
+Wilton. "I need not tell you that I was both overjoyed to see Lady
+Laura, and terribly grieved to hear the cause of her coming. As soon
+as I had heard from her your grace's situation and wishes, I sent my
+servant to accompany her to Beaufort House."
+
+"Ay," said the Duke, interrupting him, "in the agitation of the
+moment, poor girl, I forgot to send any one with her I kept my man
+here. But what then, Wilton, what then?-You are always kind and
+considerate.--What did you do then?"
+
+"I went immediately to Lord Byerdale," replied Wilton, "who seemed
+just to have heard of your arrest. From him I obtained an order to
+see you; and he was kind enough also to write to his grace of
+Shrewsbury's secretary to know upon what charge you had been
+arrested."
+
+"Ay, that is the point! that is the point!" exclaimed the Duke,
+eagerly. "When we hear what is the charge, we can better judge what
+danger there is; in short, how one is situated altogether."
+
+"Why, I grieve to say, my lord," replied Wilton, "that the charge is
+heavy."
+
+"Good God!" exclaimed the Duke, "what is it, Wilton, what is it? Do
+not keep me in suspense, but tell me quickly.  What does the villain
+charge me with? He first spoke upon the subject to me, and he knows
+that I am as innocent as the child unborn."
+
+"It would seem, your grace," replied Wilton, "that he levels charges
+at many persons most likely as innocent as you are; and that he
+wishes to save his own life by endangering the lives of other people.
+He charges you with neither more nor less than high treason, for
+having been cognisant of, if not consenting to, the plan for
+assassinating the King--"
+
+"I never consented to such a thing!" exclaimed the Duke, interrupting
+him. "I abhorred the very idea. I never heard of it--I--I--I never
+heard it distinctly proposed. Some one, indeed, said it would be
+better; but there was no distinct proposal of the kind; and I went
+away directly, saying, that I would have no farther part in their
+counsels."
+
+Wilton's countenance fell at hearing this admission; for he now for
+the first time saw fully how terrible was the situation in which the
+Duke had placed himself. That nobleman, then, had, in fact, heard and
+had concealed the design against the King's life. The simple law of
+high treason, therefore, held him completely within its grasp. That
+law declared a person concealing treason to be as guilty as the
+actual deviser or perpetrator thereof, and doomed them to the same
+penalty.  There was no hope, there was no resource, but in the
+clemency of the government; and the words used by Lord Byerdale rang
+in Wilton's ears, in regard to the bloody appetite of the times for
+executions. He turned very pale, then, and remained silent for a
+moment or two, while the Duke clasped his hands, and gazed in his
+face.
+
+"For Heaven's sake, my lord," he said, at length, "withhold such
+admission from anybody else, for I fear very much a bad use might be
+made of it."
+
+"I see that you think that the case goes ill with me," said the Duke.
+"But I give you my word of honour, my dear Wilton, that the moment I
+heard of the designs of these men I left the place in indignation."
+
+"It is necessary, my lord," replied Wilton, "that your grace should
+know how you stand; and I fear very much that if this business can be
+proved at all, the best view of the case that can be taken will be,
+that you have committed misprision of treason, which may subject you
+to long imprisonment and forfeiture. If the government deals
+leniently with you, such may be the case; but if the strict law be
+urged, I fear that your having gone to this meeting at all, and
+consented to designs against the government of the King, and
+afterwards concealing the plans for introducing foreign forces, and
+for compassing the death of the King, must be considered by the peers
+as nothing short of paramount treason itself.  Let me beseech you,
+therefore, my lord, to be most careful and guarded in your speech; to
+content yourself with simply denying all treasonable intentions, and
+to leave me, and any other friends whom you may think fit to employ,
+to endeavour, by using all extraordinary means, to save you even from
+the pain and risk of trial. Our greatest hope and the greatest
+security for you, is the fact--which is so generally reported that I
+fancy it must be true--that Sir John Fenwick has charged a number of
+persons in the highest stations, and some even near to the King's
+person and counsels. It will be for every one's interest, therefore,
+to cast discredit upon all his accusations, and amongst the rest,
+perhaps, this also may fall to the ground."
+
+"Could you not see him, Wilton, could you not see him?" demanded the
+Duke, eagerly. "Perhaps he might be persuaded to mitigate his charge;
+to withdraw it; or to add some account of the abhorrence I expressed
+at the plans and purposes I heard."
+
+"I see no way by which I could gain admittance, my lord," replied
+Wilton. "He is a close prisoner in Newgate.  I know no one who even
+is acquainted with him; and I believe none but his wife and various
+members of the government are admitted to see him alone. However, I
+will do my best, my lord, and if I can gain admission, I will."
+
+The Duke cast himself in deep despondency into a chair, and mused for
+several minutes without reply, seeing evidently, from Wilton's words
+and manner, that he thought his case a desperate one. After a moment,
+however, a momentary ray of hope crossed his countenance again.
+
+"Cannot you see the Lady Mary Fenwick?" he said.  "She could surely
+gain you admission to her husband. She is a distant relation of my
+own, too, for my grandfather married Lady Carlisle's aunt. Beseech
+her, Wilton, to gain you admittance; and try also--try, by all
+means--to make her use her influence with her husband in my behalf.
+Perhaps at her entreaty he would modify the charge, or retract a part
+of it. It can do him no good--it may ruin me."
+
+"I will do my best, my lord," replied Wilton, "and in the meantime my
+Lord of Byerdale desired me to tell your grace that he would visit
+you to-morrow. He comes, indeed, merely as a friend; but I would beg
+your grace to remember that he is also a minister of the crown, bound
+by his office to give intimation of everything affecting the welfare
+of the state."
+
+"Oh, I will be careful, I will be careful!" replied the Duke. "But
+can you think of nothing else, Wilton? can we fall upon no means?
+Would to Heaven I had always taken your advice! I should not now be
+here. Should I ever escape, you will find me a different being,
+Wilton. I will not forget your kindness, nor be ungrateful for it;"
+and he fell into a somewhat sad and feeble commentary upon his own
+conduct, briefly expressing regret for what he had done, partly
+alleging excuses for it, but still evidently speaking under the
+overpowering influence of fear; while pride, that weakest and most
+enfeebling of all evil passions, gave him no support under
+affliction, no strength and vigour in the moment of danger. In his
+heart Wilton could not respect him; but still he had nourished in his
+bosom feelings of affectionate regard towards him: he knew that
+Laura's happiness was not to be separated from her father's safety,
+and he resolved once more to exert every energy of mind and body in
+the service of the Duke.
+
+For about half an hour more their conversation was protracted in the
+same strain, and then Wilton took his leave, telling the prisoner
+that he feared he should not be able to visit him on the following
+day. The Duke pressed him much to do so; but when he heard that every
+spare moment of Wilton's time was to be devoted to his service, he
+readily agreed, for that object, to lose the consolation of seeing
+him.
+
+According to his promise, Wilton sped as fast as possible to Beaufort
+House; and though the brief conversation which ensued between him and
+Laura was mingled with much that was sad, yet the very fact of being
+together--of pouring out every thought of the heart to each other--of
+consulting with each other upon the welfare of one who was now an
+object of the deepest interest to both--was in itself a happiness, to
+Wilton powerful and intense; to Laura, sweet, soothing, and
+supporting. During the short time that Wilton stayed, the
+conversation turned entirely upon the Duke. At that moment, and with
+but little cheering hope to give, Wilton could not mingle the subject
+of his own feelings with the sadder ones which brought him thither.
+Love, indeed, pervaded every word he spoke; love, indeed, gave its
+colouring to all his feelings and to all his thoughts; but that very
+love was of a kind which prevented him from making it the subject of
+discourse at such an hour as that. Nor was his visit long, for it was
+now dark; and after one whole day, which he knew had been spent in
+anxiety, care, and fatigue, and after a night which he likewise knew
+had gone by in sorrow and anguish, he felt that Laura would require
+repose, and hoped, though but faintly, that she would obtain it.
+
+He left her, then, in less than an hour, and took his way homeward,
+meditating over what might be done for the Duke, but seeing no hope,
+no chance, but in the exertions of the Earl of Byerdale, or the
+merciful interposition of the Duke of Shrewsbury. He was not without
+hope that the Earl would exert himself; though when he asked his own
+mind the question, "Upon what motives, and to what effect, will the
+Earl exert himself?" he was obliged to pause in doubt--ay, and in
+suspicion. He could not divest his own heart of a conviction that the
+Earl was acting insincerely; that there was some object in view which
+it was impossible for him to divine; some purpose more than mere
+kindness to a relation whom he had never known or acknowledged for so
+many years of their mutual life.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XL.
+
+It was the ninth hour of the evening on the following day when a
+carriage stopped at the gates of Newgate, and a lady got out and
+entered the prison. It was by this time dark, for the year was
+already beginning to show a slight diminution in the length of the
+days; and there were few people just at that moment in the streets to
+remark that she left a male companion behind her in the vehicle, who,
+with his arms crossed upon his chest, and his eyes bent thoughtfully
+upon the other side of the carriage, remained buried in deep and
+seemingly gloomy meditation.
+
+After the lapse of about ten minutes the lady returned, and said,
+"You may come; but the governor says your visit must not be long, and
+on no account must be mentioned." [Footnote:  It is an undoubted
+historical fact, that more persons visited and conversed long with
+Fenwick in prison than the court was at all aware of.]
+
+Wilton instantly stepped out of the carriage as Lady Mary Fenwick
+spoke, and followed her into the prison. A turnkey was in waiting
+with a light, and led them round the outer court and through one or
+two dark and narrow passages to the cell in which Sir John Fenwick
+was confined. There was another turnkey waiting without; and Wilton,
+being admitted, found the wretched man whose crimes had brought him
+thither, and whose cowardly treachery was even then preparing to make
+his end disgraceful, sitting pale, haggard, and worn, with his elbow
+resting on the small table in the middle of the cell, and his anxious
+eye fixed upon that door from which he was never more to go forth but
+to trial, to shame, and to death.
+
+Lady Mary Fenwick, his unfortunate wife, whose eager and strenuous
+exertions in her husband's behalf were sufficient to atone in some
+degree for the error of countenancing those calumnies by which he
+hoped to escape his well-deserved fate, accompanied or rather
+followed Wilton into the cell; and as she did so, remarking the
+haggard glance with which Sir John regarded the visitor, she held up
+her finger with a meaning look, as if to entreat him to assume more
+calmness, at least in his demeanour.
+
+Sir John Fenwick made an effort to do so; and, with one of those
+painful smiles wherewith wretchedness often attempts to cover its own
+misery, he said, "Good evening, Mr. Brown.  This is a poor place for
+me to receive you in. I could have done better, if you had honoured
+me by a visit in Northumberland."
+
+"I grieve much, Sir John, to see you in it," replied Wilton, "and
+trust that you may be enabled to free yourself speedily."
+
+A look of anguish came over Sir John Fenwick's countenance; but
+Wilton went on, saying, "When last we met, Sir John, it was not,
+perhaps, on the best of terms, and I certainly thought that you
+treated me ill; but let all that be forgotten in the present
+circumstances."
+
+"Do you mean," asked Sir John Fenwick, with a cynical look, "that we
+are both to forget it, or that I am to forget the whole business, and
+you to recollect it at my trial for the benefit of my accusers?"
+
+"I meant for us both, of course, to forget it," replied Wilton; "or,
+rather, I should say, I meant merely that we should forget all
+feelings of enmity; for to see you here deprives me of all such
+sensations towards you."
+
+"Ay, sir," said Sir John Fenwick, eagerly. "But let us keep to the
+other point, if you please. Do you intend to forget our former
+meeting, or to give evidence in regard to it?"
+
+Wilton paused, and thought for a moment; and then a sudden idea
+struck him that that very interview to which Fenwick alluded might,
+perhaps, prove the means of making him modify his charge against the
+Duke.
+
+"I cannot, of course," he said, "promise you, Sir John Fenwick, not
+to give evidence against you, if I am called upon, for you know that
+I can be compelled to do so; but I do not see that my evidence could
+do you the slightest harm in regard to your trial for treason, as I
+heard you utter no treasonable sentiments, and saw you perform no
+treasonable act."
+
+"True, true!" cried Sir John Fenwick, gladly. "True, you can have
+nothing to say."
+
+"So shall I tell any one who asks me," said Wilton. "I can give no
+pertinent evidence whatsoever, and therefore can easily keep out of
+court--unless, indeed," he added, with particular emphasis, "the
+charges which you have brought against the Duke of Gaveston should
+compel me to come forward as one of his witnesses, especially as his
+trial is likely to take place before your own."
+
+"But how can that affect me?" demanded Sir John Fenwick, looking
+sharply in his face. "How can the Duke's trial have any effect upon
+mine?"
+
+"Merely by bringing forward my evidence," replied Wilton.
+
+"But how, why, wherefore?" said Sir John Fenwick, eagerly. "You have
+yourself admitted that you saw nothing, heard nothing at all
+treasonable--you cannot dally with a man whose life is in jeopardy.
+What evidence can you give with regard to the Duke that can at all
+affect me?"
+
+"Only in this way," answered Wilton. "The Duke must be tried upon
+your accusation. He will call me to prove that you and he were at
+enmity together, and that therefore your charge is likely to be a
+calumny. He will also call me to prove that it was both my opinion
+and his, expressed to each other at the very time, that you carried
+off his daughter for the purpose of forcing him into a plot against
+the state, or at all events to prevent his revealing what he knew of
+your proceedings, from the fear of some injury happening to his
+child. I shall then have to prove that I found her absolutely in your
+power: that you refused to give her up at my request; that you were
+at that time in company with and acting in concert with various
+persons, five or six of whom have since been executed; that from
+amongst you a shot was fired at me, showing that the Duke's
+apprehensions regarding his daughter were well founded; and I shall
+also have to declare, that before the Duke could have any assurance
+of his daughter's safety, the conspiracy was itself discovered, so
+that he had no time or opportunity to reveal the plot, unless at a
+period when his so doing might have endangered, perhaps, the life of
+Lady Laura. All this, my good sir, I shall have to prove, if the
+Duke's trial is forced on. To sum the matter up, it must be shown
+upon that trial that you and the Duke were at bitter enmity, and that
+therefore your charge is likely to be malicious; that you carried off
+his daughter as a sort of hostage; and that he was under reasonable
+apprehensions on her account, in case he should tell what he knew of
+the conspiracy; that I found you associating intimately with all the
+condemned traitors the very day before the arrest of some of them,
+and that the Duke did not recover his daughter by my means, till the
+plot itself was discovered. Now you will judge, Sir John, how this
+may affect your own trial. I warn you of the matter, because I have a
+promise, a positive promise, that I shall not be brought forward to
+give evidence in this business without my own consent; but once
+having proffered my testimony in favour of the Duke, I cannot refuse
+it, should any link in the chain of evidence be wanting against you
+which I can supply."
+
+Sir John Fenwick had listened to every word that Wilton said in
+bitter silence; and when he had done, he gnashed his teeth one
+against the other, saying, with a look of hatred, "You should have
+been a lawyer, young sir, you should have been a lawyer. You have
+missed your vocation."
+
+"Lawyers, Sir John Fenwick," replied Wilton, "are often, even against
+their will, obliged to support falsehood; but I merely tell you the
+truth. You have brought a charge against the Duke, as far as I can
+understand, of which he is virtually innocent, to all intents and
+purposes--"
+
+"Who told you I had brought a charge against him at all?" demanded
+Sir John Fenwick. "Who told you what that charge was? It must be all
+guess-work, upon your part.  Depend upon it, if I have brought a
+charge at all, it is one that I can prove."
+
+"I may have been mistaken," replied Wilton, "and I hope I am, Sir
+John. I hope that you have brought no charge, and that if you have,
+it is not of the nature that I supposed; for as I have shown you, it
+would be most unwise and imprudent of you so to do. You would not
+injure the Duke in any other way than by a long imprisonment, and you
+would, in all probability, insure your own condemnation, while you
+were uselessly attempting to do evil to another. At all events, Sir
+John, you must not take it ill of me that I point this out to you,
+and if you will take the warning I have given, it may be of great
+benefit to you."
+
+"How should I take it?" demanded Sir John Fenwick, still frowning
+upon him from under his bent brows. "What I have said I have said,
+and I shall not go back from it.  There may be other witnesses, too,
+against the Duke, that you know not of. What think you of Smith? What
+think you of Cook?"
+
+"I know not, really," replied Wilton. "In fact, I know nothing upon
+the subject, except that the Duke is virtually innocent of the crime
+with which you would charge him.  You made him listen to designs
+which he abhorred; and because he did not betray you, you charge him
+with participating in them. As for the witnesses Cook and Smith, I
+have heard from the Earl of Byerdale that neither the one nor the
+other have anything to say against the Duke."
+
+Sir John Fenwick had listened with a bitter smile to what Wilton
+said; but he replied almost fiercely, "You know nothing of what you
+are talking. Are you blind enough or foolish enough to fancy that the
+Earl of Byerdale is a friend of the Duke?"
+
+"I really do not know," replied Wilton, calmly. "I suppose he is
+neither very much his friend nor his enemy."
+
+"And there, too, you are mistaken," answered Sir John Fenwick: "for
+an envoy, you know marvellous little of the sender's situation."
+
+"I only know," replied Wilton, "thus much, which you yourself cannot
+deny, that to accuse the Duke, so as to bring him to trial for this
+unfortunate affair, will be to produce your certain condemnation; to
+cut you off from all chance of hope."
+
+Lady Mary Fenwick had hitherto stood silent a step or two behind
+Wilton; but now advancing a little, she said, "Indeed, Sir John, you
+had better think of it. It seems to me that what Mr. Brown says is
+reasonable, and that it would be much better so to state or modify
+your charge against the Duke as not to hazard his life."
+
+"Nonsense, Lady Mary!" exclaimed Fenwick; "neither you nor he know
+anything of what my charges are, or in what my hopes consist. My
+charge against the Duke shall stand as I have given it; and you may
+tell him, that it is not on my evidence alone he will be condemned;
+so that yours, young man, will not tend much to save him."
+
+Wilton saw that it would be useless to urge the matter any farther at
+that moment, though, notwithstanding the perverse determination shown
+by the prisoner, he was not without hope that their conversation
+might ultimately produce some effect upon his mind.
+
+"Well, Sir John," he said, "I will keep you no longer from
+conversation with your lady. I grieve for you on every account. I
+grieve to see you here, I grieve for the situation in which you have
+placed yourself, and I still more grieve to see you struggling to
+deliver yourself from that situation by means which MAY PRODUCE the
+destruction of others, and will certainly PRODUCE your own."
+
+"I neither want your grief, nor care for it, sir," replied the
+prisoner. "Good night, good night."
+
+Wilton then turned and left him; but Lady Mary Fenwick accompanied
+the young gentleman into the passage, saying in a low voice, "The
+Earl of Byerdale has seen him twice.  You will do well to be upon
+your guard there."
+
+"Thank you, lady, thank you," replied Wilton. "I am upon my guard,
+and am most grateful for what you have done."
+
+Thus saying, he left her: and as it was too late, at that hour, to
+visit the prisoner in the Tower, he turned towards his own home; but
+ere he reached it, he bethought him of seeking some farther
+information from the public reports of the day, which were only to be
+met with in their highest perfection in the several different resorts
+of wits and politicians which have become familiar to our minds in
+the writings of Steele and Addison. Will's and the Chocolate-house,
+and other places of the same kind, supplied in a very great degree
+the places of the Times, the Herald, the Globe, or the Courier; and
+though the Postman and several other papers gave a scanty share of
+information, yet the inner room of the St. James's Coffee-house might
+be considered as representing the leading article to the newspaper of
+the day.
+
+To one or two of these houses, then, Wilton repaired, and found the
+whole town still busy with the arrest of Sir John Fenwick, and with
+the names of persons he was said to have accused. If the rumours were
+to be believed, he had brought charges of one kind or another against
+half the high nobility and statesmen of the land. The King's servants
+and most familiar friends, many who were still actually employed by
+him, and many who had aided to seat him on the throne, were all said
+to be accused of treasonable communications with the court of St.
+Germain; and Wilton had the satisfaction of thinking, that if there
+were, indeed, any safety in numbers, the Duke had that security at
+least.
+
+When he had satisfied himself on this point, he returned to his own
+house, to meditate upon the best defence which could be set up for
+the noble prisoner. None, however, suggested itself better than that
+which he had sketched out in his conversation with Sir John Fenwick;
+and without loss of time he put it down in writing, in order to take
+the Duke's opinion upon it. There was one flaw, indeed, in the chain
+which he could not but see, and which he feared might be used by an
+enemy to the Duke's disadvantage. He could prove, that after Lady
+Laura had been carried away the Duke had no opportunity whatever of
+disclosing the plot until it was already discovered; but
+unfortunately, between the time of the meeting in Leadenhall-street
+and the period at which the conspirators so daringly bore off the
+lady from the terrace there had been a lapse of some time, during
+which her father might have made any communication to the government
+that he liked. There was a hope, however, that this might pass
+unremarked; and at all events what he proposed was the only defence
+that could be set up.
+
+On the following morning, when he saw the Earl of Byerdale, he
+inquired if he had seen the Duke; but found that such was not the
+case, business being the excuse for having failed in his promise.
+Wilton, however, proceeded to the Tower as soon as he was free, and
+found Laura now sharing the apartments assigned to her father, and
+striving to support and comfort him, but apparently in vain. The
+Duke's mind was still in a terrible state of depression; and the want
+of all certain intelligence, the failure of the Earl of Byerdale's
+promise, and the absence of Wilton, had caused his anxiety apparently
+to increase rather than to diminish, since the first day of his
+imprisonment.
+
+We must not pause upon the various interviews which succeeded, and
+were painful enough. Wilton had little to tell that could give the
+Duke any comfort. The determined adherence of Sir John Fenwick to his
+charge, the sort of indifference which the Earl of Byerdale displayed
+in regard to the prisoner's situation, neglecting to see him, though
+repeatedly promising to do so, all served to depress his spirits day
+by day, and to render him altogether insensible to the voice of
+comfort. Towards Wilton himself the Earl resumed a portion of his
+reserve and gravity; and though he still called him, "My dear
+Wilton," and "My dear boy," when he addressed him, he spoke to him
+very little upon any subject, except mere matters of business, and
+checked every approach to the topic on which Wilton would most
+willingly have entered.
+
+On the seventh or eighth day of the Duke's imprisonment, however,
+Lord Sherbrooke again appeared in town; but the Earl employed Wilton
+constantly, during the whole of that day; so much so, indeed, that
+his secretary could not help believing that there was effort apparent
+in it, in order to prevent his holding any private communication with
+his friend.  At length, however, he suffered him to return home, but
+not till nearly ten at night, by which time Lord Sherbrooke had left
+the house, to go to some great entertainment.
+
+Scarcely had Wilton passed the door, when he found some one take hold
+of his arm, and to his surprise found the young nobleman by his side.
+
+"I have been watching for you eagerly, Wilton," he said, "for it
+seems to me, that the game is going against you, and I see the faces
+of the cards."
+
+"I am very anxious indeed about the Duke, if such be your meaning,
+Sherbrooke," replied Wilton.
+
+"And I am so also," answered Lord Sherbrooke. "What my father
+intends, I do not well see; but I should think, that to make the poor
+man lose his head on Tower-hill would be somewhat too severe a
+punishment, too bitter a revenge, for Lady Laura refusing to wed so
+worshipful a person as I am."
+
+"I hope and trust," replied Wilton, "that there is no chance of such
+a consummation."
+
+"On my word, I do not know," replied Lord Sherbrooke.  "My father,
+when he is hungry for anything, has a great appetite; I don't think
+the Duke's head would much more than dine him. However, take my
+advice; depend not upon him in the least; go to the Duke of
+Shrewsbury at once, if he be in town, and if not, to Vernon. Try to
+interest them in favour of the Duke; see what you can allege in his
+favour.  The King has just returned from Holland, you know, and any
+application made to him now may perhaps be received graciously. Have
+you anything that you can state in the Duke's favour?"
+
+Wilton recapitulated all that could be said to palliate the error
+which Laura's father had committed, and Lord Sherbrooke answered
+eagerly, "That is enough, surely that is enough. At least," he added,
+"it ought to be enough, and would be enough, if there were no
+under-influence going on.  At all events, Wilton, I would go
+decidedly to his grace of Shrewsbury, or to Vernon, for I believe the
+Duke is absent.  Represent all these facts, and induce him to lay
+them before the King. This is the best and most straightforward
+course, and you will speedily learn more upon the subject. But there
+is another thing which I have to tell you--though I put no great
+reliance upon the result being as effectual as we could wish--I was
+speaking a few nights ago with our friend the Colonel, upon the
+situation of the Duke, and upon your anxiety regarding him, all of
+which I have heard from my good rascally valet, who--considering that
+he is one of the greatest scoundrels that ever was unhung--is a very
+honest fellow in his way, and finds out everything for me, Heaven
+knows how, and lets me know it truly. The Colonel seemed to laugh at
+the idea of anything being done to the Duke, saying, 'No, no; he is
+safe enough.' But after a while he added, 'If Wilton have any
+difficulty about the business, he had better speak to me:' and then
+he fell into one of his long sullen fits of thought; after which he
+said, 'Tell him to ride out hitherward on Saturday night next, just
+as it is turning dark--I should like to speak with him about it.'"
+
+"I will not fail," replied Wilton; "for there is something about that
+man that interests, nay, attaches me, in spite of all I know and all
+I guess concerning his desperate habits. It is evident that he has
+had a high education, and possesses a noble heart; in fact, that he
+was fitted for better things than the criminal and disgraceful course
+he has pursued."
+
+"Hush, hush!" cried Lord Sherbrooke, laughing; "speak more
+respectfully of the worthy Colonel, I beg. You are not aware that he
+is a near relation of mine."
+
+Wilton started, and turned round as if he would have gazed in his
+companion's face, but the darkness of the night prevented him from
+well seeing what was passing there. As he recalled, however, his
+first interview with Green, his look, his manner, and the jesting
+tone in which he sometimes spoke, he could not but acknowledge that
+there was something in the whole resembling Lord Sherbrooke not a
+little, although Green was a much taller and more powerful man.
+
+"This is strange enough, Sherbrooke," he replied, "if you are not
+joking; and, indeed, I think you are not, for there is a certain
+likeness between you and him, though more in the manner than in the
+person."
+
+"It is quite true," replied Lord Sherbrooke; "he is a near relation.
+But, however, in regard to the Duke, I see not how he can help you,
+though he certainly does very wonderful things sometimes, which
+nobody expects or can account for.  I would hear all he has to say,
+then; but at the same time, Wilton, I would not neglect the other
+business with Vernon, for, you see, the Colonel names Saturday. This
+is Monday, and before that time the Duke's head may be upon a pole,
+for aught we know. They make short work with trials and executions in
+these days."
+
+"I will not fail," answered Wilton, "I will not fail. In such a case
+as this it is scarcely possible to do too much, and very possible to
+do too little. I trust your father will not detain me the whole day
+to-morrow."
+
+"Oh no!" replied Lord Sherbrooke: "I am going to remove the cause,
+Wilton. As soon as ever I arrived last night, I perceived that the
+Earl was delicately working at some grand scheme regarding the Duke,
+and I very soon perceived, too, that he was determined you and I
+should not have an opportunity of talking the matter over, for fear
+we should spoil proceedings. I was obliged to watch my opportunity
+to-night with great nicety, but to-morrow I go back, that is to say,
+if my sweet Caroline is ready to go with me, for I am the most
+obedient and loving of husbands, as all reformed rakes are, you know,
+Wilton."
+
+"But is the lady in town, and at your father's?" demanded Wilton,
+with surprise.
+
+"She is in town, dearly beloved," replied Lord Sherbrooke, "but
+certainly not at my father's; and now, Wilton, ask me no more upon
+the subject, for, between you and me, I know little or nothing more
+myself. I know not what brings her into London; who she comes to see
+here, or who the note was from that called her so suddenly up to this
+great den of iniquity. It is a very horrible thing, Wilton, a very
+horrible thing, indeed," he continued, in the same jesting tone,
+"that any woman should have secrets from her husband. I have heard
+many matrons say so, and I believe them from my whole heart; but I've
+heard the same matrons say that there should be perfect reciprocity,
+which, perhaps, might mean that the wife and the husband were to have
+no secrets from each other, which, I am afraid, in my case, would
+never do, so I am fain to let her have this secret of her own,
+especially as she promises to tell me what it is in a few days.
+Reciprocity is a fine thing, Wilton; but it is wonderful what a
+number of different sorts of reciprocity there are in this world.
+Look there. Do you know there is something that puzzles me about that
+house."
+
+"Why, that is Lord Sunbury's," replied Wilton; "but there are lights
+up in the drawing-room apparently."
+
+"Ay, that's one part of the story that puzzles me," said Lord
+Sherbrooke. "I think the old housekeeper must be giving a drum. My
+valet tells me that on Saturday morning last there was a hackney
+coach stopped at that house, and two men went into it: one seemed a
+gentleman wrapped in a long cloak, the other looked like a valet, and
+stayed to get a number of packages out of the coach. Now I cannot
+suspect that same old housekeeper, who, as far as I recollect, is
+much like one of the daughters of Erebus and Nox, of carrying on an
+amorous correspondence with any gentleman; and it is somewhat strange
+that she should have lent the use of her master's house, either for
+love or money. I should not wonder if the Earl himself had come to
+London before his baggage."
+
+"I should think not," replied Wilton; "I should certainly think not.
+I had a letter from him not long ago, dated from Paris, and I think
+he certainly would have written to inform me if he had been coming."
+
+"I am not so sure of that, by any means, Wilton," replied his friend.
+"I can tell you, that two or three things have happened to his good
+lordship lately, which, with all his kindness and benevolence, might
+make him wish to see two or three other people before he saw you.
+There is a report even now busy about town that he is corresponding
+from Paris privately and directly with the King, and that his arrival
+in England will be followed by a change of ministry, if he will
+consent to take office again, which seems to be very doubtful."
+
+These tidings interested Wilton not a little; and perhaps he felt a
+curiosity to ascertain whether Lord Sherbrooke's suspicion was or was
+not correct. His mind, however, was too high and delicate to admit of
+his taking any steps for that purpose, and after some more
+conversation on the same subject, he and his friend parted.
+
+On the following morning Wilton had an opportunity of visiting the
+Duke of Shrewsbury's office, and found Mr.  Vernon disengaged. To him
+he communicated all that he had to say in defence of the Duke, and
+found Vernon mild in his manners and expressions, but naturally
+cautious in either promising anything or in giving any information.
+He heard all that Wilton had to say, however, and assured him that he
+would lay the statement he made before the King on the ensuing
+morning, adding, that if he would call upon him in the course of the
+next day he would tell him the result.  He smiled when Wilton
+requested him to keep his visit and its object secret, and nodded his
+head, merely replying, "I understand."
+
+On the following day Wilton did not fail to visit him again, and
+waited for nearly an hour till he was ready to receive him.
+
+"I am sorry," said Vernon, when he did admit him, "that I cannot give
+you greater satisfaction, Mr. Brown; but the King's reply, upon my
+application, was, that he had already spoken with the Earl of
+Byerdale on the subject. However, it may be some comfort to you to
+know that his grace of Shrewsbury takes an interest in the situation
+of the Duke, and has himself written to the King upon the subject."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLI.
+
+It was about the hour of noon, and the day was dull and oppressive.
+Though the apartments assigned to the Duke were high up, and in
+themselves anything but gloomy, yet no cheering ray of sunshine had
+visited them, and the air, which was extremely warm, seemed loaded
+with vapour.  The spirits of the prisoner were depressed in
+proportion, and since the first hour of his imprisonment he had
+never, perhaps, felt so much as at that moment, all the leaden weight
+of dull captivity, the anguish of uncertainty, and the delay of hope,
+which, ever from the time of the prophet king down to the present
+day, has made the heart sick and the soul weary.  It was in vain that
+his daughter, with the tenderest, the kindest, the most assiduous
+care, strove to raise his expectations or support his resolution; it
+was in vain that she strove to wean his thoughts away from his own
+painful situation by music, or by reading, or by conversation. Grief,
+like the dull adder, stops its ear that it may not hear the song of
+the charmer; and while she sang to him or played to him upon the
+lute, at that time an instrument still extremely common in England,
+or read to him from the books which she thought best calculated to
+attract his attention, she could see by the vacant eye that sometimes
+filled with tears, and the lips that from time to time murmured a
+word or two of impatience and complaint, that his thoughts were all
+still bent either upon the sad subject of his captivity, or upon the
+apprehension of what the future might bring.
+
+At the hour of noon, then, the servant whom the Duke had chosen to
+wait upon him, and who was freely admitted to the prison, as well as
+a maid to attend upon the Lady Laura, entered the apartment in which
+the Duke sat, and announced that the Earl of Byerdale was in the
+antechamber. The Duke started up with an expression of joy, ordering
+him to be admitted instantly; and the Earl entered, assuming even an
+unusual parade of dignity in his step, and contriving to make his
+countenance look more than commonly severe and sneering, even though
+there was a marked smile upon it, as if he would imply that no slight
+pleasure attended his visit to the Duke.
+
+"My dear lord," he said, "I really have to apologize for not having
+waited upon you before, but it has been quite impossible. Since the
+King's return I have been called upon daily to attend his majesty,
+besides having all the usual routine of my office to go through;
+otherwise I can assure your grace that I should have been with you
+long ago, as both duty and inclination would have prompted me to wait
+upon you. I am happy to see you so comfortably lodged here. I was
+afraid that, considering the circumstances, they might have judged it
+right to debar you of some indulgences; but my lord the governor is a
+good-hearted, kindly man.--Lady Laura, how are you? I hope you are
+quite well. I grieve, indeed, to see you and your father in this
+place; but alas! I had no power to prevent it, and indeed, I fear, I
+have very little power to serve you now."
+
+"From your lordship's words," said the Duke, after having habitually
+performed the civilities of the apartment--"from your lordship's
+words, I fear that you take a bad view of the case, and do not
+anticipate my speedy deliverance."
+
+"Oh, you know," answered the Earl, "that the trial must take place
+before we can at all judge what the King's mercy may incline him to
+do; but I fear, my lord, I fear that a strong prejudice prevails
+against your grace. The King, as well may be, is terribly indignant
+at all persons concerned with this plot."
+
+"He may well be, indeed," said the Duke; "for nothing ever made me
+more indignant than when I first heard of the purposed assassination
+and invasion myself. With that I had nothing on earth to do. I should
+have hoped that his majesty's indignation on other points would have
+subsided by this time, and that clemency would have resumed her sway
+towards those who may have acted imprudently but not criminally."
+
+"Not yet, not yet, I fear, my lord," replied the Earl; "six months,
+or a year longer, indeed, would have made all the difference. If your
+grace had but taken the advice and warning given you by my wise and
+virtuous young friend, Wilton, and made your escape at once to
+Flanders, or any neutral ground. I am sure I gave you opportunity
+enough."
+
+"But, my lord," replied the Duke, "Wilton never gave me any warning
+till the very morning that I was arrested. It is true, indeed," he
+added, recollecting the circumstances, "poor Wilton and I
+unfortunately had a little quarrel on the preceding night, and he
+left me very much offended, I believe, and hurt, as I dare say he
+told you, my lord."
+
+"Oh, he told me nothing, your grace," replied Lord Byerdale.
+"Wilton, knowing my feeling on the subject, very wisely acted as he
+knew I should like, or, at least, INTENDED TO ACT as he knew I should
+like, without saying anything to me upon the subject. I might very
+well remain somewhat wilfully ignorant of what was going on, but I
+must not openly connive, you know.--Then it was not really," he
+continued, "that your grace refused to go?"
+
+"Oh, not in the least, not in the least!" replied the Duke. "I
+received his note early on the next morning, after he left me, and
+was consulting with my dear child here as to the necessary
+arrangements for going, when the Messengers arrived."
+
+"Most unfortunate, indeed," said the Earl. "I had concluded, judging
+from your letter to me on the preceding day, that your grace that
+afternoon, notwithstanding all I had said regarding the young
+gentleman's family, refused him the honour to which he aspired, and
+would not follow the advice he gave."
+
+Lady Laura rose, and moved towards one of the windows; and her
+father, with his colour a little heightened, and his manner somewhat
+agitated, replied, but in a low tone, "I did indeed refuse him
+Laura's hand, and, I am afraid, somewhat harshly and angrily; but I
+never refused to take his advice or warning."
+
+"Ay, but the two subjects are so mingled up together," said the Earl,
+"that the one may be considered to imply the other."
+
+"I see not how, my lord, I see not how they are so mingled," said the
+Duke.
+
+"Ay, it may be difficult to explain," answered the Earl, "and I
+cannot do it myself; but so it is. It might not indeed be too late
+now, if it were not for this unfortunate prejudice of yourself or
+Lady Laura against my young friend, who, I must say, has served you
+both well."
+
+"How not too late, my lord?" demanded the Duke, eagerly: "all
+prejudices may be removed, you know; and if there were any prejudice,
+it was mine."
+
+"Still it would be an obstacle," answered the Earl; "and the whole
+matter would of course be rendered much more difficult now. There
+might be still more prejudices to be overcome at present.--May I
+ask," he added, abruptly, "if you have still got the note which
+Wilton sent you?"
+
+"No," answered the Duke, "no. I destroyed it immediately, out of
+regard for his safety."
+
+"It was a wise precaution," answered the Earl, "but unnecessary in
+his case. He has friends who will manage to justify whatever he does
+of that kind. Humble as he is in all his deportment, he can do many
+things that I could not venture to do. I have heard the King himself
+say, in presence of one half of his council, that he is under great
+personal obligations to Wilton Brown."
+
+"Indeed!" exclaimed the Duke; "but may I request your lordship to
+inform me what it was you meant just now? You said it might not be
+yet too late."
+
+"I fear, my lord, I must not talk to your grace on the subject," said
+the Earl; "there might be conditions you would not comply with. You
+might not like even the idea of flying from prison at all."
+
+"I do not see why, my lord," exclaimed the Duke, "I really do not see
+why. But pray, may I ask what are the conditions?"
+
+"Nay, I make neither any suggestions nor conditions," replied the
+Earl, who saw that the Duke was fully worked up to the pitch he
+wished, "I only spoke of such a thing as escape being very possible,
+if Wilton chose to arrange it; and then of course the conditions he
+might require for his services struck my mind."
+
+"Why as yet, my lord," answered the Duke, "our noble young friend has
+not even named any condition as the price of his services."
+
+"Perhaps, your grace," replied the Earl, "he may have become wiser by
+experience. If I have understood you both right, his hopes were
+disappointed, and hopes which he imagined he entertained with great
+reason."
+
+"No, my lord, no!" cried the Duke. "He had no reason for entertaining
+such hopes. I cannot admit for a moment that I gave him any cause for
+such expectations."
+
+"Nay, then, my lord duke," replied the Earl, with an offended look,
+"if such be your view of a case which everybody in London sees
+differently, the more reason why Wilton should make sure of what
+grounds he stands upon before he acts further in this business.
+However, I have nothing to do with the affair farther than as his
+sincere friend, and as having the honour of being his distant
+relation, which of course makes me resolute in saying that I will not
+see his feelings sported with and his happiness destroyed. Therefore,
+your grace, as we shan't agree, I see, upon these matters, I will
+humbly take my leave of you." And he rose, as if to depart.
+
+"Nay, nay, my lord--you are too hasty," replied the Duke. "I beseech
+you, do not leave me in this way. I may in former instances have
+given Wilton hopes without intending it; but the matter is very much
+altered now, when he has done so much more for me in every way. I do
+not scruple at all to say that those objections are removed."
+
+"Perhaps, my lord," said the Earl, sitting down again, and speaking
+in a low voice, "we had better discuss the matter in private. Could I
+not speak to you apart for a moment or two? Suppose we go into the
+anteroom."
+
+"Nay, nay," said the Duke, "Laura will leave us.--Go to your room, my
+love," he added, raising his voice. "I would fain have a few minutes
+conversation with my noble friend alone."
+
+"Very wrong of you, Lord Byerdale," she said, with a smile, as she
+walked towards the door, "to turn me out of the room in this way."
+
+Lord Byerdale smiled, and bowed, and apologized, all with an air of
+courtier-like mockery. The moment she was gone, however, he turned to
+the Duke, saying, "Now, my lord duke, we are alone, and I will beg
+your grace to give me your honour that no part of our present
+conversation transpires in any circumstances. I can then hold much
+more free communication with you. I can lay before you what is
+possible, and what is probable, and you can choose whatever path you
+like."
+
+"Most solemnly I pledge my honour," replied the Duke, "and I can
+assure your lordship that I fully appreciate Mr.  Brown's merits and
+his services to me. He has not only talents and genius, but a
+princely person and most distinguished manners, and I could not have
+the slightest objection, as soon as his birth is clearly ascertained
+and acknowledged--"
+
+"My lord duke," replied the Earl, interrupting him, "I fear your
+lordship is somewhat deceiving yourself as to your own situation and
+his. Wilton, I tell you, can easily find the means of effecting your
+escape from this prison, and can insure your safe arrival in any
+continental port you may think fit to name. I do not mean to say that
+I must not shut my eyes; but for his sake and for yours I am very
+willing to do so, if I see his happiness made sure thereby."
+
+The Duke's eyes sparkled with joy and hope, and the Earl went on.
+
+"Your situation, my lord, at the present moment, you see, is a very
+unfortunate one, or such a step would in no degree be advisable. But
+at this period, when the passions of the people and the indignation
+of the King are both excited to the highest pitch; when there is, as
+I may call it, an appetite for blood afloat; when the three
+witnesses, Sir John Fenwick, Smith, and Cook, to say nothing of the
+corroborative evidence of Goodman, establish beyond doubt that you
+were accessorily, though perhaps not actively, guilty of high
+treason--at this period, I say, there can be little doubt that if you
+were brought to trial--that is, in the course of next week, as I have
+heard it rumoured--the result would be fatal, such, in short, as we
+should all deplore."
+
+The Duke listened, with a face as white as a sheet, but only replied,
+in a tremulous tone, "But the escape, my lord!  the escape!"
+
+"Is quite possible and quite sure," replied the Earl. "I must shut my
+eyes, as I have said, and Wilton must act energetically; but I cannot
+either shut my eyes or suffer him to do so, except upon the following
+precise condition, which is indeed absolutely necessary to success.
+It is, that the Lady Laura, your daughter, be his wife before you set
+your foot from without these walls."
+
+"But, good heavens, my lord!" exclaimed the Duke--"how is that
+possible? I believe that Laura would do anything to save her father's
+life; but she is not prepared for such a thing. Then the marriage
+must be celebrated with unbecoming haste. No, my lord, oh no! This is
+quite impossible. I am very willing to promise that I will give my
+consent to their marriage afterwards; but for their marriage to take
+place before we go is quite impossible--especially while I am a
+prisoner in the Tower of London--quite impossible!"
+
+"I am sorry your grace thinks so," replied the Earl, drily; "for
+under those circumstances I fear that your escape from the Tower will
+be found impossible also."
+
+A momentary spirit of resistance was raised in the Duke's breast by
+feelings of indignation, and he tried for an instant to persuade
+himself that his case might not be so desperate as the Earl depicted
+it; that in some points of view it might be better to remain and
+stand his trial, and that the King's mercy would very likely be
+obtained even if he were condemned. But that spirit died away in a
+moment, and the more rapidly, because the Earl of Byerdale employed
+not the slightest argument to induce him to follow the plan proposed.
+
+"My lord, this is a very painful case," he said, "a very painful
+case, indeed."
+
+"It is, Duke," replied the Earl, "it is a painful case; a choice of
+difficulties, which none can decide but yourself.  Pray do not let
+anything that I can say affect you. I thought it right, as an old
+friend, to lay before you a means of saving yourself; and no one can
+judge whether that means be too painful to you to be adopted, as
+nobody can tell at what rate you value life. But you will remember,
+also, that forfeiture accompanies the sentence of death in matters of
+high treason, and that Lady Laura will therefore be left in a painful
+situation."
+
+"Nay, my lord, nay," said the Duke, "if it must come to that, of
+course I must consent to any terms, rather than sacrifice everything.
+But I did not think Wilton would have proposed such conditions to
+me."
+
+"Nor does he, my lord," replied the Earl: "he is totally ignorant of
+the whole matter. He has never, even, that I know of, contemplated
+your escape as possible. One word from me, however, whispered in his
+ear, will open his eyes in a minute. But, my lord, it must be upon
+the condition that I mention. Wilton's father-in-law may go forth
+from this prison before twelve to-morrow night, but no other prisoner
+within it shall, or indeed can."
+
+"Well, my lord, well," replied the Duke, somewhat impatiently, "I
+will throw no obstacle in the way. Laura and Wilton must settle it
+between them. But I do not see how the matter can be managed here in
+a prison."
+
+"Oh, that is easily arranged," replied the Earl--"nothing can be more
+easy. There is a chaplain to the Tower, you know. The place has its
+own privileges likewise, and all the rest shall be done by me. Am I
+to understand your grace, that you consider yourself pledged upon
+this subject?"
+
+The Duke thought for a moment, and the images of the trial by his
+peers, the block and the axe, came up before his sight, making the
+private marriage of his daughter with Wilton, and the escape to
+France or Flanders, appear bright in the comparison.
+
+"Well, my lord, well," he said, "I not only pledge myself, but pledge
+myself willingly. I always liked Wilton, I always esteemed him
+highly; and I suppose he would have had Laura at last, if he did not
+have her now."
+
+"I congratulate you on your approaching freedom, Duke," said the
+Earl, "and as to the rest, I have told you perfectly true, in saying
+that it is not Wilton who makes any conditions with you. He knows
+nothing of the matter, and is as eager to set you at liberty without
+any terms at all, as you could be yourself to obtain it. You had
+better, therefore, let me speak with him on the subject altogether.
+Should he come here before he sees me, only tell him that the
+marriage is to take place to-morrow evening, that it is all settled
+between you and me, and that as to the means of setting you free, he
+must talk with me upon the subject. You must then furnish him with
+your consent to the immediate marriage under your own hand. After
+that is done, he and I will arrange all the rest."
+
+The Duke acquiesced in all that was proposed to him, having once
+given his consent to the only step which was repugnant to him to
+take. Nay more, that point being overcome, and his mind elevated by
+the hope of escape, he even went before Lord Byerdale in suggesting
+arrangements which would facilitate the whole business.
+
+"I will tell Laura after you are gone, my lord," he said, "and her
+consent will be easily obtained, I am sure, both because I know she
+would do anything to save my life, and because I shrewdly
+believe--indeed she has not scrupled to admit--that she loves this
+young man already. I will manage all that with her, and then I will
+leave her and Wilton, and Wilton and your lordship, to make all the
+rest of the arrangements."
+
+"Do so, do so," said the Earl, rising, "and I will not fail, my lord,
+as soon as you are safe, to use every influence in my power for the
+purpose of obtaining your pardon, which will be much more easily
+gained when you are beyond the power of the English law, than while
+you are actually within its gripe."
+
+The Earl was now about to take his departure, and some more
+ceremonious words passed between him and the Duke, in regard to their
+leave-taking. Just as the Earl had reached the door, however, a
+sudden apprehension seemed to seize the prisoner, who exclaimed,
+"Stay, my good lord, stay, one moment more! Of course your lordship
+is upon honour with me, as I am with you? There is no possibility, no
+probability, of my escape being prevented after my daughter's hand is
+given?"
+
+Nothing more mortified the Earl of Byerdale than to find, that,
+notwithstanding all his skill, there was still a something of
+insincerity penetrated through the veil he cast over his conduct, and
+made many persons, even the most easily deceived, doubtful of his
+professions and advances.
+
+"I trust your grace does not suspect me of treachery," he said, in a
+sharp and offended tone.
+
+"Not in the least, not in the least, my lord," replied the Duke; "but
+I understood your lordship to say, that my escape by the means
+proposed would be rendered quite certain, and I wish to ascertain
+whether I had not mistaken you."
+
+"Not in the slightest degree, my lord duke," replied the Earl. "I
+pledge you my honour, that under the proposed arrangements you shall
+be beyond the doors of this prison, and at perfect liberty, before
+the dawn of day on Monday morning. I pledge myself to you in every
+respect, and if it be not so, I will be ready to take your place.
+Does this satisfy you?"
+
+"Quite, quite," answered the Duke. "I could desire nothing more." And
+the Earl, with a formal bow, opened the door and left him.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLII.
+
+As soon as the Earl of Byerdale was gone, the Duke called Laura from
+her room, and told her what had been proposed.  "Laura," he said, as
+he concluded, "you do not answer me: but I took upon me to reply at
+once, that you would be well pleased to lay aside pride and every
+other feeling of the kind, to save your father from this torturing
+suspense--to save perhaps his life itself."
+
+Laura's cheeks had not regained their natural colour since the first
+words respecting such a sudden marriage were spoken to her. That her
+father had consented to her union with Wilton was of course most
+joyful; but the early period fixed for such an important, such an
+overwhelming change in her condition, was startling; and to think
+that Wilton could have made it the condition of his using all his
+exertions in her father's cause would have been painful--terrible, if
+she could have believed it. We must not, indeed, say, that even if it
+had been really so, she would have hesitated to give him her hand,
+not only for her father's sake, but because she loved him, because,
+as we have said before, she already looked upon herself as plighted
+to him beyond all recall.  She would have tried to fancy that he had
+good motives which she did not know; she would have tried, in short,
+to find any palliation for such conduct; but still it would have been
+very painful to her--still it might, in a degree, have shaken her
+confidence in high and upright generosity of feeling, it might have
+made her doubt whether, in all respects, she had found a heart
+perfectly responsive to her own.
+
+"My dear father," she replied, gazing tenderly upon him, and laying
+her two hands on his, with a faint smile, "what is there that I would
+not do for such objects as you mention, were it ten thousand times
+more than marrying the man I love best, even with such terrible
+suddenness.--It is very sudden, indeed, I must say; and I do wonder
+that Wilton required it."
+
+"Why, my dear Laura," replied the Duke, "it was not exactly Wilton
+himself. It was Lord Byerdale took it all on his own shoulders: but
+of course Wilton prompted it; and in such circumstances as these I
+could not hesitate to consent."
+
+Lady Laura looked down while her father spoke; and when her first
+agitation was over, she could not but think, that perhaps,
+considering her father's character, Wilton was right; and that the
+means he had taken, though apparently ungenerous, were the only ones
+to secure her own happiness and his, and her father's safety also.
+The next instant, however, as she recollected a thousand different
+traits in her lover's conduct, and combined those recollections with
+what her father said concerning Lord Byerdale, she became convinced
+that Wilton had not made such conditions, and that rather than have
+made them he would have risked everything, even if the Duke were
+certain to deny him her hand the moment after his liberation.
+
+"I do not think, my dear father," she replied, as this conviction
+came strong upon her--"I do not think that Wilton did prompt the Earl
+of Byerdale. I do not think he would make such conditions, on any
+account."
+
+"Well, it does not matter, my dear Laura," replied her father, whose
+mind was totally taken up with his own escape.  "It comes to the same
+thing. The Earl has made them, if Wilton has not, and I have pledged
+my word for your consent.  But hark, Laura, I hear Wilton's step in
+the outer room. I will leave you two together to make all your
+arrangements, and to enter into every explanation," and he turned
+hurriedly towards the door which led to his bedroom.
+
+Ere he reached it, however, he paused for a moment, with a sudden
+fear coming over him that Laura might by some means put an end to all
+the plans on which he founded his hopes of liberty.
+
+"Laura," he said, "Laura--for heaven's sake show no repugnance, my
+dear child. Remember, your father's safety depends upon it." And
+turning away, he entered his bedroom just as Wilton opened the
+opposite door.
+
+Laura gazed upon her lover, as he came in; and asked herself, while
+she marked that noble and open countenance, "Is it possible he could
+make any unworthy condition?"
+
+Wilton's face was grave, and even sad, for he had again applied to
+Vernon, and received a still less satisfactory reply than before; but
+he was glad to find Laura alone, for this was the first time that he
+had obtained any opportunity of seeing her in private, since she had
+been permitted to join her father in the Tower. His greeting, then,
+was as tender and as affectionate as the circumstances in which they
+stood towards each other might warrant; but he did not forget, even
+then, that subject which he knew was of the deepest interest to her
+--her father's situation.
+
+"Oh, dearest Laura," he said, "I have longed to speak with you for a
+few minutes alone, and yet, now that I have the opportunity, I have
+nothing but sad subjects to entertain you with."
+
+His words confirmed Laura's confidence in his generosity.  She saw
+clearly that he knew not what had been proposed by the Earl; the very
+conviction gave her joy, and she replied, looking up playfully and
+affectionately in his face,--
+
+"I thought, Wilton, that you had come to measure my finger for the
+ring," and she held out her small fair hand towards him.
+
+"Oh, would to Heaven, dear Laura," he answered, pressing the hand
+that she had given to his lips--"would to Heaven, that we had arrived
+at that point!--But, Laura, you are smiling still. You have heard
+some good news: your father is pardoned: is it not so?"
+
+"No, Wilton, no," she said, "not quite such good news as that. But
+still the news I have heard is good news; but it is odd enough,
+Wilton, that I should have to tell it to you; and yet I am glad that
+it is so."
+
+She then detailed to him all that had occurred, as far as she had
+learned it from her father. Wilton listened with surprise and
+astonishment; but, though at the joyful tidings of the Duke's
+consent, and at the prospect of her so soon becoming his irrevocably,
+he could not restrain his joy, but clasped her in rapture to his
+heart, yet there was a feeling of indignation, ay, and of doubt and
+suspicion also, in regard to Lord Byerdale's conduct, and his
+purposes, which mingled strangely with his satisfaction.
+
+"Although, dear Laura," he said, "although this is a blessed hope for
+ourselves, and also a blessed hope for your father, I cannot help
+saying that Lord Byerdale has acted very strangely in this business,
+and very ill. It may be out of regard for me; but it is a sort of
+regard I do not understand; and, were it not that I am sure my dear
+Laura has never for a moment doubted me, I should say that he in some
+degree compromised my honour, by making that consent a condition of
+your father's safety, which should only be granted to affection and
+esteem."
+
+Laura coloured slightly, to think that she had even doubted for an
+instant: but Wilton went on, relaxing the graver look that had come
+over his countenance, and saying, "We must not, however, my dear
+Laura, refuse to take the happiness that is offered to us, unless,
+indeed, you should think it very, very terrible to give me this dear
+hand so soon; and even then I think my Laura would overcome such
+feelings, when they are to benefit her father."
+
+"I do not feel it so terrible, Wilton," replied Lady Laura, "as I did
+ten minutes ago. If I thought that you had made the condition, it
+would seem so much more as if you were a stranger to me, that it
+might be terrible. But when I hear you speak as you do now, Wilton, I
+feel that I could trust myself with you anywhere, that I could go
+away with you at any moment, perfectly secure of my future happiness;
+and so I reply, Wilton, that I am not only willing, but very
+willing."
+
+"We must lose no time, then, dear Laura," replied Wilton, "in making
+all our arrangements. I must now, indeed, have the measure of that
+small finger, and I must speed away to Lord Byerdale with all haste,
+in order to learn the means that are to be employed for your father's
+escape. I must inquire a little, too, into his motives, Laura, and
+add some reproaches for his having so compromised me."
+
+"For Heaven's sake, do not--for Heaven's sake, do not!" cried Laura.
+"My father would never forgive me, if, in consequence of anything I
+had said, you and Lord Byerdale were to have any dispute upon the
+matter, and the business were to fail."
+
+"Oh, fear not, fear not, Laura," replied Wilton, smiling at her
+eagerness: "there is no fear of any dispute."
+
+"Nay, but promise me," she said--"promise me, Wilton."
+
+"I do promise you, dear Laura," he replied, "that nothing on earth
+which depends upon me, for your father's liberation or escape, shall
+be wanting, and I promise you more, my beloved Laura, that I will not
+quarrel with the means, because my Laura's hand is to be mine at
+once."
+
+"Well, Wilton," continued Laura, still fearful that something might
+make the scheme go wrong, "I trust to you, and only beg you to
+remember, that if this does not succeed, my father will never forgive
+either you or me."
+
+Some farther conversation upon these subjects ensued, and all the
+arrangements of Laura and Wilton were made as far as it was possible.
+There were feelings in the mind of Wilton--that doubt of ultimate
+success, in fact, which we all feel when a prospect of bright and
+extraordinary happiness is suddenly presented to us, after many
+struggles with difficulties and dangers--which led him to linger and
+enjoy the present hour. But after a time, as he heard the clock chime
+two, and knew that every moment was now of importance, he hastened
+away to seek the Earl of Byerdale, and hear farther what was to be
+done for the escape of the Duke.
+
+The Earl was not at home, however, nor at his office, and Wilton
+occupied himself for another hour in various preparations for the
+events that were likely to ensue. At the end of that time he returned
+to the Earl of Byerdale's house, and was immediately admitted.
+
+"Well, Wilton!" exclaimed the Earl, as soon as he saw him, with a
+cheerful smile, in which there was, nevertheless, something
+sarcastic--"have I not done well for you? I think this proud Duke's
+stomach is brought down sufficiently."
+
+"I am only grieved, my lord," replied Wilton, "that either the Duke
+or Lady Laura should have cause to think that I made it a condition
+she should give me her hand before I aided in her father's escape.
+There seemed to me something degrading in such a course."
+
+The Earl's brow, for a moment, grew as dark as a thunder-cloud, but
+it passed away in a sneer, and he contented himself with saying, "Are
+you so proud, also, my young sir?--It matters not, however. What did
+the Duke say to you? He showed no reluctance, I trust. We will bring
+his pride down farther, if he did."
+
+"I did not see the Duke, my lord," replied Wilton, a good deal
+mortified at the tone the Earl assumed--"I only saw Lady Laura."
+
+"And what said she?" demanded the Earl. "Is she as proud as her
+father?"
+
+"She showed no repugnance, my lord," replied Wilton, "to do what was
+necessary for her father's safety; and when she saw how much pained I
+was it should be thought that I would make such a condition with her,
+she only seemed apprehensive that such feelings might lead to any
+derangement of your lordship's plan."
+
+"What?" said the Earl. "You were very indignant, indeed, I suppose,
+and abused me heartily for doing the very thing that is to secure you
+happiness, rank, station, and independence. But she conquered, no
+doubt. You promised to concur in my terrible scheme? Is it not so,
+Wilton?"
+
+"Yes, my lord, I did," replied Wilton.
+
+"Upon my word, you are a pretty gentleman, to make ladies sue you
+thus," continued the Earl, in a jeering tone. "I dare say she made
+you vow all sorts of things?"
+
+"I pledged myself solemnly, my lord," replied Wilton, "to do all that
+depended upon me to forward your lordship's plan for the Duke's
+escape, and she knows me too well to entertain a doubt of my keeping
+that promise to the letter."
+
+"Not my plan, not my plan, Wilton," said the Earl, in a more pleasant
+tone. "It must be your plan, my young friend; for I might put my head
+in danger, remember. It is a different thing with you, who are not
+yet sworn of the privy council. I will take care, also, that no harm
+shall happen to you. The Duke was talking of some valet that he has,
+whom he wishes to send out of the prison to-morrow night. Now, what I
+propose, in order to facilitate all your arrangements with regard to
+Lady Laura, is to give you an order upon the governor of the Tower to
+suffer you and Lady Laura, and one man-servant and one maid, to pass
+out any time to-morrow before twelve o'clock at night. I write a
+little note to the Governor at the same time, telling him that, with
+the consent of all parties, you and Lady Laura are to be married
+privately in the Tower, to-morrow evening, by the chaplain, and I
+have provided you with all the necessary authorizations for the
+chaplain. You will find them there in that paper.--My note will not
+at all surprise the Governor, because it has been the common talk of
+the town for the last two months that you were going to be married to
+Lady Laura, and most likely the good Governor has not heard of the
+Duke's whims at Somersbury. The note will therefore only serve as a
+reason for your wishing to go out late at night, which is contrary to
+rules, you know.  The Governor will give orders about it to his
+subordinates, as he is going down to spend a day or two at Hampton
+Court, and testify his duty to the King. If, therefore, you go away
+with your attendants towards midnight, you will find nobody up who
+knows the Duke, and a livery jacket and badge may cover whomsoever
+you like. A carriage can be waiting for you on Tower Hill, and a
+small brig called the Skimmer is lying with papers sealed and
+everything prepared a little below Greenwich.--Now, Wilton," he
+added, "if this does not succeed in your hands, it is your fault. Do
+you agree to every part of this as I have laid it before you?"
+
+"Most assuredly, my lord," replied Wilton, with eager gladness; "and
+I can easily show Laura now, that there is a sufficient motive for
+our marriage taking place so rapidly and so secretly."
+
+"I did not think of that," said the Earl, much to Wilton's surprise.
+"However, I shall leave to you entirely the execution of this scheme,
+Wilton. You understand that my name is never to be mentioned,
+however, and I take it as a matter of honour, that whatever be the
+result, you say not one word whatsoever to inculpate me."
+
+"None, my lord--none, upon my honour!" replied Wilton.
+
+"Is there anything else I can do for you, Wilton?" demanded the Earl.
+"If not, just be good enough to copy out that letter for me against
+my return, for the carriage is at the door, and I must go in haste to
+Kensington, to see the King depart for Hampton Court. The papers are
+all there in that packet I have given you--the order, the note, the
+special licence, and everything. Is there anything more?"
+
+"Nothing, my lord. I thank you most sincerely," replied Wilton,
+sitting down to copy the letter, while the Earl took up his hat and
+cane, and walked a step or two towards the door. The Earl paused,
+however, before he reached it, and then turned again towards Wilton,
+gazing upon him with a cold, unpleasant sort of smile.
+
+"By the way, Wilton," he said, "I promised to tell you part of your
+own history, but did not intend to do it for some little time. As we
+are likely however to be separated for a month or two by this
+marriage trip of yours, there is one thing that I may as well tell
+you. But you must, in the first place, promise me, upon your honour
+as a gentleman, and by all you hold most sacred, not to reveal one
+word thereof to any one, till the safety of the Duke is quite
+secured--do you promise me in that solemn manner?"
+
+"I do, indeed, my lord," replied Wilton, "and feel most sincerely
+grateful to your lordship for relieving my mind on the subject at
+once."
+
+"Well, then, Wilton," continued the Earl, "you may recollect I said
+to the Duke that there was as ancient and good blood in your veins as
+in his own or in mine. Now, Wilton, my uncle, the last Earl of
+Byerdale, had two other nephews besides myself, and you are the son
+of one of them, who, espousing the cause of the late King James, was
+killed at the battle of the Boyne, and all he had confiscated. Little
+enough it was. You are his son, I say, Wilton. Do you hear?--His
+natural son, by a very pretty lady called Miss Harriet Oswald!--But
+upon my honour I must go, or I shall miss the King."
+
+And turning round with an air of perfect coolness and composure, the
+Earl quitted the room, leaving Wilton thunderstruck and overwhelmed
+with grief.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIII.
+
+The whole of the Earl's dark scheme was cleared up to Wilton's eyes
+in a moment; and the secret of his own fate was only given to him in
+conjunction with an insight into that black and base transaction, of
+which he had been made an unwitting tool.
+
+Horrible, most horrible to himself was the disappointment of all his
+hopes. The bright dreams that he had entertained, the visions of gay
+things which he had suffered the enchanter Imagination to call forth
+from the former obscurity of his fate, were all dispelled by the
+words that he had just heard spoken; and everything dark, and painful
+and agonising, was spread out around him in its stead. He was as one
+who, having fallen asleep in a desert, has dreamt sweet dreams, and
+then suddenly wakes with the rising sun, to find nothing but arid
+desolation around him.
+
+Thus, painful indeed would have been his feelings if he had only had
+to contemplate his situation in reference to himself alone; but when
+he recollected how his position bore upon the Duke and Laura, the
+thought thereof almost drove him mad. The deceit which had been
+practised upon him had taught him to entertain hopes, and to pursue
+objects which he never would have dreamed of, had it not been for
+that deceit. It had made him throw open his heart to the strongest of
+all affections, it had made him give himself up entirely to ardent
+and passionate love, from which he would have fled as from his bane,
+had he known what was now told to him. He had been made also the
+instrument of basely deceiving others. He knew that the Duke would
+never have heard of such a thing as his marriage with Lady Laura; he,
+knew that in all probability he would never have admitted him into
+any extraordinary intimacy with his family, if he had not firmly
+believed that he was anything but that which he was now proved to be.
+He did not know, but he doubted much whether Laura, knowing her
+father's feelings upon such a subject, would ever have thought of him
+otherwise than as an ordinary acquaintance. He knew not, he could not
+tell, whether she herself might not upon that subject entertain the
+same feelings as the Duke. But what would be their sensations, what
+their astonishment, what their indignation, when they found that they
+had been so basely deceived, when they found that he had been
+apparently a sharer in such deceit! Would they ever believe that he
+had acted unwittingly, when the whole transaction was evidently to
+the advantage of none but himself; when he was to reap the whole of
+the solid benefit, and the Earl of Byerdale had only to indulge a
+revengeful caprice? Would anybody believe it? he asked himself: and,
+clasping his hands together, he stood overpowered by the feeling of
+having lost all hope in his own fate, of having lost her he loved for
+ever, and, perhaps, of having lost also her love and esteem, and the
+honourable name which he had hitherto borne.
+
+For a few minutes he thus remained, as it were, utterly confounded,
+with no thought but the mere consciousness of so many evils, and with
+the cold sneering tone of the Earl of Byerdale still ringing in his
+ears, announcing to him plainly, that the treacherous statesman
+enjoyed the wound which he had inflicted upon him, almost as much as
+the humiliation to which he had doomed the Duke.
+
+Wilton's mind, however, as we have endeavoured to show throughout
+this book, was not of a character to succumb under a sense of any
+evils that affected him. All the painful feelings that assailed him
+might, it is true, remain indelibly impressed upon his mind for long
+years. It was not that the effect wore out, it was only that the mind
+gained strength, and bore the burden that was cast upon it; and thus,
+in the present instance, he shook off, in a very short space of time,
+the thought of his sorrows themselves, to consider more clearly how
+he should act under them.
+
+But new difficulties presented themselves with this consideration.
+He had solemnly pledged himself not to reveal what the Earl had told
+him till the Duke was placed in safety. He had pledged himself to
+Laura to throw no obstacle whatever in the way of her father's escape
+by the means which the Earl had proposed. Neither was there a way of
+evading any part of the plan as the Earl had arranged it. Otherwise
+he would undoubtedly have attempted to postpone the marriage till
+after the Duke was free, and then, having placed his own honour
+beyond all question, to tell Laura and her father the whole truth.
+But as the Earl had taken care to inform the governor of the Tower
+that he was to go out with Lady Laura and the attendants after his
+private marriage to her, there could be no pretence for his staying
+in the Tower after the usual hour, and making use of the Earl's
+order, if the marriage did not take place.
+
+He saw that the wily politician had entangled him on all sides. He
+saw that he had left him scarcely a possibility of escape. He had
+either to commit an action which he felt would be dishonourable in
+the highest degree towards Laura, or to break the solemn pledge that
+he had made, and at the same time leave himself still under the
+imputation of dishonour; for he had nothing else to propose to Laura
+or her father but her instant marriage with himself, notwithstanding
+the circumstances of his birth, or the imminent risk of her father's
+total ruin.
+
+"She may think," he said to himself, "and the Duke certainly will
+think, that I have never told this fact till the very last moment,
+when I have so entangled her that there was no receding. Thus I shall
+violate my word to the Earl, which his baseness, perhaps, would
+justify me in doing, but shall yet derive scarcely any benefit either
+to the Duke, or Laura, or myself."
+
+It was all agony, and clasping his hands together once more, he
+remained gazing upon the ground in absolute despair. Which way, he
+asked himself, could he turn for help or advice? His mind rested for
+a moment on Lord Sunbury. There were many strong reasons to believe
+that he was in London, but incognito; but as Wilton thus thought, he
+recollected his pledge not to mention either the plans the Earl had
+laid out, or the facts concerning his own birth which had been told
+him. And again he was at sea, but the next moment came the thought of
+Lord Sherbrooke and his strange acquaintance Green: he recollected
+that on that very night he was to meet the Colonel; he recollected
+that the very object of that meeting was to be the Duke; he
+remembered that Green's words had been, "to apply to him in any
+difficulty, for that he had more power to do him a service than
+ever;" he recollected that the very person he was to see possessed
+some knowledge of his own history; and hope, out of these materials,
+however incoherent, strange, and unpromising they might be, contrived
+to elicit at least one ray of light.
+
+"I will meet him," he thought; "I will meet him, and will do the best
+that I can when I do see him. I must not allude to what I have heard;
+but he may have power that I do not know of, he may even aid me in
+some other plan for the Duke's escape. I will set out as soon as it
+is dusk."
+
+As he thus thought, he turned towards the door, nearly forgetting the
+letter which the Earl had given him to copy; but his eye chanced to
+fall upon it as he passed, and saying aloud, "This man shall not see
+how he has shaken me," he sat down, and copied it clearly and
+accurately. He then left the house, went home, ordered his horse, and
+made preparations for his journey. The sun was just touching the
+horizon as he put his foot in the stirrup, and he rode forward at a
+quick pace on the road towards Somersbury.
+
+It was a beautiful clear evening, and many people were abroad; but
+for the first six miles he saw nobody but strangers, all hurrying to
+their several destinations for the night, travellers wending their
+way into the great metropolis, and carts carrying to its devouring
+maw the food for the next day. Between the sixth and seventh
+milestone, however, where the moon was just seen raising her yellow
+horn beside the village spire, he beheld a man mounted upon a
+powerful horse, riding towards him, who by his military aspect, broad
+shoulders, powerful frame, and erect seat upon his horse, he
+recognised, while still at some distance, as Green.
+
+"Ah Wilton, my boy," cried the Colonel, as he rode up, "I am glad to
+see you.--You are not behind your time, but there is an impatience
+upon me now that made me set off early. I am glad I did, for I have
+not been on my horse's back for a fortnight; and there is something
+in poor Barbary's motion that gives me back a part of my former
+lightness of heart."
+
+"I wish to Heaven that you could get it all back," replied Wilton.
+"But I fear when it is lost it is not to be regained--I feel that it
+is so, but too bitterly, at this moment."
+
+"What you!" exclaimed the Colonel. "What is the matter, Wilton? What
+have you done? for a man never loses his lightness of heart for ever,
+but by his own act?"
+
+"I think," said Wilton, "from what I have heard you say, that you can
+feel for my situation, when I tell you, that, by the entanglements of
+one I do not scruple to call a most accursed villain, I can neither go
+on with honour in the course that is before me, nor retreat without
+dishonour; and even if I could do either, there would still be
+absolute and perpetual misery for me in life."
+
+"Who is the villain?" demanded Green, abruptly.
+
+"The Earl of Byerdale," replied Wilton.
+
+"Ha, ha, ha!" shouted Green aloud. "He is a cursed villain; he always
+was, and ever will be. But we will frustrate the Earl of Byerdale,
+Wilton. I tell you, that, with my right hand on his collar, the Earl
+of Byerdale is no more than a lackey."
+
+"But you cannot frustrate him," replied Wilton, "so as to relieve me,
+unless you can find means to set the Duke of Gaveston at liberty; and
+even then--but it matters not. I can bear unhappiness, but not
+dishonour."
+
+"Set the Duke at liberty!" said Green, thoughtfully. "He ought to
+have been at liberty already. He has committed no crime, but only
+folly. He has been stupid, not wicked; and besides, I had heard--but
+that may be a mistake. Let us ride on, Wilton," he continued, turning
+his horse; "and as we go, tell me all that has happened."
+
+"Alas!" replied Wilton, riding on beside him, "that is of all things
+what I cannot and must not do. If I could speak, if I could open my
+mouth to any one on the subject, one half of my difficulties, one
+half of my grief; would be relieved at once. But that I am pledged
+and bound not to do, in a manner which leaves me no relief, which
+affords me no means of escape."
+
+"Well, then, Wilton," said his companion, "I know there are
+situations in which, to aid a friend at all, we must aid him upon his
+own showing, and without inquiry. We must do what he asks us to do
+without explanation, or sacrifice his service to our pride. Such
+shall not be the case with me. I will do what I can to serve you,
+even to the last, altogether without explanation. Let me ask you,
+however, one or two questions."
+
+"I will answer them, if I can," replied Wilton. "But remember always,
+there is much that I am pledged not to reveal at present."
+
+"They will be very easily answered, my boy," replied Green. "Have you
+seen the Earl of Sunbury?"
+
+"I have not," replied Wilton, "though I believe he is in England. To
+him I should have applied, certainly, if I had been able to explain
+to him, in any degree, my situation."
+
+"He is in England," replied Green: "I saw him two days ago; but I
+leave him to smart for a time under the consequences of an imprudence
+he has committed. In the next place, I have but the one general
+question to put,--What can I do for you?"
+
+"I know not, indeed," replied Wilton, "though I sought you with a
+vague hope, that you might be able to do something.  But the only
+thing that could in any degree relieve me would be, either to effect
+the escape of the Duke from the Tower--"
+
+"That is impossible!" said Green, "utterly impossible!  What was the
+alternative?"
+
+"To obtain from the King a warrant for his liberation," said Wilton,
+in a despairing tone, "which is impossible also; for how can I expect
+you to do what neither Vernon nor the Duke of Shrewsbury has been
+able to accomplish? The King's only answer to all applications is,
+that he has spoken to the Earl of Byerdale; and in the Earl of
+Byerdale we have no hope. So that is out of the question."
+
+"Not so much as you imagine, Wilton," replied Green. "I will do it if
+it is to be done, though I would fain have avoided the act which I
+must now perform. Come to me on Monday, Wilton, here upon this road
+where we now ride, and I think I will put the order in your hand."
+
+"Alas!" replied Wilton, "Monday will not do. The liberation must be
+for to-morrow night to answer the intended purpose. I have lately
+thought to do the bold, and perhaps the rash, act of going to the
+King myself--telling him all I know--and beseeching him to set the
+Duke at liberty. He even told me once, that I had done him good
+service, and that he would favour me. But, alas! kings forget such
+words as soon as spoken."
+
+"He has a long memory, this William," replied Green; "but you shall
+go with me, Wilton. If it must be to-morrow, to-morrow it shall be.
+Meet me then at twelve o'clock exactly, at the little inn by the
+water, called the Swan, near Kingston Bridge. I will be there waiting
+for you. It is a likely hour to find the King after he comes from
+chapel; but I will apply beforehand both in your name and in mine;
+for I heard some time ago, from Harry Sherbrooke, that you had won
+such praises from William as he seldom bestows on any one."
+
+"At twelve to-morrow!" said Wilton, thoughtfully. "I was to have been
+at the Tower at twelve to-morrow. But it matters not. That engagement
+I at least may break without losing my honour, or wounding her heart.
+But tell me, tell me, Green, is there any hope, is there any chance
+of our being successful?"
+
+"There is great hope, there is great chance," replied Green. "I will
+not, indeed, say that it is by any means sure; for what is there we
+can rely upon on earth? Have I not seen everything break down beneath
+me like mere reeds, and shall I now put my faith in any man? But
+still, Wilton, I will ask this thing. I will see William of Orange--I
+will call him King at once--for King he is in fact; and far more
+kingly in his courage and his nature than the weak man who never will
+wear the crown of these realms again. We will both urge our petition
+to the throne; and even if he have forgotten the last words that he
+said to me, those which you have to speak perhaps may prove
+sufficient. He is not a cruel or a bloody-minded man; and I do
+believe he forgets his enmities more easily than he does his
+friendships. If we could have said the same of the race of Stuart,
+the crown of England would never have rested on the brow of the
+Prince of Orange. I thought to have led you to other scenes and other
+conferences to-night," he added, "but this matter changes all, and we
+will now part. I will to my task, and prepare the way for to-morrow.
+You to yours; but fail not, Wilton, fail not. Be rather before than
+after the hour."
+
+"I will not fail," replied Wilton; and after this short conference,
+he turned his rein and rode back to London.
+
+As he went, he meditated on the hopes which his conference with Green
+had raised up again; but the brightness of those hopes faded away
+beneath the light of thought.  Yet, though such was the case, the
+determination remained, and grew firmer and stronger, perhaps from
+the want of any very great expectation. He determined to appeal to
+the King, as the last act in his power; to do so firmly and
+resolutely; and if the King refused his petition, and gave him no
+reason to hope, to apply, as the next greatest favour, for a
+memorandum in writing of his having so appealed, in order that he
+might prove to Laura and her father that he had done all in his power
+to give the Duke an opportunity of rejecting that means of escape,
+which could only be obtained by uniting his daughter to one, from
+whom, in any other circumstances, he would have withheld her.
+
+"It is strange," he said to himself, "it is strange and sad, that I
+can scarcely move a step in any way without the risk of dishonour;
+and that the only means to avoid it requires every exertion to
+deprive myself of peace, and happiness, and love for ever."
+
+Thus he thought as he went along; and imagination pictured his next
+parting from her he loved, and all that was to follow it--the grief
+that she would suffer as well as himself--the long dreary lapse of
+sad and cheerless hours that was to fill up the remainder of
+existence for him, with all happy hopes at an end, and fortune,
+station, love, gone away like visions of the night.
+
+Early on the ensuing morning, he despatched a note to the Tower,
+telling Laura that business, affecting her father's safety, would
+keep him away from her at the hour he had promised to visit her. He
+would be with her, he said, at all events before nightfall; and he
+added every term of love and affection that his heart suggested; but
+at the same time he could not prevent a tone of sadness spreading
+through his letter, which communicated to Laura a fear lest her
+father's hopes of escape should be frustrated.
+
+By eleven o'clock Wilton was at the door of the small inn named for
+the meeting; and two handsome horses which were standing there, held
+by a servant, announced that Green had arrived before him. On going
+in, he found his strange friend far more splendidly dressed than he
+had ever seen him, apparently waiting for his coming. His fine person
+told to much advantage, his upright carriage and somewhat proud and
+stern demeanour, the grave and thoughtful look of his eye, all gave
+him the appearance of one of high mind and high station, accustomed
+to action and command. A certain sort of gay and dissipated look,
+which he had previously borne, was altogether gone: within the last
+few months he had become paler and thinner, and his countenance had
+assumed an air of gloom which did not even leave it when he laughed.
+
+As Wilton now advanced towards him, he could not but feel that there
+was something dignified and imposing in his aspect; and yet it caused
+him a strange sensation, to think that he was going into the King's
+presence in company with a man whom he had actually first met upon
+the King's Highway.
+
+"I am glad you have come early, Wilton," said Green. "The King
+returns from the chapel at a quarter past twelve, and expects us to
+be in waiting at that hour, when he will see us. This is no slight
+favour, I find, Wilton," he added, "for the palace is full of
+courtiers, all eager and pressing for royal attention. Let us go
+immediately, then, and ride slowly up to the palace."
+
+They mounted their horses accordingly, and rode on, speaking a few
+words from time to time, but not, indeed, absolutely conversing, for
+both were far too thoughtful, and too much impressed with the
+importance of the act they were about to perform, to leave the tongue
+free and unfettered.
+
+On their arrival at the palace, they found that the King had not yet
+returned from the chapel; but on being asked whether they came by
+appointment or not, and giving their names, they were admitted into a
+waiting-room where two or three other people were already assembled.
+The moments passed slowly, and it seemed as if the King would never
+return.
+
+At length, however, a distant flourish of drums and trumpets was
+heard, together with the sounds of many people passing to and fro in
+the courts and passages. Buzzing conversation, manifold footfalls,
+gay laughter, announced that the morning service was over, and the
+congregation of the royal chapel dispersed.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIV.
+
+In the royal closet, at the palace of Hampton Court, stood King
+William III. leaning against a gilt railing, placed round some
+ornamental objects, near one of the windows. The famous Lord Keeper
+Somers stood beside him, while, at a little distance behind appeared
+Keppel, Lord Albemarle, and before him, a tall, fine-looking man,
+somewhat past the middle age, slight, but dignified in his person,
+and with an air of ease and grace in his whole position and
+demeanour, which bespoke long familiarity with courts. William gazed
+at him with a smile, and heard him speak evidently with pleasure.
+
+"Well, my lord," he said, "I am very glad of the news you give me.
+With the assistance of yourself, and my Lord Keeper here, together
+with that of our good friend the Duke of Shrewsbury, I doubt not now
+my affairs will go well. I am happy to see your health so well
+restored, my lord; for you know my friendship for you well enough, to
+be aware, that I was seriously afflicted at your illness, for your
+own sake, as well as because it deprived me of the counsel and
+assistance of one, who, as I thought he would, has proved himself the
+only person sufficiently loved by all men, to reconcile the breaches
+between some of my best friends."
+
+"Most grateful I am, sir," replied the Earl of Sunbury, to this
+unusually long speech, "that Heaven has made me an instrument for
+that purpose, and I can never sufficiently express my gratitude, for
+your not being angry at my long absence from your majesty's service.
+The arrangements thus being made, sire, I will humbly take my leave,
+begging your majesty not to forget the interests of my young friend,
+according to your gracious promise."
+
+"I will not forget, I will not forget," replied the King. "When do you
+publicly announce your return, my lord?"
+
+"I think it would be better not, sire," replied the Earl, "till after
+we have notified the arrangements to the three gentlemen who retire."
+
+The King smiled. "That can be done to-morrow, my lord," he said; "and
+I cannot but say, that the sooner it is done the better, for my
+service has already suffered."
+
+"That disagreeable task will of course fall on my Lord Keeper," said
+Lord Sunbury, looking to Somers with a smile.
+
+"I shall do it without ceremony, my lord," replied Lord Somers. "It
+will be a mere matter of form; and if we could have found a position
+suitable to my Lord Wharton, I should say that we have constructed
+the most harmonious administration that I have seen since the
+glorious Revolution."
+
+The King's brow grew somewhat dark at the name of Lord Wharton; and
+the Earl of Sunbury making a sign to the Lord Keeper to avoid that
+topic, took his leave of the King, saying, "I think I have your
+majesty's permission to retire through your private apartments."
+
+As he was opening a door, a little to the King's right hand, however,
+he was met by the Earl of Portland, who greeted him with a
+well-pleased smile, and then passed on towards the King, of whom Lord
+Somers was taking leave at the same moment.
+
+"May it please your majesty," said the Earl of Portland, as soon as
+the Lords Sunbury and Somers had departed, "the young gentleman whom
+you were once pleased to see concerning the Duke of Berwick's coming
+to England, is now here, together with another gentleman calling
+himself Green, whom your majesty also, I understand--"
+
+"Yes, yes," said the King, "I will see him. I promised to see him."
+
+"You told me also, sire," replied Lord Portland, "if ever this other
+gentleman applied, you would also see him. Mr.  Wilton Brown, I
+mean."
+
+"I will see him too," said the King. "I will see them together. Let
+them be called, Bentinck."
+
+Lord Portland went to the door, and gave the necessary orders, and in
+a moment or two after, Wilton and his companion stood in the presence
+of the King.
+
+As they entered, Lord Albemarle said a few words to William, in a low
+tone, to which William replied, "No, no, I will tell you if it be
+necessary.--Now, gentlemen," he said, "I understood, from the note
+received this morning by my Lord of Albemarle, that you requested an
+audience together, which as I had promised to each separately, I have
+given.  Is your business the same or different?"
+
+"It is the same, sire," replied Green at once. "But I will beg this
+young gentleman to urge what he has to say in the first place."
+
+The King nodded his head to Wilton to proceed; adding, "I have little
+time this morning, and you may be brief; for if your business be what
+I think, it has been opened to me by a friend of yours, and you will
+hear more from me or him on Tuesday."
+
+"If your majesty refers to the Duke of Shrewsbury," said Wilton, "I
+have not the honour of his acquaintance; but he promised, I know, to
+urge upon your majesty's clemency the case of the Duke of Gaveston,
+in regard to which I have now ventured to approach you."
+
+"We are mistaking each other," said the King. "I thought you meant
+something else. What about the Duke?"
+
+"When your majesty was last pleased to receive me," replied Wilton,
+"I had the honour of recounting to you how I had been employed by his
+grace to set free his daughter who had been carried away by Sir John
+Fenwick and other Jacobites. I explained to your majesty at that time
+that this daring act had been committed by those Jacobites in
+consequence of a quarrel between the Duke and Sir John Fenwick, which
+quarrel was occasioned by the Duke indignantly refusing to take part
+in the infamous conspiracy against your majesty. Since then, Sir John
+Fenwick has been arrested, and has charged the Duke with being a
+party to that conspiracy. He has done this entirely and evidently out
+of revenge, and as far as my testimony goes, I can distinctly show
+your majesty, that after his daughter was carried away, the Duke had
+no opportunity whatsoever of revealing what he knew of the conspiracy
+without endangering her safety till after the whole was discovered,
+for on the morning of her return to town, after being set free, the
+warrants against the conspirators were already issued."
+
+"You told me all this before, I think," said the King, with somewhat
+of a heavy brow and impatient air. "Where is the Duke now?"
+
+"He is in the Tower, sire," replied Wilton, "a prisoner of state,
+upon this charge of Sir John Fenwick's, and I am bold to approach
+your majesty to beseech you to take his case into consideration."
+
+The King's brow had by this time grown very dark, and turning to Lord
+Portland, he said, "This is another, you see, Bentinck."
+
+"I beseech your majesty," continued Wilton, as soon as the King
+paused, "I beseech you to hear my petition, and to grant it. It is a
+case in which I am deeply interested.  You were pleased to say that I
+had conducted myself well, you were pleased to promise me your
+gracious favour, and I beseech you now to extend it to me so far, as
+at my petition to show clemency to a nobleman who, perhaps, may have
+acted foolishly in suffering his ears to be guilty of hearing some
+evil designs against you, but who testified throughout the most
+indignant horror at the purposes of these conspirators, who has been
+punished severely already by the temporary loss of his child, by the
+most terrible anxiety about her, and by long imprisonment in the
+Tower, where he now lies, withering under a sense of your majesty's
+displeasure. Let me entreat your majesty to grant me this petition,"
+and advancing a step, Wilton knelt at the King's feet.
+
+"Why, I thought, young gentleman," replied William, "that before this
+time you were married to the pretty heiress."
+
+"Oh no, sire," replied Wilton, with a sad smile, "that is entirely
+out of the question. Such a report got abroad in the world, but I
+have neither station, fortune, rank, nor any other advantage to
+entitle me to such a hope."
+
+"And you, Colonel," said the King, turning towards Green, "is this
+the object of your coming also?"
+
+"It is, sire," answered Green, advancing. "But first of all permit me
+to do an act that I have never done before, and kissing your
+majesty's hand, to acknowledge that I feel you are and will be King
+of England. May I add more, that you are worthy of being so."
+
+The King was evidently pleased and struck. "I am glad to see," he
+answered, holding out his hand to Green, "that we have reclaimed one
+Jacobite."
+
+"Sire," answered Green, kissing the King's hand, but without rising,
+"my affections are not easily changed, and may remain with another
+house; but it were folly to deny any longer your sovereignty, and,"
+he added, the moment after, "it would be treachery henceforth to do
+anything against it.--And now, sire," he continued, "let me urge most
+earnestly this young gentleman's petition, and let it be at my suit
+that the Duke's liberation is granted. Wilton here may have many
+petitions yet to present to your majesty on his own account. I shall
+never have any; and as your majesty told me to claim a boon at your
+hands, and promised to grant me anything that was not unreasonable, I
+beseech you to grant me, as not an unreasonable request, the full
+pardon and liberation of a man who this young gentleman, and I, and
+Sir John Fenwick, and I think your majesty too, well know would as
+soon have attempted anything against your majesty's life as he would
+have sacrificed his own. This is the boon I crave, this is the
+petition I have to present, and I hope and trust that you will grant
+my request."
+
+"And have you nothing else, Colonel, to demand on your own account?"
+said the King, gravely.
+
+"Nothing, sire," replied Green: "I make this my only request."
+
+"What!" said the King, after giving a glance as playful, perhaps, as
+any glance could be upon the countenance of William III. "Is this the
+only request? I have seen in English history, since it became my duty
+to study it, a number of precedents of general pardons, granted under
+the great seal, by monarchs my predecessors, to certain of their
+subjects who have done some good service, for all crimes,
+misdemeanours, felonies, et cetera, committed in times previous. Now,
+sir, from a few things I have heard, it has struck me that such a
+patent would be not at all inexpedient in your own case, and I
+expected you to ask it."
+
+"I have not, and I do not ask it, sire," replied Green, in the same
+grave tone with which he had previously spoken.  "I may have done
+many things that are wrong, sire, but I have neither injured,
+insulted, nor offended any one whom I knew to be a true subject of
+the Prince I considered my lawful King. Possessing still his
+commission, I believed myself at liberty to levy upon those who were
+avowedly his enemies, the rents of that property whereof they had
+deprived me fighting in his cause.--Sire, I may have been wrong in my
+view, and I believe I have been so. I speak not in my own
+justification, therefore. My head is at your feet if you choose to
+take it: death has no terrors for me; life has no charms. I stay as
+long as God wills it: when he calls me hence, it matters little what
+way I take my departure. My request, sire, is for the liberation of
+the Duke, who, believe me, is perfectly innocent; and I earnestly
+entreat your majesty not to keep him longer within the walls of a
+prison, which to the heart of an Englishman is worse than death
+itself."
+
+"I am sufficiently an Englishman to feel that," replied the King.--
+"Your own free pardon for all offences up to this time we give, or
+rather promise you, should it be needed, without your asking it. Mark
+the King's words, gentlemen.  In regard to the liberation of the
+Duke, demanded of us, as you have demanded it; that is, as the only
+request of a person who has rendered us most important service, and
+to whom we have pledged our word to concede some boon, we would grant
+it also, but--"
+
+"Oh, sire!" exclaimed Green, "let your clemency blot out that but."
+
+"Hear me, hear me," said the King, relapsing into his usual tone; "I
+would willingly grant you the Duke's liberation as the boon which you
+require, and which I promised; but that I granted the order for his
+liberation some four days ago, not even demanding bail for his
+appearance, but perfectly satisfied of his innocence. I ordered also
+such steps to be taken, that a _nolle prosequi_ might be entered, so
+as to put his mind fully at rest. I told the Earl of Byerdale the day
+before yesterday, that I had done this at the request of the Duke of
+Shrewsbury, and I bade him take the warrant, which, signed by myself,
+and countersigned by Mr. Secretary Trumbull, was then lying in the
+hands of the clerk. It is either in the clerk's hands still, or in
+those of Lord Byerdale. But that lord has committed a most grievous
+offence in suffering any of my subjects to remain in a prison when
+the order was signed for their liberation."
+
+"May it please your majesty," said Keppel, stepping forward, "I
+questioned the clerk this morning, as I passed, knowing what your
+majesty had done, and hearing, to my surprise, from my Lord Pembroke,
+that the Duke was still in prison. The clerk tells me that he had
+still the warrant, Lord Byerdale seeming to have forgotten it
+entirely."
+
+"He has forgotten too many things," said the King, "and yet his
+memory is good when he pleases. Fetch me the warrant, Arnold.
+Colonel, I grant this warrant, you see, not to you. You must think of
+some other boon at another time.  Young gentleman, I have been
+requested; by a true friend of yours and mine, to hear your petition
+upon various points, and to do something for you. I can hear no more
+petitions to-day, however, but perhaps you may find a kinder ear to
+listen to you; and as to doing anything for you," he continued, as he
+saw Keppel return with a paper in his hand--"as to doing anything
+for you, the best thing I can do is to send you to the Tower. There,
+take the warrant, and either get into a boat or on your horse', back,
+and bear the good tidings to the Duke yourself."
+
+As he spoke, the King gave the paper into Wilton's hand, and turned
+partly round to the Earl of Portland with a smile; then looked round
+again calmly, and, by a grave inclination of the head, signified to
+Wilton and his companion that their audience was at an end.
+
+As soon as they were in the lobby, Green grasped his young friend's
+hand eagerly in his own, demanding, "Now, Wilton, are you happy?"
+
+"Most miserable!" replied Wilton. "This paper is indeed the greatest
+relief to me, because it puts me beyond all chance of dishonour. No
+one can impute to me now that I have done wrong, or violated my word,
+even by a breath; but still I am most unhappy, and the very act that
+I am going to do seals my unhappiness."
+
+"Such things may well be," replied Green, "I know it from bitter
+experience. But how it can be so, Wilton, in your case, I cannot
+tell."
+
+Wilton shook his head sorrowfully. "I cannot stay to explain all
+now," he said, "for I must hasten to the Duke, and not leave his mind
+in doubt and fear for a moment. But in going thither, I go to see her
+I love for the last time. The metropolis will henceforth be hateful
+to me, and I shall fly from it as speedily as possible. I feel that I
+cannot live in it after that hope is at an end. I shall apply for a
+commission in the army, and seek what fate may send me in some more
+active life; but before I go, probably this very night, if you will
+give me shelter, I will seek you and the Lady Helen, to both of whom
+I have much, very much to say. I shall find you at Lord Sherbrooke's
+cottage, where I last saw you? There I will explain everything. And
+now farewell."
+
+Thus saying, he shook Green's hand, mounted his horse, and at a very
+rapid pace spurred on towards London by all the shortest roads that
+he could discover.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLV.
+
+The Duke's dinner in the Tower was over. He had been much agitated
+all day, and Laura had been agitated also, but she had concealed her
+emotions, in order not to increase those of her father. It was, as we
+have said, Sunday, and the service of the church had occupied some
+part of that long day's passing; but the rest had gone by very
+slowly, especially as the only two events which occurred to break or
+diversify the time told that there were other persons busy without,
+in matters regarding which neither Laura nor her father could take
+the slightest part, but which affected the future fate of both in the
+highest degree. Those two incidents were the arrival of Wilton's note,
+which we have already mentioned, and a visit from the chaplain of the
+Tower, to tell the Duke and Lady Laura that he had received directions
+and the proper authorization (few of those things were needed,
+indeed, in those days) to perform the ceremony of marriage between
+her and Wilton at any hour that she chose to name. A considerable
+time passed after this visit, and yet Wilton did not appear. The Duke
+began to look towards Laura with anxious eyes, and once he said, "I
+hope, Laura, you neither did nor said anything yesterday to make
+Wilton act coldly or unwillingly in this business?"
+
+"Indeed, my dear father, I did not," replied Lady Laura, "and he
+promised me firmly to do everything in his power.  Something has
+detained him; but depend upon it there is no cause either to fear or
+to doubt."
+
+Such assurances, for a time, seemed to soothe the Duke, and put his
+mind more at ease; but as time passed, and still Wilton did not
+appear, his anxiety returned again; he would walk up and down the
+room; he would gaze out of the window; he would east himself into a
+chair with a deep sigh; and though he said nothing more, Laura, was
+bitterly grieved on his account, and began to share his anxiety for
+the result.  At length a distant door was heard to open, then came
+the sound of the well-known step in the ante-room, making Laura's
+heart beat, and the Duke smile; but there was nothing joyful in the
+tread of that step: it was slow and thoughtful; and after the hand
+was placed upon the lock of the door, there was still a pause, which,
+though in reality very brief, seemed long to the prisoner and his
+daughter. At length, however, the door opened, and Wilton himself
+entered the room.  There came a smile, too, upon his lip, but Laura
+could not but see that smile was a very sad one.
+
+"We have been waiting for you most anxiously, my dear Wilton," said
+the Duke: "we have fancied all manner of things, all sorts of
+difficulties and obstacles; for I well knew that nothing but matters
+of absolute necessity would keep you from the side of your dear bride
+at this moment."
+
+"But you still look sad, Wilton," said Lady Laura, holding out her
+hand to him. "Let us hear, Wilton, let us hear all at once, dear
+Wilton. Has anything happened to derange our plans, or prevent my
+father's escape?"
+
+Wilton kissed her hand affectionately, replying, "Fear not on that
+account, dear Laura; fear not on that account. Your father is no
+longer a prisoner.--My lord duke, there is the warrant for your
+liberation, signed by the King's own hand, and properly
+countersigned."
+
+The Duke clasped his hands together, and looked up to heaven with
+eyes full of thankfulness, and Laura's joy also burst forth in tears.
+But she saw that Wilton remained sad and cold; and mistaking the
+cause, she turned quickly to her father, saying, "Oh, my dear father,
+in this moment of joy, make him who has given us so much happiness
+happy also. Tell him, tell him, my dear father, that you will not,
+that you cannot think of refusing him your child after all that he
+has done for us."
+
+"No, no, Laura," cried the Duke: "you shall be his--"
+
+But Wilton interrupted him; and throwing his arms round Lady Laura,
+pressed her for a moment to his heart, took one long ardent kiss, and
+then turning to the Duke, said, "Pardon me, my lord duke!--It is the
+last! Nay, do not interrupt me, for I have a task to perform which
+requires all the firmness I can find to accomplish it. On seeing Lord
+Byerdale yesterday, he told me of the whole arrangements which he had
+made with you, and of the plan for your escape he showed me that,
+according to the note which he had written to the governor of the
+Tower, concerning the marriage between your daughter and myself, your
+escape could not be effected till the ceremony had taken place, as it
+was assigned as the cause for our leaving the Tower so late at night.
+He made me pledge myself not to disclose his part in the scheme to
+any one; and he then said that he would tell me the secret of my
+birth, if I would plight my honour not to reveal it till after your
+safety was secure. I pledged myself, and he told me all. I now found,
+my lord, that you and I had both been most shamefully deceived--deceived
+for the purpose, I do believe, of revenging on you and Lady Laura her
+former rejection of Lord Sherbrooke by driving her to marry a person
+altogether inferior to herself in station. You will see that he had
+placed me in the most difficult of all positions. If I carried out his
+plan of escape, I knowingly made use of his deceit to gain for myself
+the greatest earthly happiness. If I revealed to you what he told me, I
+broke my pledged word, and at the same time gave you no choice, but
+either unwillingly to give me your daughter's hand, or to remain, and
+risk the chance of longer imprisonment and trial. If I held off and
+disappointed you in your escape, I again broke my word to Lady Laura.
+You may conceive the agony of my mind during last night. There was but
+one hope of my being able to escape dishonour, though it was a very
+slight one. I determined to go to the King himself. I engaged a
+gentleman to go with me, who has some influence; and this morning we
+presented ourselves at Hampton Court, His Majesty was graciously pleased
+to receive us: he treated me with all kindness, and gave me the warrant
+for your liberation to bring hither. That warrant was already signed;
+for the Duke of Shrewsbury had kept his word with me, and applied for it
+earnestly and successfully. The Earl of Byerdale knew that it was
+prepared, so that he was quite safe in permitting your escape. I have
+now nothing further to do, my lord, than to wish you joy of your
+liberation, and to bid you adieu for ever."
+
+"Stay, stay!" said the Duke, much moved. "Let me hear more, Wilton."
+
+But Wilton had already turned to Lady Laura and taken her hand.
+
+"Oh, Laura," he said, "if I have been deceived into making you unhappy
+as well as myself, forgive me. You know, you well know, that I would
+give every earthly good to obtain this dear hand; that I would
+sacrifice anything on earth for that object, but honour, truth, and
+integrity. Laura, I feel you can never be mine; try to forget what
+has been; while I seek in distant lands, not forgetfulness, if it
+come not accompanied by death, but the occupation of the battlefield,
+and the hope of a speedy and not inglorious termination to suffering.
+Farewell--once more, farewell!"
+
+"Stay, stay!" said the Duke--"stay, Wilton! What was it the Earl told
+you? He said that you had as good blood in your veins as his own. He
+said you were even related to himself. What did he tell you?"
+
+The blood mounted into Wilton's cheek. "He told me, my lord," he said,
+"that I was the natural son of his cousin."
+
+And feeling that he could bear no more, he turned abruptly and quitted
+the apartment.
+
+As he did so, Lady Laura sank at her father's feet, and clasped his
+knees. "Oh, my father," she said, "do not, do not make me miserable
+for ever. Think of your child's happiness before any considerations
+of pride; think of the noble conduct of him who has just left us; and
+ask yourself if I can cease to love him while I have life."
+
+"Never, Laura, never!" said the Duke, sternly. "Had it been anything
+else but that, I might have yielded; but it cannot be! Never, my
+child, never!--So urge me not!--I would rather see you in your
+grave!"
+
+Those rash and shameful words, which the basest and most unholy pride
+has too often in this world wrung from a parent's lips towards a
+child, had been scarcely uttered by the Duke, when he felt his
+daughter's arms relax their hold of his knees, her weight press
+heavily upon him, and the next instant she lay senseless on the
+ground.
+
+For an instant, the consciousness of the unchristian words he had
+uttered smote his heart with fear; fear lest the retributive hand of
+Heaven should have punished his pride, even in the moment of offence,
+by taking away the child whose happiness he was preparing to
+sacrifice, and of whose death he had made light.
+
+He called loudly for help, and his servant and Lady Laura's maid were
+soon in the room. They raised her head with cushions; they brought
+water; they called for farther assistance; and though it soon became
+evident that Laura had only fainted, it was long before the slightest
+symptom of returning consciousness appeared. The Duke, the servants,
+and some attendants of the governor of the Tower, were still gathered
+round her, and her eyes were just opening and looking faintly up, when
+another person was suddenly added to the group, and a mild,
+fine-toned voice said, in the ear of the Duke,--
+
+"Good God! my lord duke, what has happened? Had you not better send
+for Millington or Garth?"
+
+"She is better, she is better," said the Duke, rising; "she is coming
+to herself again.--Good Heaven! my Lord of Sunbury, is it you? This
+is an unexpected pleasure."
+
+"I cannot say," replied Lord Sunbury, "that it is an unexpected
+pleasure to me, my lord; for though I would rather see your grace in
+any other place, and heard this morning at Hampton Court that the
+order for your liberation was signed, yet I heard just now that you
+were still in the Tower; and, to say the truth, I expected to find my
+young friend Wilton with you. Let us attend to the lady, however," he
+added, seeing that his allusion to Wilton made the Duke turn a little
+red, and divining, perhaps, that Lady Laura's illness was in some way
+connected with the absence of his young friend, "she is growing
+better."
+
+And kindly kneeling down beside her, he took her hand in his, saying
+in a tender and paternal tone, "I hope you are better, my dear young
+lady. Nay, nay," he added, in a lower voice, "be comforted; all will
+go well, depend upon it:--you are better now; you are better, I see."
+And then perceiving that only having seen him once before, Lady Laura
+did not recollect him, he added his own name, saying, "Lord Sunbury,
+my dear, the father, by love and by adoption, of a dear friend of
+yours."
+
+The allusion to Wilton immediately produced its effect upon Lady
+Laura, and she burst into tears; but seeing Lord Sunbury about to
+rise, she clung to his hand, saying, "Do not leave me--do not leave
+me. I shall be better in a minute.  I will send him a message by
+you."
+
+"I will not, indeed, leave you," replied Lord Sunbury; "but I think
+we do not need all these people present just now. Your father and I
+and your woman will be enough."
+
+According to his suggestion, the room was cleared, the windows were
+all thrown open, and in about half an hour Lady Laura had
+sufficiently recovered herself to sit up and speak with ease. Lord
+Sunbury had avoided returning to the subject of Wilton, till he
+fancied that she could bear it, knowing that it might be more painful
+to her, even to hear him conversing with her father upon such a
+topic, than to take part in the discussion herself. At length,
+however, he said,--
+
+"Now this fair lady is tolerably well again, let me ask your grace
+where I can find my young friend, Wilton Brown.  I was told at his
+lodgings that he had come on with all speed to the Tower, merely
+getting a fresh horse as he passed."
+
+"He was here not long ago, my lord," replied the Duke, coldly. "He
+was kind enough to bring me from Hampton Court the warrant for my
+enlargement. He went away in some haste and in some sorrow, not from
+anything I said, my lord, but from what his own good sense showed him
+must be the consequence of some discoveries which he had made
+regarding his own birth. I must say he has in the business behaved
+most honourably, and, at the same time, most sensibly; and anything
+on earth that I can reasonably do to testify my gratitude to him for
+all the services he has rendered me and mine, I will willingly do it,
+should it cost me one half of my estates."
+
+Lady Laura had covered her eyes with her hands, but the tears
+trickled through her fingers in spite of all she could do to restrain
+them. Lord Sunbury, too, was a good deal agitated, and showed it more
+than might have been expected in a man so calm and deliberate as
+himself. He even rose from his chair, and walked twice across the
+room, before he replied.
+
+"My lord duke," he said, at length, "from what you say, I fear that
+both Wilton and your grace have acted hastily; and I am pained at it
+the more, because I believe that I myself am in some degree the cause
+of all the misery that he now feels, and of all the grief which I can
+clearly see is in the breast of this dear young lady. I have done
+Wilton wrong, my lord, by a want of proper precaution and care--most
+unintentionally and unknowingly; but still I have done him wrong,
+which I fear may be irreparable. I must see, and endeavour, as far as
+it is in my power, to remedy what has gone amiss; but whether I can,
+or whether I cannot do so, I have determined to atone for my fault in
+the only way that it is possible. The last heir in my family entail
+is lately dead: my estates are at my own disposal. I have notified to
+the King this day, that I have adopted Wilton Brown as my son and
+heir; and his Majesty has been graciously pleased to promise that a
+patent shall pass under the great seal, conveying to him my titles
+and honours at my death.  This is all that I know with certainty can
+be done at present; but there may be more done hereafter, in regard
+to which I will not enter at present; and oh! my lord," he continued,
+seeing the Duke cast down his eyes in cold silence, "for my sake, for
+Wilton's sake, for this young lady's sake, at all events suspend your
+decision till we can see farther in this matter."
+
+The Duke raised his eyes to his daughter's face, and yielded, though
+but in a faint degree, to her imploring look.
+
+"I will suspend my decision, my lord, at your request," he replied,
+"if it will give you any pleasure. But Laura knows my opinion, and--"
+
+"Nay, nay," said the Earl, "we will say no more upon the subject
+then, at present, my lord: But as your grace has the order for your
+liberation, and there can be no great pleasure in staying in this
+place, perhaps your grace and Lady Laura will get into my carriage,
+which is now in the court; and while your servants clear your
+apartments, and proceed to make preparations at Beaufort House, I
+trust you will take your supper at my poor dwelling. There I may have
+an opportunity, my lord," he added, turning with a graceful bow to
+the Duke, "of telling you, who are a politician, some great political
+changes that are taking place, though I fear, that as I expect no
+guests of any kind, and have hitherto preserved a strict incognito, I
+shall have no way of entertaining this fair lady for the evening."
+
+Laura shook her head with a melancholy air, but made no reply. The
+Duke, however, was taken with the bait of political news, and
+accepted the invitation, merely saying, "I take it for granted, my
+lord, that Mr. Brown is not at your house."
+
+"As far as I know," replied Lord Sunbury, "he is not aware of my
+being in England. I came to seek him here, wishing to tell him
+various matters; but up to this time, I have neither written to him,
+nor heard from him, since I have been in this country. And now, my
+lord," he continued, taking up the warrant from the table, "you had
+better let me go and speak with the Governor's deputy here,
+concerning this paper, and in five minutes I will be back, to conduct
+you, at liberty, to my house."
+
+Thus saying, he left them; and Lady Laura, certainly calmed and
+comforted by his kindly manner, and the hopeful tone in which he
+spoke, prepared with pleasure to go with him. Her father mentioned
+Wilton's name no more; but gave some orders to his servant and, by
+the time that they were ready to go, Lord Sunbury had returned with
+the Lieutenant of the Governor, announcing that the gates of the
+Tower were open to the Duke. The Earl then offered his hand to the
+fair girl, and led her down to his carriage, saying in a low tone as
+they went, "Fear not, my dear young lady; we shall find means to
+soften your father in time."
+
+After a long and tedious drive through the dull streets of London,
+the carriage of the Earl of Sunbury stopped at the door of his house
+in St. James's Square. None of his servants appeared yet in livery,
+and the man who opened the door was his own valet. He seemed not a
+little astonished at the sight of a lady and gentleman with his
+master; and the Earl was as much surprised to hear loud voices from
+the large dining-room on his left hand.
+
+The Duke and Lady Laura, however, entered, and were passing on; but
+the valet, as soon as he had closed the door, advanced and whispered
+a few words to the Earl.
+
+The Earl questioned him again in the same tone, put his hand for a
+moment to his forehead, and then said, addressing the Duke, "There
+are some persons up stairs, my lord duke, that we would rather you
+did not see at this moment. I will speak to them for an instant, and
+be down with you directly, if you will go into the dining-room. You
+will there, I understand, find Lord Byerdale and his son, the latter
+of whom, it seems, has come hither for my support and advice, and has
+been followed by his father."
+
+"But, my lord, my lord," said the Duke, "after Lord Byerdale's
+conduct to myself--"
+
+"Enter into no dispute with him till I come, my dear duke," said the
+Earl--"I will be with you in one minute; and his lordship of Byerdale
+will have quite sufficient to settle with me, to give occupation to
+his thoughts for the rest of the evening. You may chance to see
+triumphant villany rebuked--I wanted to have escaped the matter; but
+since he has presumed to come into my house, I must take the task
+upon myself."
+
+The tone in which he spoke, and the expectation of what was to
+follow, fixed the Duke's determination at once; and drawing the arm
+of Lady Laura within his own, he followed the servant, who now threw
+open the door to which Lord Sunbury pointed, and entered the
+dining-room, while the Earl himself ascended the stairs.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVI.
+
+A scene curious but yet painful presented itself to the eyes of Lady
+Laura and her father on entering the dining-room of Lord Sunbury's
+house. On the side of the room opposite to the door stood Lord
+Sherbrooke, with his arms folded on his chest, his brow contracted,
+his teeth firmly shut, his lips drawn close, and every feature but
+the bright and flashing eye betokening a strong and vigorous struggle
+to command the passions which were busy in his bosom. Seated at the
+table, on which the young nobleman had laid down his sword, was his
+beautiful wife, with her eyes buried in her hands, and no part of her
+face to be seen but a portion of the cheek as pale as ashes, and the
+small delicate ear glowing like fire. The sun was far to the westward,
+and streaming in across the open space of the square, poured through
+the window upon her beautiful form, which, even under the pressure of
+deep grief, fell naturally into lines of the most perfect grace.
+
+But the same evening light poured across also, and streamed full upon
+the face and form of the Earl of Byerdale, who seemed to have totally
+forgotten, in excess of rage, the calm command over himself which he
+usually exercised even in moments of the greatest excitement. His lip
+was quivering, his brow was contracted, his eye was rolling with
+strong passion, his hand was clenched; and at the moment that Laura
+and the Duke went round the table from the door towards the side of
+the room on which were Lord Sherbrooke and his wife, the Earl was
+shaking his clenched hand at his son, accompanying by that gesture of
+wrath the most terrible denunciations upon his head.
+
+"Yes, sir, yes!" he exclaimed. "I tell you my curse is upon you! I
+divorce myself from your mother's memory!  I cast you off, and
+abandon you for ever! Think not that I will have pity upon you, when
+I see your open-mouthed creditors swallowing you up living, and
+dooming you to a prison for life. May an eternal curse fall upon me,
+if ever I relieve you with a shilling even to buy you bread! See if
+the man in whose house you have sought shelter--see if this Earl of
+Sunbury, with whom, doubtless, you have been plotting your father's
+destruction--see if this undermining politician, this diplomatic
+mole, will give you means to pay your debts, or furnish you with
+bread to feed yourself and your pretty companion there! No, sir, no!
+Lead forth, to the beggary to which you have brought her, the
+beggarly offspring of that runagate Jacobite! Lead her forth, and
+with a train of babies at your heels, sing French ballads in the
+streets to gain yourself subsistence.--You thought that I had no clue
+to your proceedings. I fancied she was your mistress, and that
+mattered little, for it is the only thing fitted for the beggarly
+exile's daughter. But since she is your wife, look to it to provide
+for her yourself!"
+
+He must have heard somebody enter the room, but he turned not the
+least in that direction, carried away by the awful whirlwind of his
+fury. He was even still going on, without looking round; but it was a
+woman's voice, the voice of a gentle, but noble-hearted woman that
+stopped him.  Lady Laura, the moment she entered the room, recognised
+in the bending form of her who sat weeping and trembling at the
+table, one who had been kind to her in danger and in terror, and the
+first impulse was to go to her support. But when she heard the
+insulting and gross words of the Earl of Byerdale, her spirit rose,
+her heart swelled with indignation, and with courage, which she might
+not have possessed in her own case, she turned full upon him,
+exclaiming,--
+
+"For shame, Earl of Byerdale!--for shame! This to a woman in a woman's
+presence! If you have forgotten that you are a gentleman, have you
+forgotten that you are a man?" And going quickly forward, she threw her
+arm round the neck of the weeping girl, exclaiming, "Look up, dear
+Caroline: look up, sweet lady! You are not without support! A friend is
+near you!"
+
+Lady Sherbrooke looked up, saw who it was, and instantly cast herself
+upon her bosom.
+
+The Earl of Byerdale turned his eyes from Laura to the Duke, evidently
+confounded and surprised, and put his hand upon his brow, as if to
+collect his thoughts. The next minute, however, he said, with a sneering
+air, "Ha, pretty lady, is that you? Ha, my lord duke, have you escaped
+from the Tower? You are somewhat early in your proceedings! Why, it
+wants half an hour of night! But doubtless the impatient bridegroom was
+eager to have all complete, and I have now to congratulate my Lady Laura
+Brown upon her father's sudden enfranchisement, and her marriage with my
+dear cousin's natural child. Ma'am, I am your most obedient, humble
+servant. Duke, I congratulate you upon the noble alliance you have
+formed. You come well, you come happily, to witness me curse that base
+and degenerate boy. But it is a pity you did not bring the happy
+bridegroom, Mr. Brown, that we might have two fine specimens of noble
+alliances in one room."
+
+"You are mistaken, sir," said the Duke furiously; "you are mistaken,
+sir. Your villany is discovered; your base treachery has been told by a
+man who was too honourable to take advantage of it, even for his own
+happiness."
+
+"Then, my lord duke," replied the Earl of Byerdale, "he is as great a
+liar in this instance as you have proved yourself a fool in every one;
+for he plighted me his word not to reveal anything till your safety was
+secure."
+
+"It is you, sir, are the liar!" replied the Duke, forgetting everything
+in his anger, which was now raised to the highest pitch. "It is you,
+sir, who are the liar, as you have been the knave throughout, and may
+now prove to be the fool too!"
+
+"Hush, hush!" exclaimed the voice of Lord Sherbrooke, raised to a loud
+tone. "Remember, my lord duke, that he is still my father!"
+
+"Sir!" exclaimed the Earl, turning first upon his son, "I am your father
+no longer! For you, duke, I see how the matter has gone with this vile
+and treacherous knave whom I have fostered! But as sure as I am Earl of
+Byerdale--"
+
+"You are so no longer!" said a voice beside him, and at the same moment
+a strong muscular hand was laid upon his shoulder, with a grasp that he
+could not shake off:
+
+The Earl turned fiercely round, and laid his hand upon his sword; but
+his eyes lighted instantly on the fine stern countenance of Colonel
+Green, who keeping his grasp firmly upon the shoulder of the other, bent
+his dark eyes full upon his face.
+
+The whole countenance and appearance of him whom we have called the Earl
+of Byerdale became like a withered flower. The colour forsook his cheeks
+and his lips; he grew pale, he grew livid; his proud head sunk, his
+knees bent, he trembled in every limb; and when Green, at length, pushed
+him from him, saying in a loud tone and with a stern brow, "Get thee
+from me, Harry Sherbrooke!" he sank into a chair, unable to speak, or
+move, or support himself.
+
+In the meantime, his son had cast his eyes upon the ground, and remained
+looking downwards with a look of pain, but not surprise; while treading
+close upon the steps of Colonel Green appeared Wilton Brown with the
+Lady Helen Oswald clinging to rather than leaning on his arm, and the
+Earl of Sunbury on her right hand.
+
+Those who were most surprised in the room were certainly the Duke and
+Lady Laura, for they had been suddenly made witnesses to a strange scene
+without having any key to the feelings, the motives, or the actions of
+the performers therein; and the Duke gazed with quite sufficient wonder
+upon all he saw, to drown and overcome all feelings of anger at
+beholding Wilton so unexpectedly in the house of the Earl of Sunbury.
+
+For a moment or two after the stern gesture of Green, there was silence,
+as if every one else were too much afraid or too much surprised to
+speak; and he also continued for a short space gazing sternly upon the
+man before him, as if his mind laboured with all that he had to say. It
+was not, however, to the person whom his presence seemed entirely to
+have blasted, that he next addressed himself.
+
+"My Lord of Sunbury," he said, "you see this man before me, and you also
+mark how terrible to him is this sudden meeting with one whom he has
+deemed long dead. When last we met, I left him on the shores of Ireland
+after the battle of the Boyne, in which I took part and he did not. The
+ship in which I was supposed to have sailed was wrecked at sea, and
+every soul therein perished. But I had marked this man's eagerness to
+make me quit my native land, in which I had great duties to perform, and
+I never went to the vessel, in which if I had gone, I should have met a
+watery grave. During the time that has since passed, he has enjoyed
+wealth that belonged not to him, a title to which he had no claim. He
+has raised himself to power and to station, and he has abused his power
+and disgraced his station, till his King is weary of him, and his
+country can endure him no longer. In the meanwhile, I have waited my
+time; I have watched all his movements; I have heard of all the
+inquiries he has set on foot to prove my death, and all the
+investigations he instituted, when he found that the boy who was with me
+had been set on shore again. I have given him full scope and licence to
+act as he chose; but I have come at length, to wrest from him that which
+is not his, and to strip him of a rank to which he has no claim.--Have
+you anything to say, Harry Sherbrooke?" he continued, fixing his eye
+upon him. "Have you anything to say against that which I advance?"
+
+While he had been speaking, the other had evidently been making a
+struggle to resume his composure and command over himself, and he now
+gazed upon him with a fierce and vindictive look, but without attempting
+to rise.
+
+"I will not deny, Lennard Sherbrooke," he replied, "that I know you; I
+will not even deny that I know you to be Earl of Byerdale. But I know
+you also to be a proclaimed traitor and outlaw, having borne arms
+against the lawful sovereign of these realms, subjected by just decree
+to forfeiture and attainder; and I call upon every one here present to
+aid me in arresting you, and you to surrender yourself, to take your
+trial according to law!" "Weak man, give over!" replied the Colonel.
+"All your schemes are frustrated, all your base designs are vain. You
+writhe under my heel, like a crushed adder, but, serpent, I tell you,
+you bite upon a file. First, for myself, I am not a proclaimed traitor;
+but, pleading the King's full pardon for everything in which I may have
+offended, I claim all that is mine own, my rights, my privileges, my
+long forgotten name, even to the small pittance of inheritance, which,
+in your vast accessions of property, you did not even scruple to grasp
+at, and which has certainly mightily recovered itself under your careful
+and parsimonious hand. But, nevertheless, though I claim all that is my
+own, I claim neither the title nor the estates of Byerdale. Wilton, my
+boy, stand forward, and let any one who ever saw or knew your gallant
+and noble father, and your mother, who is now a saint in heaven, say if
+they do not see in you a blended image of the two."
+
+"He was his natural child! he was his natural child!" cried Henry
+Sherbrooke, starting up from his seat. "I ascertained it beyond a doubt!
+I have proof! I have proof!"
+
+"Again, false man?--Again?" said Lennard Sherbrooke.
+
+"Cannot shame keep you silent? You have no proof! You can have no
+proof!--You found no proof of the marriage--granted; because care was
+taken that you should not. But I have proof sufficient, sir. This lady,
+whom I must call in this land Mistress Helen Oswald, though the late
+King bestowed upon her father and herself a rank higher than that to
+which she now lays claim, was present at the private marriage of her
+sister to my brother, by a Protestant clergyman, before Sir Harry Oswald
+ever quitted England. There is also the woman servant, who was present
+likewise, still living and ready to be produced; and if more be wanting,
+here is the certificate of the clergyman himself, signed in due form,
+together with my brother's solemn attestation of his marriage, given
+before he went to the fatal battle in which he fell. To possess yourself
+of these papers, of the existence of which you yourself must have
+entertained some suspicions, you used unjustifiable arts towards this
+noble Earl of Sunbury, which were specious enough even to deceive his
+wisdom; but I obtained information of the facts, and frustrated your
+devices."
+
+"Ay," said Harry Sherbrooke, "through my worthy son, doubtless, through
+my worthy son, who, beyond all question, used his leisure hours in
+reading, privately, his father's letters and despatches, for the great
+purpose of making that father a beggar!"
+
+"I call Heaven to witness!" exclaimed the young gentleman, clasping his
+hands together eagerly. But Lord Sunbury interposed.
+
+"No, sir," he said, "your son needed no such arts to learn that fact, at
+least; for even before I sent over the papers to you which you demanded,
+I wrote to your son, telling him the facts, in order to guard against
+their misapplication. Unfortunate circumstances prevented his receiving
+my letter in time to answer me, which would have stopped me from sending
+them. He communicated the fact, however, to Colonel Sherbrooke, and the
+result has been their preservation."
+
+The unfortunate man was about to speak again; but Lord Sunbury waved his
+hand mildly, saying, "Indeed, my good sir, it would be better to utter
+no more of such words as we have already heard from you. Should you be
+inclined to contest rights and claims which do not admit of a doubt, it
+must be in another place and not here. You will remember, however, that
+were you even to succeed in shaking the legitimacy of my young friend,
+the Earl of Byerdale here present, which cannot by any possibility be
+done, you would but convey the title and estates to his uncle, Colonel
+Sherbrooke, to whose consummate prudence, in favour of his nephew, it is
+now owing that these estates, having been suffered to rest for so many
+years in your hands, no forfeiture has taken place, which must have been
+the case if he had claimed them for his nephew before this period.
+Whatever be the result, you lose them altogether. But I am happy that it
+is in my power," he added, advancing towards him whom we have hitherto
+called Lord Sherbrooke, "to say that this reverse will not sink your
+family in point of fortune so much as might, be imagined. That, sir, is
+spared to you, by your son's marriage with this young lady."
+
+Caroline started up eagerly from the table, gazing with wild and joyful
+eyes in the face of Lord Sunbury, and exclaiming, "Have you, have you
+accomplished it?"
+
+"Yes, my dear young lady, I have," replied Lord Sunbury.
+
+"The King, in consideration of the old friendship which subsisted
+between your father and himself, in youthful days, before political
+strifes divided them, has granted that the estate yet unappropriated
+shall be restored to you, on two conditions, one of which is already
+fulfilled--your marriage with an English Protestant gentleman, and the
+other, which doubtless you will fulfil, residence in this country, and
+obedience to the laws. He told me to inform you that he was not a man to
+strip the orphan. You will thus have competence, happy, liberal
+competence."
+
+Her husband pressed Caroline to his bosom for a moment.  But he then
+walked round the table, approached his father, and kissed his hand,
+saying, in a low voice, "My lord, let a repentant son be at least happy
+in sharing all with his father."
+
+For once in his life his father was overcome, and bending down his head
+upon son's neck, he wept.
+
+Lord Sunbury gazed around him for a moment; but then turning to Lady
+Helen Oswald, he said, "I have much to say to you, but it must be in
+private. Nevertheless, even now, let me say that your motives have been
+explained to me; that I understand them; that she who could sacrifice
+her heart's best affections to a parent in exile, in poverty, in
+sickness, and in sorrow, has a greater claim than ever upon the heart of
+every noble man. You have, of old, deeper claims on mine, and by the
+ring upon this finger, by the state of solitude in which my life has
+been passed, you may judge that those claims have not been
+forgotten--Helen?" he added, taking her hand in his.
+
+The Lady Helen turned her head away, with a cheek that was glowing
+deeply; but her hand was not withdrawn, and the fingers clasped upon
+those of Lord Sunbury.
+
+The Earl smiled brightly. "And now, my lord duke," he said, "I besought
+your lordship about an hour ago to suspend your decision upon a point of
+great importance. Did I do right?"
+
+"My lord," answered the Duke, gaily, "I hope I am not too quick this
+time; but my decision is already made. Wilton, my dear boy, take
+her--take her--I give her to you with my whole heart!"
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg Etext of The King's Highway, by G.P.R. James
+
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+status under the laws that apply to them.
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #3780 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3780)