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diff --git a/39137.txt b/39137.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..eb01c57 --- /dev/null +++ b/39137.txt @@ -0,0 +1,13939 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Shrewsbury, by Stanley J. Weyman + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Shrewsbury + A Romance + +Author: Stanley J. Weyman + +Illustrator: Claude A. Shepperson + +Release Date: March 14, 2012 [EBook #39137] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SHREWSBURY *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by Google Books + + + + + + + + + + + +Transcriber's Notes: + + 1. Page scan source: + http://books.google.com/books?id=Je-hnRe2EckC + + 2. The diphthong oe is represented by [oe]. + + + + + + SHREWSBURY + + + + + + + _BY THE SAME AUTHOR._ + + THE HOUSE OF THE WOLF + A Tale of the Massacre of St. Bartholomew. + + A GENTLEMAN OF FRANCE. + A Tale of the Days of Henry of Navarre. + + THE RED COCKADE. + A Tale of the French Revolution. + + + + + +[Illustration: WITH A GESTURE BETWEEN CONTEMPT AND IMPATIENCE THE DUKE +REMOVED HIS HAT] + + + + + + + SHREWSBURY + + + + A Romance + + + + + BY + + STANLEY J. WEYMAN + + AUTHOR OF "A GENTLEMAN OF FRANCE," "UNDER THE RED ROBE," + "THE HOUSE OF THE WOLF," ETC. + + + + + WITH 24 ILLUSTRATIONS + + BY + + CLAUDE A. SHEPPERSON + + + + + LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. + + 39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON + + NEW YORK AND BOMBAY + + 1898 + + + + + + + Copyright, 1897 + By STANLEY J. WEYMAN + * * * + _All rights reserved_ + + + + + + + TO MY BROTHER HENRY + + IN MEMORY OF A SUNDAY AFTERNOON IN THE YEAR 1877 + THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED + + + + + + + LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + +With a gesture between contempt and impatience the duke removed his +hat. _Frontispiece_. + +She looked directly at me. + +In an instant I was on the other side of the fence. + +Stole down the stairs and into the garden. + +My companion seized my wrist. + +The constable led me out of the crowd. + +"When my back is turned go through that window." + +He wore a dingy morning-gown and had laid aside his wig. + +"Damn your King William, and you too!" he cried. + +He pressed the ring of cold steel. + +In the great chair sat an elderly lady leaning on an ebony stick. + +I heard a light foot following me. + +With a gesture between contempt and impatience the duke removed his +hat. + +I flung my arms round him from behind, and with my right hand jerked +up the pistol. + +A slight gentleman ambled and paced in front of a child. + +"Now we will have that letter, if you please." + +I saw a man had come to a stand before the door. + +The place was nothing more than a concealed cupboard. + +And turning from me, he began to pace the room, his hands clasped +behind him. + +She came a step nearer to me, and peered at me. + +Sir John ... stared at me a moment. + +She listened in silence, standing over me with something of the +severity of a judge. + +He shut himself in with his trouble. + +I stood there at last ... the faces at the table all turned towards +me. + +She was making marks on the turf with a stick. + + + + + + + SHREWSBURY + + + + + CHAPTER I + + +That the untimely death at the age of fifty-eight of that great +prince, Charles, Duke of Shrewsbury, my most noble and generous +patron, has afflicted me with a sorrow which I may truly call _acerbus +et ingens_, is nothing to the world; which from one in my situation +could expect no other, and, on the briefest relation of the benefits I +had at his hands, might look for more. Were this all, therefore, or my +task confined to such a relation, I should supererogate indeed in +making this appearance. But I am informed that my lord Duke's death +has revived in certain quarters those rumours to his prejudice which +were so industriously put about at the time of his first retirement; +and which, refuted as they were at the moment by the express +declaration of his Sovereign, and at leisure by his own behaviour, as +well as by the support which at two great crises he gave to the +Protestant succession, formed always a proof of the malice, as now of +the persistence, of his enemies. + +Still, such as they are, and though, not these circumstances only, but +a thousand others have time after time exposed them, I am instructed +that they are again afloat; and find favour in circles where to think +ill of public men is held the first test of experience. And this being +the case, and my affection for my lord such as is natural, I perceive +a clear duty. I do not indeed suppose that anyone can at this time of +day effect that which the sense of all good men failed to effect while +he lived--I mean the final killing of those rumours; nor is a plain +tale likely to persuade those, with whom idle reports, constantly +furbished up, of letters seen in France, weigh more than a consistent +life. But my lord's case is now, as I take it, removed to the Appeal +Court of Posterity; which nevertheless, a lie constantly iterated may +mislead. To provide somewhat to correct this, and wherefrom future +historians may draw, I who knew him well, and was in his confidence +and in a manner in his employment at the time of Sir John Fenwick's +case--of which these calumnies were always compact--propose to set +down my evidence here; shrinking from no fulness, at times even +venturing on prolixity, and always remembering a saying of Lord +Somers', that often the most material part of testimony is that on +which the witness values himself least. To adventure on this fulness, +which in the case of many, and perhaps the bulk of writers, might +issue in the surfeit of their readers, I feel myself emboldened by the +possession of a brief and concise manner of writing; which, acquired +in the first place in the circumstances presently to appear, was later +improved by constant practice in the composition of my lord's papers. + +And here some will expect me to proceed at once to the events of the +year 1696, in which Sir John suffered, or at least 1695. But softly, +and a little if you please _ab ovo_; still the particulars which +enabled my lord's enemies to place a sinister interpretation on his +conduct in those years had somewhat, and, alas, too much, to do with +me. Therefore, before I can clear the matter up from every point of +view, I am first to say who I am, and how I came to fall in the way of +that great man and gain his approbation; with other preliminary +matters, relating to myself, whereof some do not please at this +distance, and yet must be set down, if with a wry face. + +Of which, I am glad to say, that the worst--with one exception---comes +first, or at least early. And with that, to proceed; premising always +that, as in all that follows I am no one, and the tale is my lord's, I +shall deal very succinctly with my own concerns and chancings, and +where I must state them for clearness of narration, will do so +_currente calamo_ (as the ancients were wont to say) and so forthwith +to those more important matters with which my readers desire to be +made acquainted. + +Suffice it, then, that I was born near Bishop's Stortford on the +borders of Hertfordshire, in that year so truly called the Annus +Mirabilis, 1666; my father, a small yeoman, my mother of no better +stock, she being the daughter of a poor parson in that neighbourhood. +In such a station she was not likely to boast much learning, yet she +could read, and having served two years in a great man's still-room, +had acquired notions of gentility that went as ill with her station as +they were little calculated to increase her contentment. Our house lay +not far from the high road between Ware and Bishop's Stortford, which +furnished us with frequent opportunities of viewing the King and +Court, who were in the habit of passing that way two or three times in +the year to Newmarket to see the horse-races. On these occasions we +crowded with our neighbours to the side of the road, and gaped on the +pageant, which lacked no show of ladies, both masked and unmasked, and +gentlemen in all kinds of fripperies, and mettlesome horses that hit +the taste of some among us better than either. On these excursions my +mother was ever the foremost and the most ready; yet it was not long +before I learned to beware of her hand for days after, and expect none +but gloomy looks and fretful answers; while my father dared no more +spell duty for as much as a week, than refuse the King's taxes. + +Nevertheless, and whatever she was as a wife--and it is true she could +ding my father's ears, and, for as handsome as she was, there were +times when he would have been happier with a plainer woman--I am far +from saying that she was a bad mother. Indeed, she was a kind, if +fickle, and passionate one, wiser at large and in intention than in +practice and in small matters. Yet if for one thing only, and putting +aside natural affection--in which I trust I am not deficient--she +deserved to be named by me with undying gratitude. For having learned +to read, but never to write, beyond, that is, the trifle of her maiden +name, she valued scholarship both by that she had, and that she had +not; and in the year after I was breeched, prevailed on my father who, +for his part, good man, never advanced beyond the Neck Verse, to bind +me to the ancient Grammar School at Bishop's Stortford, then kept by a +Mr. G----. + +I believe that there were some who thought this as much beyond our +pretensions, as our small farm fell below the homestead of a man of +substance; and for certain, the first lesson I learned at that school +was to behave myself lowly and reverently to all my betters, being +trounced on arrival by three squires' sons, and afterwards, in due +order and gradation, by all who had or affected gentility. To balance +this I found that I had the advantage of my master's favour, and that +for no greater a thing than the tinge of my father's opinions. For +whereas the commonalty in that country, as in all the eastern +counties, had been for the Parliament in the late troubles, and still +loved a patriot, my father was a King's man; which placed him high in +Mr. G----'s estimation, who had been displaced by the Rump and hated +all of that side, and not for the loss of his place only, but, and in +a far greater degree, for a thing which befell him later, after he had +withdrawn to Oxford. For being of St. John's College, and seeing all +that rich and loyal foundation at stake, he entered himself in a body +of horse which was raised among the younger collegians and servants; +and probably if he had been so lucky as to lose an eye or an arm in +the field of honour, he would have forgiven Oliver all, and not the +King's sufferings only, but his own. But in place of that it was his +ill-chance to be one of a troop that, marching at night by the river +near Wallingford, took fright at nothing and galloped to Abingdon +without drawing rein; for which reason, and because an example was +needed, they were disbanded. True, I never heard that the fault on +that occasion lay with our master, nor that he was a man of less +courage than his neighbours; but he took the matter peculiarly to +heart, and never forgave the Roundheads the slur they had unwittingly +cast on his honour; on the contrary, and in the event, he regularly +celebrated the thirtieth of January by flogging the six boys who stood +lowest in each form, and afterwards reading the service of the day +over their smarting tails. By some, indeed, it was alleged that the +veriest dunces, if of loyal stock, might look to escape on these +occasions; but I treat this as a calumny. + +That the good man did in truth love and favour loyalty, however, and +this without sparing the rod in season, I am myself a bright and +excellent example. For though I never attained to the outward flower +of scholarship by proceeding to the learned degree of arts at either +of the Universities, I gained the root and kernel of the matter at +Bishop's Stortford, being able at the age of fourteen to write a fine +hand, and read Eutropius, and Caesar, and teach the horn-book and +Christ-Cross to younger boys. These attainments, and the taste for +polite learning, which, as these pages will testify, I have never +ceased to cultivate, I owe rather to the predilection which he had for +me than to my own gifts; which, indeed, though doubtless I was always +a boy of parts, I do not remember to have been great at the first. +_Sub ferula_, however, and with encouragement, I so far advanced that +he presently began to consider the promoting me to the place of usher, +with a cane _in commendam_; and, doubtless, he would have done it but +for a fit that took him at the first news of the Rye House Plot, and +the danger his Sacred Majesty had run thereby--which a friend +imprudently brought to him when he was merry after dinner--and which +caused an illness that at one and the same time carried him off, and +deprived me of the best of pedagogues. + +After that, and learning that his successor had a son whom he proposed +to promote to the place I desired, I returned to the school no more, +but began to live at home; at first with pleasure, but after no long +interval with growing chagrin and tedium. Our house possessed none of +the comforts that are necessary to idleness, and therefore when the +east wind drove me indoors from swinging on the gate, or sulking in +the stack-yard, I found it neither welcome nor occupation. My younger +brother had seized on the place of assistant to my father, and having +got thews and experience _ambulando_, found fresh ground every day for +making mock of my uselessness. Did I milk, the cows kicked over the +bucket, while I thought of other things; did I plough, my furrows ran +crooked; when I thrashed, the flail soon wearied my arms. In the +result, therefore, the respect with which my father had at first +regarded my learning, wore off, and he grew to hate the sight of me +whether I hung over the fire or loafed in the doorway, my sleeves too +short for my chapped arms, and my breeches barely to my knees. Though +my mother still believed in me, and occasionally, when she was in an +ill-humour with my father, made me read to her, her support scarcely +balanced the neighbours' sneers. Nor when I chanced to displease +her--which, to do her justice, was not often, for I was her +favourite--was she above joining in the general cry, and asking me, +while she cuffed me, whether I thought the cherries fell into the +mouth, and meant to spend all my life with my hands in my pockets. + +To make a long story short, at the end of twelve months, whereof every +day of the last ten increased my hatred of our home surroundings, the +dull strip of common before the door, the duck-pond, the grey horizon, +and the twin ash-trees on which I had cut my name so often, I heard +through a neighbour that an usher was required in a school at Ware. +This was enough for me; while, of my family, who saw me leave with +greater relief on their own account than hope on mine, only my mother +felt or affected regret. With ten shillings in my pocket, her parting +gift, and my scanty library of three volumes packed among my clothes +on my back, I plodded the twelve miles to Ware, satisfied the learned +Mr. D---- that I had had the small-pox, would sleep three in a bed, +and knew more than he did; and the same day was duly engaged to teach +in his classical seminary, in return for my board, lodging, washing, +and nine guineas a year. + +He had trailed a pike in the wars, and was an ignorant, but neither a +cruel, nor, save in the pretence of knowledge, a dishonest man; it +might be supposed, therefore, that, after the taste of idleness and +dependence I had had, I should here find myself tolerably placed, and +in the fair way of promotion. But I presently found that I had merely +exchanged a desert for a prison, wherein I had not only the +shepherding of the boys to do, both by night and day, which in a short +time grew inconceivably irksome, so that I had to choose whether I +would be tyrant or slave; but also the main weight of teaching, and +there no choice at all but to be a drudge. And this without any +alleviation from week's end to week's end, either at meals or at any +other time! for my employer's wife had high notions, and must keep a +separate house, though next door, and with communications; sitting +down with us only on Sundays, and then at dinner, when woe betide the +boy who gobbled his food or choked over the pudding-balls. Having +satisfied herself on my first coming that my father was neither of the +Quorum nor of Justice's kin, and, in fact, a mere rustic nobody, she +had no more to say to me, but when she was not scolding her husband, +addressed herself solely to one of the boys, who by virtue of an uncle +who was a Canon, had his seat beside her. Insensibly, her husband, who +at first, with an eye to my knowledge and his own deficiencies, had +been more civil to me, took the same tone; and not only that, but, +finding that I was to be trusted, he came less and less into school, +until at last he would only appear for a few minutes in the day, and +to carve when we had meat, and to see the lights extinguished at +night. This without any added value for me; so that the better I +served him--and for a year I managed his school for him--the less he +favoured me, and at last thought a nod all the converse he owed me in +the day. + +Consigned to this solitary life by those above me, it was not likely +that I should find compensation in the society of lads to whom I stood +in an odious light, and of whom the oldest was no more than fourteen. +For what was our life? Such hours as we did not spend in the drudgery +of school, or in our beds, we passed in a yard on the dank side of the +house, a grassless place, muddy in winter and dusty in summer, +overshadowed by one skeleton tree; and wherein, since all violent +games and sports were forbidden by the good lady's scruples (who +belonged to the fanatical party) as savouring of Popery, we had +perforce to occupy ourselves with bickerings and complaints and +childish plays. Abutting on the garden of her house, this yard +presented on its one open side a near prospect of water-butts, and +drying clothes, so that to this day I profess that I hold it in +greater horror than any other place or thing at that school. + +It is true we walked out in the country at rare intervals; but as +three sides of the town were forbidden to us by a great man, whose +property lay in that quarter, and who feared for his game, our +excursions were always along one road, which afforded neither change +nor variety. Moreover, I had a particular reason for liking these +excursions as little as possible, which was that they exposed me to +frequent meetings with gay young sparks of my own age, whose scornful +looks as they rode by, with the contemptuous names they called after +me, asking who dressed the boys' hair and the like, I found it +difficult to support--even with the aid of those reflections on the +dignity of learning and the Latin tongue which I had imbibed from my +late master. + +Be it remembered (in palliation of that which I shall presently tell) +that at this time I was only eighteen, an age at which the passions +and ambitions awake, and that this was my life. At a time when youth +demands change and excitement and the fringe of ornament, my days and +weeks went by in a plain round, as barren of wholesome interests as it +was unadorned by any kindly aid or companionship. To rise, to teach, +to use the cane, to move always in a dull atmosphere of routine; for +diversion to pace the yard I have described, always with shrill +quarrellings in my ears--these with the weekly walk made up my life at +Ware, and must form my excuse. How the one came to an abrupt end, how +I came to have sore need of the other, it is now my business to tell; +but of these in the next chapter; wherein also I propose to show, +without any moralities, another thing that shall prove them to the +purpose, namely, how these early experiences, which I have thus curtly +described, led me _per viam dolorosam_ to my late lord, and mingled my +fortunes with his, under circumstances not unworthy of examination by +those who take mankind for their study. + + + + + CHAPTER II + + +To begin, Mrs. D----, my master's better-half, though she seldom +condescended to our house, and when engaged in her kitchen premises +affected to ignore the proximity of ours, enjoyed in Ware the +reputation of a shrewd and capable house-wife. Whether she owed this +solely to the possession of a sharp temper and voluble voice, I cannot +say; but only that during all the time I was there I scarcely ever +passed an hour in our miserable playground without my ears being +deafened and my brain irritated by the sound of her chiding. She had +the advantage, when I first came to the school, of an elderly servant, +who went about her work under an even flow of scolding, and, it may +be, had become so accustomed to the infliction as to be neither the +better nor worse for it. But about the time of which I am writing, +when, as I have said, I had been there twelve months, I remarked a +change in Mrs. D----'s voice, and judged from the increased acerbity +and rising shrillness of her tone that she had passed from drilling an +old servant to informing a new one. To confirm this theory, before +long, "Lazy slut!" and "Dirty baggage!" and "Take that, Insolence," +were the best of the terms I heard; and these so frequently mingled +with blows and slaps, and at times with the sound of sobbing, that my +gall rose. I had listened indifferently enough, and if with +irritation, without much pain, to the chiding of the old servant; and +I knew no more of this one. But by the instinct which draws youth to +youth, or by reason of Mrs. D----'s increased severity, I began to +feel for her, to pity her, and at last to wonder what she was like, +and her age, and so forth. + +Nothing more formidable than a low paling separated the garden of Mrs. +D----'s house from our yard; but that her eyes might not be offended +by the ignoble sight of the trade by which she lived, four great +water-butts were ranked along the fence, which, being as tall as a +man, and nicely arranged, and strengthened on the inner side by an +accumulation of rubbish and so forth, formed a pretty effective +screen. The boys indeed had their spyholes, and were in the habit of +peeping when I did not check them; but in only one place, at the +corner farthest from the house, was it possible to see by accident, as +it were, and without stooping or manifest prying, a small patch of the +garden. This gap in the corner I had hitherto shunned, for Mrs. +D---- had more than once sent me from it with a flea in my ear and hot +cheeks: now, however, it became a favourite with me, and as far as I +could, without courting the notice of the wretched urchins who whined +and squabbled round me, I began to frequent it; sometimes leaning +against the abutting fence with my back to the house, as in a fit of +abstraction, and then slowly turning--when I did not fail to rake the +aforesaid patch with my eyes; and sometimes taking that corner for the +limit of a brisk walk to and fro, which made it natural to pause and +wheel at that point. + +Notwithstanding these ruses, however, and though Mrs. D----'s voice, +raised in anger, frequently bore witness to her neighbourhood, it was +some time before I caught a glimpse of the person, whose fate, more +doleful than mine, yet not dissimilar, had awakened my interest. At +length I espied her, slowly crossing the garden, with her back to me +and a yoke on her shoulders. Two pails hung from the yoke, I smelled +swill; and in a trice seeing in her no more than a wretched drab, in +clogs and a coarse sacking-apron, I felt my philanthropy brought to +the test; and without a second glance turned away in disgust. And +thought no more of her. + +After that I took a distaste for the gap, and I do not remember that I +visited it for a week or more; when, at length, chance or custom +taking me there again, I saw the same woman hanging clothes on the +line. She had her back to me as on the former occasion; but this time +I lingered watching her, and whether she knew or not that I was there, +her work presently brought her towards the place in the fence beside +the water-barrels, at which I stood gazing. Still, I could not see her +face, in part because she did not turn my way, and more because she +wore a dirty limp sun-bonnet, which obscured her features. But I +continued to watch; and by-and-by she had finished her hanging, and +took up the empty basket to go in again; and thereon, suddenly in the +act of rising from stooping, she looked directly at me, not being more +than two, or at the most three, paces from me. It was but one look, +and it lasted, I suppose, two seconds or so; but it touched something +in me that had never been touched before, and to this time of writing, +and though I have been long married and have children, my body burns +at the remembrance of it. For not only was the face that for those two +seconds looked into mine a face of rare beauty, brown and low-browed, +with scarlet, laughing lips, and milk-white teeth, and eyes of +witchery, brighter than a queen's jewels, but in the look, short as it +was and passing, shone a something that I had never seen in a woman's +face before, a something, God knows what, appeal or passion or +temptation, that on the instant fired my blood. I suppose, nay, I know +now, that the face that flashed that look at me from under the dirty +sun-bonnet could change to a marvel; and in a minute, and as by a +miracle, become dull and almost ugly, or the most beautiful in the +world. But then, that and all such things were new to me who knew no +women, and had never spoken to a woman in the way of love nor thought +of one when her back was turned; so new, that when it was over and she +gone without a second glance, I went back to the house another man, my +heart thumping in my breast, and my cheeks burning, and my whole being +oppressed with desire and bashfulness and wonder and curiosity, and a +hundred other emotions that would not permit me to be at ease until I +had hidden myself from all eyes. + + +[Illustration: SHE LOOKED DIRECTLY AT ME] + + +Well, to be brief, that, in less than the time I have taken to tell +it, changed all. I was eighteen; the girl's shining eyes burned me up, +as flame burns stubble. In an hour, a week, a day, I can no more say +within what time than I can describe what befel me before I was +born--for if that was a sleeping, this was a dream, and passed swift +and confused as one--I was madly and desperately in love. Her face +brilliant, mischievous, alluring, rose before the thumbed grammar by +day, and the dim casement of the fetid, crowded bedroom by night, and +filled the slow, grey dawnings, now with joy and now with despair. For +the time, I thought only of her, lived for her, did my work in dreams +of her. I kept no count of time, I gave no heed to what passed round +me; but I went through the routine of my miserable life, happy as the +slave that, rich in the possession of some beneficent drug, defies the +pains of labour and the lash. I say my miserable life; but I say it, +so great was the change, in a figure only and in retrospect. Mrs. +D---- might scorn me now, and the boys squabble round me, yet that +life was no longer miserable nor dull, whereof every morning flattered +me with hopes of seeing my mistress, and every third day or so +fulfilled the promise. + +With all this, and though from the moment her eyes met mine across the +fence, her beauty possessed me utterly, a full fortnight elapsed +before I spoke with her. In the interval I saw her three times, and +always in the wretched guise in which she had first appeared to me; +which, so far from checking my passion, now augmented it by the full +measure of the mystery with which the sordidness of her dress, in +contrast with her beauty, invested her in my mind. But, for speaking +with her, that was another matter, and one presenting so many +difficulties (whereof, as the boys' constant presence and Mrs. D----'s +temper were the greatest, so my bashfulness was not the least) that I +think we might have gone another fortnight, and perhaps a third to +that, and not come to it, had not a certain privilege on which Mr. +D----'s good lady greatly prided herself, come to our aid in the nick +of time, and by bringing us into the same room (a thing which had +never occurred before, and of itself threw me into a fever) combined +with fortune to aid my hopes. + +This privilege--so Mrs. D---- invariably styled it--was the solemn +gathering of the household on one Sunday in each month to listen to a +discourse which, her husband sitting meekly by, she read to us from +the works of some Independent divine. On these occasions she delivered +herself so sonorously and with so much gusto, that I do not doubt she +found compensation in them for the tedium of the sermon on Passive +Obedience, or on the fate of the Amalekite, to which, in compliance +with the laws against Dissent, she had perforce listened earlier in +the day. The master and mistress and the servant sat on one side of +the room, I with the boys on the other; and hitherto I am unable to +say which of us had suffered more under the infliction. But the +appearance of my sweet martyr--so, when Madam's voice rang shrillest +and most angrily over the soapsuds, I had come to think of her--in a +place behind her master and mistress (being the same in which the old +servant had nodded and grunted every sermon evening since my coming), +put a new complexion on the matter. For her, she entered, as if +unconscious of my presence, and took her seat with downcast eyes and +hands folded, and that dull look on her face which, when she chose, +veiled three-fourths of its beauty. But my ears flamed, and the blood +surged to my head; and I thought that all must read my secret in my +face. + +With Mrs. D----, however, this was the one hour in the month when the +suspicions natural in one of her carping temper, slept, and she tasted +a pleasure comparatively pure. Majestically arrayed in a huge pair of +spectacles--which on this occasion, and in the character of the family +priest, her vanity permitted and even incited her to wear--and +provided with a couple of tall tallow candles, which it was her +husband's duty to snuff, she would open the dreaded quarto and prop it +firmly on the table before her. Then, after giving out her text in a +tone that need not have disgraced Hugh Peters or the most famous +preacher of her persuasion, it was her custom to lift her eyes and +look round to assure herself that all was cringing attention; and this +was the trying moment; woe to the boy whose gaze wandered--his back +would smart for it before he slept. These preliminaries at an end, +however, and the discourse begun, the danger was over for the time; +for, in the voluptuous roll of the long wordy sentences, and the +elections and damnations, and free wills that plentifully bestrewed +them, she speedily forgot all but the sound of her own voice; and, +nothing occurring to rouse her, might be trusted to read for the hour +and half with pleasure to herself and without risk to others. + +So it fell out on this occasion. As soon, therefore, as the steady +droning of her voice gave me courage to look up, I had before me the +same scene with which a dozen Sunday evenings had made me familiar; +the dull circle of yellow light; within it Madam's horn-rimmed glasses +shining over the book, while her finger industriously followed the +lines; a little behind, her husband, nodding and recovering himself by +turns. Not now was this all, however: now I saw also _imprimis_, a dim +oval face, framed in the background behind the two old people; and +that, now in shadow now in light, gleamed before my fascinated eyes +with unearthly beauty. Once or twice, fearing to be observed, I +averted my gaze and looked elsewhere; guiltily and with hot temples. +But always I returned to it again. And always, the longer I let my +eyes dwell on the vision--for a vision it seemed in the halo of the +candles--and the more monotonous hung the silence, broken only by +Mrs. D----'s even drone, the more distinctly the beautiful face stood +out, and the more bewitching and alluring appeared the red lips and +smiling eyes and dark clustering hair, that moment by moment drew my +heart from me, and kindled my ripening brain and filled my veins with +fever! + +"Seventhly, and under this head, of the sin of David!" + +So Mrs. D---- booming on, in her deep voice, to all seeming +endlessly; while the air of the dingy whitewashed room grew stale, and +the candles guttered and burned low, and the boys, poor little +wretches, leaned on one another's shoulders and sighed, and it was +difficult to say whether Mr. D----'s noddings or his recoveries went +nearer to breaking his neck. At last--or was it only my fancy?--I +thought I made out a small brown hand gliding within the circle of +light. Then--or was I dreaming?--one of the candles began to move; but +to move so little and so stealthily, that I could not swear to it; nor +ever could have sworn, if Mr. D----'s wig had not a moment later taken +fire with a light flame, and a stench, and a frizzling sound, that in +a second brought him, still half-asleep, but swearing, to his feet. + +Mrs. D----, her mouth open, and the volume lifted, halted in the +middle of a word, and glared as if she had been shot; her surprise at +the interruption so great--and no wonder--that she could not for a +while find words. But the stream of her indignation, so checked, only +gathered volume; and in a few seconds broke forth. + +"Mr. D----!" she cried, slamming the book down on the table. "You +disgusting beast! Do you know that the boys are here?" + +"My wig is on fire!" he cried for answer. He had taken it off, and now +held it at arm's length, looking at it so ruefully that the boys, +though they knew the danger, could scarcely restrain their laughter. + +"And serve you right for a weak-kneed member!" his wife answered in a +voice that made us quake. "If you had not guzzled at dinner, sir, and +swilled small beer you would have remained awake instead of spoiling a +good wig, and staining your soul! Ay, and causing these little +ones----" + +"I never closed my eyes!" he declared, roundly. + +"Rubbish!" she answered in a tone that would brook no denial. And +then, "Give the wig to Jennie, sir!" she continued, peremptorily. "And +put your handkerchief on your head. It is well that good Mr. Nesbit +does not know what language has been used during his discourse; it +would cut that excellent man to the heart. Do you hear, sir, give the +wig to Jennie!" she screamed. "A handkerchief is good enough for +profane swearers and filthy talkers! And too good! Too good, sir!" + +He went reluctantly to obey, seeing nothing for it; but between his +anger and Jennie's clumsiness, the wig, in passing from one to the +other, fell under the table. This caused Mrs. D----, who was at the +end of her patience, to spring up in a rage, and down went a candle. +Nor was this the worst; for the grease in its fall cast a trail of hot +drops on her Sunday gown, and in a flash she was on the maid and had +smacked her face till the room rang. + +"Take that, and that, you clumsy baggage!" she cried in a fury, her +face crimson. "And that! And the next time you offer to take a +gentleman's wig have better manners. This will cost you a year's +wages, my fine madam! and let me hear of your stepping over the +doorstep until it is earned, and I will have you jailed and whipped. +Do you hear? And you," she continued, turning ferociously on her +husband, "swearing on the Lord's day like a drunken, raffling, +God-forsaken Tantivy! You are not much better!" + +It only remains in my memory now as a coarse outburst of vixenish +temper, made prominent by after events. But what I felt at the moment +I should in vain try to describe. At one time I was on the point of +springing on the woman, and at another all but caught the sobbing girl +in my arms and challenged the world to touch her. + +Fortunately, Mr. D----, now fully awakened, and the more inclined to +remember decency in proportion as his wife forgot it, recalled me to +myself by sternly bidding me see the boys to their beds. + +Glad to escape, they needed no second order, but flocked to the door, +and I with them. In our retreat, it was necessary for me to pass close +to the shrinking girl, whom Mrs. D---- was still abusing with all the +cruelty imaginable; as I did so I heard, or dreamed that I heard, +three words, breathed in the faintest possible whisper. I say, dreamed +I heard, for the girl neither looked at me nor removed the apron from +her face, nor by abating her sobs or any other sign betrayed that she +spoke or that she was conscious of my neighbourhood. + +Yet the three words, "Garden, ten minutes," so gently breathed, that I +doubted while I heard, could only have come from her; and assured of +that, it will be believed that I found the ten minutes I spent seeing +the boys to bed by the light of one scanty rushlight the longest and +most tumultuous I ever passed. If she had not spoken I should have +found it a sorry time, indeed; since the moment the door was closed +behind me I discerned a hundred reasons to be dissatisfied with my +conduct, thought of a hundred things I should have said, and saw a +hundred things I should have done; and stood a coward convicted. Now, +however, all was not over; I might explain. I was about to see her, to +speak with her, to pour out my indignation and pity, perhaps to touch +her hand; and in the delicious throb of fear and hope and excitement +with which these anticipations filled my breast, I speedily forgot to +regret what was past. + + + + + CHAPTER III + + +Doubtless there have been men able to boast, and with truth, that they +carried to their first assignation with a woman an even pulse. But as +I do not presume to rank myself among these, who have been commonly +men of high station (of whom my late Lord Rochester was, I believe, +the chief in my time), neither--the unhappy occurrence which I am in +the way to relate, notwithstanding---have I, if I may say so without +disrespect, so little heart as to crave the reputation. In truth, I +experienced that evening, as I crept out of the back door of Mr. +D----'s house, and stole into the gloom of the whispering garden, a +full share of the guilty feeling that goes with secrecy; and more than +my share of the agitation of spirit natural in one who knows (and is +new to the thought) that under cover of the darkness a woman stands +trembling and waiting for him. A few paces from the house--which I +could leave without difficulty, though at the risk of detection--I +glanced back to assure myself that all was still: then shivering, as +much with excitement as at the chill greeting the night air gave me, I +hastened to the gap in the fence, through which I had before seen my +mistress. + +I felt for the gap with my hand and peered through it, and called her +name softly--"Jennie! Jennie!" and listened; and after an interval +called again, more boldly. Still hearing nothing, I discovered by the +sinking at my heart--which was such that, for all my eighteen years, I +could have sat down and cried--how much I had built on her coming. And +I called again and again; and still got no answer. + +Yet I did not despair. Mrs. D---- might have kept her, or one of a +hundred things might have happened to delay her; from one cause or +another she might not have been able to slip out as quickly as she had +thought. She might come yet; and so, though the more prolonged my +absence, the greater risk of detection I ran, I composed myself to +wait with what patience I might. The town was quiet; human noise at an +end for the day; but Mr. D----'s school stood on the outskirts, with +its back to the open country, and between the sighing of the wind +among the poplars, and the murmur of a neighbouring brook, and those +far-off noises that seem inseparable from the night, I had stood a +minute or more before another sound, differing from all these, and +having its origin at a spot much nearer to me, caught my ear, and set +my heart beating. It was the noise of a woman weeping; and to this day +I do not know precisely what I did on hearing it--when I made out what +it was, I mean--or how I found courage to do it; only, that in an +instant, as it seemed to me, I was on the other side of the fence, and +had taken the girl in my arms, with her head on my shoulder, and her +wet eyes looking into mine, while I rained kisses on her face. + + +[Illustration: IN AN INSTANT I WAS ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE FENCE] + + +Doubtless the darkness and her grief and my passion gave me boldness +to do this; and to do a hundred other mad things in my ecstasy. For, +as I had never spoken to her before, any more than I had ever held a +woman in my arms before, so I had not thought, I had not dreamed of +this! of her hand, perhaps, but no more. Therefore, and though since +Adam's time the stars have looked down on many a lover's raptures, +never, I verily believe, have they gazed on transports so perfect, so +unlooked for, as were mine at that moment! And all the time not a word +passed between us; but after a while she pushed me from her, with a +kind of force that would not be resisted, and holding me at arm's +length, looked at me strangely; and then thrusting me altogether from +her, she bade me, almost roughly, go back. + +"What? And leave you?" I cried, astonished and heart-broken. + +"No, sir, but go to the other side of the fence," she answered firmly, +drying her eyes and recovering something of her usual calmness. "And +more, if you love me as you say you do----" + +I protested. "_If?_" I cried. "If! And what then--if I do?" + +"You will learn to obey," she answered, coolly, yet with an archness +that transported me anew. "I am not one of your boys." + +For that word, I would have caught her in my arms again, but with a +power that I presently came to know, and whereof that was the first +exercise, she waved me back. "Go!" she said, masterfully. "For this +time, go. Do you hear me?" + +My boldness of a minute before, notwithstanding, I stood in awe of +her, and was easily cowed; and I crossed the fence. When I was on my +side, she came to the gap, and rewarded me by giving me her hand to +kiss. "Understand me," she said. "You are to come to this side, sir, +only when I give you leave." + +"Oh," I cried. "Can you be so cruel?" + +"Or not at all, if you prefer it," she continued, drily. "More, you +must go in, now, or I shall be missed and beaten. You do not want that +to happen, I suppose?" + +"If that hag touches you again!" I cried, boiling with rage at the +thought, "I will--I will----" + +"What?" she said softly, and her fingers closed on mine, and sent a +thrill to my heart. + +"I will strangle her!" I cried. + +She laughed, a little cruelly. "Fine words," she said. + +"But I mean them!" I answered, passionately. And I swore it--I swore +it; what will not a boy in love promise? + +"Well," she answered, whispering and leaning forward until her breath +fanned my cheek, and the intoxicating scent of her hair stole away my +senses, "perhaps some day I shall try you. Are you sure that you will +not fail me then?" + +I swore it, panting, and tried to draw her towards me by her arm; but +she held back, laughing softly and as one well pleased; and then, in a +moment, snatching her hand from me, she vanished in the darkness of +the garden, leaving me in a seventh heaven of delight, my blood fired +by her kisses, my fancy dwelling on her beauty; and without one +afterthought. + +Doubtless had I been less deep in love (wherein I was far over-head), +or deeper in experience, I might have noted it for a curious thing +that she should be so quickly comforted; and should be able to rise in +a few moments, and at the touch of my lips, from passionate despair to +perfect control, both of herself and of me. And starting thence, I +might have gone on to suspect that she possessed her full share of the +_finesse_, which is always a woman's shield and sometimes her sword. +But as such suspicions are foreign to youth, so are they especially +foreign to youthful love, which takes nothing lower than perfection +for its idol. And this I can say for certain, that they no more +entered my brain than did the consequences which were to flow from my +passion. + +For the time, indeed, I was in an ecstasy, a rapture. Walking +a-tip-toe, and troubled by none of the things that trouble common +folk; so that to this day--though long married--I look back to that +period of innocent folly with a yearning and a regret, the sorer for +this, that when I try to analyse the happiness I enjoyed, I fail, and +make nothing of it. That all things should be changed for me, and I be +changed in my own eyes--so that I walked a head taller and esteemed +myself ridiculously--by the fact that a kitchen wench in a drugget +petticoat and clogs had let me kiss her, and left me to believe +that she loved me, seems incredible now; as incredible as that +a daily glimpse of her figure flitting among the water-butts and +powdering-tubs had power to transform that miserable back garden into +a paradise, and Mr. D----'s school, with its dumplings, and bread and +dripping, and inky fingers, into a mansion of tremulous joy! + +Yet it was so. Nor did it matter anything to me, so great is the power +of love when one is young, that my mistress went in rags, and had +coarse hands, and spoke rustically. Touching this last, indeed, I must +do her the justice to say that from the first she was as quick to note +differences of speech and manner as she was apt to imitate good +exemplars; and, moreover, possessed under her rags a species of +refinement that matched the witchery of her face, and proved her to +be, as she presently showed herself, no common girl. + +Of course I, in the state of happy delirium on which I had now +entered, and wherein even Mr. D---- and the boys wore an amiable air, +and only Mrs. D----, because she persecuted my love, had the semblance +of a female Satan, needed no proof of this; or I had had it when my +Dorinda--so I christened her, feeling Jennie too low a name for so +much beauty and kindness--proposed at our second rendezvous that I +should teach her to read. At the first flush of the proposal I found +reading a poor thing because she did not possess it; at the second I +adored her for the humility that condescended to learn; but at the +third I saw the convenience, as well as sense, of a proposal which was +as much above the mind of an ordinary maid in love as Dorinda appeared +superior to such a creature in all the qualities that render sense +amiable. + +Yet this much granted, how to teach her, seeing that we seldom met or +conversed, and never, save under the kindly shelter of darkness? The +obstacle for a time taxed all my ingenuity, but in the end I +surmounted it by boldly asking Mr. D----'s leave to hold the afternoon +classes in the playground. This, the approach of warm weather giving +colour to the petition, was allowed; after which, as Dorinda was +engaged in the back premises at that hour, and could listen while she +drudged, the rest was easy. Calling up the lowest class, I would find +fault with their reading, and after flying out at them in a simulated +passion, would remit them again and again to the elements; so that for +a fortnight or more, and, indeed, until the noise of the lads +repeating the lesson annoyed Mrs. D----'s ears, the playground rang +with a-b, ab; e-b, eb; c-a-t, cat; d-o-g, dog, and the like, with the +alphabet and the rest of the horn-book. And all this so frequently +repeated, that with this assistance, and the help of a spelling-book +which I gave her, and which she studied before others awoke, my +mistress at the end of two months could read tolerably, and was +beginning to essay easy round-hand. + +And Heaven knows how delicious were those lessons under the shabby +ragged tree that shaded one half of the yard! I spoke to the yawning +grubby-fingered boys, who slouched and straddled round me; but I knew +to whose ears I applied myself; nor had pupil ever a more diligent +master, or master an apter pupil. Once a week I had my fee of kisses, +but rarely, very rarely, was permitted to cross the fence; a reserve +on my Dorinda's part, that, while it augmented the esteem in which I +held her, maintained my passion at a white heat. When, nevertheless, I +remonstrated with her, and loverlike, complained of the rigour which +in my heart I commended, she chid me for setting a low value on her; +and when I persisted, "Go on," she said, drawing away from me with a +wonderful air of offence. "Tell me at once, and in so many words, that +you think me a low thing! That you really take me for the kitchen +drudge I appear!" + +Her tone was full of meaning, with a hint of mystery, but as I had +never thought her aught else--and yet an angel--I was dumb. + +"You did think me that?" she cried, fixing me with her eyes, and +speaking in a tone that demanded an answer. + +I muttered that I had never heard, had never known, that--that--and so +stammered into silence, not at all understanding her. + +"Then I think that hitherto we have been under a mistake," she +answered, speaking very distantly, and in a voice that sent my heart +into my boots. "You were fond--or said you were--of the cook-maid. She +does not exist. No, sir, a little farther away, if you please," my +mistress continued, haughtily, her head in the air, "and know that I +come of better stock than that. If you would have my story I will tell +it you. I can remember--it is almost the first thing I can remember--a +day when I played, as a little child, with a necklace of gold beads, +in the court-yard of a house in a great city; and wandered out, the +side gate being open, and the porter not in his seat, into the +streets; where," she continued dreamily, and gazing away from me, +"there were great crowds, and men firing guns, and people running +every way----" + +I uttered an exclamation of astonishment. She noticed it only by +making a short pause, and then went on in the same thoughtful tone, +"As far as I can remember, it was a place where there were booths and +stalls crowded together, and among them, it seems to me, a man was +being hunted, who ran first one way and then another, while soldiers +shot at him. At last he came where I had dropped on the ground in +terror, after running child-like where the danger was greatest. He +glared at me an instant--he was running, stooping down below the level +of the booths, and they had lost him for the time; then he snatched me +up in his arms, and darted from his shelter, crying loudly as he held +me up, 'Save the child! Save the child!' The crowd raised the same +cry, and made a way for him to pass. And then--I do not remember +anything, until I found myself shabbily dressed in a little inn, +where, I suppose, the man, having made his escape, left me." + + + + + CHAPTER IV + + +At that I remember that I cried out in overwhelming excitement and +amazement; cried out that I knew the man and his story, and the place +whence she had been taken; that I had heard the tale from my father +years before. "It was Colonel Porter who picked you up--Colonel +Porter, and he saved his life by it!" I cried, quite beside myself at +the wonderful discovery I had made. "It was Colonel Porter, in the +great riot at Norwich." + +"Ah?" she said, slowly; looking away from me, and speaking so coolly +and strangely as both to surprise and damp me. + +Yet I persisted. "Yes," I said, "the story is well known; at least +that part of it. But----" and there and at that word I stopped, +dumbfounded and gaping. + +"But what?" she asked sharply, and looked at me again; the colour +risen in her face. + +"But--you are only eighteen," I hazarded timidly, "and the Norwich +riot was in the War time. I dare say, thirty years ago." + +She turned on me in a sort of passion. + +"Well, sir, and what of that?" she cried. "Do you think me thirty?" + +"No, indeed," I answered. And at the most she was nineteen. + +"Then don't you believe me?" + +I cried out too at that; but, boy-like, I was so proud of my knowledge +and acuteness that I could not let the point lie. "All I mean," I +explained, "is that to have been alive then, and at Norwich, you must +be thirty now. And----" + +"And was it I?" she answered, flying out at me in a fine fury. "Who +said anything about Norwich? Or your dirty riots? Or your Porter, +whose name I never heard before! Go away! I hate you! I hate you!" she +continued, passionately, waving me off. "You make up things and then +put them on me! I never said a word about Norwich." + +"I know you did not," I protested. + +"Then why did you say I did?" she wailed. "Why did you say I did? You +are a wretch! I hate you!" + +And with that, dissolving in tears and sobs she at one and the same +time showed me another side of love, and reduced me to the utmost +depths of despair; whence I was not permitted to emerge, nor +reinstated in the least degree of favour until I had a hundred times +abased myself before her, and was ready to curse the day when I first +heard the name of Porter. Still peace was at last, and with infinite +difficulty restored; and so complete was our _redintegratio amoris_ +that we presently ventured to recur to her tale and to the strange +coincidence that had divided us; which did not seem so very +remarkable, on second thought, seeing that she could not now remember +that she had said a word about booths or stalls, but would have it I +had inserted those particulars; the man in her case having taken +refuge--she fancied, but could not at this distance of time remember +very clearly--among the seats of a kind of bull-ring or circus erected +in the marketplace. Which of course made a good deal of difference. + +Notwithstanding this discrepancy, however, and though, taught by +experience, I hastened to agree with her that the secret of her birth +was not likely to be discovered in a moment, nor by so simple a +process as the journey to Norwich, which I had been going to suggest, +it was natural that we should often revert to the subject, and to her +pretensions, and the hardship of her lot: and my curiosity and +questions giving a fillip to her memory, scarcely a day passed but she +recovered some new detail from the past; as at one time a service of +gold-plate which she perfectly remembered she had seen on her father's +sideboard; and at another time an accident that had befell her in her +childhood, through her father's coach and six horses being overturned +in a slough. Such particulars (and many others as pertinent and +romantic, on which I will not linger) gave us a certainty of her past +consequence and her future fortune were her parents once known; and +while they served to augment the respect in which my love held her, +gradually and almost imperceptibly led her to take a higher tone with +me, and even on occasions to carry herself towards me with an air of +mystery, as if there were still some things which she had not confided +to me. + +This attitude on her part--which in itself pained me extremely--and +still more the fear naturally arising from it, that if she came by her +own I should immediately lose her, forced me to make the acquaintance +of yet another side of love; by throwing me, I mean, into such a fever +of suspicion and jealousy as made me for a period the most unhappy of +men. From this plight my mistress, exercising the privilege of her +sex, made no haste to relieve me. On the contrary, by affecting an +increased reserve and asserting that her movements were watched, she +prolonged my doubts; nor when this treatment had wrought the desired +end of reducing me to the lowest depths, and she at length consented +to meet me, did she entirely relent or abandon her reserve; or if she +did so, on rare occasions, it was only to set me some task as the +price of her complaisance, or expose me to some trial by which she +might prove my devotion. + +In a word, while I became hopelessly enslaved, even to the flogging a +boy at her word, or procuring a dress far above my station--merely +that she might see me by stealth in it, and judge of my air!--which +were two of her caprices, she appeared to be farther removed from me +every day, and at each meeting granted me fewer privileges. Whether +this treatment had its origin in the natural instinct of a woman, or +was deliberately chosen as better calculated to increase my +subservience, it had the latter effect; and to such an extent that +when, after a long absence, she condescended to meet me, and broached +a plan that earlier would have raised my hair, I asked no better than +to do her bidding, and, instead of pointing out the folly of her +proposal, fell in with it with scarcely a murmur. + +Her plan, when she communicated it to me, which she did with an air of +mystery and the same assumption of a secret withheld that had +tormented me before, amounted to nothing less than an evening sally +into the town on the occasion of the approaching visit of the Duke of +York, who was to lie one night at the Rose at Ware on his way to +Newmarket. Mr. D---- had issued the strictest orders that all should +keep the house during this visit; not so much out of a proper care for +the boys' morality (though the gay crowd that followed the Court +served for a pretext) as because, in his character of fanatic and +Exclusionist, he held His Highness's religion and person in equal +abhorrence. Such a restriction weighed little in the scale against +love; but, infatuated as I was, I found something that sensibly +shocked me in the proposal coming from Dorinda's lips; nor could I +fail to foresee many dangers to which a young girl must expose herself +on such an expedition in the town, and at night. But as to a youth in +love nothing that his mistress chooses to do seems long amiss, so this +proposal scared me for a moment only; after which it cost my mistress +no more than a little rallying on my crop-eared manners, and some +scolding, to make me see it in its true aspect of an innocent frolic, +fraught with as much pleasure to the cavalier as novelty to the +escorted. + +"You will don your new suit," she said, merrily, "and I shall meet you +in the garden at half past nine." + +"And if the boys may miss me?" I protested feebly. + +"The boys have missed you before!" she answered, mocking my tone. +"Were you not here last night? And for a whole hour, sir?" + +I confessed with hot cheeks that I had been there; humbly and tamely +awaiting her pleasure. + +"And did they tell then?" she asked scornfully. "Or are they less +afraid of the birch now? But of course--if you don't care to come with +me--or are afraid, sir----?" + +"I am neither," I said warmly. "Only I do not quite understand, sweet, +what you wish." + +"They lie at the Rose," she said. "And amongst them, I am told, are +the prettiest men and the most lovely women in the world. And jewels, +and laces, and such dresses! Oh, I am mad to see them! And music and +gaming and dancing! And dishes and plates of gold! And a Popish +priest, which is a thing I have never seen, though I have heard of it. +And----" + +"And do you expect to see all these things through the windows?" I +cried in my superior knowledge. + +She did not answer at once, but with her hands on my shoulders, swayed +to and fro sideways as if she already heard the music; while her gipsy +face looked archly into mine, first on this side and then on that, and +her hair swung to and fro on her shoulders in a beautiful abandonment +which I found it impossible to resist. At last she stopped, and, +"Yes," she said demurely, "through the windows, Master Richard +Longface! Do you meet me here at half past nine--in your new suit, +sir--and you shall see them too--through the windows." + + +[Illustration: STOLE DOWN THE STAIRS AND INTO THE GARDEN] + + +After that, though I made a last effort to dissuade her, there was +nothing more to be said. Obedient to her behest, I made my +preparations, and at the appointed hour next evening rose softly from +the miserable pallet on which I had just laid down; and dressing +myself with shaking fingers and in the dark--that my bed-fellows might +know as little as possible of my movements--stole down the stairs and +into the garden. + +Here I found myself first at the rendezvous. The night was dark, but +an unusual light hung over the town, and the wind that stirred the +poplars brought scraps and sounds of music to the ear. I had some time +to wait, and time too to think what I was about to do; to weigh the +chances of detection and dismissal, and even to taste the qualms that +rawness and timidity mingled with my anticipations of pleasure. But, +though I had my fears, no vision of the real future obtruded itself on +my mind as I stood there listening: nor any forewarning of the plunge +I was about to take. And before I had come to the end of my patience +Dorinda stood beside me. + +Dark as it was, I fancied that I discerned something strange in her +appearance, and I would have investigated it; but she whispered that +we were late, and evading as well my questions as the caress I +offered, she bade me help her as quickly as I could over the fence. I +did so; we crossed a neighbouring garden, and in a twinkling and with +the least possible difficulty stood in the road. Here the strains of +music came more plainly to the ear, and the glare of light hung lower +and shone more brightly. This seemed enough for my mistress; she +turned that way without hesitation, and set forward, the outskirts of +the town being quickly passed. Between the late hour and the flux of +people towards the centre of interest, the streets were vacant; and we +met no one until we reached the main thoroughfare, and came upon the +edge of the great crowd that moved to and fro before the Rose Inn. +Here all the windows, in one of which a band of music was playing some +new air, were brilliantly lighted; while below and round the door was +such a throng of hurrying waiters and drawers, and such a carrying of +meals and drinks, and a shouting of orders as almost turned the brain. +A carriage and six that had just set down a grandee, come to pay his +devoirs to the Prince, was moving off as we came up, the horses +smoking, the footmen panting, and the postilions stooping in their +saddles. A little to one side a cask was being staved for the troopers +who had come with the Duke; and on all the noisy, moving scene and the +flags that streamed from the roofs and windows, and the shifting +crowd, poured the ruddy light of a great _bon-feu_ that burned on the +farther side of the way. + +Nor, rare as were these things, were they the most pertinent or the +strangest that the fire revealed to me. I had come for nothing else +but to see, _clam et furtim_, as the classics say, what was to be +seen; with no thought of passing beyond the uttermost ring of +spectators. But as I hung back shamefacedly my companion seized my +wrist and drew me on; and when I turned to her to remonstrate, as +Heaven lives, I did not know her! I conceived for a moment that some +madam of the court had seized me in a frolic; nor for a perceptible +space could I imagine that the fine cloaked lady, whose eyes shone +bright as stars through the holes in her mask, and whose raven hair, +so cunningly dressed, failed to hide the brilliance of her neck, where +the cloak fell loose, was my Dorinda, my mistress, the cook-maid whom +I had kissed in the garden! Honestly, for an instant, I recoiled and +hung back, afraid of her; nor was I quite assured of the truth, so +unprepared was I for the change, until she whispered me sharply to +come on. + +"Whither?" I said, still hanging back in dismay. The bystanders were +beginning to turn and stare, and in a moment would have jeered us. + +"Within doors," she urged. + +"They will not admit us!" + +"They will admit me," she answered proudly, and made as if she would +throw my hand from her. + +Still I did not believe her, and it was that, and that only, that +emboldened me; though, to be sure, I was in love and her slave. +Reluctantly, and almost sulkily, I gave way, and sneaked behind her to +the door. A man who stood on the steps seemed, at the first glance, +minded to stop her; but, looking again, smiled and let us pass; and in +a twinkling we stood in the hall among hurrying waiters, and shouting +call-boys, and bloods in silk coats, whose scabbards rang as they came +down the stairs, and a fair turmoil of pages, and footboys, and +gentlemen, and gentlemen's gentlemen. + + +[Illustration: MY COMPANION SEIZED MY WRIST] + + +In such a company, elbowed this way and that by my betters, I knew +neither how to carry myself, nor where to look; but Dorinda, with +barely a pause, and as if she knew the house, thrust open the nearest +door, and led the way into a great room that stood on the right of the +hall. + +Here, down the spacious floor, and lighted by shaded candles, were +ranged several tables, at which a number of persons had seats, while +others again stood or moved about the room. The majority of those +present were men. I noticed, however, three or four women masked after +the fashion of my companion, but more gorgeously dressed, and in my +simplicity did not doubt that these were duchesses, the more as they +talked and laughed loudly; whereas the general company--save those who +sat at one table where the game was at a standstill, and all were +crying persistently for a Tallier--spoke low, the rattle of dice and +chink of coin, and an occasional oath, taking the place of +conversation. I saw piles of guineas and half-guineas on the tables, +and gold lace on the men's coats, and the women a dream of silks and +furbelows, and gleaming shoulders and flashing eyes; and between awe +of my company, and horror at finding myself in such a place, I took +all for real that glittered. Where, therefore, a man of experience +would have discerned a crowd of dubious rakes and rustic squires +tempting fortune for the benefit of the Groom-Porter, whose privilege +was ambulatory, I fancied I gazed on earls and barons; saw a garter on +every leg, and, blind to the stained walls of the common inn-room, +supplied every bully who cried the main or called the trumps with the +pedigree of a Howard. + +This was a delusion not unnatural, and a prey to it, I expected each +moment to be my last in that company. But the fringe of spectators +that stood behind the players favouring us, we fell easily into line +at one of the tables, and nothing happening, and no one saying us nay, +I presently breathed more freely. I could see that my companion's +beauty, though hidden in the main by her mask, was the subject of +general remark; and that it drew on her looks and regards more or less +insolent. But as she took no heed of these, but on the contrary gazed +about her unmoved and with indifference, I hoped for the best; and +excited by the brilliance and movement of a scene so far above my +wildest dreams, that I already anticipated the pride with which I +should hereafter describe it, I began to draw a fearful joy from our +escapade. Like AEneas and Ulysses, I had seen men and cities! And stood +among heroes! And seen the sirens! To which thoughts I was proceeding +to add others equally classical, when a gentleman behind me diverted +my thoughts by touching my companion on the arm, and very politely +requesting, her to lay on the table a guinea which he handed to her. + +She did so, and he thanked her with a low-spoken compliment; then +added with bent head, but bold eyes, "Fortune, my pretty lady, cannot +surely have been unkind to one so fair!" + +"I do not play," Dorinda answered, with all the bluntness I could +desire. + +"And yet I think I have seen you play?" he replied. And affecting to +be engaged in identifying her, he let his eyes rove over her figure. + +Doubtless Dorinda's mask gave her courage; yet, even this taken into +the count, her wit and resource astonished me. "You do not know me, my +pretty gentleman," she said, coolly, and with a proud air. + +"I know that you have cost me a guinea!" he answered. "See, they have +swept it off. And as I staked it for nothing else but to have an +excuse to address the handsomest woman in the room----" + +"You do not know what I am--behind my mask," she retorted. + +"No," he replied, hardily, "and therefore I am going--I am going----" + +"So am I!" my mistress answered, with a quickness that both surprised +and delighted me. "Good night, good spendthrift! You are going; and I +am going." + +"Well hit!" he replied, with a grin. "And well content if we go +together! Yet I think I know how I could keep you!" + +"Yes?" she said, indifferently. + +"By deserving the name," he answered. "You called me spendthrift." + +On that I do not know whether she thought him too forward, or saw that +I was nearly at the end of my patience--which it may be imagined was +no little tried by this badinage--but she turned her shoulder to him +outright, and spoke a word to me in a low tone. Then: "Give me a +guinea, Dick!" she said, pretty loudly. "I think I'll play." + + + + + CHAPTER V + + +She spoke confidently and with a grand air, knowing that I had brought +a guinea with me; so that I had neither the heart to shame her, nor +the courage to displease her. Though it was the ninth part of my +income therefore, and it seemed to me sheer madness or worse to stake +such a sum on a single card, and win or lose it in a moment, I lugged +it out and gave it to her. Even then, knowing her to have no more +skill in the game than I had, I was at a stand, wondering what she +would do with it; but with the tact which never fails a woman she laid +it where the gentleman had placed his. With better luck; for in a +twinkling, and before I thought it well begun, the deal was over, the +players sat back, and swore, and the banker, giving and taking here +and there, thrust a guinea over to our guinea. I was in a sweat to +take both up before anyone cheated us; but she nudged me, and said +with her finest air, "Let it lie, Dick! Do you hear? Let it lie." + +This was almost more than I could bear, to see fortune in my grasp, +and not shut my hand upon it, but she was mistress and I let it lie; +and in a moment, hey presto, as the Egyptians say, the two guineas +were four, and those who played next us, seeing her success, began to +pass remarks on her, making nothing of debating who she was, and +discussing about her shape and complexion in terms that made my cheeks +burn. Whether this open admiration turned her head, or their freedom +confused her, she let the money lie again; and when I would have +snatched it up, not regarding her, the dealer prevented me, saying +that it was too late, while she with an air, as if I had been her +servant, turned and rated me sharply for a fool. This caused a little +disturbance at which all the company laughed. However, the event +proved me no fool, but wiser than most, for in two minutes that pretty +sum, which was as much as I had ever possessed at one time in my life, +was swept off; and for two guineas the richer, which we had been a +moment before, we remained one, and that my only one, the poorer! + +For myself, I could have cried at the misadventure, but my mistress +carried it off with a shrill laugh, and tossing her head in affected +contempt--whereat, I am bound to confess, the company laughed +again--turned from the table. I sneaked after her as miserable as you +please, and in that order we had got half way to the door, when the +gentleman who had addressed her before, stepped up in front of her. +"Beauty so reckless," he said, speaking with a grin, and in a tone of +greater freedom than he had used previously, "needs someone to care +for it! Unless I am mistaken, Mistress, you came on foot?" And with a +sneering smile, he dropped his eyes to the hem of her cloak. + +Alas, I looked too, and the murder was out. To be sure Dorinda had +clothed herself very handsomely above, but coming to her feet had +trusted to her cloak to hide the deficiency she had no means to +supply. Still, and in spite of this, all might have been well if she +had not in her chagrin at losing, forgotten the blot, and, unused to +long skirts, raised them so high as to expose a foot, shapely indeed, +but stockingless, and shod in an old broken shoe! + +Her ears and neck turned crimson at the exposure, and she dropped her +cloak as if it burned her hand. I fancied that if the stranger had +looked to ingratiate himself by his ill-mannered jest, he had gone the +wrong way about it, and I was not surprised when she answered in a +voice quivering with mortification, "Yes, on foot. But you may spare +your pains. I am in this gentleman's care, I thank you." + +"Oh," he said, in a peculiar tone, "this gentleman?" And he looked me +up and down. + +I knew that it behooved me to ruffle it with him, and let him know by +out-staring him that at a word I was ready to pull his nose. But I was +a boy in strange company, and utterly cast down by the loss of my +guinea; he a Court bully in sword and lace, bred to carry it in such +and worse places. Though he seemed to be no more than thirty, he had a +long and hard face under his periwig, and eyes both tired and +melancholy; and he spoke with a drawl and a curling lip, and by the +mere way he looked at me showed that he thought me no better than +dirt. To make a long story short, I had not looked at him a moment +before my eyes fell. + +"Oh, this gentleman?" he said again, in a tone of cutting contempt. +"Well, I hope that he has more guineas than one--or your ladyship will +soon trudge it, skin to mud. As it is, I fear that I detain you. +Kindly carry my compliments to Farmer Grudgen. And the pigs!" + +And smiling--not laughing, for a laugh seemed alien from his face--at +a jest which was too near the truth not to mortify us exceedingly, my +lord--for a lord I thought he was--turned away with an ironical bow; +leaving us to get out of the room with what dignity we might, and such +temper as remained to us. For myself I was in such a rage, both at the +loss of my guinea and at being so flouted, that I could scarcely +govern myself; yet in my awe of Dorinda I said nothing, expecting and +fearing an outbreak on her part, the consequences of which it was not +easy to foretell. I was proportionately pleased therefore, when she +made no more ado at the time, but pushing her way through the crowd in +the street, turned homeward and took the road without a word. + +This was so unlike her that I was at a loss to understand it, and was +fain to conclude--from the fact that she two or three times paused to +listen and look back--that she feared pursuit. The thought, bringing +to my mind the risk of being detected and dismissed, which I ran--a +risk that came home to me now that the pleasure was over, and I had +only in prospect my squalid bed-room and the morrow's tasks--filled me +with uneasiness. But I might have spared myself, for when she spoke I +found that her thoughts were on other things. + +"Dick," she said, suddenly--and halted abruptly in the road, "you must +lend me a guinea." + +"A guinea?" I cried, aghast, and speaking, it may be, with a little +displeasure. "Why, have you not just----" + +"What?" she said. + +"Lost my only one." + +She laughed with a recklessness that confounded me. "Well, you have +got to find another one," she said. "And one to that!" + +"Another guinea?" I gasped. + +"Yes, another guinea, and another guinea!" she answered, mimicking my +tone of consternation. "One for my shoes and stockings--oh, I wish he +were dead!" And she stamped her foot passionately. "And one----" + +"Yes?" I said, with a poor attempt at irony. "And one----?" + +"For me to stake next Friday, when the Duke passes this way on his +road home." + +"He does not!" + +"He does, he does!" she retorted. "And you will do too--what I say, +sir! or----" + +"Or what?" I cried, calling up a spirit for once. + +"Or----" and she raised her voice a little, and sang: + + + "But alas, when I wake, and no Phyllis I find, + How I sigh to myself all alone!" + + +"You never loved me!" I cried, in a rage at that and her greed. + +"Have it your own way!" she answered, carelessly, and sang it again; +and after that there was no more talk, but we walked with all the +width of the road between us; I with a sore heart and she titupping +along, cool and happy, pleased, I think, that she had visited on me +some of the chagrin which the stranger had caused her, and for the +rest with God knows what thoughts in her heart. At least I little +suspected them; yet, with the little knowledge I had, I was angry and +pained; and for the time was so far freed from illusion that I would +not make the overture, but hardened myself with the thought of my +guinea and her selfishness; and coming to the gap in the first fence +helped her over with a cold hand and no embrace such as was usual +between us at such junctures. + +In a word, we were like naughty children returning after playing +truant; and might have parted in that guise, and this the very best +thing that could have happened to me--who had no guinea, and knew not +where to get one; though I would not go so far as to say that, in the +frame of mind in which I then was, it would have saved me. But in the +article of parting, and when the garden fence already rose between us, +yet each remained plain to the other by the light of the moon which +had risen, Dorinda on a sudden raised her hands, and holding her cloak +from her, stood and looked at me an instant in the most ravishing +fashion--with her head thrown back and her lips parted, and her eyes +shining, and the white of her neck and her bare arms, and the swell of +her bosom showing. I could have sworn that even the scent of her hair +reached me, though that was impossible. But what I saw was enough. I +might have known that she did it only to tantalize me: I might have +known that she would show me what I risked; but on the instant, +oblivious of all else, I owned her beauty, and resentment and my loss +alike forgotten, sprang to the fence, my blood on fire, and words +bubbling on my lips: Another second, and I should have been at her +feet, have kissed her shoes muddy and broken as they were; but she +turned, and with a backward glance, that only the more inflamed me, +fled up the garden, and to the house, whither, even at my maddest, I +dared not follow her. + +However, enough had passed to send me to my bed to long and lie awake; +enough, the morrow come, to take all colour from the grey tasks and +dull drudgery of school-time; insomuch that the hours seemed days, and +the days weeks, and Mr. D----'s ignorant prosing and infliction too +wearisome to be borne. What my love now lacked of reverence, it made +up in passion, and passion's offspring, impatience: on which it is to +be supposed my mistress counted, since for three whole days she kept +within, and though every evening I flew to the rendezvous, and there +cooled my heels for an hour, she never showed herself. + +Once, however, I heard her on the other side of the fence, singing: + + + "But alas, when I wake, and no Phyllis I find, + How I sigh to myself all alone!" + + +And, sick at heart, I understood the threat and her attitude. +Nevertheless, and though the knowledge should have cured me, by +convincing me that she was utterly unworthy and had never loved me, I +only consumed the more for her, and grovelled the lower in spirit +before her and her beauty; and the devil presently putting in my way +the means where he had already provided the motive, it was no wonder +that I made but a poor resistance, and in a short time fell. + +It came about in this way. In the course of the week, and before the +Friday on which the Duke was to return that way, Mr. D---- announced +an urgent call to London; and as he was too wise to broach such a +proposal without a _quid pro quo_, Mrs. D---- must needs go with him. +The stage-wagon, which travelled three days in the week, would serve +next morning, and all was hasty preparation; clothes were packed and +mails got out; a gossip, one Mrs. Harris, was engaged to take Mrs. +D----'s place, and the boys were entrusted to me, with strict +instructions to see all lights out at night, and no waste. That these +injunctions might be the more deeply impressed on me, I was summoned +to Mrs. D----'s parlour to receive them; but unluckily with the +instructions given to me were mingled housekeeping directions to Mrs. +Harris, who was also present; the result being that when I retired +from the room I carried with me the knowledge that in a certain desk, +perfectly accessible, my employer left three guineas, to be used in +case of emergency, but otherwise not to be touched. + +It was an unhappy chance, explaining, as well as accounting for, so +much of what follows, that were I to enter into long details of the +catastrophe, it would be useless; since the judicious reader will have +already informed himself of a result that was never in doubt, from the +time that my employer's departure at once provided the means of +gratification, and by removing the restraints under which we had +before laboured, held out the prospect of pleasure. Nor can I plead +that I sinned in ignorance; for as I sat among the boys and +mechanically heard their tasks, I called myself, "Thief, thief," a +hundred times, and a hundred to that; and once even groaned aloud; yet +never flinched or doubted that I should take the money. Which I +did--to cut a long story short--before Mr. D---- had been three hours +out of the house; and that evening humbly presented the whole of it to +my mistress, who rewarded my complaisance with present kisses and +future pledges, to be redeemed when she should have once more tasted +the pleasures of the great world. + +To tell the truth, her craving for these, and to be seen again in +those haunts where we had reaped nothing but loss and mortification, +was a continual puzzle to me, who asked for nothing better than to +enjoy her society and kindness, as far as possible from the world. But +as she _would_ go and _would_ play, and made my subservience in this +matter the condition of her favour, it was essential she should win; +since I could then restore the money I had taken; whereas if she lost, +I saw no prospect before me but the hideous one of detection and +punishment. Accordingly, when the evening came, and we had effected +the same clandestine exodus as before--but this time with less peril, +Mrs. Harris being a sleepy, easy-going woman--I could think of nothing +but this necessity; and far from experiencing the terrors which had +beset me before, when Dorinda would enter the inn, gave no thought to +the scene or the crowd through which we pushed, or any other of the +preliminaries, but had my soul so set upon the fortune that awaited +us, that I was for passing through the door in the hardiest fashion, +and would scarcely stand even when a hand gripped my shoulder. +However, a rough voice exclaiming in my ear, "Softly, youngster! Who +are you that poke in so boldly? I don't know you," brought me to my +senses. + +"I was in last week," I answered, gasping with eagerness. + +"Then you were one too many," the doorkeeper retorted, thrusting me +back without mercy. "This is not a tradesman's ordinary. It is for +your betters." + +"But I was in," I cried, desperately. "I was in last week." + +"Well, you will not go in again," he answered coolly. "For the lady, +it is different. Pass in, mistress," he continued, withdrawing his arm +that she might pass, and looking at her with an impudent leer. "I can +never refuse a pretty face. And I will bet a guinea that there is one +behind that mask." + +On which, to my astonishment, and while I stood agape between rage and +shame, my mistress, with a hurried word--that might stand for a +farewell, or might have been merely a request to me to wait, for I +could not catch it--accepted the invitation; and deserting me without +the least sign of remorse, passed in and disappeared. For a moment I +could scarcely, thus abandoned, believe my senses or that she had left +me; then, the iron of her ingratitude entering into my soul, and a +gentleman tapping me imperatively on the shoulder and saying that I +blocked the way, I was fain to turn aside, and plunge into the +darkness, to hide the sobs I could no longer restrain. + +For a time, leaning my forehead against a house in a side alley, I +called her all the names in the world; reflecting bitterly at whose +expense she was here, and at what a price I had bought her pleasure. +Nor, it may be thought, was I likely to find excuses for her soon. But +a lover, as he can weave his unhappiness out of the airiest trifles, +so from very gossamer can he spin comfort; nor was it long before I +considered the necessity under which we lay to play and win, and +bethought me that, instead of finding fault with her for entering +alone, I should applaud the prudence that at a pinch had borne this +steadily in mind. After which, believing what I hoped, I soon ceased +to reproach her; and jealousy giving way to suspense--since all for me +now depended on the issues of gain or loss--I hastened to return to +the door, and hung about it in the hope of seeing her appear. + +This she did not do for some time, but the interval and my thoughts +were diverted by a _rencontre_ as disagreeable as it was unexpected. +In my solitary condition I had made so few acquaintances in Hertford, +that I fancied I stood in no fear of being recognised. I was vastly +taken aback therefore, when a gentleman plainly dressed, happening to +pause an instant on the threshold as he issued from the inn, let his +glance rest on me; and after a second look stepped directly to me, and +with a sour aspect, asked me what I did in that place. + +Then, when it was too late, I took fright; recognising him for a +gentleman of a good estate in the neighbourhood, who had two sons at +Mr. D----'s school, and enjoyed great influence with my master, he +being by far the most important of his patrons. As he belonged to the +fanatical party, and in common with most of that sect had been a +violent Exclusionist, I as little expected to see him in that company, +as he to see me. But whereas he was his own master, and besides was +there--this I learned afterwards--to rescue a young relative, while I +had no such excuse, he had nothing to fear and I all. I found myself, +therefore, ready to sink with confusion; and even when he repeated his +challenge could find no words in which to answer. + +"Very well," he said, nodding grimly at that. "Perhaps Mr. D---- may +be able to answer me. I shall take care to visit him to-morrow, sir, +and learn whether he is aware how his usher employs his nights. Good +evening." + +So saying, he left me horribly startled, and a prey to apprehensions, +which were not lessened by the guilt, that already lay on my +conscience in another and more serious matter. For such is the common +course of ill-doing; to plunge a man, I mean, deeper and deeper in the +mire. I now saw not one ridge of trouble only before me, but a second +and a third; and no visible way of escape from the consequences of my +imprudence. To add to my fears, the gentleman on leaving me joined the +same courtier who had spoken to Dorinda on the occasion of our former +visit, and who had just come out; so that to my prepossessed mind +nothing seemed more probable than that the latter would tell him in +whose company he had seen me and the details of our adventure. As a +fact, it was from this person's clutches my master's patron was here +to rescue his nephew. But I did not know this; and seeking in my panic +to be reassured, I asked a servant beside me who the stranger was. + +"He?" he said. "Oh, he is a gentleman from the Temple. Been playing +with him?" and he looked at me, askance. + +"No," I said. + +"Oh," he replied, "the better for you." + +"But what is his name?" I urged. + +"Who does not know Mat. Smith, Esquire, of the Temple, is a country +booby--and that is you!" the man retorted quickly; and went off +laughing. Still this, seeing that I did not know the name, relieved me +a little; and the next moment I was aware of Dorinda waiting for me at +the door. Deducing from the smile that played on her countenance the +happiest omens of success, I forgot my other troubles in the relief +which this promised; and I sprang to meet her. Guiding her as quickly +as I could through the crowd, I asked her the instant I could find +voice to speak, what luck she had had. + +"What luck?" she cried; and then pettishly, "there, clumsy! you are +pulling me into that puddle. Have a care of my new shoes, will you? +What luck, did you say? Why, none!" + +"What? You have not lost?" I exclaimed, standing still in the road; +and it seemed to me that my heart stood still also. + +"Yes, but I have!" she answered hardily. + +"All?" I groaned. + +"Yes, all! If you call two guineas all," she replied carelessly. "Why, +you are not going to cry for two guineas, baby, are you?" + + + + + CHAPTER VI + + +But I was going to cry and did, breaking down like a child; and that +not so much at the thought of the desperate strait to which she had +brought me--though this was no other than the felon's dock, with the +prospect of disgrace, and to be whipped or burned in the hand, at the +best, and if I had my benefit--but at the sudden conviction, which +came upon me, perfect and overwhelming, that my mistress, for whom I +had risked so much, did not love me! In no other way, and on no other +theory, could I explain callousness so complete, thoughtlessness so +cruel! Nor did her next words tend to heal the mischief, or give me +comfort. + +"Oh!" she exclaimed, flouncing from me with impatient contempt, and +walking on the other side of the way, "if you are going to be a +cry-baby, thank you for nothing! I thought you were a man!" And she +began to hum an air. + +"My God! I don't think you care!" I sobbed, aghast at her +insensibility. + +"Care?" she retorted indifferently, swinging her visor in her hand. +"For what?" + +"For me! Or for anything!" + +With a coolness that appalled me, she finished the verse she was +humming; then, "Your finger hurts, therefore you are going to die!" +she said, with a sneer. "You see the fire and therefore you must be +burned. Why, you have the courage of a hen! A flea! A mouse! You are +not worthy the name of a man." + +"I am man enough to be hanged," I answered miserably. + +"Hanged?" quoth she, quite cheerfully. "Do you think that man was ever +hanged for three guineas?" + +"Ay, scores," I said, "and for less!" + +"Then they must have been cravens like you!" she retorted, perfectly +well satisfied with her answer. "And spun their own ropes. Come, +silly, cheer up! A great many things may happen in a week! And if that +vixen is back under a week, I will eat her!" + +"A week won't make three guineas," I said dolefully. + +"No, but a good heart will," she rejoined. "And not three but thirty! +Only," she continued, looking askance at me, "you have not the spirit +of a man. You are just Tumbledown Dick, as they say, and as well named +as nine-pence!" + +It seemed inconceivable to me that she could jest so merrily and carry +herself so gaily, after such a loss; and I stopped short in sudden +hope and new-born expectation; and peered at her, striving to read her +thoughts. "I don't believe you have lost them!" I exclaimed at last. + +"Every groat, Dick!" she answered, curtly--yet still in the best of +spirits. "Never doubt that!" + +On which it was not wonderful that my disappointment and her +cheerfulness agreed so ill, that we came to bitter words, and +beginning by calling one another "Thankless," and "Clutch-penny," rose +presently to "Fool," and "Jade"; and eventually parted on the latter +at the garden fence; where Dorinda, so far from lingering as on the +former night, flounced from me in a passion, and left me without a +single word of regret. How miserably after that I stole to bed, and +how wakefully I tossed in the close garret, I cannot hope to convey to +my readers; suffice it that a hundred times I cursed the folly that +had led me to ruin, a hundred times went hot and cold at thought of +the dock and the gallows; and yet amid all found in Dorinda's +heartlessness the sharpest pain. I felt sure now, and told myself +continually, that she had never loved me; therefore--at the time it +seemed to follow--I deemed my own love at an end and cast her off; and +heaping the sharpest reproaches on her head, found my one sweet +consolation--whereat I wept miserably--in composing a last dying +speech and confession that should soften at length that obdurate +bosom, and break that unfeeling heart. + +But with the day, and the rising to imminent terrors and hourly fear +of detection, came first regret, then self-reproach--lest I too should +be somewhat in fault--then a revival of passion; lastly, a frantic +yearning to be reconciled to the only person to whom I could speak +freely, or who knew the danger and strait in which I stood. My heart +melting like water at the thought, I was ready to do anything or say +anything, to abase myself to any depth, in order to regain her favour +and have her advice; and the absence of Mr. and Mrs. D----, and Mrs. +Harris's easiness rendering it a matter of no difficulty to seek her, +in the course of the afternoon I took my courage in my hands and went +into the next house. There I found only Mrs. Harris. + +"The little slut has stepped out," she said, looking up from the pot +over which she was stooping. "She asked leave for half an hour and has +been gone an hour. But it is the way of the wenches all the world +over. Do you beware of them, Mr. Price," she continued, eyeing me, and +laughing jollily. + +I made some trifling answer; and returning to my own domain, with all +the pangs of loneliness added to those of terror, sat down in the +dingy, dreary taskroom and abandoned myself to bitter forebodings. She +did not, she never could have loved me! I knew it and felt it now. Yet +I must think of her or go mad. I must think of her or of the cart and +cord; and so, through the hours that followed, I had only eyes for the +next garden, and ears for her voice. The boys and their chattering, +and the necessity I was under of playing my part before them, +well-nigh mastered me. For, at any hour, on any day, while I sat there +among them, Mr. and Mrs. D---- might return, and the loss be +discovered; and yet, and though time was everything, all the efforts I +made to see Jennie or get speech with her failed; and of myself I +seemed to be unable to think out any plan or way of escape. + +I am sure that the most ascetic, could he have weighed the tortures of +those four days during which I sat surrounded by the boys, and now +making frantic efforts to appear myself, now sunk in a staring, +pale-faced lethargy of despair, would have deemed them a punishment +more than commensurate with my guilt. The unusual air of peace and +quietness with which Mrs. D----'s absence invested the school had no +more power to soothe me than the presence of Mrs. Harris, nodding over +her plain-stitch in the next garden, availed to banish the burning +gusts of fear that at times parched my skin. At length, on the fifth +day, the immediate warning of coming judgment arrived in the shape of +a letter announcing that my employer would return (D.V.) by the night +waggon, which in the ordinary course was due to reach Ware about six +next morning. + +At that I could stand the strain no longer, but flinging appearance +and deception to the winds, I rose from the class I was pretending to +teach, and in a disorder I made no effort to suppress, followed Mrs. +Harris; who, having declared the news, was already waddling back to +the next house. She started at sight of me in her train--as she well +might, for it was the busiest time of the day; then asked if anything +ailed me. + +"No," I said. "I want a word with Jennie." + +"Do you?" quoth she, looking hard at me. "So, it would seem, do a good +many young fellows. She is a nice handful if ever there was one." + +"Why?" I stammered. + +"Why?" she answered in a tone very sharp for her. "Why, because--but +what have you to do with Jennie, young man?" + +"Nothing," I said. + +"Then have nothing," she answered promptly, and shook her sides +at her sharpness. "That is no puzzle! And as it is no more than +half-past ten, and I hear your boys rampaging like so many wild +Irishmen--suppose you go back to them, young man!" + +I obeyed; but whatever effect her warning might have had earlier--and +I shrewdly suspect that it would have affected me as much as water +affects a duck's back--it came too late; my one desire now being to +see the girl, even as my one hope lay in her advice. Nine had struck +that evening, however, and night had fallen, and I grown fairly sick +with fear, before my efforts were rewarded, and stealing into the +garden on a last desperate search--I think for the twentieth time--I +came on her standing in the dusk, beside the fence where I had so +often met her. + +I sprang to her side, relief at my heart, reproaches on my lips; but +it was only to recoil at sight of her face, grown hard and old and +pinched, and for the moment almost ugly. "Why, child!" I cried, +forgetting my own trouble. "What is it?" + +She laughed without mirth, looking at me strangely. "What do you +suppose?" she said huskily, and I could see that fear was on her. "Do +you think that you are the only one in danger?" + +"How?" I exclaimed. + +"How?" she replied in a tone of mockery. "Why, do you suppose that +stockings and shoes are the only things that cost money? Or that vizor +masks, and gloves and hoods grow on bushes? Briefly, fool, if you can +give me four guineas, I am saved. If not----" + +"My God!" I cried, horror-stricken. + +"If not," she continued hardily, "you have taught me to read, and that +may save my neck. I suppose I shall be sent to the plantations, to be +beaten weekly, and work in the sun, and----" + +"Four guineas!" I groaned. + +"Yes, seven in all!" she answered with a sneer. +"Have you got them?" + +"No, nor a groat!" I answered, overwhelmed by the discovery that +instead of giving help she needed it. "Not a penny!" + +"Then it must be got!" she answered fiercely. "It must be got!" and as +she repeated the words, she dropped her mocking tone, and spoke with +feverish energy. "It must be got, Dick!" and she seized my hands and +held them. "It must be, and can be, if you have a spark of spirit, if +you are not the poor mean thing I sometimes think you. Listen! Listen! +In the old man's room upstairs--the door is locked and double-locked, +I have tried it--are sixty guineas, in a bag! Sixty guineas, in a +drawer of the old bureau by the bed!" + +"It is death," I cried feebly, recoiling from her as I spoke. "It is +death! I dare not! I dare not do it!" + +"Then we hang! We hang, man!" she answered fiercely. "You and I! Will +it be better to hang for a lamb than a sheep? For seven guineas than +for sixty?" + +"But if we take it, what shall we be the better for it?" I said +weakly. "He returns in the morning." + +"By the morning, given the money, we shall be a score of miles away!" +she answered, flinging her arms round my neck, and hanging on my +breast, while her hot breath fanned my cheek. No wonder I felt my +brain reel, and my will melt. "Away from here, Dick," she repeated +softly. "Away---and together!" + +Yet I made an effort to withstand her. "You forget the door," I said. +"If the door is locked, and Mrs. Harris sleeps in the next room, how +can it be done?" + +"Not by the door, but by the window," she replied. "There is a ladder +in the second garden from this; and the latch of the window is weak. +The old fool indoors sleeps like a hog. By eleven she will be sound. +And oh, Dick!" my mistress cried, breaking down on a sudden and +snatching my hands to her bosom, "will you see me shamed? Play the man +for ten minutes only--for ten minutes only, and by morning we shall be +safe, and far from here! And--and together, Dick! Together!" + +Was it likely, I ask, was it possible that I should long resist +pleading such as this? That holding her in my arms, in the warm summer +night, with her hair on my breast, while the moon sailed overhead and +a cricket chirped in the wall hard by--was it likely or possible, I +say, that I should steel my heart against her; that I should turn from +the cup of pleasure, who had tasted as yet so few delights, and +drudged and been stinted all my life? Whose appetite had known no +daintier relish than the dull round of dumpling and bacon, or at the +best salt meat and spinach; and who for sole companionship had been +shut in, June days and December nights alike, with a band of +mischievous boys, whom the ancients justly called _genus improbum_. At +any rate I did not; to my shame, great or small, according as I shall +be harshly or charitably judged--I did not; but with a beating heart +and choked voice, I gave my word and left her; and an hour later I +crept down the creaking stairs for the last time, guilty and +shivering, a bundle in my hand, and found her waiting for me in the +old place. + +I confess that the flurry of my spirits in this crisis was such as to +disturb my judgment; and my passion for my mistress being no longer of +the higher kind, these two things may account for the fact that I felt +no wonder or repulsion when she explained to me, coolly and in detail, +where the bureau stood, and in what part of it lay the money; even +adding that I had better bring away a pair of silver candlesticks +which I should find in another place. By the time she had made these +things clear to me, the favourable moment was come; the lights of the +town had long been extinguished, and the house obscuring the moon cast +a black shadow on the garden, that greatly seconded our movements. Yet +for myself, and though all went well with us, I trembled at the +faintest sound, and started if a leaf stirred; nay, to this day I +willingly believe that the smallest trifle, a light at a window or a +distant voice, would have deterred me from the adventure. But nothing +occurred to hinder or alarm; and the darkness cloaking us only too +effectually, and my accomplice directing me where to find the ladder, +I fetched it, and with her help thrust it over the fence and climbed +over after it. + +This was a small thing, the worst being to come. The part of the +garden under the wall of the house was paved; it was only with the +greatest exertion therefore and the utmost care that we could raise +the ladder on it without noise; and but for the surprising strength +which Jennie showed, I doubt if we should have succeeded, my hands +trembled so violently. In the end we raised it, however; the upper +part fell lightly beside the second floor casement, and Jennie +whispered to me to ascend. + +I had gone too far now to retreat, and I obeyed, and had mounted two +steps, when I heard distinctly--the sound coming sharp and clear +through the night--the shod hoof of a horse paw the ground, apparently +in the road beyond the house. Scared by such a sound at such a time, I +slid rapidly down into Jennie's arms. "Hush!" I cried. "Did you hear +that? There is someone there!" + +But angered by my sudden descent which had come near to knocking her +down, she whispered in a rage that I was either the biggest fool or +the poorest craven in the world. "Go up! Go up!" she continued +fiercely, almost striking me in her excitement. "There are sixty +guineas awaiting us up there--sixty guineas, man, and you budge, +because a horse stirs." + +"But what is it doing there?" I remonstrated. "A horse, Jennie--at +this time of night!" + +"God knows!" she answered. "What is it to us?" + +Still I lingered a moment, unwilling to ascend; but hearing nothing, +and thinking I might have been mistaken, I was ashamed to hang back +longer, and I went up, though my legs trembled under me, and a bird +darting suddenly out of the ivy glued me to the ladder by both hands, +with the sweat standing out on my face. Alone, nothing on earth would +have persuaded me to it; but with Jennie below I dared not flinch, and +the latch of the window proving as weak as she had described it, in a +moment the lattice swung open and I climbed over the sill. + +Feeling the floor with my feet, I stood an instant in the dark stuffy +room, and listened. It smelled strongly of herbs, on which account I +hate that smell to this day. I could hear Mrs. Harris snoring next +door; and the pendulum of the fine new clock on the stairs, which was +Mrs. D----'s latest pride, was swinging to and fro regularly; and I +knew that at the slightest alarm the house would be awake. But I had +gone too far to recede; and though I feared and sweated, and at the +touch of a hand must have screamed aloud, I went forward and groping +my way across the floor, found the bureau, and tried the drawer. + +It was locked, but crazily; and Jennie foreseeing the obstacle had +given me a chisel. Inserting the point, I listened awhile to assure +myself that all was quiet, and then with the resolution of despair +forced the drawer open with a single wrench. Probably the noise was no +great one, but to my ears it rang through the night loud as the crack +of laden ice. I heard the sleeper in the next room cease her snoring +and turn in the bed; and cowering down on the floor I gave up all for +lost. But in a moment she began to breathe again, and encouraged by +that and the silence in the house, I drew the drawer open, and feeling +for the bag, discovered it, and clutching it firmly, turned to the +window. + +I found that Jennie had mounted the ladder, and was looking into the +room, her hands on the sill, her head dark against the sky. "Have you +got it?" she whispered, thrusting in her arm and groping for me. "Then +give it me while you get the candlesticks. They are wrapped in +flannel, and are under the bed." + +I gave her the bag, which chinked as it passed from hand to hand; then +I turned obediently, and groping my way to the bed which stood beside +the bureau, I felt under it. I found nothing, but did not at once give +up. The candlesticks might lie on the farther side, and accordingly I +rose and climbed over the bed and tried again, passing my hands +through the flue and dust which had gathered under Mrs. D----'s best +feather-bed. + +How long I might have searched in the dark, and vainly, I cannot say; +for my efforts were brought to a premature end by a dull thud that +came to my ears apparently from the next room. Certain that it could +be caused by nothing less than Mrs. Harris getting out of bed, I +crawled out, and got to my feet in a panic, and stood in the dark +quaking and listening; so terrified that I am sure if the good woman +had entered at that moment, I should have fallen on my knees before +her, and confessed all. Nothing followed, however; the house remained +quiet; I heard no second sound. But my nerve was gone. I wanted +nothing so much now as to be out of the place; not for a thousand +guineas would I have stayed; and without giving another thought to the +candlesticks, I groped my way to the window, and passing one leg over +the sill, felt hurriedly for the ladder. + +I failed to find it, and tried again; then peering down called Jennie +by name. She did not answer. A second time I called, and felt about +with my foot; still without success. Then as it dawned upon me at last +that the ladder was really gone, and I a prisoner, I thought of +prudence no longer, but I called frantically, at first in a whisper, +and then as loudly as I dared; called and called again, "Jennie! +Jennie!" And yet again, "Jennie!" + +Still no answer came; but listening intently, in one of the intervals +of silence, I caught the even beat of hoofs, receding along the road, +and growing each moment less marked. They held me; scarcely breathing, +I listened to them, until they died away in the distance of the summer +night, and only the sharp insistent chirp of the cricket, singing in +the garden below, came to my ears. + + + + + CHAPTER VII + + +How long I hung at the window, at one time stunned and stricken down +by the catastrophe that had befallen me, and at another feeling +frantically for the ladder which I had over and over again made sure +was not there, I know no more than another; but only that after a +time, first suspicion and then rage darted lightning-like through the +stupor that clouded my mind, and I awoke to all the tortures that love +outraged by treachery can feel; with such pangs and terrors added as +only a faithful beast, bound and doomed and writhing under the knife +of its master, may be supposed to endure. + +For a while, it is true, imagining that Jennie, terrified by someone's +approach, had lowered the ladder and withdrawn herself, and so would +presently return to free me, I hoped against hope. But as minutes +passed, and yet more minutes, laden only with the cricket's even +chirp, and the creepy rustling of the wind in the poplars, and still +failed to bring her, the sound of retreating hoofs which I had heard +recurred to my mind, with dreadful significance, and on the top of it +a hundred suspicious circumstances; among which, as her sudden passion +when I had taken fright at the foot of the ladder, was not the least, +so her avoidance of me during the last few days and her frequent +absences from the house, spoken to by Mrs. Harris, had their weight. +In fine, by the light of her desertion after receiving the plunder, +and while I sought the candlesticks--which I had now convinced myself +were not there--many things obscure before, or to which I had wilfully +shut my eyes--as her callousness, her greed, her recklessness--stood +out plainly; while these again, being coolly considered, reflected so +seriously on her, as to give her sudden departure the worst possible +appearance, even in a lover's eyes. The days had been when I would not +have believed such a thing of her at the mouth of an angel from +Heaven. But much had happened since, to which my passion had blinded +me, temporarily only; so that it needed but a flash of searing light +to make all clear, and convince me that she had not only left me, but +left me trapped--I who had given up all and risked all for her! + +In the first agony of pain and rage wrought by a conviction so +horrible, I could think only of her treachery and my loss; and head to +knees on the bare floor of the room, I wept as if my heart would +break, or choked with the sobs that seemed to rend my breast. And +little wonder, seeing that I had given her a boy's first devotion, and +that of all sins ingratitude has the sharpest tooth! But to this +paroxysm, when I had nearly exhausted myself, came an end and an +antidote in the shape of urgent fear; which suddenly flooding my soul, +roused me from my apathy of grief, and set me to pacing the room in a +dreadful panic, trying now the door and now the window. But on both my +attacks were in vain, the former being locked and resisting the +chisel, while the latter hung thirty feet above the paved yard. + +Thus caught and snared, as neatly as any bird in a springe, I had no +resource but in my wits; and for a time, as I had nothing of which I +could form a rope, I busied myself with the expedient of throwing out +the featherbed and leaping upon it. But when I had dragged it to the +window, and came to measure the depth, I recoiled, as the most +desperate might, from the leap; and softly returning the bed to its +place, I fell to biting my nails, or fitfully roamed from place to +place, according as despair or some new hope possessed me. + +In one or other of these moods the dawn found me; and then in a +surprisingly short time I heard the dreaded sounds of life awaken +round me, and creeping to the window I closed it, and crouched down on +the floor. Presently Mrs. Harris began to stir, and a boy walked +whistling shrilly across the adjacent yard; and then--strangest of all +things, and not to be invented--in the crisis of my fate, with the +feet of those who must detect me almost on the stairs, I fell asleep; +and awoke only when a key grated in the lock of the room, and I +started up to find Mr. D---- in the doorway staring at me, and behind +him a crowd of piled-up faces. + +"Why, Price?" he cried, with a look of stupefaction, as he came slowly +into the room, "what is the meaning of this?" + +Then I suppose my shame and guilty silence told him, for with a sudden +scowl and an oath he strode to the bureau and dragged out the drawer. +A glance showed him that the money was gone, and shouting frantically +to those at the door to keep it--to keep it, though they were +half-a-dozen to one!--he clutched me by the breast of my coat, and +shook me until my teeth chattered. + +"Give it up," he cried, spluttering with rage. "Give it up, you +beggar's brat! Or, by heaven, you shall hang for it." + +But as I had nothing to give up, and could not speak, I burst into +tears; which with the odd part I had played in staying in the room to +be taken, and perhaps my youth and innocent air, aroused the +neighbours' surprise; who, crowding round, asked him solicitously what +was missing. He answered after a moment's hesitation, sixty guineas. +One had already clapped his hands over my clothes, and another had +forced my mouth open; but on this they desisted, and stood, full of +admiration. + +"He cannot have swallowed that," said the most active, gaping at me. + +"No, that is certain. But what beats me," said another, looking round, +"is how he got here." + +"To say nothing of why he stayed here!" replied the former. + +"I'll tell you what," quoth a third, shaking his head. "There is some +hocus-pocus in this. And I should not wonder, neighbours, if the +Catholics were at the bottom of it!" + +The theory appeared to commend itself to more than one--for they were +all of the fanatical party; but it was swept to the winds by the +entrance of Mrs. D----, who having heard of robbery, came in like a +whirlwind, her face on fire, and made no more ado, but rushed upon me, +and tore and slapped my cheeks with all her might, crying with each +blow, "You nasty thief, will that teach you better manners? That for +your roguery! and that! Oh, you jail bird, I'll teach you!" + +How long she would have continued to chastise me I cannot say, but her +husband presently stepped in to protect me, and being thoroughly +winded, she let me go pretty willingly. But when she learned, having +hitherto been under the impression that I had been seized in the act +with the money upon me, that the latter could not be found, her face +turned yellow and she sat down in a chair. + +"Have you searched?" she gasped. + +"Everywhere," the neighbours answered her. + +"He must have thrown it through the window." + +They shook their heads. + +On that she jumped up, and looked at me with a cold spite in her face +that made me shiver. "Then I will tell you what it is," she said, "he +has given it to that hussy, and she has taken it! But I will have it +out of him; where the money is, and she is, and how he got in! Mr. +D----, when you have done standing there like a gaby, fetch your +stoutest cane; and do you, my friends, lay him across that bed! And if +we do not cut it out of his skin, his name is not Richard Price. I +wish I had the wench here, and I would serve her the same!" + +I screamed, and fell on my knees as they laid hands on me; but Mrs. +D---- was a woman without bowels, and the men were complaisant and not +unwilling to see the cruel sport of the usher flogged, and the +schoolmaster disciplined; and it would have gone hard with me, in +spite of my prayers, if the constable had not arrived at that moment, +and requested with dignity to see his prisoner. Introduced to me, he +stared; and, moved I believe by an impulse of pity, said I was young +to hang. + +"Ay, but not too good!" Mrs. D---- answered shrilly, her head +trembling with passion. "He and the hussy, that is gone, have robbed +me of eighty guineas in a green bag, as I am prepared to swear!" + +"Sixty, Mrs. D----," said her husband, looking a warning at her and +then askance at his neighbours. + +"Rot take the man, does it matter to a guinea or two?" she +retorted--but her sallow face flushed a little. "At any rate," she +continued, pressing her thin lips together, and nodding her head +viciously, "sixty or eighty, they have taken them." + +It seemed, however, that even to that one of the neighbours had a word +to say. "As to the girl, I am not so sure, Mrs. D----," he struck in +ponderously. "If she is the wench that has been carrying on with the +gentleman at the 'Rose,' she has had other fish to fry. Though I don't +say, mind you, that she has _not_ been in this. Only----" + +But Mrs. D---- could restrain herself no longer. "Only! only! +Gentlemen at the 'Rose'!" she cried. "Why, man, are you mad? What do +you think has my maid--though maid she is not, but a dirty drab, and +more is the pity I took her out of charity from the parish--she was +Kitty Higgs's base-born brat as you know--what has she to do with +gentlemen at the 'Rose'?" + +"Well, that is not for me to say," the man answered quietly. "Only I +know that for a week or more a wench has been walking with the +gentleman in the roads and so forth, by night as well as by day. I +came on them twice myself hard by here; and though she was dressed +more like a fine madam than a serving girl, I watched her into your +house. And for the rest, Mrs. Harris must know more than I do." + +But Mrs. Harris, when Mrs. D---- turned on her in a white rage, could +only cover her head and weep in a corner; as much, I believe, out of +sorrow for me as on her own account. However, the fact that the +good-natured woman had left Jennie pretty much to her own devices +could not be gainsaid; and Mrs. D---- had much to say on it. But when +she talked of sending after the baggage and jailing her, ay, and the +gentleman at the "Rose" too, if he could not pay the money, the +constable pursed up his lips. + +"It is to be remembered that he came with His Royal Highness, our +gracious Prince," he said, swelling out his chest and puffing out his +cheeks with importance. "And though it is true he ordered his horses +and went for London last evening--as I know myself, having seen him +go, and seen him before for the matter of that at Hertford Assizes, +for he is a Counsellor--it does not follow that the wench went with +him. Or, if she did, Mrs. D----, ----" + +"That she had anything to do with this money," the neighbour who had +spoken before put in. + +"Precisely, Mr. Jenkins," the constable answered. "You are a man of +sense. For my part," he continued, looking round a little defiantly, +"I am no Whig, and I am not for meddling with Court gentlemen, and +least of all lawyers. And if you will take my advice, Mr. D----, you +will be satisfied to lay this young jail-bird by the heels; and if he +does not speak before the rope is round his neck, it is not likely +that you will get your money other ways. But, lord," the good man went +on, standing back from me, to view me the better, "he is young to be +such a villain! It is 'broke and entered,' too, and so he will swing +for it." And he took off his hat and wiped his bald head, while he +gazed at me between pity and admiration. + +Mrs. D----, who was very far from sharing either of these feelings, +would have had me taken at once before a Justice and committed. But +the constable, partly to prove his importance, and partly, I believe, +to give me a chance of disclosing where the money lay, before it was +too late, would have the house and garden searched, and all the boys +examined; under the impression that I might have had one of these for +my accomplice. Naturally, however, nothing came of this, except the +discovery that I had been out of nights lately; which had scarcely +been made when who should appear on the scene, in an unlucky hour for +me, but the gentleman who had identified me outside the gaming room at +the "Rose." As he had come for the very purpose of laying a complaint +against me, his story destroyed the last scrap of my credit, by +exhibiting me as a secret rake; and this removing all doubt of my +guilt, if any were still entertained even by Mrs. Harris, it was +determined to convey me, dinner over, to Sir Baldwin Winston's, at +Abbot's Stanstead, to be committed; the two Justices who resided in +Ware being at the moment disabled. + +All this time, and while my fate was being decided, I listened to one +and another in a dull despair, which deprived me of the power to +defend myself; and from which nothing less than Mrs. D----'s atrocious +proposal to flog me, until I gave up the money, could draw me, and +that only for a moment. Conscious of my guilt, and seized in the act +and on the scene of my crime, I beheld only the near and certain +prospect of punishment; while I had not the temptation to tell all, +and inform against my crafty accomplice, to which a knowledge of her +destination must have exposed me. Besides--and I think a great part of +my apathy was due to this--I still felt the stunning effects of the +blow which her cruel treachery had dealt me. I saw her in her true +light; and as I sat, weeping silently, and seeming to those who +watched me, little moved, I was thinking at least as much of the past +and my love, and her craft, as of the fate that lay before me. + +Though this was presently brought vividly before me, and of all +persons by Mrs. Harris. Mrs. D---- of herself would have given me +neither bit nor sup in the house; but the constable insisting that the +King's prisoner must be fed, Mrs. Harris, tearful and shaking, was +allowed to bring me some broken victuals. These set before me, the +good soul, instead of retiring, pottered aimlessly about the room; and +by and by got behind me; on which, or rather a moment later, I felt +something cold and sharp at the nape of my neck and started up. +Bursting into a flood of tears she plumped down on a seat, and I saw +that she had a pair of scissors and a scrap of my hair in her hand. + +"Good Lord!" I said. + +Doubtless the tone in which I spoke betrayed me, for the constable's +man who was in charge of me laughed brutally. "Gad, if he does not +think she did it out of love!" he cried, speaking to a friend who was +sitting with him. "When all the old dame wants is a charm for the +rheumatics; and she thinks the chance too good to be lost." + +Then I remembered that the hair of a hanged man is in that part held +to be sovereign for the rheumatics; and I sat down feeling cold and +faint. + + + + + CHAPTER VIII + + +That saying, though a small thing, and a foolish one, brought my state +home to me; and, moreover, filled me with so grisly a foreboding of +the gibbet, that henceforth I gave my treacherous mistress no more +thought than she deserved--which was little; but I became wholly taken +up with my own fate, and especially with the recollection of a man, +whom I had once seen, pitched and hanging in chains, at Much Hadham +Crossroads. The horrible spectacle he had become, ten days dead, grew +on my mind, until I grovelled and sweated in a green terror, and that +not so much at the prospect of death--though this sent me hot and cold +in the same instant--as of the harsh rope about my neck, and the +sacking bands, and the dreadful apparatus, and the grinning loathsome +thing I must become. + +Near swooning at these thoughts, I sank huddled into the chair; and +was presently plucked up by the constable's assistant, who, seeing my +state, came forward, and though he was naturally a coarse fellow, +strove to hearten me, saying that there was always hope until the cart +moved, and that many a man cast for death was drinking the King's +health in the Plantations. With an oath or two and in a loud voice. + +On that a last flicker of pride came to my aid, and trying to meet his +eye I muttered that it was not that; that I was not afraid, and that +at worst I should be burned in the hand. + +"To be sure!" he said nodding, and looking at me curiously. "To be +sure. It is well to be a scholar!" + +I was athirst, however, to get some further and better assurance from +him; and fixing my eyes on his face, I asked hoarsely, "You think that +it is certain? You think there is no doubt?" + +"Certain sure, my Toby!" he answered. But I saw that, as he moved +away, he winked to his comrade, and I heard the latter ask him softly, +as he took his seat again, "Is't so? Will the lad cheat the hangman?" + +"Not he!" was the reply, uttered in a whisper--but terror sharpened my +ears. "There was so long a list at the last Assizes, and half of them +_legit_, that it was given out they would override it this time, and +make examples. And ten to one he will swing, Ben." + +"But is it the law?" + +I did not hear the answer for the drumming in my ears and the dreadful +confusion in my brain; which were such that I was not aware of the +constable's entrance or of anything that happened after that, until I +found myself in the road climbing clumsily on the back of a pony, in +the middle of a throng of staring curious faces. My feet being secured +under the beast's belly--at which some gave a hand, while others stood +off, whispering and looking strangely at me--the constable mounted +himself, and shouting to his wife that he should take me on to +Hertford gaol, and should not be back until late, led me out of the +crowd, Mr. D---- and Mr. Jenkins bringing up the rear. The last I saw +of the school the boys were hanging out of the windows to see me go; +and Mrs. D---- was standing in the doorway, and unappeased by my +misery, was shrilly denouncing me--hands and tongue, all going--to a +group of her gossips. + +Our road took us past the Rose Inn, and through a great part of the +town, but no impression of either remains with me, my only +recollection being of the sunshine that lay over the country, and of +the happiness that all creation, all living things, save my doomed +self, enjoyed. The bitterness of the thought that yesterday I had been +as these, free to move and live and breathe, caused great tears to +roll down my cheeks; but my companions, whose thoughts had already +gone forward to the Steward's Room at Sir Winston's, and the +entertainment they expected there, took little notice of me; and less +after the porter at the lodge told them that there were grand doings +at the house, and a great company, including a lord, come unexpectedly +from London. + +"I don't think ye'll be welcome," the porter added, looking curiously +at me. + +"Justice's business," the constable replied sturdily. "The King must +be served." + +"Ay, that is what you all say when you've something to gain by it," +the porter retorted; and went in. + + +[Illustration: THE CONSTABLE LED ME OUT OF THE CROWD] + + +All which I heard idly; not supposing that it meant to me the +difference between life and death, fortune and misery; or that in the +company come unexpectedly from London lurked my salvation. If I dwelt +on the news at all it was only as it might affect me by adding to the +shame I felt. But in this I deceived myself; for when the ordeal of +waiting in the servants' hall--where the maids pitied me and would +have fed me if I could have eaten--was over, and we were ushered into +the parlour in which Sir Winston, who had newly risen from dinner, +would see us, we found only one gentleman with him. + +The two stood at the farther end of a long narrow room, in the bay of +a large window, that, open to the ground, permitted a view of cool +sward and yew hedges. That they had had companions, lately withdrawn, +was clear; and this, not only from the length of the table, which, +bestrewn with plates and glasses and half-empty flagons, stretched up +the room from us to them, but from two chairs, thrown down in the +hurry of rising, and six or seven others thrust back, haphazard, +against the panels. In the side of the room were four tall straight +windows that allowed the sunshine to fall in regular bars on the +table; and these, displaying here a little pool of spilled claret, and +there a broken tobacco pipe, the ash still smouldering, gave a touch +of grimness to the luxurious disorder. + +The same incongruity was to be observed in the appearance of the elder +and stouter of the two men; who had hung his periwig on the back of a +chair, and showed a bald head and flushed face that agreed very ill +with his laced cravat and embroidered coat. Standing with his feet +apart and his arm outstretched, he was not immediately aware of our +entrance; but continued to address his companion in words that were +coherent, yet betrayed how he had been employed. + +"Crop-eared knaves, my lord, half of them, and I one!" he cried, as we +came to a halt a little within the door, to await his pleasure--I with +shaking knees and sinking heart. "And ready to become the same again +if the times call for it. For why? Because it was only so we could +keep or get, my lord. And martyrs have been few in my time, though +fools plenty." + +"I should be sorry to deny the last, Sir Winston," his companion +answered, smiling; for whom at the moment, blind bat as I was, I had +no eyes, seeing in him only a noble youth, handsomely dressed and +periwigged, and two, or it might be three years older than myself; +whereas I hung on the Justice's nod. "But here is your case," the +young man continued, turning to me, and speaking in a pleasant voice. + +"And a hard case one of them is," the Justice answered jollily, as he +turned to us, and singled out the constable. "That is you, Dyson!" he +continued, "one of those of whom I have been telling you, my lord. A +psalm-singer in the troubles, sergeant in Lord Grey's regiment, a +roundhead, and ran away, with better men than himself, at Cropredy +Bridge. To-day he damns a Whig, and goes to bed drunk every +twenty-ninth of May." + +"Having a good example, your honour!" the constable answered grinning. + +"Ay, to be sure. And why don't you follow it also?" Sir Winston +continued, turning to the schoolmaster. "But crop-eared you were and +crop-eared you are; one of Shaftesbury's brisk boys, my lord! And +ought to be fined for a ranter every Monday morning, if all had their +deserts!" + +"Then I am afraid that your theory does not apply to him, Sir +Winston," the young man said with a smile. "Here is one martyr +already; and if one martyr, why not many?" + +"Martyr?" the Justice answered, with half-a-dozen oaths. "He? No one +less! He goes to church as you and I do, and does not smart to the +tune of a penny! It is true he pulls a solemn face and abhors +mince-pies and plum-porridge. But why? Because he keeps a school, and +the righteous, or what are left of them, who are just such hypocrites +as himself, resort unto his company with boys and guineas! Resort unto +his company, eh, D---?" the Justice repeated gleefully, addressing the +schoolmaster. "That is the phrase, isn't it? Oh, I have chopped +Scripture with old Noll in my time. And so it pays, do you see, my +lord? When it does not, he'll damn the Whigs and turn Tantivy or +Abhorrer, or something that does. And so it is with all; they are +loyal. Never were Englishmen more loyal; but to what are they loyal? +Themselves, my lord!" + +"Yet there are Whigs who do not keep schools," the young lord said, +after a hearty laugh. + +"Ay, my lord, and why?" Sir Winston answered, in high good humour, +"because we are all trimmers to the wind, but some trim too late, and +some too soon. And those are your Whigs. Never you turn Whig, my lord, +whatever you do, or you will die in a Dutch garret like Tony +Shiftsbury! And if anyone could have made Whiggery pay nowadays, +clever Anthony would have. Here's his health, but I doubt he is in +hell, these eight months." + +And Sir Winston, going to the table, filled and drank off a bumper of +claret. Then he filled again. "The King--God bless him--is not very +well, I hear," said he, winking at the young lord. "So I will give you +another toast. His Highness's health, and confusion to all who would +exclude him! And now what is this business, Dyson? Who is the lad? +What has he been doing?" + +The constable began to explain; but before he had uttered many words, +the baronet, whose last draught had more than a little fuddled him, +cut him short. "Oh, come to me to-morrow!" he said. "Or stay! You are +in the Commission for the county, my lord?" + +"I am, but I have not acted," the young man answered. + +"Rot it, man, but you shall act now! Burglary, is it? Broke and +entered, eh? Then that is a hanging matter, and a young hound should +be blooded. I am off! My lord will do it, Dyson. My lord will do it." + +With which the Justice lurched out of the window so quickly, not to +say unsteadily, that he was gone before his companion could +remonstrate. The young lord, thus abandoned, looked at first at a +nonplus, and seemed for a while more than half-inclined to follow. +But changing his mind, and curious, I am willing to believe, to hear +the case of a prisoner so much out of the common as I must have +appeared to him, he turned to us, and adopting a certain stateliness, +which came easily to him, young as he was, he told the constable he +would hear him. + +Then it was that, hanging for my life on the nods and words of +intelligence that from time to time fell from him, and whereby he +lifted the constable out of the slough of verbiage in which he +floundered, I dared again to hope; and noting with eyes sharpened by +terror the cast of his serious handsome features, and the curves of +his mouth, sensitive as a woman's yet wondrously under control, saw a +prospect of life. For a time indeed I had nothing more substantial on +which to build than such signs, so damning seemed the tale that +branded me as taken in the act and on the scene of my crimes. But when +the young peer, after eyeing me gravely and pitifully, asked if they +had found the money on me, and the constable answered, "No," and my +lord retorted, "Then where was it?" and got no answer; and again when +he enquired as to the lock on the door and the height of the window, +and who had aided me to enter, and learned that a girl was suspected +and no one else--then I felt the blood beat hotly in my head, and a +mist come before my eyes. + +"Who is his accomplice? Pooh; there must be one!" he said. + +"The girl, may it pleasure your lordship," the constable answered. + +"The girl? Then why should she leave him to be taken? How did he +enter?" + +"By a ladder, it is supposed, my lord." + +"It is supposed?" + +"Yes, my lord." + +"But ladder or no ladder, why did she leave him?" + +The constable scratched his head. + +"Perhaps they were surprised, please your lordship," he ventured at +last. + +"But the boy was found in the room at seven, dolt. And the sun is up +before four. What was he doing all those hours? Surprised, pooh!" + +"Well, I don't know as to that, your worship," the man answered +sturdily; "but only that the prisoner was found in the room, in which +he had not ought to be, and the money was gone from the room where it +had ought to be!" + +"And the bureau was broken open," Mr. D---- cried eagerly. "And what +is more, he has never denied it, my lord! Never." + +At that and at sight of the change that came over my judge's face the +hope that had risen in me died suddenly; and I saw again the grim +prospect of the prison and the gibbet; and to be led from one to the +other, dumb, one of a drove, unregarded. And, it coming upon me +strongly that in a moment it would be too late, I found my voice and +cried to him, "Oh, my lord, save me!" I cried. "Help me! For the sake +of God, help me!" + +Whether my words moved him or he had not yet given up my case, he +looked at me attentively, and with a shade as of recollection on his +face. Then he asked quietly what I was. + +"Usher in a school, my lord," someone answered. + +"Poor devil!" he exclaimed. And then, to the others, "Here, you! +Withdraw a little to the passage, if you please. I would speak with +him alone." + +The constable opened his mouth to demur; but the young gentleman would +not suffer it; saying with a fine air that there was no resisting, +"Pooh, man, I am Lord Shrewsbury. I will be responsible for him." And +with that he got them out of the room. + + + + + CHAPTER IX + + +I know now that there never was a man in whom the natural propensity +to side with the weaker party was by custom and exercise more highly +developed than in my late lord, in whose presence I then stood; who, +indeed, carried that virtue to such an extent that if any fault could +be found with his public carriage--which I am very far from admitting, +but only that such a colour might be given to some parts of it by his +enemies--the flaw was attributable to this excess of generosity. Yet +he has since told me that on this occasion of our first meeting, it +was neither my youth nor my misery--in the main at any rate--that +induced him to take so extraordinary a step as that of seeing me +alone; but a strange and puzzling reminiscence, which my features +aroused in him, and whereto his first words, when we were left +together, bore witness. "Where, my lad," said he, staring at me, "have +I seen you before?" + +As well as I could, for the dread of him in which I stood, I essayed +to clear my brain and think; and in me also, as I looked at him, the +attempt awoke a recollection, as if I had somewhere met him. But I +could conceive one place only where it was possible I might have seen +a man of his rank; and so stammered that perhaps at the Rose Inn, at +Ware, in the gaming-room I might have met him. + +His lip curled, "No," he said coldly, "I have honoured the +Groom-Porter at Whitehall once and again by leaving my guineas with +him. But at the Rose Inn, at Ware--never! And heavens, man," he +continued in a tone of contemptuous wonder, "what brought such as you +in that place?" + +In shame, and aware, now that it was too late, that I had said the +worst thing in the world to commend myself to him, I stammered that I +had gone thither--that I had gone thither with a friend. + +"A woman?" he said quickly. + +I allowed that it was so. + +"The same that led you into this?" he continued sharply. + +But to that I made no answer: whereon, with kindly sternness he bade +me remember where I stood, and that in a few minutes it would be too +late to speak. + +"You can trust me, I suppose?" he continued with a fine scorn, "that I +shall not give evidence against you. By being candid, therefore, you +may make things better, but can hardly make them worse." + +Whereon I have every reason to be thankful, nay, it has been matter +for a life's rejoicing that I was not proof against his kindness; but +without more ado, sobbing over some parts of my tale, and whispering +others, I told him my whole story from the first meeting with my +temptress--so I may truly call her--to the final moment when, the +money gone, and the ladder removed, I was rudely awakened, to find +myself a prisoner. I told it, I have reason to believe, with feeling, +and in words that carried conviction; the more as, though skilled in +literary composition, and in writing _secundum artem_, I have little +imagination. At any rate, when I had done, and quavered off +reluctantly into a half coherent and wholly piteous appeal for mercy, +I found my young judge gazing at me with a heat of indignation in +cheek and eye, that strangely altered him. + +"Good G----!" he cried, "what a Jezebel!" And in words which I will +not here repeat, he said what he thought of her. + +True as the words were (and I knew that, after what I had told him, +nothing else was true of her), they forced a groan from me. + +"Poor devil," he said at that. And then again, "Poor devil, it is a +shame! It is a black shame, my lad," he continued warmly, "and I would +like to see Madam at the cart-tail; and that is where I shall see her +before all is done! I never heard of such a vixen! But for you," and +on the word he paused and looked at me, "you did it, my friend, and I +do not see your way out of it." + +"Then must I hang?" I cried desperately. + +He did not answer. + +"My lord! My lord!" I urged, for I began to see whither he was +tending, and I could have shrieked in terror, "you can do anything." + +"I?" he said. + +"You! If you would speak to the judge, my lord." + +He laughed, without mirth. "He would whip you instead of hanging you," +he said contemptuously. + +"To the King, then." + +"You would thank me for nothing," he answered; and then with a kind of +contemptuous suavity, "My friend, in your Ware Academy--where +nevertheless you seem to have had your diversions--you do not know +these things. But you may take it from me, that I am more than +suspected of belonging to the party whose existence Sir Baldwin +denies--I mean to the Whigs; and the suspicion alone is enough to damn +any request of mine." + +On that, after staring at him a moment, I did a thing that surprised +him; and had he known me better a thing that would have surprised him +more. For the courage to do it, and to show myself in colours unlike +my own, I had to thank neither despair nor fear, though both were +present; but a kind of rage that seized me, on hearing him speak in a +tone above me, and as if, having heard my story, he was satisfied with +the curiosity of it, and would dismiss the subject, and I might go to +the gallows. I know now that in so speaking he had not that intent, +but that brought up short by the certainty of my guilt, and the +impasse as to helping me, in which he stood, he chose that mode of +repressing the emotion he felt. I did not understand this however: and +with a bitterness born of the misconception, and in a voice that +sounded harsh, and anyone's rather than mine, I burst into a furious +torrent of reproaches, asking him if it was only for this he had seen +me alone, and to make a tale. "To make a tale," I cried, "and a jest? +One that with the same face with which you send me out to be strangled +and to rot, and with the same smile, you'll tell, my lord, after +supper to Sir Baldwin and your like. Oh, for shame, my lord, for +shame!" I cried, passionately, and losing all fear of him in my +indignation. "As you may some day be in trouble yourself--for great +heads fall as well as low ones in these days, and as little pitied--if +you have bowels of compassion, my lord, and a mother to love you----" + +He turned on me so swiftly at that word, that my anger quailed before +his. "Silence!" he cried, fiercely. "How dare you, such as you, +mention----. But there, fellow--be silent!" + +I caught the ring of pain as well as anger in his tone, and obeyed +him; though I could not discern what I had said to touch him so +sorely. He on his side glowered at me a moment; and so we stood, while +hope died within me, and I grew afraid of him again, and a shadow fell +on the room as it had already fallen on his face. I waited for nothing +now but the word that should send me from his presence, and thought +nothing so certain as that I had flung away what slender chance +remained to me. It was with a start that when he broke the silence I +was aware of a new sound in his voice. + +"Listen, my lad," he said in a constrained tone--and he did not look +at me. "You are right in one thing. If I meant to do nothing for you, +I had no right to your confidence. I do not know what it was in your +face induced me to see you. I wish I had not. But since I have I must +do what I can to save you: and there is only one way. Mind you," he +continued in a sudden burst of anger, "I do not like it! And I do it +out of regard for myself, not for you, my lad! Mind you that!" + +"Oh, my lord!" I cried, ready to fall down and worship him. + +"Be silent," he answered, coldly, "and when my back is turned go +through that window. Do you understand? It is all I can do for you. +The alley on the left leads to the stables. Pass through them boldly; +if you are not stopped you will in a minute be on the high road. The +turn, to the left at the cross-roads, leads to Tottenham and London. +That on the right will take you to Little Parndon and Epping. That is +all I have to say; while I look for a piece of paper to sign your +commitment, you would do well to go. Only remember, my man, if you are +retaken--do not look to me." + +He suited the action to the words by turning his back on me, and +beginning to search in a bureau that stood beside him. But so sudden +and so unexpected was the proposal he had made, that though he had +said distinctly "Go!" I doubt if, apart from the open window, I should +have understood his purpose. As it was I came to it slowly--so slowly +that he lost patience, and with his head still buried among the +pigeon-holes, swore at me. + + +[Illustration: WHEN MY BACK IS TURNED GO THROUGH THAT WINDOW] + + +"Are you going?" he said. "Or do you think that it is nothing I am +doing for you? Do you think it is nothing that I am going to tell a +lie for such as you? Either go or hang, my lad!" + +I heard no more. A moment earlier nothing had been farther from my +thoughts than to attempt an escape, but the impulse of his will +steadied my wavering resolution, and with set teeth and a beating +heart, I stepped through the window. Outside I turned to the left +along a shady green alley fenced by hedges of yew, and espying the +stable-yard before me, walked boldly across it. By good luck the +grooms and helpers were at supper and I saw only one man standing at a +door. He stared at me, mouthing a straw, but said nothing, and in a +twinkling I had passed him, left the curtilage behind me, and had the +park fence and gate in sight. + +Until I reached this, not knowing whose eyes were on me, I had the +presence of mind to walk; though cold shivers ran down my back, and my +hair crept, and every second I fancied--for I was too nervous to look +back--that I felt Dyson's hand on my collar. Arriving safely at the +gate, however, and the road stretching before me with no one in sight, +I took to my heels, and ran a quarter of a mile along it; then leaping +the fence that bounded it on the right, I started recklessly across +country, my aim being to strike the Little Parndon highway, to which +my lord had referred, at a point beyond the cross-roads, and so to +avoid passing the latter. + +I am aware that this mode of escape, this walking through a window and +running off unmolested, sounds bald and commonplace; and that if I +could import into my story some touch of romance or womanish disguise, +such as--to compare great things with small--marked my Lord +Nithsdale's escape from the Tower three years ago, I should cut a +better figure. Whereas in the flight across the fields on a quiet +afternoon, with the sun casting long shadows on the meadows, and for +my most instant alarms, the sudden whirring up before me of partridge +or plover, few will find anything heroic. But let them place +themselves for a moment in my skin, and remember that as I sweated and +panted and stumbled and rose again, as I splashed in reckless haste +through sloughs and ditches, and tore my way through great +blackthorns, I had death always at my heels! Let them remember that in +the long shadows that crossed my path I saw the gallows, and again the +gallows, and once more the gallows; and fled more quickly; and that it +needed but the distant bark of a dog, or the shout of a boy scaring +birds, to persuade me that the hue and cry was coming, and to fill me +with the last extremity of fear. + +I believe that the adventurer, and the knight of the road, when it +falls to their lot to be so hunted--as must often happen, though more +commonly such an one is taken _securus et ebrius_ in the arms of his +mistress--find some mitigation of their pains in the anticipation of +conflict, and in the stern joy which the resolve to sell life dearly +imparts to the man of action. But I was unarmed, and worn out with my +exertions; no soldier, and with no heart to fight. My flight therefore +across the quiet fields was pure terror, the torture of unmitigated +fear. Fear spurred me and whipped me; and yet, had I known it, I might +have spared my terror. For darkness found me, weak and exhausted, but +still free, in the neighbourhood of Epping in Essex, where I passed +the night in the Forest; and before noon next day, believing that they +would watch for me on the Tottenham Road, I had found courage to slink +in to London by way of Chingford, and in the heart of that great city, +whose magnitude exceeded all my expectations, had safely and +effectually lost myself. + + + + + CHAPTER X + + +At this point, it becomes me to pause. I set out, the reader will +remember, to furnish such a narrative of the events attending my first +meeting with my honoured patron, as taken with a brief account of +myself might enable all to pursue with insight as well as advantage +the details of my later connection with him. And this being done, and +bearing in mind that Sir John Fenwick did not suffer for his +conspiracy until 1696, and that consequently a period of thirteen +years divided the former events, which I have related, from those +which follow--and which have to do, as I intimated at the outset, with +my lord's alleged cognisance of that conspiracy--some may, and with +impatience, look to me to proceed at once to the gist of the matter. +Which I propose to do; but first to crave the reader's indulgence, +while in a very hasty and perfunctory manner I trace my humble +fortunes in the interval; whereby time will in the end be saved. + +That arriving in London, as I have related, a fugitive, penniless and +homeless, in fear of the law, I contrived to keep out of the beadle's +hands, and was neither whipped for a vagrant at Bridewell, nor starved +outright in the streets, I attribute to most singular good fortune; +which not only rescued me (_statim_) from a great and instant danger +that all but engulfed me, but within a few hours found for me honest +and constant employment, and that of an uncommon kind. + +It so happened that, perplexed by the clamour of the great city, +wherein all faces were new to me and ways alike, I came to a stand +about noon in the neighbourhood of Newgate Market; where, confident +that in the immense and never-ceasing tide of life that ebbs and flows +in that quarter, I was safe from recognition, I ventured to sell an +undergarment in a small shop in an alley, and buying a loaf with the +price, satisfied my hunger. But the return of strength was accompanied +by no return of hope; rather, my prime necessity supplied, I felt the +forlornness of my position more acutely. In which condition, having no +resource but to wander aimlessly from one street to another while the +daylight lasted--and after that no prospect at all except to pass the +night in the same manner--I came presently into Little Britain, and +stopped, as luck would have it, before one of the bookshops that crowd +that part. A number of persons were poring over the books, and I +joined them; but I had not stood a moment, idly scanning the backs of +the volumes, before one of my neighbours touched my elbow, and when I +turned and met his eyes, nodded to me. "A scholar?" he said, smiling +pleasantly through a pair of glasses. "Ah, how ill does the muse +requite her worshippers. From the country, my friend?" + +I answered that I was; and seeing him to be a man well on in years, +clad in good broadcloth, and of a sober, substantial aspect, I saluted +him abjectly. + +"To be sure," he said, again nodding cheerfully. "And a stranger to +the town I expect?" + +"Yes," I said. + +"And a reader? A reader? Ah, how ill does the muse---- But you _can_ +read?" he ejaculated, breaking off somewhat suddenly. + +I said I could, and to convince him read off the names of several of +the volumes before me. I remembered afterwards that instead of looking +at them to see if I read aright, he kept his eyes on my face. + +"Good!" he said, stopping me when I had deciphered half-a-dozen. "You +do your schoolmaster credit, my lad. Such a man should not want, and +yet you look----frankly, my friend, are you in need of employment?" + +He asked the question with so much benevolence, and looked at me with +so good-natured a twinkle in his eyes, that my tears nearly +overflowed, and I had much ado to answer him. "Yes," I said. "And +without friends, sir." + +"Indeed, indeed," quoth he. "Well, I must do what I can. And first, +you may do me a service, which in any case shall not go unrequited. +Come this way." + +Without waiting for an answer he led me into the mouth of a court hard +by, where we were less open to observation; there, pointing to a shop +at a little distance from that at which he had found me, he explained +that he wished to purchase a copy of _Selden's Baronage_ that stood at +the front of the stall, but that the tradesman knew him and would +overcharge him. "So do you go and buy it for me, my friend," he +continued, chuckling over his innocent subterfuge, with a simplicity +that took with me immensely. "It should be half-a-guinea. There is a +guinea"--and he lugged one out. "Buy the book and bring the change to +me, and it shall be something in your pocket. Alas, that the muse +should so ill---- But there, go, go, my lad," he continued, "and +remember _Selden's Baronage_, half-a-guinea. And not a penny more!" + +Delighted with the luck which had found me such a patron, and anxious +to acquit myself to the best advantage I hurried to do his bidding; +first making sure that I knew where to find him. The shop he had +pointed out, which was surmounted by the sign of a gun, and appeared +to enjoy no small share of public favour, was full of persons reading +and talking; but almost the first book on which my eyes alighted was +_Selden's Baronage_, and the tradesman when I applied to him made no +difficulty about the price, saying at once that it was half-a-guinea. +I handed him my money, and without breaking off his talk with a +customer, he was counting the change, when something in my aspect +struck him, and he looked at the guinea. On which he muttered an oath +and thrust it back into my hand. + +"It will not do," he said angrily. "Begone!" + +I was quite taken aback: the more as several persons looked up from +their books, and his immediate companion, a meagre dry-looking man in +a snuff-coloured suit, fell to staring at me. "What do you mean?" I +stammered. + +"You know very well," the tradesman answered me roughly. "And had +better be gone! And more, I tell you, if you want a hemp collar, my +man, you are in the way to get one!" + +"Clipped?" quoth the dry-looking man. + +"New clipped and bright at the edges!" the bookseller answered. "Now +go, my man, and be thankful I don't send for a constable." + +At that I shrank away, two or three of the customers coming to the +door to see me out, and watching which way I turned. This, I +suppose--though I was then, and for a little time longer in doubt +about him--was the reason why I could see nothing of my charitable +friend, when I returned to the place where I had left him. I looked +this way and that, but he was gone; and though, not knowing what else +to do, and having still the guinea in my possession, I lingered about +the mouth of the court for an hour or more, looking for him, he did +not return. + +At the end of that time the meagre dry man whom I had seen in the shop +passed with a book under his arm; and seeing me, after a moment's +hesitation stood and spoke to me. "Well, my friend?" said he, looking +hard at me. "Are you waiting for the halter?" + +I told him civilly, no; but that the gentleman who had given me the +guinea to change had bidden me return to him there. + +"And he is not here?" he said with a sneer. + +"No," I said. + +He stared at me, wondering at the simplicity of my answer; and then, +"Well, you are either the biggest fool or the biggest knave within the +bills!" he exclaimed. "Are you straight from Gotham?" + +"No," I told him. "From the north." And that I wanted employment. + +"You are like to get it--at the Plantations!" he answered savagely, +taking snuff. I remarked that neither his hands nor his linen were of +the cleanest, and that the former were stained with ink. "What are +you?" he continued, presently, in the same snappish, churlish tone. + +I told him a schoolmaster. + +"_Exempli gratia_," he answered quickly, and turning to the nearest +stall, he indicated the title-page of a book. "Read me that, Master +Schoolmaster." + +I did so. He grunted; and then, "You write? Show me your hand." + +I said I had no paper or ink there, but that if he would take me---- + +"Pooh, man, are you a fool?" he cried, impatiently. "Show me your +right hand, middle finger, and I will find you _scribit_ or _non +scribit_. So! And you want work?" + +"Yes," I said. + +"Hard work and little pay?" + +I said I wanted to make my living. + +"Ay, and maybe the first time you come to me, you will cut my throat, +and rob my desk," he answered gruffly. "Hm! That touches you home, +does it? However, ask for me to-morrow, at seven in the forenoon--Mr. +Timothy Brome, at the sign of the Black Boy in Fleet Street." + +Now I was overjoyed, indeed. With such a prospect of employment, it +seemed to me a small thing that I must pass the night in the streets; +but even that I escaped. For when he was about to part from me, he +asked me what money I had. None, I told him, "except the clipped +guinea." + +"And I suppose you expect me to give you a shilling earnest?" he +answered, irascibly. "But no, no, Timothy Brome is no fool. See here," +he continued, slapping his pocket and looking shrewdly at me, "that +guinea is not worth a groat to you; except to hang you." + +"No," I said, ruefully. + +"Well, I will give you five shillings for it, as gold, mind you; as +gold, and not to pass. Are you content?" + +"It is not mine," I said doubtfully. + +"Take it or leave it!" he said, screwing up his eyes, and so plainly +pleased with the bargain he was driving that I had no inkling of the +kind heart that underlay that crabbed manner. "Take it or leave it, my +man." + +Thus pressed, and my mind retaining no real doubt of the knavery of +the man who had entrusted the guinea to me, I handed it to my new +friend, and received in return a crown. And this being my last +disposition of money not my own, I think it a fit season to record +that from that day to this I have been enabled by God's help and man's +kindness to keep the eighth commandment; and earning honestly what I +have spent have been poor, but never a beggar. + +In gratitude for which, and both those good men being now dead, I here +conjoin the names of Mr. Timothy Brome, of Fleet Street, newsmonger +and author, whose sharp tongue and morose manners cloaked a hundred +benefactions; and of Charles, Duke of Shrewsbury, my honoured patron, +who never gave but his smile doubled the gift which his humanity +dictated. + +The reader will believe that punctually on the morrow I went with joy +and thankfulness to my new master, whom I found up three pairs of +stairs in a room barely furnished, but heaped in every part with piles +of manuscripts and dogs-eared books, and all so covered with dust that +type and script were alike illegible. He wore a dingy morning-gown and +had laid aside his wig; but the air of importance with which he nodded +to me and a sort of dignity that clothed him as he walked to and fro +on the ink-stained floor mightily impressed me, and drove me to wonder +what sort of trade was carried on here. He continued, for some minutes +after I entered, to declaim one fine sentence after another, rolling +the long words over his tongue with a great appearance of enjoyment: a +process which he only interrupted to point me to a stool and desk, +and cry with averted eyes--lest he should cut the thread of his +thoughts--"Write!" + + +[Illustration: "HE WORE A DINGY MORNING-GOWN AND HAD LAID ASIDE HIS +WIG"] + + +On my hesitating, "Write!" he repeated, in the tone of one commanding +a thousand troopers. And then he spoke thus--and as he spoke I +wrote:-- + +"This day His Gracious Majesty, whose health appears to be completely +restored, went, accompanied by the French Ambassador and a brilliant +company, to take the air in the Mall. Despatches from Holland say that +the Duke of Monmouth has arrived at the Hague and has been well +received. Letters from the West say that the city of Bristol having a +well-founded confidence in the Royal Clemency has hastened to lay its +Charter at His Majesty's feet. The 30th of the month began the +Sessions at the Old Bailey, and held the first and second of this; +where seventeen persons received sentence of death, nine to be burned +in the hand, seven to be transported, and eleven ordered to be +whipped. Yesterday, or this day, a commission was sealed appointing +the Lord Chief Justice Jeffreys----" + + + + + CHAPTER XI + + +In a word, my master was a writer of Newsletters, and in that capacity +possessed of so excellent a style and so great a connection in the +Western Counties that, as he was wont to boast, there was hardly a +squire or rector from Bristol to Dawlish that did not owe what he knew +of His Majesty's gout, or Mr. Dryden's last play, to his weekly +epistles. The Popish Plot which had cost the lives of Lord Stafford +and so many of his persuasion, no less than the Rye House Plot, which +by placing the Whigs at the mercy of the Government had at once +afforded those their revenge, and illustrated the ups and downs of +court life, had given so sharp a stimulus to the appetite for news, +that of late he had found himself unable to cope with it. In this +unsettled condition, and meditating changes which should belittle Sir +Roger and _The London Mercury_, and oust print from the field, he fell +in with me; and where another man would have selected a bachelor whose +cassock and scarf might commend him at Wills' or Childs', his +eccentric kindness snatched me from the gutter, and set me on a tall +stool, there to write all day for the delectation of country houses +and mayors' parlours. + +I remember that at first it seemed to me so easy a trick (this noting +the news of the day in plain round hand) that I wondered they paid him +to do it, more than another. But besides that I then had knowledge of +one side of the business only, I mean the framing the news, but none +of the manner in which it was collected at Garraway's and the Cockpit, +the Sessions House, the Mall, and the Gallery at Whitehall. I +presently learned that even of the share that fell to my lot I knew +only as much as a dog that turns the spit knows of the roasting of +meat. For when my employer, finding me docile and industrious--as I +know I was, being thankful for such a haven, and crushed in spirit not +only by the dangers through which I had passed, but also by my +mistress's treachery--when I say, he left me one day to my devices, +merely skimming through a copy and leaving me to multiply it, with, +for sole guide, the list of places to which the letters were to go, as +Bridgewater, Whig; Bath, Tory; Bridport, Tory; Taunton, Whig; Frome, +Whig; Lyme, Whig, and so on, I came very far short of success. True, +when he returned in the evening I had my packets ready and neatly +prepared for the mail, which then ran to the West thrice a week and +left next morning; and I had good hopes that he would send them +untouched. But great was my dismay when he fell into a rage over the +first he picked up, and asked me bluntly if I was quite a fool. + +I stammered some answer, and asked in confusion what was the matter. + +"Everything," he said. "Here, let me see! Why, you dolt and +dunderhead, you have sent letters in identical terms to Frome and +Bridport." + +"Yes," I said faintly. + +"But the one is Whig and the other is Tory!" he cried. + +"But the news, sir," I made bold to answer, "is the same." + +"Is it?" he cried in fine contempt. "Why you are a natural! I thought +you had learned something by this time. Here, where is the Frome +letter? '"_The London Gazette_" _announces that His Majesty has been +graciously pleased to reward my Lord Rochester's services at the +Treasury Board by raising him to the dignity of Lord President of the +Council, an elevation which renders necessary his resignation of his +seat at the Board_.' Tut-tut! That is the Court tone. Here, out with +it, and write:-- + +"'_The Earl of Rochester's removal from the Treasury Board to the +Presidency of the Council, which is announced in_ "_The Gazette_," _is +very well understood. His lordship made what resistance he could, but +the facts Were plain, and the King could do no otherwise. Rumour has +it that the sum lost to the country in the manner already hinted +exceeds fifty thousand guineas_.' + +"There, what comes next? '_Letters from the Continent have it that +strong recommendations have been made to the Court at the Hague to +dismiss the D---- of M----, and it is confidently expected that the +next packet will bring the news of his departure_.' Pooh, out with it. +Write this:-- + +"'_The D---- of M---- is still at the Hague, where he is being +sumptuously entertained. Much is made of His Majesty's anger, but the +D---- is well supplied with money from an unknown source, which some +take to be significant. At a ball given by their Highnesses on the +eleventh, he danced an English country dance with the Lady Mary, +wherein his grace and skill won all hearts_.' + +"That is better. And now what next? '_This day an Ambassador from the +King of Siam in the East Indies waited on His Majesty with great marks +of respect_.' Umph! Well leave it, but add, 'Ah, _si sic propius_.' + +"And then, '_There are rumours that His Majesty intends to call a +parliament shortly, in which plan he is hindered only by the state of +his gout_.' + +"Out with that and write this:--'_In the city is much murmuring that a +parliament is not called. Though His Majesty has not played lately at +tennis, he showed himself yesterday in Hyde Park, so that some who +maintain his health to be the cause deserve no weight. In his company +were His Highness the Duke of York and the French Ambassador_.' + +"There, you fool," my master continued, flinging two-thirds of the +packets back to me. "You will have to amend these, and another time +you will know better." + +Which showed me that I had still something to learn; and that as there +are tricks in all trades, so Mr. Timothy Brome, the writer, did not +enjoy without reason the reputation of the most popular newsvendor in +London. But as I addressed myself to the business with zeal, I +presently began to acquire a mastery over his methods; and my +knowledge of public affairs growing with each day's work, as in such +an employment it could not fail to grow, I was able before very long +to take the composition of the letters in a great measure off his +hands; leaving him free to walk Change Alley and the coffee-houses, +where his snuff-coloured suit and snappish wit were as well known as +his secret charity was little suspected. + +In private, indeed, he was of so honest a disposition, his faults of +temper notwithstanding, as to cause me at first some surprise; since I +fancied an incompatibility between this and the laxity of his public +views; which he carried so far that he was not only a political +skeptic himself, but held all others to be the same; maintaining that +the best public men were only of this or that colour because it suited +their pockets or ambitions, and that, of all, he respected most Lord +Halifax and his party, who at least trimmed openly, and never cried +loudly for either extreme. + +But as his actions in other matters bettered his professions, so I +presently found that in this too he belied himself; which was made +clear when he came to the test. For the death of King Charles the +Second occurring soon after I came to serve him--so soon that I still +winced when my former life was probed, and hated a woman and trembled +at sight of a constable, and wondered if this were really _I_, +who went to and fro daily from my garret in Bride Lane to St. +Dunstan's--the death, I say, of the King occurring just at that time, +we were speedily overwhelmed by a rush of events so momentous and +following so quickly one on another that they threw the old see-saw of +Court and Country off its balance; and upset with it the minds of many +who had hitherto clung firmly to a party. For the King had been +scarcely laid very quietly--some thought, meanly--in his grave and the +Duke of York been proclaimed by the title of James the Second, when +those who had fled the country in the last reign, either after the Rye +House Plot, or later with Monmouth, returned and kindled two great +insurrections, that of the Marquess of Argyle in the north, and that +of the Duke of Monmouth in the west. Occurring almost simultaneously, +it was wonderful to see how, in spite of the cry of a Popish King, and +the Protestant religion in danger, which the rebels everywhere raised, +these outbreaks rallied all prudent folk to the King; whose popularity +never, before or afterwards, stood so high as on the day of the battle +of Sedgmoor. + +And doubtless he might have retained the confidence and affection of +his people, and by these means attained to the utmost of his +legitimate wishes--I mean the relief of the papists from penal clauses +if not from civil disabilities--had he gone about it discreetly, and +with the moderation which so delicate a matter required. But in the +outset the severity with which the western rebels were punished, both +by the military after the rout and by the Lord Chief Justice at the +Assizes which followed, gave check to his popularity; and thenceforth +for three years all went one way. The Test Acts, abrogated at the +first in a case here and there (yet ominously in such, in particular, +as favoured the admission of papists to the army), were presently +nullified, with other acts of a like character, by a general +declaration of indulgence; and that, to the disgust of the clergy, to +be read in the churches. To this main assault on the passive obedience +which the Church had so often preached, and to which it still fondly +clung, were added innumerable meaner attacks perhaps more humiliating; +as the expulsion of the Protestant Fellows from Magdalene College, +the conversion of University College into a Romish Seminary, and +the dismissal of my Lords Rochester and Clarendon, the King's +brothers-in-law, from all their places because--as was everywhere +rumoured--they would not resign the creed in which they had been born. + +It were long to recount all the other errors into which the King fell; +but I may lay stress on the dissolution of a most loyal Parliament, +because it would not legalise his measures; on the open and shameless +attempt to pack its successor, on the corruption of the Judges, and on +the trial of the seven bishops for sedition. It were shorter and +equally to the point to say that an administration conducted for three +years on these lines, sufficed not only to sap the patient loyalty of +the nation, but to rouse from its rest the political conscience of my +employer. Mr. Brome, after much muttering and many snappish +corrections and alterations, all tending (as I soon perceived) to +Whiggery, resigned, on the day the Fellows of Magdalene were expelled, +his time-honoured system of duplicity; and thenceforward, until the +end, issued the same letter to Tory squire and Whig borough alike. + +What was more remarkable, and, had the King known, it might have +served his obstinate Majesty for a warning, we lost no patrons by the +step; but rather increased our readers; the whole nation by this time +being of one mind. When the end came therefore, and in answer to the +famous Invitation signed by the Seven, the Deliverer, as the Whig +party still love to call him, landed at Torbay, and with scarcely a +blow, and no life lost, entered London, there were few among those who +ruffled it in his train, as he rode to St. James's, who had done as +much to bring him to his throne as my master; though he, good honest +man, wore neither spurs nor sword, and stood humbly a-foot in the +mouth of an alley to see the show go by. + + + + + CHAPTER XII + + +I suppose that there never was an abrupt change in the government of a +nation more quietly, successfully, and bloodlessly carried through +than our great Revolution. But it is the way of the pendulum to swing +back; and it was not long before those who had been most deeply +concerned in the event began to reflect and compare, nor, as they had +before them the example of the Civil War and the subsequent +restoration besides, and were persons bred for the most part in an +atmosphere of Divine Right and passive obedience (whether they had +imbibed those doctrines or not), was it wonderful if a proportion of +them began to repent at leisure what they had done in haste. The late +King's harsh and implacable temper, and the severity with which he had +suppressed one rising, were not calculated to reassure men when they +began to doubt. The possibility of his return hung like a thick cloud +over the more timid; while the favours which the new King showered on +his Dutchmen, the degradation of the coin and of trade, and the many +disasters that attended the first years of the new government were +sufficient to shake the confidence and chill the hearts even of the +stoutest and most patriotic. + +So bad was the aspect of things that it was rumoured that King William +would abdicate; and this aggravating the general uncertainty, many in +high places spent their days in a dreadful looking forward to +judgment; nor ever, I believe, slept without dreaming of Tower Hill, +the axe, and the sawdust. The result that was natural followed. While +many hastened to make a secret peace with St. Germain's, others, +either as a matter of conscience or because they felt that they had +offended too deeply, remained constant; but perceiving treachery in +the air, and being in daily fear of invasion, breathed nothing but +threats and slaughter against the seceders. This begot a period of +plots and counter-plots, of perjury and intrigue, of denunciations and +accusations real and feigned, such as I believe no other country has +ever known; the Jacobites considering a restoration certain, and the +time only doubtful; while the Whigs in their hearts were inclined to +agree with them and feared the worst. + +During seven such years I lived and worked with Mr. Brome; who, +partly, I think, because he had come late to his political bearings, +and partly because the Tories and Jacobites had a newswriter in the +notorious Mr. Dyer--to whose letters Mr. Dryden, it was said, would +sometimes contribute--remained steadfast in his Whig opinions; and did +no little in the country parts to lessen the stir which the Nonjurors' +complaints created. I saw much of him and little of others; and being +honestly busy and honourably employed--not that my style made any +noise in the coffee-houses, which was scarcely to be expected, since +it passed for Mr. Brome's--I began to regard my life before I came to +London as an ugly dream. Yet it had left me with two proclivities +which are not common at the age which I had then reached; the one a +love of solitude and a retired life, which, a matter of necessity at +first, grew by-and-by into a habit; the other an averseness for women +that amounted almost to a fear of them. Mr. Brome, who was a confirmed +bachelor, did nothing to alter my views on either point, or to +reconcile me to the world; and as my life was passed between my attic +in Bride Lane and his apartment in Fleet Street, where he had a +tolerable library, few were better acquainted with public affairs or +had less experience of private, than I; or knew more intimately the +order of the signs and the aspect of the houses between the Fleet +Prison and St. Dunstan's Church. + +Partly out of fear, and partly out of a desire to be done with my +former life, I made myself known to no one in Hertfordshire; but, some +five years after my arrival in London, having a sudden craving to see +my mother, I walked down one Sunday to Epping. There making cautious +enquiries of the Bishop Stortford carrier, I heard of her death, and +on the return journey burst once into a great fit of weeping at the +thought of some kind word or other she had spoken to me on a +remembered occasion. But with this tribute to nature I dismissed my +family, and even that good friend from my mind; going back to my +lodging with a contentment which this glimpse of my former life +wondrously augmented. + +Of Mr. D---- or of the wicked woman who had deceived me I was not +likely to hear; but there was one, and he the only stranger who _ante +Londinium_ had shown me kindness, whose name my pen was frequently +called on to transcribe, and whose fame was even in those days in all +men's mouths. With a thrill of pleasure I heard that my Lord +Shrewsbury had been one of the seven who signed the famous invitation: +then that the King had named him one of the two Secretaries of State; +and again after two years, during which his doings filled more and +more of the public ear--so that he stood for the government--that he +had suddenly and mysteriously resigned all his offices and retired +into the country. Later still, in the same year, in the sad days which +followed the defeat of Beachy Head, when a French fleet sailed the +Channel, and in the King's absence, the most confident quailed, I +heard that he had ridden post to Kensington to place his sword and +purse at the Queen's feet; and, later still, 1694, when three years of +silence had obscured his memory, I heard with pleasure, and the world +with surprise, that he had accepted his old office, and stood higher +than ever in the King's favour. + +The next year Queen Mary died. This, as it left only the King's life +between the Jacobites and a Restoration, increased as well their +activity as the precautions of the government; whose most difficult +task lay in sifting the wheat from the chaff and discerning between +the fictions of a crowd of false witnesses (who thronged the +Secretary's office and lived by this new trade) and the genuine +disclosures of their own spies and informers. In the precarious +position in which the government stood, ministers dared neglect +nothing, nor even stand on scruples. In moments of alarm, therefore, +it was no uncommon thing to close the gates and prosecute a house to +house search for Jacobites; the most notorious being seized and the +addresses of the less dangerous taken. One of these searches which +surprised the city in the month of December, '95, had for me results +so important that I may make it the beginning of a consecutive +narrative. + +I happened to be sitting in my attic that evening over a little coal +fire, putting into shape some Whig reflections on the Coinage Bill; +our newsletter tending more and more to take the form of a pamphlet. A +frugal supper, long postponed, stood at my elbow, and the first I knew +of the search that was afoot, a man without warning opened my door, +which was on the latch, and thrust in his head. + +Naturally I rose in alarm; and we stared at one another by the light +of my one candle. Only the intruder's head and shoulders were in the +room, but I could see that he wore bands and a cassock, and a great +bird's nest wig, which overhung a beak-like nose and bright eyes. + +"Sir," said he after a moment's pause, during which the eyes leaving +me glittered to every part of the room, "I see you are alone, and have +a very handy curtain there." + +I gasped, but to so strange an exordium had nothing to say. The +stranger nodded at that as if satisfied, and slowly edging his body +into the room, disclosed to my sight the tallest and most uncouth +figure imaginable. A long face ending in a tapering chin added much to +the grotesque ugliness of his aspect; in spite of which his features +wore a smirk of importance, and though he breathed quickly, like a man +pressed and in haste, it was impossible not to see that he was master +of himself. + +And of me; for when I went to ask his meaning, he shot out his great +under-lip at me, and showed me the long barrel of a horse pistol that +he carried under his cassock. I recoiled. + +"Good sir," he said, with an ugly grin, "'tis an argument I thought +would have weight with you. To be short, I have to ask your +hospitality. There is a search for Jacobites; at any moment the +messengers may be here. I live opposite to you and am a Nonjuring +clergyman liable to suspicion; you are a friend to Mr. Timothy Brome, +who is known to stand well with the government. I propose therefore to +hide behind the curtain of your bed. Your room will not be searched, +nor shall I be found if you play your part. If you fail to play +it--then I shall be taken; but you, my dear friend, will not see it." + +He said the last words with another of his hideous grins, and tapped +the barrel of his pistol with so much meaning that I felt the blood +leave my cheeks. He took this for a proof of his prowess; and nodding, +as well content, he stood a moment in the middle of the floor, and +listened with the tail of his eye on me. + +He had no reason to watch me, however, for I was unarmed and cowed; +nor had we stood many seconds before a noise of voices and weapons +with the trampling of feet broke out on the stairs, and at once +confirmed his story and proved the urgency of his need. Apparently he +was aware of the course things would take and that the constables and +messengers would first search the lower floors; for instead of +betaking himself forthwith to his place of hiding--as seemed +natural--he looked cunningly round the chamber, and bade me sit down +to my papers. "Do you say at once that you are Mr. Brome's writer," he +continued with an oath, "and mark me well, my man. Betray me by a word +or sign, and I strew your brains on the floor!" + +After that threat, and though he went then, and hid his hateful +face--which already filled me with fear and repugnance beyond +words--behind the curtain, where between bed and wall, there was a +slender space, I had much ado to keep my seat and my self-control. In +the silence which filled the room I could hear his breathing; and I +felt sure that the searchers must hear it also when they entered. +Assured that the Sancrofts and Kens, and the honest but misguided folk +who followed them, did not carry pistols, I gave no credit to his +statement that he was a Nonjuring parson; but deemed him some +desperate highwayman or plotter, whose presence in my room, should he +be discovered and should I by good luck escape his malice, would +land me at the best in Bridewell or the Marshalsea. By-and-by the +candle-wick grew long, and terrified at the prospect of being left in +the dark with him, I went to snuff it. With a savage word he whispered +me to let it be; after which I had no choice but to sit in fear and +semi-darkness, listening to the banging of doors below, and the +alternate rising and falling of voices, as the search party entered or +issued from the successive rooms. + +In my chamber with its four whitewashed walls and few sticks of +furniture there was only one place where a man could stand and be +unseen; and that was behind the curtain. There, I thought, the most +heedless messenger must search; and as I listened to the steps +ascending the last flight I was in an agony. I foresaw the moment when +the constable would carelessly and perfunctorily draw the curtain--and +then the flash, the report, the cry, the mad struggle up and down the +room, which would follow. + +So strong was this impression, that though I had been waiting minutes +when the summons came and a hand struck my door, I could not at once +find voice to speak. The latch was up, and the door half open when I +cried "Enter!" and rose. + +In the doorway appeared three or four faces, a couple of lanthorns, +held high, and a gleam of pike-heads. "Richard Price, servant to Mr. +Brome, the newswriter," cried one of the visitors, reading in a +sonorous voice from a paper. + +"Well affected," answered a second--evidently the person in command. +"Brome is a good man. I know him. No one hidden here?" + +"No," I said, with a loudness and boldness that surprised me. + +"No lodger, my man?" + +"None!" + +"Right!" he answered. "Good-night, and God save King William!" + +"Amen!" quoth I; and then, and not before, my knees began to shake. + +However, it no longer mattered, for before I could believe that the +danger was over they were gone and had closed the door; and I caught a +sniggering laugh behind the curtain. Still they had gone no farther +than the stairs; I heard them knock on the opposite door and troop in +there, and I caught the tones of a woman's voice, young and fresh, +answering them. But in a minute they came out again, apparently +satisfied, and crowded down stairs; whereon the man behind the curtain +laughed again, and swaggering out, Bobadil-like, shook his fist with +furious gestures after them. + +"Damn your King William, and you too!" he cried in ferocious triumph. +"One of these days God will squeeze him like the rotten orange he is; +and if God will not, I will! I, Robert Ferguson! Trot, for the set of +pudding-headed blind-eyed moles that you are! Call yourselves +constables! Bah! But as for you, my friend," he continued, turning to +me and throwing his pistol with a crash on the table, "you have more +spunk than I thought you had, and spoke up like a gentleman of mettle. +There is my hand on it!" + +My throat was so dry that I could not speak, but I gave him my hand. + +He gripped it and threw it from him with a boastful gesture, and +stalking to the farther side of the room and back again, "There!" +cried he. "Now you can say that you have touched hands with Ferguson, +the famous Ferguson, the Ferguson on whose head a thousand guineas +have been set! Ferguson the Kingmaker, who defied three Kings and made +three Kings and will yet make a fourth! Fire and furies, do a set of +boozing tipstaves think to take the man who outwitted Jeffreys and +slipped through Kirke's lambs?" + + +[Illustration: "DAMN YOUR KING WILLIAM, AND YOU TOO!" HE CRIED] + + +Hearing who he was, I stared at him in astonishment; but in +astonishment largely leavened with fear and hatred; for I knew the +reputation he enjoyed, and both what he had done, and of what he was +suspected. That in all his adventures and intrigues he had borne a +charmed life; and where Sidney and Russell, Argyle and Monmouth, +Rumbold and Ayloffe had suffered on the scaffold, he had escaped scot +free was one thing and certain; but that men accounted for this in +strange ways was another scarcely less assured. While his friends +maintained that he owed his immunity to a singular skill in disguise, +his enemies, and men who were only so far his enemies as they were the +enemies of all that was most base in human nature, asserted that this +had little to do with it, but went so far as to say that in all his +plots, with Russell and with Monmouth, with Argyle and with Ayloffe, +he had played booty, and played the traitor: and tempting men, and +inviting men to the gibbet, had taken good care to go one step +farther--and by betraying them to secure his own neck from peril! + + + + + CHAPTER XIII + + +Such was the man I saw before me; on whose face, as if heaven purposed +to warn his fellows against him, malignant passion and an insane +vanity were so plainly stamped that party spirit must have gone to +lengths, indeed, before it rendered men blind to his quality. His +shambling gait seemed a fitting conveyance for a gaunt, stooping +figure so awkward and uncouth that when he gave way to gesticulation +it seemed to be moved by wires; yet, once he looked askance at you, +face and figure were forgotten in the gleam of the eyes that, +treacherous and cruel, leered at you from the penthouse of his huge, +ill-fitting wig. + +Nevertheless, I confess that, while I hated and loathed the man, he +cowed me. His latest escape had intoxicated him, and astride on my +table, or stalking the floor, he gave way to his vanity. Pouring out a +flood of ribald threats and imaginings, he now hinted at the fate +which had never failed to befall those who thwarted him; now he +boasted of his cunning and his hundred intrigues, and now he touched, +not obscurely, on some great design soon to be executed. His audacity, +no less than his frankness, bewildered me; for if he did not tell me +all, he told enough, were it true, to hang a man. Yet I soon found +that he had method in his madness; for while I listened with a +shamefaced air, hating him and meditating informing against him the +moment I was freed from his presence, he turned on me with a hideous +grin, and thrusting the muzzle of his pistol against my temple, swore +with endless curses to slay me if I betrayed him. + +"You will go to Brome to-morrow, as usual," he said. "The Whiggish old +dotard, I could pluck out his inwards! And you will say not one word +of Mr. Ferguson! For, mark me, sirrah Dick, alone or in company I +shall be at your elbow, nor will all Cutts's guards avail to save you! +Do you mark me? Then d---- you, down on your knees! Down on your +knees, you white-livered dog, and swear by the Gospels you will tell +no living soul by tongue or pen that you have seen me." + +He pressed the cold steel muzzle to my temple and I knelt and swore. +When it was done, he roared and jeered at me. "You see, I have my +oath!" he cried, "as well as Little Hooknose! And no non-jurors! Now +say 'Down with King William!'" + +I said it. + +"Louder! Louder!" he cried. + +I could only comply. + + +[Illustration: HE PRESSED THE RING OF COLD STEEL] + + +"Now, write it! Write it!" he continued, thrusting a piece of paper +under my nose, and slapping his huge hand upon it. "I'll have it in +black and white! Or write this--ha! ha! that will be better. Are you +ready? Write, 'I hereby abjure my allegiance to Prince William.'" + +"No," I said faintly, laying down the pen which I had taken up at his +bidding. "I will not write it." + +"You _will_ write it!" he answered in a terrible tone. "And within a +very few seconds. Write it at once, sirrah! 'I hereby abjure my +allegiance to Prince William!'" + +I wrote it with a shaking hand, after a glance at the pistol muzzle. + +"And swear that I regard King James as my lawful sovereign. And I +undertake to obey the rules of the St. Germain's Club, and to forward +its interests. Good! Now sign it." + +I did so. + +"Date it," cried the tyrant; and when I had done so he snatched the +paper from me and flourished it in the air, "There is my passport!" +quoth he, with an exultant laugh. "When I am taken that will be taken, +and when that is taken the worse for Mr. Richard Price if he is taken. +He will taste of the hangman's lash. So! You are a clever fellow, +Richard Price, but Robert Ferguson is your master, as he has been +better men's!" + +The man was so much in love with cruelty, that even when he had gained +his point he could not bear to give up the pleasure of torturing me; +and for half an hour he continued to flout and jeer at me, sometimes +picturing my fate if the paper fell into the Secretary's hands, and +sometimes threatening me with his pistol, and making sport of my +alarm. At last, reluctantly, and after many warnings of what would +happen to me if I informed, he took himself off; and I heard him go +into the opposite rooms, and slam the door. + +Be sure I was not long in securing mine after him! I was in a pitiable +state of terror; shaking at thought of the man's return, and in an +ague when I considered the power over me, which the paper I had signed +gave him. I could hardly believe that, in so short a time, anything so +dreadful had happened to me! Yet it were hard to say whether, with all +my terror, I did not hate him more than I feared him; for though at +one time my heart was water when I thought of betraying him, at +another it glowed with rage and loathing, and to spite him, and to +free myself from him, I would risk anything. And as I was not wanting +in foresight, and could picture with little difficulty the slavery in +which he would hold me from that day forward--and wherein his cruel +spirit would delight--it was the latter mood that prevailed with me, +and determined my action when morning came. + +Reflecting that I could expect no mercy from him, but had little to +fear from the Government, if I told my tale frankly, I determined at +all risks to go to the Secretary. I would have done so, the moment I +rose, the thought that at any moment he might burst in upon me keeping +me in a cold sweat; but I was prudent enough to abide by my habits, +and refrain from anticipating by a second the hour at which it was my +custom to descend. I waited in the utmost trepidation, therefore, +until half-past seven, when with a quaking heart, but a mind made up, +I ventured down to the street. + +It was barely light, but the coffee-houses were open, and between +early customers to these, and barbers passing with their curling +tongs, and milkmen and hawkers plying morning wares, and apprentices +setting out their masters' goods, the ways were full and noisy; so +that I had no reason to fear pursuit, and in the hubbub gained courage +the farther I left my oppressor behind me. Nevertheless, I took the +precaution of going first to Mr. Brome's, opposite St. Dunstan's; and +passing in there, as was my daily custom, lingered a little in the +entry. When by this ruse I had made assurance doubly sure, I slipped +out, and went through the crowded Strand to Whitehall. + +Mr. Brome had a species of understanding with the Government; and on +one occasion being ill, had made me his messenger to the Secretary's. +I knew the place therefore, but none the less gave way to timidity +when I saw the crowd of ushers, spies, tipstaves, and busybodies that +hung about the door of the office, and took curious note of everyone +who went in or out. My heart failed me at the sight, and I was already +more than half inclined to go away, my business undone, when someone +touched my sleeve, and I started and turned. A girl still in her +teens, with a keen and pinched face, and a handkerchief neatly drawn +over her head, handed a note to me. + +"For me?" I asked. + +"Yes," said she. + +I took it on that and opened it, my hands shaking. But when I read the +contents, which were these--"Mr. Robert Ferguson's respects to the +Secretary, and he has to-day changed his lodging. He will to-morrow be +pleased to supply the bearer's character"--I thought I should have +fallen to the ground. Nor was my alarm the less for the reflection +which immediately arose in my mind that the note had of necessity been +written and despatched before I left Mr. Brome's door; and +consequently before I had taken any step towards the execution of my +design! + +Still, what I held was but a piece of paper bearing a message from a +man proscribed, who dared not show his face where I stood. A word to +the doorkeepers and I might even now go in and lay my information. But +the man's omniscience cowed my spirit, terrified me, and broke me +down. Assured after this, that whatever I did or wherever I went he +would know and be warned in time, and I gain by my information nothing +but the name of a gull or a cheat, I turned from the door. Then seeing +that the girl waited, "There is no answer," I said. + +"Will you please to go to the gentleman?" quoth she. + +My jaw dropped. "God forbid!" I said, beginning to tremble. + +"I think you had better," said she. + +And this time there was that in her voice roused doubts in me and made +me waver--lest what I had done prove insufficient, and he betray me, +though I refrained from informing. Sullenly, therefore, and after a +moment's thought, I asked her where he was. + +"I am not to tell you," she answered. "You can come with me if you +please." + +"Go on," I said. + +She cast a sharp glance at the group about the office, then turned, +and walking rapidly north by Charing Cross led me through St. Martin's +Lane and Bedford Bury to Covent Garden. Skirting this, she threaded +Hart Street and Red Lion Court, and crossing Drury Lane conducted me +into Lincoln's Inn Fields, where she turned sharply to the left and +through Ralph Court to the Turnstile. Seeing that she lingered here +and from time to time looked back, I fancied that we were near our +destination; but starting afresh, she led me along Holborn and through +Staple Inn. Presently it struck me that we were near Bride Lane, and I +cried "He is in my room?" + +"Yes," she said gravely, and without explanation. "If he pleases you +will find him there." And without more she signed to me to go on, and +disappeared herself in the mouth of an alley by Green's Rents. + +It did please him. When I entered with the air, doubtless, of a +whipped hound, I found him sitting on my table swinging his legs and +humming an air; and with so devilish a look of malice and triumph on +his face as sent my heart into my boots. Notwithstanding, for a while +it was his humour not to speak to me but to leer at me askance out of +the corner of his eyes, and keep me on tenterhooks, expecting what he +would say or do; and this he maintained until he had finished his +tune, when with a grin he asked after his friend the Secretary. + +"Was it Trumball you saw, or the new Duke?" said he; and when I did +not answer he roared out an oath, and snatching up the pistol which +lay on the table beside him, levelled it at me. "Answer, will you? Do +you think that I am to speak twice to such uncovenanted dirt as you? +Whom did you see?" + +"No one," I stammered, trembling. + +"And why not?" he cried. "And why not, you spawn of Satan?" + +"I received your note," I said. + +"Oh, you received my note!" he whimpered, dropping his voice and +mocking my alarm. "Your lordship received my note, did you? And if you +had not got my note, you would have informed, would you? You would +have informed and sent me to the gallows, would you? Answer! Answer, +or----" + +"Yes!" I cried in an agony of terror; for he was bringing the pistol +nearer and nearer to my face, while his finger toyed with the trigger, +and at any moment might press it too sharply. + +"So! And you tell me that to my face, do you?" he answered, eyeing me +so truculently, that I held up my hands and backed to the door. "You +dare tell me that, do you? Come here, sirrah!" + +I hesitated. + +"Come here!" he cried. "Or by ---- I will shoot you! For the last +time, come here!" + +I went nearer. + +"Oh, but I would like to see you in the boot!" he said. "It would be +the finest sight! It would not need a turn of the screw to make you +cry out! And mind you," he continued, suddenly seizing my ear in his +great hand, and twisting it until I screamed, "in a boot of some kind +or other I shall have you--if you play me false! Do yon understand, +eh? Do you understand, you sheep in wolf's clothing?" + +"Yes!" I cried. "Yes, yes!" He had forced me to my knees, and brought +his cruel sneering face close to mine. + +"Very well. Then get up--if you have learned your lesson. You have had +one proof that I know more than others. Do not seek another. But, +umph--where have I seen you before. Master Trembler?" + +I said humbly, my spirit quite broken, that I did not know. + +"No?" he answered, staring at me with his face puckered up. "Yet +somewhere I have. And some day I shall call it to mind. In the +meantime--remember that you are my slave, my dog, my turnspit, to +fetch or carry, cry or be merry at my will. You will sleep or wake, go +or come as I bid you. And so long as you do that--Richard Price, you +shall live. But on the day you play me false, or whisper my name to +living soul--on that day, or within the week, you will hang! Do you +hear, hang, you Erastian dog! Hang, and be carrion: with Ayloffe, and +many another good man, that would stint me, and take no warning!" + + + + + CHAPTER XIV + + +Alas, the secret subjection into which I fell from that day onwards, +to a man who knew neither pity nor scruple--and wielded his power with +the greater enjoyment and the less remorse for the piquant contrast it +afforded to his position, as a proscribed and hunted traitor, in +hiding for his life--exceeded all the anticipations of it which I had +entertained. Having his favourite lodging in the rooms opposite mine, +he was ready, when the cruel humour seized him, to sally forth and +mock and torment me; while the privacy of his movements and the number +of his disguises (whence it arose that I never knew until I saw him +whether he was there or not) kept me in a state of suspense and misery +well nigh intolerable. Yet such was the spell of fear under which he +had contrived to lay me--he being a violent and dangerous man and I no +soldier--and so crafty were the means, no less than the art, by which +he gradually wound a chain about me, that in spite of my hatred I +found resistance vain; and for a long time, and until a _deus ex +machina_, as the ancients say, appeared on the scene, saw no resource +but to bear the yoke and do his bidding. + +He had one principal mode of strengthening his hold upon me; which +stood the higher in his favour, as besides effecting that object and +rendering me serviceable, it amused him with the spectacle of my +alarms. This consisted in the employing me in his treasonable designs: +as by sending me with letters and messages to Sam's Coffeehouse, or to +the Dog in Drury Lane, or to more private places where the Jacobites +congregated; by making me a go-between to arrange meetings with those +of his kidney who dared not stir abroad in daylight, and came and went +between London and the coast of France under cover of night; or +lastly, by using me to drop treasonable papers in the streets, or +fetch the same from the secret press, in a court off St. James's, +where they were printed. + +He took especial delight in imposing this last task upon me, and in +depicting, when I returned fresh from performing it, the penalties to +which I had rendered myself liable. It may occur to some that when I +passed through the streets with such papers in my hands I had an easy +way out of my troubles; and could at any moment by conveying the +letters to the Secretary's office procure the tyrant's arrest, and my +own freedom. But besides the fact that his frequent change of lodging, +his excellent information, and the legion of spies who served him, +rendered it doubtful whether with the best will in the world the +messengers would find him where I had left him, he frequently +boasted--and the boast, if unfounded, added to my distrust of all with +whom I came into contact--that the very tipsters and officers were in +his pay, and that Cutts himself dared not arrest him! Besides, I more +than suspected that often the letters he gave me were blank, and the +errands harmless: and that the one and the other were feigned only for +the purpose of trying me, or out of pure cruelty--to the end that when +I returned he might describe with gusto the process of hanging, +drawing, and quartering, and gloat over the horror with which I +listened to his relation; a practice which he carried to such an +extent as more than once to reduce me to tears of rage and anguish. + +Such was my life at home, where if my tyrant was not always at my +elbow I was every hour obnoxious to his appearance; for early in our +connection he forbade me to lock my door. Abroad I was scarcely more +easy, seeing that, besides an impression I had that wherever I went I +was dogged, there was scarcely an item of news which it fell to my lot +to record that did not throw me into a panic. One day it would be Mr. +Bear arrested on a charge of high treason, and in possession of I knew +not what compromising letters: another, the suicide in the Temple of a +gentleman to whom I myself had a week earlier taken a letter, and who +had in my presence let fall expressions which led me to think him in +the same evil case with me. Another day it would be an announcement +that the Government had discovered a new Conspiracy; or that letters +going for France had been seized in Romney Marshes; or that the +Lancashire witnesses were speaking more candidly; or that Dr. Oates +had been taken up and held to bail for a misdemeanour. All these and +many other rumours punished me in turn; and filling my mind with the +keenest apprehensions, must in a short time have rendered my life +intolerable. + +As it was, Mr. Brome, within a month, saw so great a change in me that +he would have me take a holiday; advising me to go afield either to my +relations, or to some village on the Lea, to which neighbourhood Mr. +Izaak Walton's book had given a reputation exceeding its deserts. He +reinforced the advice with a gift of two guineas, that I might spend +the month royally; then in a great hurry added an injunction that I +should not waste the money. But I did worse; for I had the simple +folly to tell the whole by way of protest and bitter complaint to my +other master; who first with a grin took from me the two guineas, and +then made himself merry over the increased time I could now place at +his disposal. + +"And it is timely, Dick, it is timely," he said with ugly pleasantry. +"For, the good cause, the cause you love so dearly, Dick, is +prospering. Another month and you and I know what will happen. Ha! ha! +we know. In the meantime, work while it is day, Dick. Put your hand to +the plough and look not back. If all were as forward as you, our necks +would be in little peril, and we might see a rope without thinking of +a cart." + +"Curse you!" I cried, almost beside myself between disappointment, and +the rage into which his fiendish teasing threw me. "Cannot you keep +your tongue off that? Is it not enough that you----" + +"Have taught me to limp!" quoth he winking hideously. "Here's to +Louis, James, Mary, and the Prince--L. I. M. P., my lad! Oh, we can +talk the deealect. We have had good teachers." + +I could have burst into tears. "Some day you'll be caught!" I cried. + +"Well?" he said with a grin. "And what then?" + +"You'll be hanged! Hanged!" I cried furiously. "And God grant I may be +there to see." + +"You will that," he answered with composure. "Make your mind easy, my +man, for, trust me, if I am in the first cart, you'll be in the +second. That is my security, friend Dick. If I go, you go. Who carried +to Mr. Warmaky's chambers the letters from France, I would like to +know? And who---- But the cause!" he continued, breaking off, "the +cause! To business, and no more havers. Here's work for you. You shall +go, do you hear me, Richard, to Covent Garden to the Piazza there, in +half an hour's time. It will be full dark then. You will see there a +fine gentleman walking up and down, taking his tobacco, with a white +handkerchief hanging from his pocket. You will give him that note, and +say 'Roberts and Guiney are good men'--d'ye take it? 'Roberts and +Guiney are good men,' say that, and no more, and come back to me." + +I answered at first, being in a rage, and not liking this errand +better than others I had done for him, that I would not--I would not, +though he killed me. But he had a way with him that I could not long +resist; and he presently cowed me, and sent me off. + +I had so far fallen into his sneaking habits that though it was dark +night when I started, I went the farthest way round by Holborn, and +the new fashionable quarter, Soho; and passing through King's Square +itself, and before the late Duke of Monmouth's house--the sight of +which did not lessen my distaste for my errand--I entered Covent +Garden by James Street, which comes into the square between the two +Piazzas. At the corner, I had to turn into the roadway to avoid +a party of roisterers who had just issued from the Nag's Head +coffee-house and were roaring for a coach; and being in the kennel, +and observing under the Piazza and before the taverns more lights and +link-boys than I liked, I continued along the gutter, dirty as it was +(and always is in the neighbourhood of the market), until I was +half-way across the square, where I could turn and reconnoitre at my +leisure. Here for a moment, running my eye along the Piazza, which had +its usual fringe of flower girls and mumpers, swearing porters and +hackney coaches, I thought my man with the white handkerchief had not +come; but shifting my gaze to the Little Piazza, which was darker and +less frequented, I presently espied him walking to and fro under +cover, with a cane in his hand and the air of a gentleman who had +supped and was looking out for a pretty girl. He was a tall, stout +man, wearing a large black peruke and a lace cravat and ruffles; and +he carried a steel-hilted sword, and had somehow the bearing of one +who had seen service abroad. + +Satisfied that he was the person I wanted, I went to him; but stepping +up to him a little hastily, I gave him a start, I suppose, for he +backed from me and laid his hand on his hilt, rapping out an oath. +However, a clearer view reassured him, and he cocked his hat, and +swore at me again but in a different tone. "Sir," said he very rudely, +"another time give a gentleman a wider berth, unless you want his cane +about your shoulders!" + +For answer I merely pulled out the note I had and held it towards him, +being accustomed to such errands and anxious only to do this one, and +begone; the more as under the Great Piazza a number of persons were +loitering, and among them link-boys and chairmen and the like who +notice everything. + +However he made no movement to take the letter, but only said, "For +me?" + +"Yes," I answered. + +"From whom?" said he, roughly. + +"You will learn that inside," I said. "I was bidden only to say that +Roberts and Guiney are good men." + +"Ha!" he exclaimed, "why did you not say that before?" and at that +took the letter. On which, having done my part and not liking the +neighbourhood, I was for going, and had actually made a half turn, +when a man slighter than the first and taller, came out of the shadow +behind him, and standing by his side, touched his hat to me. I +stopped. + +"Good evening, my lord," he said, addressing me with ceremony, and a +sort of dignity. "I little thought to see you here on this business. +It is the best news I have had myself or have had to give to others +this many a day. It shall be well represented, and the risk you +run. And whatever be thought on this side, believe me, at St. +Germain's----" + +"Hush!" cried the first man, interrupting him at that, and rather +sharply. I think he had been too much surprised to speak before. "You +are too hasty, sir," he continued. "There must be a mistake here. The +gentleman to whom you are speaking----" + +"There is no mistake. This gentleman and I are well acquainted," the +other responded coolly, and in the tone of a man who knows what he is +doing. And then to me, and with a different air, "My lord, you may not +wish to say your name aloud; that I can understand, and this is no +very safe place for either of us. But if we could meet somewhere, say +at----" + +"Hush, sir," the man with the handkerchief cried, and this time almost +angrily. "There _is_ a mistake here, and in a moment you will say too +much, if you have not said it already. This gentleman--if he is a +gentleman--brings a letter from R. F., and is no more of a lord, I'll +be sworn, than I am!" + +"From R. F.?" + +"Yes; and therefore if he is the person you think him---- But come, +sir," he continued, eyeing me angrily, "what _is_ your name? End +this." + +I did not wish to tell him, yet liked less to refuse. So I lied, and +on the spur of the moment said, "Charles Taylor," that being the name +of a man who lived below me. + +The taller man struck one hand into the other. "There! Charles!" he +cried, and looked at me smiling. "I have an eye for faces, and if you +are not----" + +"Nay, sir, I pray, be quiet," the man with the white handkerchief +remonstrated. "Or if you are so certain----" and then he looked hard +at me and frowned as if he began to feel a doubt. "Step this way and +tell me what you think. This gentleman will doubtless excuse us, and +wait a moment, whether he be whom you think him or not." + +I was as uneasy and as unwilling to stay as could be; but the man's +tone was resolute, and I saw that he was not a man to cross; so with +an ill grace I consented, and the two drawing aside together into the +deeper shadow under the Piazza, began to confer. This left me to kick +my heels impatiently, and watch out of the corner of my eye the +loiterers under the other Piazza, to learn if any observed us. +Fortunately they were taken up with a quarrel which had just broken +out between two hackney coachmen, and though a man came near me, +bringing a woman, he had no eyes for me, and, calling a sedan-chair, +went away again almost immediately. + +I was so engrossed with watching on that side and taking everyone who +looked towards me for an informer, that it was with a kind of shock +that I found my two friends had grown in the course of their +conference to three; nor had I more than discovered this before the +new comer left the other two and sauntered up to me. "Oh, ah," he said +carelessly, "and who do you say that you----" and there he stopped, +staring in my face. And then, "By heavens, it is!" he cried. + +By this time I was something astonished, and more amazed; and answered +with spirit--though he was a hard-bitten man, with the look of a +soldier or gamester, to whom ordinarily I should have given the +wall--that I was merely a messenger, and knew nothing of the matter on +which I was there, nor for whom they took me. + +His face, which for a second or more had blazed with excitement, fell +suddenly; and when I had done speaking, he laughed. + +"Don't you?" he said. + +"No," said I. "Not a groat!" + +"So it seems," he said again, as if that settled the matter. "Well, +then what is your name?" + +"Charles Taylor," I answered. + +"And you come from that old rogue Ferg--R. F., I mean?" + +"Yes." + +"Well then you can go back to him," he said, dismissing me with a nod. +"Or wait. Did you know that gentleman, my friend?" + +"Which?" said I. + +"The tall one." + +"Not from Adam," I said. + +"Good! Then there is no need you should know him," he answered coolly. +"So, go. And do you tell that old fox to lie close. He was never in +anything yet but he spoiled it. Tell him to lie close, and keep his +bragging tongue quiet if he can. And now be off. I will explain to the +gentlemen." + +I needed no second bidding, but before the words were well out of his +mouth, had crossed the square, to the market side, where there were no +lights; thence skirting the garden of Bedford House, I made my way +into the Strand, and home by a pretty direct route. The farther I left +the men behind me, however, the higher rose my curiosity; so that by +the time I reached Bride Lane, and had climbed the stairs to my +garret, I was agape to know more, and for once in my life, was glad to +find the old plotter in my room. Nor was it without satisfaction, that +to his eager question, "You gave the note to the gentleman?" I +answered shortly that I had given it to three. + +"To three?" he exclaimed, starting up in a sudden fury. "You d----d +cur, if you have betrayed me! What do you mean?" + +"Only that I did what you told me," I answered sullenly; at which he +sat down again. "I gave it to the gentleman; but he had two with +him----" + +"The more to hang him," he sneered, quickly recovering himself. "And +what did he say?" + +"Very little. Nothing that I remember. But the two with him----" + +"Ay?" + +"One of them said, 'Tell the old fox'--or the rogue, for he called +you both--'to lie close!' And he added," I continued, spite giving me +courage, "that you had hitherto spoiled everything you had been in, +Mr. Ferguson." + +At that I do not think that I ever saw a man in such a rage. +Fortunately he did not turn it on me; but for two or three minutes he +cursed and swore, bit things and foamed at the mouth, trampled on his +wig and raged up and down, like nothing so much as a madman; while the +imprecations he uttered against his enemies were so horrible I feared +to stay with him. At length it seemed to occur to him that the man who +could send such a message to him, Ferguson, the great Ferguson, the +Ferguson with a thousand guineas on his head, must be a very great man +indeed: which while it consoled him in some measure, excited his +curiosity in another and inordinate degree. He hastened to put to me a +number of questions, as, what were the two like? And did the one pay +the other respect? And how were they dressed? And had either a ribbon +or a star? And though in answer I could tell him no more than that the +youngest was extremely tall and slight, under thirty, and of an easy +carriage and bearing, and in appearance the leader, it was enough for +him; he presently cried out that he had it, and slapped his thigh. +"Gad! It is Jamie Churchill!" he cried. "It's Berwick, stop my vitals! +He had a villainous French accent, had he not?" + +"Something of the kind," I answered. Adding with as much of a sneer as +I dared, "If it was not a Scotch one, sir." + +He took the gibe and scowled at me--he spoke always like a Sawney, and +could never pass for English; but in his pleasure at the discovery he +had made he let the word pass. "See, man!" he said, "there are fine +times coming! It is like Monmouth's day over again. I'll warrant +Hunt's, down in the Marshes, is like a penny ferry with their coming +over. The fat is fairly in the fire now, and if we do not singe little +Hooknose's wig for him, I'll hang for it! He is a better man than +his father, is Jamie; ay, the very same figure of a man that his +cold-blooded, grease-your-boots, and sell-you-for-a-groat uncle, John +Churchill, was at his age! So Jamie is over! Well, well: and if we +knew precisely where he was and where he lies nights--there are two +ways about it! Ye-es! Ye-es!" And the old rogue, falling first into a +drawl and then into silence, looked at me slyly, and, unless I was +mistaken, began to ruminate on a new treason; rubbing now one calf and +now the other, and now dressing his ragged wig with his fingers, as he +continued to smile at his wicked thoughts; so that, as he sat there, +one leg over the other knee, he was the veriest baldheaded Judas to be +conceived. In the meantime I watched him and hated him, and, I +thought, read him. + +Whatever the scheme in his mind, however, and whether he was, as I +expected, as ready to sell the Duke of Berwick as to plot with him, he +said no more to me on the subject; but presently went to his own room. +Thus left, I thought it high time to consider where I stood, being all +of a tremble and twitter with what I had heard and seen; and I tossed +through the night, fearfully sounding the depths in which I found +myself, and striving to gain strength to battle with the stream that +day by day was forcing me farther and farther from the land. I was no +boy or fool, unaware of the danger of being mixed up with great men +and great names; rather the ten years during which I had followed +public affairs had presented me with only too many examples of the +iron pot and clay pitcher. When, therefore, I slept at last, late in +the evening, it was to dream of the sledge and Tyburn road and the +Ordinary--who bore in my dream a marvellous likeness to Mr. Brome--and +a wall of faces that lined the way and never ceased from St. Giles's +Pound to the Edgeware Road. + +Such a dream, taken with my night's thoughts, left me eager to put in +execution a plan I had more than once considered; which was to give up +all, to fly from London, and hiding myself in some quiet place under +another name, to live as I best might until Ferguson's capture, or a +change in the state of affairs freed me from danger. At a distance +from him I might even gain courage to inform against him; but this I +left for future decision, the main thing now being to pack my clothes, +secure about me the money I had saved, which amounted to thirty +guineas, and escape from the town on foot or in a stage-wagon without +any of his myrmidons being the wiser. + +To adopt this course was to lose Mr. Brome's friendship and the +livelihood which his employment provided; but such was the fear I had +conceived of Ferguson's schemes and the perils they involved that I +scarcely hesitated. Before noon, an hour which I thought least open to +suspicion, I had engaged a porter and bidden him wait below, had made +all my other arrangements, and in five minutes I should have been safe +in the streets with my face set towards Kensington--when, at the last +moment, there came a tap at my door and a voice asked if I was in. + +It was not an hour at which Ferguson had ever troubled me, and +trusting to this I had not been careful to hide the signs of removal +which my room presented. For a moment I hung over my trunk, +panic-stricken; then the door opened, and admitted the girl who +had intervened once before--I mean at the door of the Secretary's +office--and whom I had since noticed, but not often, going in at the +opposite rooms. + +She curtseyed demurely, standing in the doorway, and said that Mr. +Smith--which was one of the names by which Ferguson went--had sent her +to me with a message. + +"Yes," I said, forcing myself to speak. + +"Would you please to wait on him this evening at eight," she answered. +"He wishes to speak with you." + +"Yes," I said again, helplessly assenting; and there was an end of my +fine evasion. I took it for a warning, and my clothes from my mail; +and going down paid the porter a groat, and received in return a dozen +porter's oaths. And so dismissed him and my plan together. + + + + + CHAPTER XV + + +It must be confessed that after that it was with a sore shrinking and +foreboding of punishment I prepared to obey Mr. Ferguson's summons, +and at the hour he had fixed knocked at his door. Hitherto he had +always come to me; and even so and on my own ground I had suffered +enough at his hands. What I had to expect, therefore, when entirely in +his power I failed to guess, but on that account felt only the greater +apprehension; so that it was with relief I recognised, firstly, as +soon as I crossed the threshold, a peculiar neatness and cleanliness +in the rooms, as if Ferguson at home were something different from +Ferguson abroad; and secondly, that he was not alone, but entertained +a visitor. + +Neither of these things, to be sure, altered his bearing towards me, +or took from the brutality with which it was his humour to address me; +but as his opening words announced that the visitor's business lay +with me, they relieved me from my worst apprehension--namely, that I +was to be called to account for the steps I had taken to escape; at +the same time that they amused me with the hope of better treatment, +since no man could deal with me worse than he had. + +"This is your man!" the plotter cried, lying back in his chair and +pointing to me with the pipe he was smoking. "Never was such a brave +conspirator! Name a rope and he will sweat! For my part, I wish you +joy of him. Here, you, sirrah," he continued, addressing me, "this +gentleman wishes to speak to you, and, mind you, you will do what he +tells you, or----" + +But at that the gentleman cut him short with a deprecating gesture. +"Softly, Mr. Ferguson, softly!" he said, and rose and bowed to me. +Then I saw that he was the last comer of the three I had met in Covent +Garden; and the one who had dismissed me. "You go too fast," he went +on, smiling, "and give our friend here a wrong impression of me. Mr. +Taylor, I----" + +But it was Ferguson's turn to take him up, which he did with a +boisterous laugh. "Ho! Taylor! Taylor!" he cried in derision. "No more +Taylor than I am haberdasher! The man's name----" + +"Is whatever he pleases," the stranger struck in, with another bow. "I +neither ask it nor seek to know it. Such things between gentlemen and +in these times are neither here nor there. It is enough and perhaps +too much that I came to ask you to do me a favour and a service, Mr. +Taylor, both of which are in your power." + +He spoke with a politeness which went far to win me, and the farther +for the contrast it afforded to Ferguson's violence. With his +appearance I was not so greatly taken; finding in it, though he was +dressed well enough, clearer signs of recklessness than of discretion, +and plainer evidences of hard living than of charity or study. But +perhaps the prayer of such a man, when he stoops to pray, is the more +powerful. At any rate I was already half gained, when I answered; +asking him timidly what I could do for him. + +"Pay a call with me," said he lightly. "Neither more than that, nor +less." + +I asked him on whom we were to call. + +"On a lady," he answered, "who lives at the other end of the town." + +"But can I be of any service?" I said, feebly struggling against the +inevitable. + +"You can," he answered. "Of great service." + +"Devil a bit!" said Ferguson testily, and stared derision at me out of +a cloud of smoke. It occurred to me then that he was not quite sober, +and further that he was no more in the secret of the service than I +was. "Devil a bit!" said he again, and more offensively. + +"You will let me judge of that," said the gentleman, and he turned to +the table. "Will you mind changing the clothes you wear for these?" he +said to me with a pleasant air. On which I saw that he had on the +table by his hand a suit of fine silk velvet clothes, and surmounted +by a grand dress peruque, with a laced steinkirk and ruffles to match. +"Pardon the impertinence," he continued, shrugging his shoulders as if +the matter were a very slight one, while I stared in amazement at this +new turn. "It is only that I think you will aid me the better in +these. And after all, what is a change of clothes?" + +Naturally I looked at the things in wonder. I had never worn clothes +of the kind. "Do you want me to put them on?" I said. + +"Yes," he answered, smiling. "Will you do it on the faith that it will +serve me, and trust to me to explain later?" + +"If there is no danger in--in the business," I said reluctantly, "I +suppose I must." As a fact, whatever he asked me, with Ferguson beside +him, I should have to do, so great was my fear of that man. + +"There is no danger," he replied. "I will answer for it. I shall +accompany you and return with you." + +On that, and though I did not comprehend in the least degree what was +required of me, I consented, and took the clothes at the stranger's +bidding into the next room, where I put off mine and put these on; and +presently, seeing myself in a little square of glass that hung against +the wall, scarcely knew myself in a grand suit of blue velvet slashed +and laced with pearl-colour, a dress peruque and lace ruffles and +cravat. Being unable to tie the cravat, I went back into the room with +it in my hand; where I found not only the two I had left but the girl +who had summoned me that morning. The two men greeted the change in me +with oaths of surprise; the girl, who stood in the background, with an +open-eyed stare; but for a moment and until the stranger had tied the +cravat for me, nothing was said that I understood. Then Mr. Ferguson +getting up and walking round me with a candle, gazing at me from top +to toe, the other asked him in a voice of some amusement if he knew +now who I was. + +"A daw in jay's feathers!" said he, scornfully. + +"And you do not know him?" + +"Not I--except for the silly fool he is!" + +"Then you do not know--well, someone you ought to know!" the stranger +answered dryly. "You are getting old, Mr. Ferguson." + +My master cursed his impudence. + +"I am afraid that you do not keep abreast of the rising generation," +the other continued, coolly eyeing the rage his words excited. "And +for your Shaftesburys, and Monmouths, and Ludlows, and the old gang, +they don't count for much now. You must look about you, Mr. Ferguson; +you must look about you and open your eyes, and learn new tricks, or +before you know it you will find yourself on the shelf." + +It would be difficult to exaggerate the fury into which this threw my +master; he raved, stamped, and swore, and finally, having recourse to +his old trick, tore off his wig, flung it on the ground, and stamped +on it. "There!" he cried, with horrible imprecations, the more +horrible for the bald ugliness of the man, "and that is what I will do +to you--by-and-by, Mr. Smith. On the shelf, am I? And need new tricks? +Hark you, sir, I am not so much on the shelf that I cannot spoil your +game, whatever it is. And G-- d-- me but I will!" + +Mr. Smith, listening, cool and dark-faced, shrugged his shoulders; but +for all his seeming indifference, kept a wary eye on the plotter. +"Tut--tut, Mr. Ferguson, you are angry with me," he said. "And say +things you do not mean. Besides, you don't know----" + +"Know?" the other shrieked. + +"Just so, know what my game is." + +"I know this!" Ferguson retorted, dropping his voice on a sudden to a +baleful whisper, "Who is here, and where he lies, Mr. Smith. And----" + +"So do Tom, Dick, and Harry," the other answered, shrugging his +shoulders contemptuously; and then to me, "Mr. Taylor," he continued +with politeness, "I think we will be going. Light the door, my dear. +That is it. I have a coach below, and--good-night, Mr. Ferguson, +good-night to you. I'll tell Sir George I have seen you. And do you +think over my advice." + +At that my master broke out afresh, cursing the other's impudence, and +frantically swearing to be even with him; but I lost what he said, in +a sudden consternation that seized me, as I crossed the threshold; a +kind of shiver, which came over me at the prospect of the night, and +the dark coach ride, and the uncertainty of this new adventure. The +lights in the room, and Mr. Smith's politeness, had given me a courage +which the dark staircase dissipated; and but for the hold which my new +employer, perhaps unconsciously, laid on my arm, I think I should have +stood back and refused to go. Under his gentle compulsion, however, I +went down and took my seat in the coach that awaited us; and my +companion following me and closing the door, someone unseen raised the +steps, and in a moment we were jolting out of Bride Lane, and turned +in the direction of the Strand. + +More than this I could not distinguish with all my curiosity, and look +out as I might; for Mr. Smith muttering something I did not catch, +drew the curtain over the window on my side, and, for the other, +interposed himself so continually and skilfully between it and my +eyes, that the coach turning two or three corners, in a few minutes I +was quite ignorant where we were, or whether we still held a westward +direction. A hundred notions of footpads, abductions, Mr. Thynne, and +the like passed through my mind while the coach rumbled on, and +rumbled on, and rumbled on endlessly; nor was the fact that we +appeared to avoid the business parts of the town, and chose unlighted +ways, calculated to steady my nerves. At length, and while I still +debated whether I wished this suspense at an end, or feared more what +was to follow, the coach stopped with a jerk, which almost threw me +out of my seat. + +"We are there," said my companion, who had been some time silent. "I +must trouble you to descend, Mr. Taylor. And have no fears. The matter +in hand is very simple. Only be good enough to follow me closely, and +quickly." + +And without releasing my arm he hurried me out of the coach, and +through a door in a wall. This admitted us only to a garden; and that +so dark, and so completely obscured by high walls and the branches of +trees, which showed faintly overhead, feathering against the sky, that +but for the guidance of his hand, I must have stood, unable to +proceed. Such an overture was far from abating my fears; nor had I +expected this sudden plunge into a solitude, which seemed the more +chilling, as we stood in London, and had a little while before passed +from the hum of the Strand. I tried to consider where we could be, and +the possibilities of retreat; but my conductor left me little room for +indecision. Still holding my arm, he led me down a walk, and to a +door, which opened as we approached. A flood of light poured out and +fell on the pale green of the surrounding trees; the next moment I +stood in a small, bare lobby or ante-room, and heard the door chained +behind me. + +My eyes dazzled by a lamp, I saw no more at first than that the person +who held it, and had admitted us, was a woman. But on her setting down +the lamp, and proceeding to look me up and down deliberately, the +while Mr. Smith stood by, as if he had brought me for this and no +other, I took uneasy note of her. She appeared to be verging on forty +but was still handsome after a coarse and full-blown fashion, with +lips over-full and cheeks too red; her dark hair still kept its +colour, and the remains of a great vivacity still lurked in her gloomy +eyes. Her dress, of an untidy richness worn and tarnished, and +ill-fastened at the neck, was no mean match for her face; and led me +to think her--and therein I was right--the waiting-woman of some great +lady. Perhaps I should, if let alone, have come something nearer the +truth than this, and quite home; but Mr. Smith cut short my +observations by falling upon her in a tone of anger, "Hang it, madam, +if you are not satisfied," he cried, "I can only tell you----" + +"Who said I was not satisfied?" she answered, still surveying me with +the utmost coolness. "But----" + +"But what?" + +"I cannot help thinking---- What is your name, sir, if you please?" +This to me. + +"Taylor," I said. + +"Taylor? Taylor?" She repeated the name as if uncertain. "I remember +no Taylor; and yet----" + +"You remember? You remember? You know very well whom you remember!" +Mr. Smith cried, impatiently. "It is the likeness you are thinking of! +Why, it is as plain, woman, as the nose on his face. It is so plain +that if I had brought him in by the front door----" + +"And kept his mouth shut!" She interposed. + +"No one would have been the wiser." + +"Well," she said, grudgingly, and eyeing me with her head aside, "it +is near enough." + +"It is the thing!" he cried, with an oath. + +"As a Chelsea orange is a China orange!" she answered, contemptuously. + +At that he looked at her in a sort of dark fury, precisely, so it +seemed to me, as Ferguson had looked at him an hour before. "By +heaven, you vixen," he cried in the end, surprise and rage contending +in his tone, "I believe you love him still!" + +Her back being towards me I did not see her face, but the venom in her +tone when she answered, made my blood creep. "Well," she said, slowly, +"and if I do? Much good may it do him!" + +Ambiguous as were the words--but not the tone--the man shrugged his +shoulders. "Then what are we waiting for?" he asked, irritably. + +"Madam's pleasure," she answered. And I could see that she loved to +baulk him. However, her pleasure was, this time, short-lived, for at +that moment a little bell tinkled in a distant room, and she took up +the lamp. "Come," she said. "And do you, sir," she continued, turning +to me and speaking sharply, "hold up your head and look as if you +could cut your own food. You are going to see an old woman. Do you +think that she will eat you?" + +I let the gibe pass, and wondering of whom and what it was she +reminded me, whenever she spoke, I followed her up a short dark flight +of stairs to a second ante-room, or closet, situate, as far as I could +judge, over the other. It was hung with dull, faded tapestry and +smelled close, as if seldom used and more seldom aired. Setting down +the lamp on a little side-table whereon a crumpled domino, a couple of +masks, and an empty perfume bottle already lay, she bade us in a low +voice wait for her and be silent; and enforcing the last order by +placing her finger on her lip, she glided quietly out through a door +so skilfully masked by the tapestry as to seem one of the walls. + +Left alone with Mr. Smith, who seated himself on the table, I had +leisure to take note of the closet. Remarking that the wall at one end +was partly hidden by a couple of curtains, between which a bare +bracket stood out from the wall, I concluded that the place had been a +secret oratory and had witnessed many a clandestine mass. I might have +carried my observations farther; but they were cut short at this point +by the return of the woman, who nodding, in silence, held the door +open for us to pass. + + + + + CHAPTER XVI + + +The first to enter, and prepared for many things--among which the +gloomy surroundings of an ascetic, devoted to the dark usages of +the old faith, held the first place in probability--I halted in +surprise on the threshold of a lofty and splendid room suffused with +rose-tinted light, and furnished with a luxury to which I had been +hitherto a stranger. The walls, hung with gorgeous French tapestry, +presented a succession of palaces and hunting scenes, interspersed +with birds of strange and tropical plumage; between which and the eyes +were scattered a profusion of Japanese screens, cabinets, and tables, +with some of those quaint Dutch idols, brought from the East, which, +new to me, were beginning at this time to take the public taste. +Embracing the upper half of the room, and also a _ruelle_, in which +stood a stately bed with pillars of silver, a circle of stronger +light, dispersed by lamps cunningly hidden in the ceiling, fell on a +suite of furniture of rose brocade and silver; in the great chair of +which, with her feet on a foot-stool set upon the open hearth, sat an +elderly lady, leaning on an ebony stick. A monkey mowed and gibbered +on the back of her chair; and a parrot, vieing in brilliance with the +broidered birds on the wall, hung by its claws from a ring above her +head. + +Nor was the lady herself unworthy of the splendour of her +surroundings. It is true, her face and piled-up hair, painted and dyed +into an extravagant caricature of youth, aped the graces of sixteen, +and at the first glance touched the note of the grotesque rather than +the beautiful; but it needed only a second look to convince me that +with all that she on whom I looked was a great lady of the world, so +still she sat, and so proud and dark was the gaze she bent on me over +her clasped hands. + +At first, it seemed to me, she gazed like one who, feeling a great +surprise, has learned to hide that and all other emotions. But +presently, "Come in, booby," she cried, in a voice petulant and +cracking with age. "Does a woman frighten you? Come nearer, I say. Ay, +I have seen your double. But the lamp has gone out." + +The woman who had admitted me rustled forward. "It has sunk a little +perhaps, madam," she said in a smooth voice. "But I----" + + +[Illustration: IN THE GREAT CHAIR SAT AN ELDERLY LADY LEANING ON AN +EBONY STICK] + + +"But you are a fool," the lady cried. "I meant the lamp in the man, +silly. Do you think that anyone who has ever seen him would take that +block of wood for my son? Give him a brain, and light a fire in him, +and spark up those oyster eyes, and----turn him round, turn him round, +woman!" + +"Turn," Smith muttered, in a fierce whisper. + +"Ay," the lady cried, as I went to obey, "see his back, and he is like +enough!" + +"And perhaps, madam, strangers----" + +"Strangers? They'd be strange, indeed, man, to be taken in by him! But +walk him, walk him. Do you hear, fellow," she continued, nodding +peevishly at me, "hold up your head, and cross the room like a man if +you are one. Do you think the small-pox is in the air that you fear +it! Ha! That is better. And what is your name, I wonder, that you have +that nose and mouth, and that turn of the chin?" + +"Charles Taylor," I made bold to answer, though her eyes went through +me, and killed the courage in me. + +"Ay, Charles, that is like enough," she replied. "And Taylor, that was +your mother's. It is a waiting-woman's name. But who was your father, +my man?" + +"Charles Taylor too," I stammered, falling deeper and deeper into the +lie. + +"Odds my eyes, no!" she retorted with an ugly grin, and shook her +piled-up head at me, "and you know it! Come nearer!" and then when I +obeyed, "take that for your lie!" she cried; and, leaning forward with +an activity I did not suspect, she aimed a blow at me with her ebony +cane, and, catching me smartly across the shins, made me jump again. +"That is for lying, my man," she continued with satisfaction, as I +stooped ruefully to rub myself. "Before now I have had a man stopped +and killed in the street for less. Ay, that have I! and a prettier man +than you, and a gentleman! And now walk! walk!" she repeated, tapping +the floor imperiously, "and fancy that you have money in your purse." + +I obeyed. But naturally the smart of the cane did not tend to set me +at my ease, or abate my awe of the old witch; and left to myself I +should have made a poor show. Both the man and the woman, however, +prompted and drilled me with stealthy eagerness, and whispering me +continually to do this and that, to hold up my chin, to lay back my +shoulders, to shake out my handkerchief, to point my toes, I suppose I +came off better in this strange exhibition than might have been +expected. For by-and-by, the lady, who never ceased to watch me with +sharp eyes, grunted and bade me stand. "He might pass," she said, +"among fools, and with his mouth shut! But odds my life," she +continued, irritably, "God have mercy on us that there should be need +of all this! Is there no royalty left in the world, that my son, of +all people, should turn traitor to his lawful King, and spit on his +father's faith? Sometimes I could curse him. And you, woman," she +cried with sudden fierceness, "you cajoled him once. Can you do +nothing now, you Jezebel?" + +But the woman she addressed stood stiffly upright, looking before her, +and answered nothing; and the mistress, with a smothered curse, turned +to the man. "Well," she said, "have you nothing to say?" + +"Only, madam, what I said before," he answered smoothly and gravely; +"my lord's secession is no longer in issue. The question is how he may +be brought back into the path of loyalty. To be frank, he is not of +the stuff of those, whom your ladyship knows, who will readily lick +both sides of the trencher. And so, without some little pressure, he +will not be brought back. But were he once committed to the good +cause, either by an indiscretion on his own part, if he could be +induced to that----" + +"Which he cannot, man, he cannot," she struck in impatiently. "He made +one slip, and he will make no second." + +"True, madam," the man answered. "Then there remains only the way +which does not depend on him; and which I before indicated; some ruse +which may lead both the friends and enemies of the good cause to think +him committed to it. Afterwards, this opinion being brought to his +notice, and with it, the possibility of clearing himself to the +satisfaction both of St. Germain's and St. James's, he would, I think, +come over." + +"'Tis a long way round," said madam, dryly. + +"It is a long way to Rome, madam," said the man, with meaning in his +voice. + +She nodded and shifted uneasily in her seat. "You think that the one +means the other?" she said at last. + +"I do, madam. But there is a new point, which has just arisen." + +"A new point! What?" + +"There is a design, and it presses," the man answered in a low voice, +and as if he chose his words with care. "It will be executed within +the month. If it succeed, and my lord be still where he is, and +unreconciled, I know no head will fall so certainly. Not Lord +Middleton's influence, no, nor yours, my lady, will save him." + +"What, and my Lord Marlborough escape?" + +"Yes, madam, for he has made his peace, and proved his sincerity." + +"I believe it," she said, grimly. "He is the devil. And his wife is +like unto him. But there's Sidney Godolphin--what of him?" + +"He has made his peace, madam." + +"Russell?" + +"The same, madam, and given proofs." + +"But, odds my soul, sir," she cried, sharply and pettishly, "if +everybody is of one mind, where does it stick that the king does not +come over?" + +"On a life, madam," Smith answered, letting each word fall slowly, as +if it were a jewel. "One life intervenes." + +"Ha!" she said, sitting up and looking straight before her. "Sits the +wind in that quarter? Well, I thought so." + +"And therefore time presses." + +"Still, man," she said, "our family has done much for the throne; and +his Gracious Majesty has----" + +"Has many virtues, my lady, but he is not forgiving," quoth the +tempter, coolly. + +On that she sighed, and deeply; and I, hearing the sigh, and seeing +how uneasily she moved in her chair, comprehended that in old age the +passions, however strong they may have been in youth, become slaves to +help others to their aims; ay, and I comprehended also that, sharply +as she had just rated both the man and the woman, and great lady as +she was, and arrogant as had been her life--whereof evidence more than +enough was to be found in every glance of her eye and tone of her +voice--she was now being pushed and pushed and pushed, into that to +which she was but half inclined. But half inclined, I repeat; and yet +the battle was over, and she persuaded. I think, but I am not quite +sure, that some assenting word had actually fallen from her--or she +was in the act of speaking one--when a gentle knock at the door cut +short our conference. Mr. Smith raised his hand in warning, and the +woman, gliding to the door, opened it, and after speaking a word to +someone without, returned. + +"My lord is below," said she. + +It was strange to see how madam's face changed at that; and how, on +the instant, eagerness took the place of fatigue, and hope of _ennui_. +There was no question now of withstanding her; or of any other giving +orders. The parrot must be removed, because he did not like it; and we +fared no better. "Let him up," she cried, peremptorily, striking her +stick on the floor; "let him up. And do you, Monterey," she continued +to the woman, "begone, and quickly. It irks him to see you. And, +Smith, to-morrow! Do you hear me? come to-morrow, and I will talk. And +take away that oaf! Ugh, out with him! My lord must not be kept +waiting for such _canaille_. To-morrow! to-morrow!" + + + + + CHAPTER XVII + + +Truth to tell, I desired nothing so much as to be gone and be out of +this imbroglio; and the woman, whom madam had called Monterey, +twitching my sleeve and whispering me, I followed her, and slipped out +as quickly as I could through the door by which we had entered. Even +so we were not a moment too soon, if I was to retreat unseen. For as +the curtain dropped behind me I heard a man's voice in the room I had +left, and the woman with me chancing to have the lamp, which she had +lifted from the table, in her hand at the instant--so that the light +fell brightly on her face--I was witness of an extraordinary change +which passed over her features. She grew rigid with rage--rage, I took +it to be--and stood listening with distended eyes, in perfect +forgetfulness of my presence; until, seeming at last to remember me, +she glanced from me to the curtain and from the curtain to me in a +kind of frantic uncertainty; being manifestly torn in two between the +desire to hear what passed, and the desire to see me out that I might +not hear. But as, to effect the latter she must sacrifice the former, +it did not require a sage to predict which impulse, curiosity incited +by hatred or mere prudence, would prevail with a woman. And as the +sage would have predicted so it happened; after making an abortive +movement as if she would place the lamp in my hands, she stealthily +laid it on the table beside her, and making me a sign to wait and be +silent, bent eagerly to listen. + +I fancy that it was the mention of her own name turned the scale; for +that was the first word that caught my ear, and who that was a woman +would not listen, being mentioned? The speaker was her mistress, and +the words "What, Monterey?" uttered in a voice a little sharp and +raised, were as clearly heard as if we had been in the room. + +"Yes, madam," came the answer. + +"Well," my lady replied with a chuckle, "I do not think that you are +the person who ought to----" + +"Object? Perhaps not, my lady mother," came the answer. The speaker's +tone was one of grave yet kindly remonstrance; the voice quite strange +to me. "But that is precisely why I do," he continued. "I cannot think +it wise or fitting that you should keep her about you." + +"You kept her long enough about you!" madam answered, in a tone +between vexation and raillery. + +"I own it; and I am not proud of it," the new-comer rejoined. Whereat, +though I was careful not to look at the woman listening beside me, I +saw the veins in one of her hands which was under my eyes swell with +the rage in her, and the nail of the thumb grow white with the +pressure she was placing on the table to keep herself still. "I am +very far from proud of it," the speaker continued, "and for the matter +of that----" + +"You were always a bit of a Puritan, Charles," my lady cried. + +"It may be." + +"I am sure I do not know where you get it from," madam continued +irritably, stirring in her chair--I heard it crack, and her voice told +the rest. "Not from me, I'll swear!" + +"I never accused you, madam." + +That answer seemed to please her, for on the instant she went off into +such a fit of laughter as fairly choked her. When she had a little +recovered from the paroxysm of coughing that followed this, "You can +be more amusing than you think, Charles," she said. "If your father +had had a spark of your humour----" + +"I thought that it was agreed between us that we should not talk of +him," the man said gravely, and with a slight suspicion of sternness +in his voice. + +"Oh, if you are on your high horse!" madam answered, "the devil take +you! But, there, I am sure that I do not want to talk of him, poor +man. He was dull enough. Let us talk of something livelier, let us +talk of Monterey instead; what is amiss with her?" + +"I do not think that she is a fit person to be about you." + +"Why not? She is married now," my lady retorted. "D'ye know that?" + +"Yes, I heard some time ago that she was married; to Mr. Bridges' +steward at Kingston." + +"Matthew Smith?" + +"Yes." + +"And who recommended _him_ to my husband, I should like to know?" +madam answered in a tone of malice. "Why, you, my friend." + +"It is possible. I remember something of the kind." + +"And who recommended him to you? Why, she did: in the days when you +did not warn people against her." And madam chuckled wickedly. + +"It is possible," he answered, "but the matter is twelve years old, +and more; and I do not want to----" + +"Go back to it," madam cried sharply. "I can quite understand that. +Nor to have Monterey about to remind you of it--and of your wild +oats." + +"Perhaps." + +"Perhaps, Mr. Square-Toes? You know it is the case!" was the vivid +answer. "For otherwise, as I like the woman, and now, at all events, +she is married--what is against her?" + +"I do not trust her," was the measured answer. "And, madam, in these +days people are more strait-laced than they were; it is not fitting." + +"That for people!" my lady cried with a reckless good humour that +would have been striking in one half her age. "People! Odds my life, +when did I care for people? But come, I will make a bargain with you. +Tit for tat. A Roland for your Oliver! If you will give me your Anne I +will give you my Monterey." + +"My Anne?" he exclaimed, in a tone of complete bewilderment. + +"Yes, your Anne! Come, my Monterey for your Anne!" + +There was silence for a moment, and then "I do not at all understand +you," he said. + +"Don't you? I think you do," she answered lightly. "Look you, + + + 'When William king is William king no more.' + + +Now, you understand?" + +"I understand, my lady, that you are saying things which are not +fitting for me to hear," the man answered, in a tone of cold +displeasure. "The King, thank God, is well. When he ails, it will be +time to talk of his succession." + +"It will be a little late then," she retorted. "In the meantime, and +to please me----" + +He raised his hand in protest. "Anything else," he said. + +"You have not yet heard what I propose," she cried, her voice shrill +with anger. "It is a trifle, and to please me you might well do it. +Set your hand to a note which I will see delivered in the proper +quarter; promising nothing in the Prince's life-time--there! but only +that in the event of his death you will support a Restoration." + +"I cannot do it," he answered. + +"Cannot do it?" she rejoined with heat. "Why not? You have done as +much before." + +"It maybe: and been forgiven for it by the best master man ever had!" + +"Who feels nothing, forgives easily," she sneered. + +"But not twice," he said gravely. "The King----" + +"Which King?" + +"The only King I acknowledge," he answered, unmoved. "Who knows, +believe me, so much more than you give him credit for, that it were +well if your friends bethought them of that before it be too late. He +has winked at much and forgiven more--no one knows it better than +I--but he is not blinded; and there is a point, madam, beyond which he +can be as steadfast to punish as your King. If Sir John Fenwick, +therefore, who I know well, is in England----" + +But at that she cut him short, carried away by a passion, which she +had curbed as long as it was in her impetuous nature to curb anything. +"Odds my life!" she cried, and at the sound of her voice uplifted in a +shriek of anger, the woman listening beside me raised her face to +mine, and smiled cruelly--"Odds my life, your King and my King! Kings +indeed! Why, mannikin, how many Kings do you think there are! By G--d, +Master Charles, you will learn one of these days that there is but one +King, sent by God, one King and no more, and that his yea and nay are +life and death! You fool, you! I tell you, you are trembling on the +edge, you are tottering! A day, a week, a month, at most, and you +fall--unless you clutch at the chance of safety I offer you! Sign the +note! Sign the note, man! No one but the King and Middleton shall know +of it; and when the day comes, as come it will, it shall avail you." + +"Never, madam," was the cold and unmoved answer. + +So much I heard and my lady's oath and volley of abuse; but in the +midst of this, and while she still raged, my companion, satisfied I +suppose with what she had learned, and assured that her lady would not +get her way, twitched my sleeve, and softly taking up the lamp, signed +to me to go before her. I obeyed nothing loth, and regaining the small +ante-room by which I had entered, found the man Smith awaiting us. + +When they had whispered together, "I'll see you home, Mr. Taylor," +said he, somewhat grimly. "And to-morrow I will call and talk +business. What we want you to do is a very simple matter." + +"It is simply that my lady's son is a fool!" the woman cried, +snappishly. + +"Well," he said, smiling, "I should hardly call my Lord Shrewsbury +that!" + +The woman screamed and clapped her hand to his mouth. "You babbling +idiot!" she cried, in a passion. "You have let it out." + +He stood gaping. "Good lord!" he said. + +"You have let it out with a vengeance now!" she repeated, furiously. + +He looked foolish; and at last, "He did not hear," he said. + +"Hear? He heard, unless he is deaf!" she retorted. "You may lay your +account with that. For me, I'll leave you. You have done the mischief +and may mend it." + + + + + CHAPTER XVIII + + +But as the spoken word has sometimes the permanence which proverbs +attach to the _Littera scripta_, and is only confirmed by bungling +essays to erase it, so it was in this case; Mr. Smith's endeavours to +explain away the fact which he had carelessly blabbed only serving to +impress it the more deeply on my memory. It would seem that he was +partly aware of this; for not only did his attempts lack the dexterity +which I should have expected from one whose features augured much +experience of the world, but he quickly gave up the attempt as labour +in vain, and gruffly bidding me go before to the coach, followed me +and took his seat beside me. We rumbled away. The night was overcast, +the neighbourhood seemed to be rural; and, starting from an unknown +point, I had less chance than before of tracing the devious lanes and +streets through which we drove; so that when the coach presently +stopped in a part of the town more frequented, I had not the least +idea where we were, or where we had been. + +"You can get home from here," said he, still ruffled, and scarce able +to speak to me civilly. + +Then I saw, as I went to descend, that we were near the end of +Holborn, in the Tyburn Road, where it grows to country. "I will see +you to-morrow," he cried. "And, mind you, in the meantime, the less +you say to Ferguson the better, my man!" With which the coach drove +away towards Kensington, leaving me standing against the wall of St. +Giles's Pound. + +Thus released, alone, and free to consider what had happened to me, I +found a difficulty in tracing where I had been, but none in following +the drift of the strange scene and stranger conversation at which I +had been present. Even the plans of those who had conveyed me to that +place were transparent. It needed no Solomon to discern that in the +man Smith and the woman Monterey the young lord had two foes in his +mother's household, as dangerous as foes could be; the woman moved, as +I conjectured, by that _spretae injuria formae_, of which the great +Roman poet speaks, and the man by I know not what old wrong or +jealousy. It was plain that these two, to obtain their ends, were +urging on the mother a most perilous policy: that, I mean, of +committing the son to the Jacobite Court, that so he might be cut off +from St. James's; moreover, that, as he could not be induced, in +_propria persona_, to such a treasonable step as would serve their +ends, advantage was to be taken of some likeness that I bore to him +(which Smith had observed the previous evening in Covent Garden) to +personate him in a place or company where his presence would be +conclusive both for and against him. + +I could believe that the mother contemplated but vaguely the power +over him which the incident would give her; and dreamed of using it +only in the last resort; rather amusing herself in the present with +the thought that short of this, and without bringing the deception to +his notice, the effect she desired would be produced--since he would +be held at St. Germain's to be well affected, and at St. James's the +matter would not be known. So, in his own despite, and without his +knowledge, he could be reconciled to the one court, while remaining +faithful to the other! + +But, as in the mass of conspiracies--and this was especially true of +the conspiracies of that age--the acute eye can detect the existence +of an inner and outer ring of conspirators, whereof the latter are +commonly the dupes of the former, so I took it that here Smith and the +woman meditated other and more serious results than those which my +lady foresaw; and, thinking less of my lord's safety in the event of a +Restoration than of punishing him or obtaining a hold upon him--and +more of private revenge than of the Good Cause--had madam for their +principal tool. Such a consideration, while it increased my reluctance +to be mixed up with a matter so two-faced, left me to think whether I +should not seek out the victim, and by an early information, gain his +favour and protection. + +I stood in the darkness of the street doubtful, and weighing the +matter. Clearly, if I had to do the thing, now was the time, before I +saw Smith, or exposed myself to an urgency which in spite of his +politeness might, I fancied, be of a kind difficult to resist. If by +going straight to Lord Shrewsbury I could kill two birds with one +stone--could at once free myself from the gang of plotters under whom +I suffered, and secure for the future a valuable patron--here was a +chance in a hundred, and I should be foolish to hesitate. + +Nor did I do so long. True, it stuck me a little that I knew nothing +of my Lord Shrewsbury's whereabouts in London; nor whether he lived in +town, or in the great house among the lanes and gardens which I had +visited, but of the road whereto I had no more knowledge than a blind +man. This, however, I could learn at the nearest coffee-house: and +impulse rather than calculation directing my steps, I hurried hot-foot +towards Covent Garden, which lay conveniently to my hand. + +It was not until I was in the Square and close to the Piazza that I +bethought me how imprudent I was to re-visit the scene of last night's +adventure; a place where it was common knowledge that the Jacobites +held their assignations; and where I might be recognised. To reinforce +this late-found discretion, and blow up the spark of alarm already +kindled, I had not stood hesitating while a man could count ten, +before my eye fell on the very same soldierly gentleman, with the +handkerchief hanging out of his pocket, to whom I had been sent the +evening before. He was alone, walking under the dimly-lighted Piazza, +as he had walked then; but as I caught sight of him two others came up +and joined him: and in terror lest these should be the two I had met +before, I retreated hastily into the shadow of St. Paul's Church, and +so back the way I had come. + + +[Illustration: I HEARD A LIGHT FOOT FOLLOWING ME] + + +However, I was not to get off so easily. Though the hour was late, the +market closed, and the pavement in front of the taverns deserted, or +fringed only by a chair waiting for a belated gamester, I ran a +greater risk of being recognised, as I passed, than I thought; and had +not gone ten paces along King Street before I heard a light foot +following me, and a hand caught my arm. Turning in a fright I found it +was only a girl; and, at first sight, was for wresting myself from +her, glad that it was no worse: but she muttered my name, and looking +down I recognised to my astonishment the girl I had seen at Ferguson's +earlier in the evening. + +At that, I remember, a dread of the man and his power seized me and +chilled my very heart. This was the third time this girl, whom I never +saw at other seasons, had arisen out of the ground to confront me and +pluck me back when on the point of betraying him. I stared at her, +thinking of this, with I know not what of affright and shrinking; and +could scarcely command either voice or limbs. + +And yet as she stood looking at me with the dark length of the street +stretching to the market behind her, it must be confessed that there +was little in her appearance to cause terror. The night being cold, +and a small rain falling, she had a shawl drawn tightly over her head, +whence her face, small and pale as a child's, peered at me. I thought +to read in it a sly and elfish triumph such as became Ferguson's +minion: instead I discerned only a weariness that went ill with her +years--and a little flicker of contempt in eye and lip. The weariness +was also in her voice when she spoke. "Well met, Mr. Price," she said. +"I am in luck to light on you." + +I shivered in my shoes; but without seeming to mark me, "I want this +note taken to Mr. Watkins," she continued, rapidly pressing a scrap of +paper into my hand. "He is in the tavern there, the Seven Stars. Ask +for the Apollo Room, and you will find him." + +"But, one minute," I protested, as in her eagerness she pushed me that +way with her hand, "did Mr. Ferguson----Is it from him?" + +"Of course, fool," she answered, sharply. "Do you think that I have +been standing here for the last half-hour in cold and wet for my own +pleasure?" + +"But if he sent it?" I remonstrated, feebly, "perhaps he may not like +me to interfere--to----" + +"Like me to?" she retorted, sharply, mocking my tone. "Who said he +would? Cannot you understand that it is I who do not like to? That I +am not going into that place at this time of night, and half in the +house drunken brutes? It is bad enough to be here, loitering up and +down as if I were what I am not--and free to be spoken to by every +impudent blood that passes! Go, man, and do it, and I will wait so +long. What do you fear?" + +"The rope," said I, "to be plain with you." And I looked with +abhorrence at the scrap of paper she had given me. "I have taken too +many of these," I said. + +"Well, you will take one more!" she answered, doggedly. "Or you are no +man. See, there is the door. Ask for the Apollo Room, give it to him, +and the thing is done!" And with that she set both hands to me and +pushed me the way she would have me move--I mean towards the tavern. +"Go!" she said. "Go!" + +Hate the thing as I might, and did, I could not resist persuasions +addressed to me in such a tone; nor fail to be moved by the girl's +shrinking from the task, which had to be done, it seemed, by one of +us. After all, it was no more than I had done several times before; +and my reluctance having its origin in the resolution, to which I had +just come, to break off from the gang, yielded to the reflection that +the design lay as yet in my own breast, and might be carried out as +well to-morrow as to-day. In a word, I complied out of pity, went to +the tavern, and walked boldly in. + +I had been in the house before, and knew where I should find a waiter +of whom I might enquire privately; I passed by the public room, +therefore, and was for going to the place I mean. I had scarcely +advanced three paces beyond the threshold, however, before a great +noise of voices and laughter and beating of feet met my ears and +surprised me; the hubbub was so loud and boisterous as to be unusual +even in places of that kind. I had no more than taken this in, and set +it down to an orgy beyond the ordinary, when I came on a pale-faced +group standing at gaze at the foot of the stairs, the landlord, two or +three drawers, and as many women being among them. It was easy to see +that they were in a fever about the noise above; for while the host +was openly wringing his hands and crying that those devils would ruin +him, a woman who seemed to be his wife was urging first one and then +another of the drawers to ascend and caution the party. That something +more than disorderliness or a visit from the constable was in question +I gathered from the host's pale face; and this was confirmed when on +seeing me they dispersed a little, and affected to be unconcerned. +Until I asked for the Apollo Room, whereon they all came together +again and fell on me with complaints and entreaties. + +"'Fore God, sir, I think your friends are mad!" the host cried, in a +perfect fury. "Go up! Go up, and tell them that if they want to be +hanged, and to hang me as well, they are going the right way about +it." + +"It is well it is night," said the head waiter grimly, "or the Market +porters would have broken our windows before now." + +"And got us all in the Compter!" the women wailed. And then to me, "Go +up, sir, go up and tell them that if they would not have the mob pull +the house down----" + +But the tumult above, waxing loud at that moment, drowned her words, +and certainly took from me what little good-will to ascend I had. +However, the host, having me there, a person who had enquired for the +room, would take no denial, but, delighted to have found a deputy, he +fairly set me on the stairs and pushed me up. "Go up and tell them! Go +up and tell them!" he kept repeating. "You asked for the room and +there it is." + +In a word I had no choice, and with reluctance went up. The noise was +such I could not fail to find the door and the room; I knocked and +opened, a roar of voices poured out, and even before I entered the +room I knew what was afoot, and could swear to treason. Such cries as +"Down with the Whigs and damn their King!" "The 29th of May and a +glorious Restoration!" "Here's to the Hunting Party!" poured out in a +confused medley; with half-a-dozen others equally treasonable, and +equally certain, were they overheard in the street, to bring down the +mob and the messengers on the speakers. + +True, as soon as the half-muddled brains of the company took in +the fact that the door was open, and a stranger standing on the +threshold--which they were not quick to discern owing to the cloud of +tobacco-smoke that filled the room--nine-tenths quavered off into +silence and gaped at me; that proportion of the company having still +the sense to recognise the risk they were running, and to apprehend +that judgment had taken them in the act. Two men in particular, older +than the rest--the one a fat, infirm fellow with a pallid face and the +air of a rich citizen, the other a peevish, red-eyed atomy in a green +fur-lined coat--were of this party. They had not, I think, been of the +happiest before, seated in the midst of that crew; but now, sinking +back in their high-backed chairs, they stared at me as if I carried +death in my face. A neighbour of theirs, however, went beyond them; +for, with a howl that the Secretary was on them and the officers were +below, he kicked over his chair and dashed for a window, pausing only +when he had thrown it up. + +But with all this the recklessness of some was evident: for while I +stood, uncertain to whom to speak, one of the more drunken staggered +from his seat, and giving a shrill view-halloa that might have been +heard in Bedford House, made towards me with a cup in his hand. + +"Drink!" he cried, with a hiccough as he forced it upon me. "Drink! To +the squeezing of the Rotten Orange! Drink, man, or you are no friend +of ours, but a snivelling, sneaking, white-faced son of a Dutchman +like your master! So drink, and----Eh, what is it? What is the +matter?" + + + + + CHAPTER XIX + + +It was no small thing could enlighten that brain clouded by the fumes +of drink and conceit; but the silence, perfect and clothing panic--a +silence that had set in with his first word, and a panic that had +grown with a whisper passed round the table--came home to him at last. +"What is it? What is the matter?" he cried, with a silly drunken +laugh. And he turned to look. + +No one answered; but he saw the sight which I had already seen--his +fellows fallen from him, and huddled on the farther side of the table, +as sheep huddle from the sheep-dog; some pale, cross-eyed, and with +lips drawn back, seeking softly in their cloaks for weapons; others +standing irresolute, or leaning against the wall, shaking and +unnerved. + +Cooled, but not sobered by the sight, he turned to me again. "Won't he +drink the toast?" he maundered, in an uncertain voice. "Why--why not, +I'd like to know. Eh? Why not?" he repeated; and staggered. + +At that someone in the crowd laughed hysterically; and this breaking +the spell, a second found his voice. "Gad! It is not the man!" the +latter cried with a rattling oath. "It is all right! I swear it is! +Here you, speak, fool!" he went on to me. "What do you here?" + +"This for Mr. Wilkins," I answered, holding out my note. + +I meant no jest, but the words supplied the signal for such a roar of +laughter as well-nigh lifted the roof. The men were still between +drunk and sober; and in the rebound of their relief staggered and +clung to one another, and bent this way and that in a paroxysm of +convulsive mirth. Vainly one or two, less heady than their fellows, +essayed to stay a tumult that promised to rouse the watchmen; it was +not until after a considerable interval--nor until the more drunken +had laughed their fill, and I had asked myself a hundred times if +these were men to be trusted with secrets and others' necks--that the +man with the white handkerchief, who had just entered, gained silence +and a hearing. This done, however, he rated his fellows with the +utmost anger and contempt; the two elderly gentlemen whom I have +mentioned, adding their quavering, passionate remonstrances to his. +But as in this kind of association there can be little discipline, and +those are most forward who have least to lose, the hotheads only +looked silly for a moment, and the next were calling for more liquor. + +"Not a bottle!" said he of the white handkerchief, "_Nom de dieu_, not +a bottle!" + +"Come, Captain, we are not on service now," quoth one. + +"Aren't you?" said he, looking darkly at them. + +"No, not we!" cried the other recklessly, "and what is more, we will +have no 'Regiment du Roi' regulations here! Is not a gentleman to have +a second bottle if he wants one?" + +"It is twelve o'clock," replied the Captain. "For the love of Heaven, +man, wait till this business is over; and then drink until you burst, +if you please! For me, I am going to bed." + +"But who is this--lord! I don't know what to call him!" the fellow +retorted, turning to me with a half-drunken gesture. "This Gentleman +Dancing Master?" + +"A messenger from the old Fox: Mr.--Taylor, I think he calls himself?" +and the officer turned to me. + +"Yes," said I. + +"Well, you may go. Tell the gentleman who sent you that Wilkins got +his note, and will bear the matter in mind." + +I said I would; and was going with that, and never more glad than to +be out of that company. But the fellow who had asked who I was, and +who, being thwarted of his drink, was out of temper, called rudely to +know where I got my wig, and who rigged me out like a lord; swearing +that Ferguson's service must be a d----d deal better than the one he +was in, and the pay higher than a poor trooper's. + +This gave the cue to the man who had before forced the drink on me; +who, still having the cup in his hand, thrust himself in my way, and +forcing the liquor on me so violently that he spilled some over my +coat, vowed that though all the Scotch colonels in the world barred +the way, I should drink his toast, or he would skewer me. + +"To Saturday's work! A straight eye and a firm hand!" he cried. "Drink +man, drink! For a hunting we will go, and a hunting we will go! And if +we don't flush the game at Turnham Green, call me a bungler!" + +I heard one of the elder men protest, with something between a curse +and a groan, that the fool would proclaim it at Charing Cross next; +but, thinking only to be gone (and the man being so drunk that it was +evident resistance would but render him more obstinate, and imperil my +skin), I took the cup and drank, and gave it back to him. By that time +two or three of the more prudent--if any in that company could be +called prudent--had risen and joined us; who when he would have given +another toast, forced him away, scolding him soundly for a leaky +chatterer, and a fool who would ruin all with the drink. + +Freed from his importunities, I waited for no second permission; but +got me out and down the stairs. At the foot of which the landlord's +scared face and the waiting, watching eyes of the drawers and +servants, who still lingered there, listening, put the last touch to +the picture of madness and recklessness I had witnessed above. Here +were informers and evidences ready to hand and more than enough, if +the beggars in the street, and the orange girls, and night walkers who +prowled the market were not sufficient, to bring home to its authors +the treason they bawled and shouted overhead. + +The thought that such rogues should endanger my neck, and good, honest +men's necks, made my blood run cold and hot at once; hot, when I +thought of their folly, cold, when I recalled Mr. Ashton executed in +'90 for carrying treasonable letters, or Anderton, betrayed, and done +to death for printing the like. I could understand Ferguson's methods; +they had reason in them, and if I hated them and loathed them, they +were not so very dangerous. For he had disguises and many names and +lodgings, and lurked from one to another under cover of night; and if +he sowed treason, he sowed it stealthily and in darkness, with all the +adjuncts which prudence and tradition dictated; he boasted to those +only whom he had in his power, and used the like instruments. But +the outbreak of noisy, rampant, reckless rebellion which I had +witnessed--and which it seemed to me must be known to all London +within twenty-four hours--filled me with panic. It so put me beside +myself, that when the girl who had employed me on that errand met me +in the street, I cursed her and would have passed her; being unable to +say another word, lest I should weep. But she turned with me, and +keeping pace with me asked me continually what it was; and getting no +answer, by-and-by caught my arm, and forced me to stand in the passage +beyond Bedford House and close to the Strand. Here she repeated her +question so fiercely--asking me besides if I were mad, and the +like--and showed herself such a termagant, that I had no option but to +answer her. + +"Mad?" I cried, passionately. "Aye, I am mad--to have anything to do +with such as you." + +"But what is it? What has happened?" she persisted, peering at me; and +so barring the way that I could not pass. + +"Could you not hear?" + +"I could hear that they were drinking," she answered. "I knew that, +and therefore I thought that you should go to them." + +"And run the risk?" + +"Well, you are a man," she answered coolly. + +At that I stood so taken aback--for she spoke it with meaning and a +sort of sting--that for a minute I did not answer her. Then, "Is not a +man's life as much to him, as a woman's is to her?" I said with +indignation. + +"A man's!" she replied. "Aye, but not a mouse's! I will tell you what, +Mr. Taylor, or Mr. Price, or whatever your name is----" + +"Call me what you like!" I said. "Only let me go!" + +"Then I will call you Mr. Craven!" she retorted bitterly. "Or Mr. +Daw in Peacock's feathers. And let you go. Go, go, you coward! Go, you +craven!" + +It was not the most gracious permission, and stung me; but I took it +sullenly, and getting away from her went down the passage towards the +Strand, leaving her there; not gladly, although to go had been all I +had asked a moment before. No man, indeed, could have more firmly +resolved to wrench himself from the grasp of the gang whose tool this +little spitfire was; nor to a man bred to peaceful pursuits (as I had +been) and flung into such an imbroglio as this--wherein to dance on +nothing seemed to be the alternative whichever way I looked--was it a +matter of so much consequence to be called coward by a child, that I +must hesitate for that. Add to this, that the place and time, a dingy +passage on a dark night with rain falling and a chill wind blowing, +and none abroad but such as honest men would avoid, were not +incentives to rashness or adventure. + +And yet--and yet when it came to going, _nullis vestigiis retrorsum_, +as the Latins say, I proved to be either too much or too little of a +man, these arguments notwithstanding; too little of a man to weigh +reason justly against pride, or too much of a man to hear with +philosophy a girl's taunt. When I had gone fifty yards, therefore, I +halted; and then in a moment, went back. Not slowly, however, but in a +gust of irritation; so that for a very little I could have struck the +girl for the puling face and helplessness that gave her an advantage +over me. I found her in the same place, and asked her roughly what she +wanted. + +"A man," she said. + +"Well," I answered sullenly, "what is it?" + +"Have I found one? that is the question," she retorted keenly. And at +that again, I could have had it in my heart to strike her across her +scornful face. "My uncle is at least a man." + +"He is a bad one, curse him!" I cried in a fury. + +She looked at me coolly. "That is better," she said. "If your deeds +were of a piece with your words you would be no man's slave. His least +of all, Mr. Price!" + +"You talk finely," I said, my passion cooling, as I began to read a +covert meaning in her tone and words, and that she would be at +something. "It comes well from you, who do his errands day and night!" + +"Or find someone to do them," she answered with derision. + +"Well, after this you will have to find someone else," I cried, +warming again. + +"Ah, if you would keep your word!" she cried in a different tone, +clapping her hands softly, and peering at me. "If you would keep your +word." + +Seeing more clearly than ever that she would be at something, and +wishing to know what it was, "Try me," I said. "What do you mean?" + +"It is plain," she answered, "what I mean. Carry no more messages! Be +sneak and spy no longer! Cease to put your head in a noose to serve +rogues' ends! Have done, man, with cringing and fawning, and trembling +at big words. Break off with these villains who hold you, put a +hundred miles between you and them, and be yourself! Be a man!" + +"Why, do you mean your uncle?" I cried, vastly surprised. + +"Why not?" she said. + +"But--if you feel that way, why do his bidding yourself?" I answered, +doubting all this might be a trap of that cunning devil's. "If I sneak +and spy, who spies on me, miss?" + +"I do," she said, leaning against the wall of Bedford Garden, where +one of Heming's new lights, set up at the next corner, shone full on +her face. "And I am weary of it." + +"But if you are weary of it----" + +"If I am weary of it, why don't I free myself instead of preaching to +you?" she answered. "First, because I am a woman, Mr. Wiseman." + +"I don't see what that has to do with it," I retorted. + +"Don't you?" she answered bitterly. "Then I will tell you. My uncle +feeds me, clothes me, gives me a roof--and sometimes beats me. If I +run away as I bid you run away, where shall I find board and lodging, +or anything but the beating? A man comes and goes; a woman, if she has +not someone to answer for her, must to the Justice and then to the +Round-house and be set to beating hemp; and her shoulders smarting to +boot. Can I get service without a character?" + +"No," I said, "that is true." + +"Or travel without money?" + +"No." + +"Or alone--except to Whetstone Park?" + +"No." + +"Well, it is fine to be a man then," she answered, leaning her little +shawled head farther and farther back against the wall, and slowly +moving it to and fro, while she looked at me from under her eyelashes, +"for he can do all. And take a woman with him." + +I started at that, and stared at her, and saw a little colour come +into her pale face. But her eyes, far from falling under my gaze, met +my eyes with a bold, mischievous look; that gradually, and as she +still moved her head to and fro, melted into a smile. + +It was impossible to mistake her meaning, and I felt a thrill run +through me, such as I had not known for ten years. "Oh," I said at +last, and awkwardly, "I see now." + +"You would have seen long ago if you had not been a fool," she +answered. And then, as if to excuse herself she added--but this I did +not understand--"Not that fine feathers make fine birds--I am not such +a fool myself, as to think that. But----" + +"But what?" I said, my face warm. + +"I am a fool all the same." + +Her eyes falling with that, and her pale face growing to a deeper +colour, I had no doubt of the main thing, though I could not follow +her precise drift. And I take it, there are few men who, upon such an +invitation, however veiled, would not respond. Accordingly I took a +step towards the girl, and went, though clumsily, to put my arm round +her. + +But she pushed me off with a vigour that surprised me; and she mocked +me with a face between mischief and triumph; a face that was more like +a mutinous boy's than a girl's. "Oh, no," she said. "There is a good +deal between this and that, Mr. Price." + +"How?" I said shamefacedly. + +"Do you go?" she asked sharply. "Is it settled? That first of all, if +you please." + +As to the going--somewhere--I had made up my mind long ago; before I +met her, or went into the Seven Stars, or knew that a dozen mad topers +were roaring treason about the town, and bidding fair to hang us all. +But being of a cautious temper, and seeing conditions which I had not +contemplated added to the bargain, and having besides a shrewd idea +that I could not afterwards withdraw, I hesitated. "It is dangerous!" +I said. + +"I will tell you what is dangerous," she answered, wrathfully, showing +her little white teeth as she flashed her eyes at me, "and that is to +be where we are. Do you know what they are doing there--in that +house?" And she pointed towards the Market, whence we had come. + +"No," I said reluctantly, wishing she would say no more. + +"Killing the King," she answered in a low voice. "It is for Saturday, +or Saturday week. He is to be stopped in his coach as he comes from +hunting--in the lane between Turnham Green and the river. You can +count their chances. They are merry plotters! And now--now," she +continued, "do you know where you stand, Mr. Price, and whether it is +dangerous?" + +"I know"--I said, trembling at that bloody design, which no whit +surprised me since everything I had heard corroborated it--"I know +what I have to do." + +"What?" she said. + +"Go straight to the Secretary's office," I said, "and tell him. Tell +him!" + +"You won't do it," she answered, "or, at least, I won't." + +"Why?" I asked, atremble with excitement. + +"Why?" she echoed, mocking me; and I noticed that not only were her +eyes bright, but her lips red. "Why, firstly, Mr. Price, because I +want to have done with plots and live honestly; and that is not to be +done on blood-money. And secondly, because it is dangerous--as you +call it. Do you want to be an evidence, set up for all to point at, +and six months after to be decoyed to Wapping, dropped into a dark +hold, and carried over to France?" + +"God forbid!" I said, aghast at this view of things. + +"Then have done with informing," she answered, with a little spurt of +heat. "Or let be, at any rate, until we are safe ourselves and snug +in the country. Then if you choose, and you do nothing to hurt my +uncle--for I will not have him touched--we may talk of it. But not for +money." + +Those words "safe and snug," telling of a prospect that at that moment +seemed of all others the most desirable in the world, dwelt so +lovingly on my ear, that in place of hesitation I felt only eagerness +and haste. + +"I will go!" I said. + +"You will?" she said. + +"Yes," I answered. + +"And----" + +"And what?" I said, wondering. + +She hesitated a moment, and then, "That is for you to say," she +replied, lowering her eyes. + +It is possible that I might not have understood her, even then, if I +had not marked her face, and seen that her lips were quivering with a +sudden shyness, which words and manner in vain belied. She blushed, +and trembled; and, lowering her eyes, drew forward the shawl that +covered her head, the street-urchin gone out of her. And I, seeing and +understanding, had other and new thoughts of her which remained with +me. "If you mean that," I said, clumsily, "I will make you my wife--if +you will let me." + +"Well, we'll see about it, when we get to Romford," she answered, +looking nervously aside, and plucking at the fringe of the shawl. "We +have to escape first. And now--listen," she continued, rapidly, and in +her ordinary voice. "My uncle is removing to-morrow to another +hiding-place, and I go first with some clothes and baggage. He will +not flit himself till it is dark. Do you put your trunk outside your +door, and I will take it and send it by the Chelmsford waggon. At noon +meet me at Clerkenwell Gate, and we will walk to Romford and hide +there until we know how things are going." + +"Why Romford?" I said. + +"Why anywhere?" she answered, impatiently. + +That was true enough; and seeing in what mood she was, and that out of +sheer contrariness she was inclined to be the more shrewish now, +because she had melted to me a moment before, I refrained from asking +farther questions; listening instead to her minute directions, which +were given with as much clearness and perspicuity as if she had dwelt +on this escape for a twelvemonth past. It was plain, indeed, that she +had not fetched and carried for the famous Ferguson for nothing; nor +watched his methods to little purpose. Nor was this all: mingled with +this display of precocious skill there constantly appeared a touch of +malice and mischief, more natural in a boy than a girl, and seldom +found even in boys, where the gutter has not served for a school. And +through this again, as through the folds of a shifting gauze, appeared +that which gradually and as I listened took more and more a hold on +me--the woman. + +Yet I suppose that there never was a stranger love-making in the +world; if love-making that could be called wherein one at least of us +had in mind ten thoughts of fear and death for one of happiness or +love; and a pulse attuned rather to the dreary drip of the wet eaves +about us, and the monotonous yelp of a cur chained among the stalls, +than to the flutter of desire. + +And yet, when, our plan agreed upon, and the details settled, we +turned homewards and went together through the streets, I could not +refrain from glancing at my companion from time to time, in doubt and +almost incredulity. When the dream refused to melt, when I found her +still moving at my elbow, her small shawled head on a level with my +shoulder--when, I say, I found her so, not love, but a sense of +companionship and a feeling of gratulation that I was no longer alone, +stole for the first time into my mind and comforted me. I had gone so +many years through these streets _solus et caelebs_, that I pricked my +ears and pinched myself in sheer astonishment at finding another +beside me and other feet keeping time with mine; nor knew whether to +be more confounded or relieved by the thought that of all persons' +interests her interests marched with mine. + + + + + CHAPTER XX + + +The clocks had gone midnight, when I parted from Mary at the door of +the house and groped my way upstairs to my room; where, throwing off +my clothes I lay down, not to sleep, but to resolve endlessly and +futilely the plans we had made, and the risks we ran and the thousand +issues that might come of either. Cogitation brought me no nearer to a +knowledge of the event, but only heated my brain and increased my +impatience; the latter to such a degree that with the first light I +was up and moving, and had my trunk packed. Nor did I fail to note the +strange and almost incredible turn which now led me to look for +support in my flight to the very person whose ominous entrance +twenty-four hours earlier had forced me to lay aside the thought. + +Long before it could by any chance be necessary I opened my door, and +softly carrying out my box, placed it in a dark corner on the landing. +After this a great interval elapsed, during which I conjured up a +hundred mischances. At length I heard someone afoot opposite; and then +the stumbling tread of a porter carrying goods down the stairs. About +eleven I ventured to peep out, and learned with satisfaction that the +trunk had vanished; it remained therefore for me to do the same. +Bestowing a last look on the little attic which had been my home so +long, and until lately no unhappy home, I took up my hat and cloak; +and making sure for the fiftieth time that I had my small stock of +money, hidden in my clothes, I opened the door, and stealing out, +stood a minute to listen before I descended. + +I heard nothing to alarm me; yet a second later I shrieked in +affright, and almost sank down under the sudden grip of a hand on my +shoulder. The hand was Ferguson's; who listening, at my chamber door, +had heard me move towards it, and flattened himself against the wall +beside it; and so, being in the dark corner farthest from the +staircase, had eluded my notice. He chuckled vastly, at his cunning, +and the fright he had given me, and rocking me to and fro, asked me +grimly what I had done with my fine clothes and my wig. + +"Ay, and that is not all," he continued. "I shall want to know a +little more about that matter, my friend. And mind you, Mr. Price, the +truth! The truth, or I will wring this tender ear of yours from your +head. For the present, however, that matter may wait. I shall have it, +when I want it. Now I have other work for you. Come into my room." + +"I am going to the tavern," I said desperately. And I hung back. +"Afterwards, Mr. Ferguson, I will----" + +"Oh, to the tavern," he answered, mimicking me. "And for what?" + +"My dinner," I faltered. + +He burst into a volley of oaths, and seizing me again by the shoulder +ran me into his room. "Your dinner, indeed, you dirty, low-born +pedlar," he cried in a fury. "Who are you to dine at taverns when the +King's business wants you? Stand you there, and listen to me, or by +the God above me, you shall never take meat or drink again. Do you see +this, you craven?" and he plucked out his horrible horse pistol, and +flourished the muzzle in my face. "Mark it, and remember that I am +Ferguson, the famous Ferguson, Ferguson the plotter, and no little +person to be thwarted! And now listen to me." + +I could have wept with rage and despair, knowing that with every +moment this wretch kept me, my chance of fulfilling the appointment at +Clerkenwell Gate was passing; and that if he detained me only one half +hour longer, I must be late. To the pistol, however, and his scowling, +truculent, blotched face that lacking the wig, which hung on a chair +beside him, was one degree more ugly than its wont, there was no +answer; and I said sullenly that I would listen. + +"You had better," he answered. "Mark you, there is a gentleman coming +to see me; and to his coming and to what he says to me I will have a +witness. You follow me?" + +"Yes," I said, looking round, but in vain, for a way of escape. + +"And you are the witness. You shall go into that room, mark you, and +you shall be as mute as a mouse! I put this little cupboard open, the +back is thin and there is a crack in it; set your eye to that and you +will see him. And look you, listen to every word, and note it; and +keep still--keep still, or it will be the worse for you, Mr. Price!" + +"Very well," I said obediently; hope springing up, as I thought I saw +a way of escape. "And what time must I be here?" + +"You are here, and you will stay here," he answered dashing to the +ground the scarce-born plan. "Why, man, he may come any minute." + +"Still--if I could go out for--for two minutes," I persisted. "I +should be easier." + +"Go out! Go out!" he cried, interrupting me in a fury. "And dinners? +And taverns? And you would be easier! D'ye know, Mr. Price, I have my +doubts about you! Ay, I have!" he continued, leering at me with his +big, cunning eyes; and now thrusting his face close to mine, now +drawing it back again. "Are you for selling us, I wonder? Mind you, if +that is your thought, two can play at that game, and I have writing of +yours. Ay, I have writing of yours, Mr. Price, and for twopence I +would send it where it will hang you. So be careful. Be careful +or--give me that coat." + +Wishing that I had the courage to strike him in the back, praying that +the next word he said might choke him, hating him with a dumb hatred, +the blacker for its impotence, and for the menial services he made me +do him, I gave him the long-skirted plum-coloured coat to which he +pointed, and saw him clothe his lank ungainly figure in it, and top +all with his freshly curled wig. He bade me tie his points and fasten +on his sword; and this being done to his liking--and he was not very +easy to please--he pulled down his ruffles, and walked to and fro, +preening himself and looking a hundred times more ugly and loathsome +for the finery, with which, for the first time, I saw him bedizened. + +Preparations so unusual, by awakening my curiosity as to the visitor +in whose honour they were made, diverted me from my own troubles; to +which I had done no more than return when a knock came at the outer +door. Ferguson, in a flush of exultation that went far to show that he +had entertained doubts of the visitor's coming, thrust me into the +next room; a mere closet, ill-lighted by one small window, and bare, +save for a bed-frame. Here he placed me beside the crack he had +mentioned; and whispering in my ear the most fearful threats and +objurgations in case I moved, or proved false to him, he cast a last +look round to assure himself that all was right; then he went back +into his own apartment, where through my Judas-hole I saw him pause. +The girl's departure with the luggage had left the room but meagrely +furnished; whether this and the effect it might have on his visitor's +mind struck him, or he began at the last moment to doubt the prudence +of his enterprise, he stood awhile in the middle of the floor gnawing +his nails, and listening, or perhaps thinking. The drift of his +reflections, however, was soon made clear; for on the visitor's +impatiently repeating his summons, he moved stealthily to one of the +windows--which being set in the mode of garret windows, deep in the +slope of the roof, gave little light--and by piling his cloak in a +heap on the sill, he contrived to obscure some of that little. This +done, and crying softly "Coming! Coming!" he hastened to the door and +opened it, bowing and scraping with an immense show of humility. + +The man, who had knocked, and who walked in with an impatient step as +if the waiting had been little to his taste, was tall and slight; for +the rest, a cloak, and a hat flapping low over his face, hid both +features and complexion. I noticed that Ferguson bowed again and +humbly, but did not address him; and that the gentleman also kept +silence until he had seen the door secured behind him. Then, and as +his host with seeming clumsiness, brushed past him and so secured a +position with his back to the light, he asked sharply, "Where is he?" + +The plotter leant his hands on the back of the chair and paused an +instant before he answered. When he did he spoke with less assurance +than I had ever heard him speak before; he even stammered a little. +"Your Grace," he said, "has come to see a person--who--who wrote to +you? From this house?" + +"I have. Where is he?" + +"Here." + +"Here? But where, man, where?" the newcomer replied, looking quickly +round. + +Still Ferguson did not move. "My lord Duke, you came here, in a +word--to see Lord Middleton?" he said. + +It was easy to see that the visitor's gorge rose at the other's +manner, no less than at this naming of names. But with an effort he +swallowed his chagrin. "If you know that, you know all," he answered +with composure. "So without more, take me to him. But I may as well +say, sir, since you seem to be in his confidence----" + +"It was my hand wrote the letter." + +"Was it so? Then you should know, sir, that a madder and more foolish +thing was never done! If my Lord Middleton," the stranger continued +coldly, his tone inclining to sarcasm rather than to feeling, "desired +to ruin his best friend and the one most able to save him in a certain +event--if he meant to requite, sir, one who has already suffered more +than was reasonable in his service, by consigning him to his +destruction, he did well. Otherwise he was mad. Mad, or worse, to send +such a letter to a place where he must know of his own knowledge that +nine letters out of ten are opened by others' hands!" + +"Your Grace is right," Ferguson answered drily, and in his natural +voice; at the sound of which, either because of its native harshness +or because it touched some chord in his memory, the other started. +"But the fact is," the plotter continued hardily, and with a smack of +impertinence, "my Lord Middleton, so far as I know, is still with the +King at St. Germain's." + +"At St. Germain's?" the stranger cried. "With the King?" + +"Yes, and to be candid," Ferguson answered, "I was not aware, my lord, +that you had sent him a safe conduct." + +"You villain!" the Duke cried, and stepped forward, his rage excited +as much by the man's manner as by the trick which had been played him. +"How dared you say, then, that he was here?" he continued. "Answer, +fellow, or it will be the worse for you." + +"I said only, your Grace," Ferguson replied, retreating a step, "that +the writer of the letter was here." + +For a moment the Duke, utterly dumfounded by this, stood looking at +him. "And you are he?" he said at last, with chilling scorn, "and the +author of this--plot!" + +"And of many plots besides," my master answered jauntily. And then, +"My lord, do you not know me yet?" he cried. + +"Not I! Stand out, sir, and let me see your face. Then perhaps, if we +have met before----" + +"Oh, we have met before!" was the quick and impudent answer. "I am not +ashamed of my face. It has been known in its time. But fair play is a +jewel, my lord. It is eight years since I saw your Grace last, and I +have a fancy to learn if you are changed. Will you oblige me? If you +would see my face, show me yours!" + +With a gesture between contempt and impatience the Duke removed the +hat, which at his entrance he had merely touched; and hastily lowering +the cloak from his neck, confronted his opponent. + + + + + CHAPTER XXI + + +[Illustration: WITH A GESTURE BETWEEN CONTEMPT AND IMPATIENCE THE DUKE +REMOVED HIS HAT] + + +It cannot at this time of day be needful for me to describe in detail +the aspect of those features which the action disclosed, since they +are as well remembered by many still living as they are faithfully +preserved for posterity--lacking some of the glow and passion which +then animated them--on the canvas by Sir Peter Lely, which hangs +in the Charterhouse. The Duke of Shrewsbury--to set concealment +aside--was then in his thirty-sixth year, in the prime and bloom of +manhood, of a fair complexion and regular features; over which the +habitude of high rank and the possession of unrivalled parts threw a +cast of reserve and stateliness, not unbecoming. As he was by nature +so sensitive that on this side alone his enemies found him vulnerable, +so his face in repose, if it had any blemish at all, had the fault of +bordering on the womanish, the lines of his mouth following those of +the choicest models of antiquity. But this blemish--if that which bore +witness to the most affectionate disposition in the world could be +called by that name--was little marked in public life, the awe which +his eyes, alike firm and penetrating, inspired in the vulgar, +rendering most people blind to it. To sum up, his face gave a just +idea of his character; for though indolent, he was of such a temper +that the greatest dared take no liberty with him; and though proud he +gave the meanest his rights and a place. + +Such, in fine, was the man who now confronted Ferguson, and with a +stern light in his eye bade the schemer stand out. That the latter +from the first had intended to declare himself, was as certain as +that, now the time had come, he hesitated; awed by the mere power of +worth, as I have heard that wicked men calling up spirits from the +deep have stood affrighted before the very beings they have summoned. +Yet his hesitation was for a moment only; after which, rallying the +native audacity of a temperament which rejoiced in these intrigues and +denouements, he stepped jauntily forward, and assuming such a parody +of dignity as likened his clumsy figure and sneaking face to nothing +so much as an ape decked out in man's clothes, he allowed the light to +fall on his features. + +The Duke looked, and even where I stood behind the lath and plaster +partition I heard him catch his breath. "You are Robert Ferguson!" he +said. + +"Well guessed!" the plotter answered, with a harsh discordant laugh. +"Your Grace has not forgotten '88. Believe me, if the Prince of Orange +had kept as good a memory, I should not have been in this garret, nor +need I have troubled your lordship to visit me in it." + +"It would have been better for you, sir, had you still refrained," the +Duke answered with severity. "Mr. Ferguson, I tell you at once that I +do not bear his Majesty's Commission in vain, and my first proceeding +on leaving this house will be to sign a warrant for your apprehension, +and direct the officers where it can be executed." + +"And I, my lord," Ferguson answered with an impudent attempt at +pleasantry, "have a very good mind to take you at your word, and let +you go to do it. For when your officers arrived they would not find +me, while your Grace would go hence to fall into as pretty a trap as +was ever laid for a man." + +"Doubtless, then, of your laying!" my lord cried, with a gesture of +contempt. + +"On the contrary. Until I saw you, I knew of the trap indeed, but not +for whom it was intended. Since I have seen you, however--and how +greatly you have improved since '88, when we last met"--Ferguson +added, impertinently,--"my eyes are opened, and I feel a very sincere +pity for your lordship." + +"I am obliged to you for your warning," the Duke answered, drily, "and +will endeavour to take care of myself. If that be all, therefore, that +you have to say to me--and I assume that the letter in Lord +Middleton's name was no more than a ruse--I will say good-day." + +"But that is not all, nor a part!" Ferguson replied. "I have a bargain +to propose, and information"--this sullenly and with lowered eyes--"to +give." + +"As usual!" my lord answered, shrugging his shoulders, and speaking +with the most cutting scorn. "But permit me to say that you have made +a mistake, Mr. Ferguson, in sending for me. You should know by this +time, being versed in these affairs, that I leave such bargains to +underlings." + +"Nevertheless, to this bargain you must be a party," the other +answered violently. "Nay, my lord, I can make you a party, I have only +to tell you a thing I know; and whether you will or no, for your own +safety you must do what I ask." + +"For my own safety, Mr. Ferguson, I am not in the habit of doing +anything I would not do for other reasons," the Duke answered coldly. +"For the rest, if you have anything to tell me that concerns the +King's service----" + +"Which King's?" the plotter cried, with a sneer. + +"I acknowledge one only--then, I say, I will hear it. But I will +neither do nor promise anything in return." + +"You talk finely," Ferguson cried, "yet you cannot deny that before +this I have told things that were worth knowing." + +"That were worth men's lives!" my lord answered, speaking in a low +stern voice, and looking at him with a strange abhorrence. "Yes, Mr. +Ferguson, I acknowledge that. That were worth men's lives. And it +reminds me that you are growing old, and have blood on your hands; you +only and God know how much. But some I know; the proof of it lies in +my office. If you will take my advice, therefore, you will think +rather of quitting the world and making your peace with heaven--if by +any means it can be done--than of digging pits for better men than +yourself. Man," he continued, looking fixedly at him, "do you never +think of Ayloffe and Sidney? And Russell? And Monmouth? And Cornish? +Of the men you have egged on to death, and the men you have--sold! God +forgive you! God forgive you, for man never will!" + +I should fail, and lamentably, were I to try to describe either the +stern feeling with which my lord uttered this solemn address--the more +solemn as it came from a young man to an old one--or the horrid +passion born of rage, fear, and remorse commingled, with which the +intriguer received it. When my lord had ceased to speak, Ferguson +broke into the most fearful imprecations; calling down vengeance not +only on others for wrongs done to him, but on his own head if he had +ever done aught but what was right; and this rant he so sprinkled with +texts of scripture and scraps of the old Covenanters' language that +for profanity and blasphemy I never heard the like. The Duke, after +watching the exhibition for a time with eyes of pity and reprobation, +ended by setting on his hat and turning to the door. This sufficed--as +nothing else would have--to bring the conspirator to his senses. With +a hideous chuckle, which brought his tirade to a fitting conclusion, +"Not so fast, my lord! Not so fast," he cried, slapping his pocket. +"The key is here. I have something to say before you go." + +"In God's name say it then!" the Duke cried, his face sick with +disgust. + +"I will!" Ferguson answered hoarsely, leaning on the table which stood +between them and thrusting forward his chin, his face still suffused +with rage. "And see you how I will confound you! The Duke of Berwick +is in England. The Duke of Berwick is in London. And what is worse for +you, my lord, he lies to-night at Dr. Lloyd's in Hogsden Gardens. So +take that information to yourself, my Lord Secretary, and make what +you can of it--not forgetting the King's interest! Ha! ha! I have you +tight there, I think." + +His triumph, extreme and offensive as it was, seemed to be justified +by the consternation--I can call it by no other name--which darkened +the Duke's countenance as he listened, and held him a moment +speechless and motionless, glaring at the other. At last, "And you +sent to me to tell me this?" he cried. + +"I did! I did! There is no other living man would have thought of it +or done it. And why? Because there is no man can play my cards but +myself." + +"You devil!" my lord cried; and was silent. + +Seeing that I knew little more of this of which they spoke than that +the Duke of Berwick was King James' natural son and favourite, I was +at a loss to comprehend, either the Duke's chagrin or Ferguson's very +evident triumph. The latter's next words, however, went far towards +explaining his jubilation; and if they did not perfectly clear up my +lord's position--fully to enter into which required a nobility of +sentiment and a nicety of honour on a par with his own--they enabled +me to guess where the shoe pinched. + +"D'ye take me now, my lord?" the plotter cried, with a savage grimace. +"That concerns the King's service I think; and yet--I dare you to make +use of it. Ay, my Lord Secretary, I dare you to make use of it!" he +repeated, his unwholesome face deep red with excitement. "For why? +Because you know that there will be a day of reckoning presently--and +sooner, mayhap, than some think. You know that. Sooner or later it +will come--it will come, and then 'Touch not mine anointed!' Or +rather, touch but a hair of his Jamie's head, and his Majesty'll no +forgive! He'll no forgive! There will be mercy for my Lord Devonshire, +and my Lord Admiral, ay, and for that incarnate liar and devil, John +Churchill! Ay, even for him, for he has made all safe both sides and +so have the others. But do you touch the King's blood, though it be +bastard--do you send to-night to the Bishop's and take him, and go on +to what follows--and you may kneel like Monmouth, and plead like my +Lady Russell, and you'll to the axe and the sawdust, when the time +comes! Ay, you will! you will! you will!" + +Though his harsh voice rose almost to a shriek with the last words, +and the room rang with them, the Duke stood mutely regarding him, and +made no answer. After an interval, Ferguson himself went on, but in a +lower tone. "That is the one course you may take, my lord," he said, +"and the result of it! If you follow my advice, however, you will not +adopt that course. Instead you will let FitzJames be. You will act as +if you had not seen me to-day, nor heard that he was in London. You'll +wipe this meeting from your memory and live as if it had not been. And +so, at the Restoration, you will have nothing to fear on that head. +But--but in the meantime," Ferguson continued with an ugly grin, "it +may be the worse for your Grace if the truth, and your knowledge of +the truth, come to the Prince's ears, whose Minister you are; and +worse again if it comes to Bentinck's, who, I am told, is some trouble +to your Grace already." + +The Duke's face was a picture. "You villain!" he said again. "What do +you want?" + +"For my silence?" + +"For your silence? No. What is your aim? What is your object? You +betray one and the other. The son of your King to prison and death. +Me, if you can, to ruin and shame. And why? Why, man? What do you?" + +"What do I gain? What shall I gain, you mean," Ferguson answered, +smiling cunningly. "Only your Grace's signature to a scrap of +paper--give me that, and I am mum, and neither Berwick nor you will be +a penny the worse." + +"What, money?" cried my lord, surprised, I think. + +"Oh, no, not money," said the plotter coolly. "And yet--it may be +money's worth to me over there." + + + + + CHAPTER XXII + + +"It is this way, my lord," he continued after a pause. "Lord Middleton +said some things over there in your Grace's name--that would be four +years back; but you never acted on them, though it was whispered you +paid dearly for them here. In the interval it has been the aim of a +good many to get something more definite from your Grace; the rather +as you stand almost alone, the main part of the Court, and more than +you know, having made their peace. But the efforts of those persons +failed with your Grace because they went about it in the wrong way. +Now, I, Robert Ferguson," the plotter continued, patting himself on +the chest, and bowing with grotesque conceit, "have gone about it in +the right way; and I shall not fail. The position is this. You must +either arrest the Duke of Berwick, or you must let him go. That is +clear. If you do the former, you offend beyond pardon, and your head +will fall at the Restoration, whoever goes clear. On the other hand, +if you let the Duke escape and it comes to the Prince of Orange's ears +that you knew of his presence, you will be ruined with your present +party. The only course left to you, therefore, is to let him go, but +to purchase my silence--that it may not reach the Prince's ears--by +signing a few words on a paper, which shall be sealed here, and opened +only by His Majesty in his closet. Now, my lord, what do you say to +that?" + +"That you are a fool as well as a knave!" was the Duke's unexpected +reply. He had recovered his equanimity, and took a pinch of snuff as +he spoke. + +The plotter's eyes sparkled. "Why?" he cried with an oath. "And is +that language for a gentleman?" + +"A gentleman? Faugh!" cried my lord. "And why? Because you suppose +your word to be of value. Whereas you should know that were you to go +to Kensington and tell the King that you had informed me of this or +that or the other, and were I to deny it, you would to Newgate for +certain, and to the pillory perhaps--but I should be not a penny the +worse. Your word forsooth! Why, man, you are crazed!" + +"Ay, but if I had you followed here?" the other answered savagely. "If +I can produce three witnesses to prove that you were with me to-day, +and by stealth! And by stealth, my lord? What then?" + +"Why, then this!" the Duke answered with composure. "And it is my +answer. I shall go hence to the King and tell him all; and on your +information, Mr. Ferguson, the Duke of Berwick will be arrested. +Whatever my fate or his after that, I shall have done my duty and kept +my oath as a privy-councillor, and the rest I leave to God! But for +you," he continued, slowly and with solemnity, "who to gain a hold on +me have betrayed the son of your King, your fate be on your own head!" + +The plotter, who, I think, had expected any answer but this, and, it +may be, had never considered his own position, should the Duke stand +firm, roared out a furious "You lie!" And then again in a frenzy, as +the consequences rose more clearly before him, "You lie!" he cried, +striking his hand on the table. "You will not do it! You will not dare +to do it!" + +"Mr. Ferguson," the Duke answered haughtily, "I do not suffer persons +of your condition to tell me what I dare, or do not dare; or persons +of any condition to give me the lie. Be good enough to open the door!" + +"Sign the paper!" the conspirator hissed. His face, at no time +sightly, was now distorted by fear and the rage of defeat; while the +chair on the back of which he leaned his left hand, jerked this way +and that as if the palsy had him. "Sign the paper, will you? Or your +blood be on your own head!" + +The Duke's only answer was to point to the door with his cane. "Open +it!" he said, his breath coming a little quickly, but his manner +otherwise unmoved. "Do you hear me?" + +But either Ferguson's rage had so much the mastery of him that he +could no longer control himself, or he was desperate, seeing into what +an abyss the other's firmness was pushing him; or from the first he +had determined on this course in the last resort. At any rate at that +word, and instead of complying, he fell back a step and with a dark +face drew a pistol from the pocket of his long coat. "Sign!" he cried, +his voice whistling in his throat, as he levelled the arm at my lord's +head. "Sign, you Roman spawn, or I'll spill your brains! Sign, or you +don't go out of this room alive! Has the Lord's foot been put on the +neck of his enemies that such as you should divide the spoil!" + +There was nothing to sign, for he had not produced the paper. But in +the delirium of fear and excitement into which he had fallen, he was +unconscious of this, and of all except that he was in danger of +falling into the pit he had digged for another. His hand shook so +violently that every moment I expected the pistol to explode, with his +will or without it; his fears no less than his despair putting my lord +in danger. What he, who stood thus exposed to naked death thought in +his heart while his existence hung on a shaking finger, I can not say, +nor if he prayed; for no man talked less of religion, to be, as I +trust he was, a believer; while the pride which supported him in that +crisis was as powerful to close his lips after the event. "Put that +down!" was all he said; and met the other's eyes without blenching, +though I think that he was a trifle paler than he had been. + +"Sign!" answered the madman with an oath. + +"Put it down!" repeated the Duke; and doubtless his courage by +imposing a restraint on the other's headiness postponed, though it +could not avert, the catastrophe. + +For, every second they stood thus fronting one another, Ferguson +grinning and gibbering to him to sign, I looked to see the pistol +explode, and my lord fall lifeless. My knees shook under me; horrified +at this murder to be committed under my eyes, scarce conscious what I +did or would do, I fumbled for the handle of the door--which luckily +was beside me; and found it precisely as the Duke, with a twirl of his +cane, as swift as it was unexpected, knocked the pistol aside and +sprang bodily on the villain, striving to bear him down. He had no +time to draw his sword. + +He was the younger man by twenty years and the more active, if not the +more powerful; so that for an instant it seemed to me that the danger +was over. But I counted without Ferguson; who leaping back before the +other could grapple with him, with a nimbleness beyond his years put +the table between them, and levelling the pistol afresh with a snarl +of rage, pulled the trigger. The flint snapped harmlessly! + +More than that I could not bear, and, by heaven's mercy, the movement +had brought the wretch close to the door at which I stood, and which I +had that moment opened. As he aimed the pistol a second time, and with +a fresh execration, I flung my arms round him from behind, and with my +right hand jerked up the pistol; which exploded, bringing down a rush +of plaster, and filling the room with smoke and brimstone. + + +[Illustration: I FLUNG MY ARMS ROUND HIM FROM BEHIND, AND WITH MY +RIGHT HAND JERKED UP THE PISTOL] + + +An interposition so sudden and timely must have been no less a +surprise to the Duke than to Ferguson. Nevertheless, the former, +without the loss of a moment, flung himself on his antagonist; and +seizing the pistol, while I clung to him behind, in a twinkling he had +him disarmed. Yet, even when this was done, so furious were the man's +struggles, and so inhuman the strength he displayed (even to biting +and foaming in a fury that could only be called maniacal) that it was +as much as we could both do to conquer him; though we were two to one, +and younger. Nor would he be quiet or resign himself to defeat until +we had him down on his back, with my lord's sword-point at his throat. + +Then it was that while we stood over him, panting and trembling with +the exertions we had made, my lord turned his eyes on me. "My friend," +he said, "who are you?" + +I could not speak for emotion; and though he was calmer, I could see +that he was deeply stirred, both by the risk he had run, and the +narrowness of his escape. "My lord," I cried, at last, "take me away." + +"From here?" he said. + +"Yes," I said, "for God's sake, for God's sake, take me away," and I +burst into an uncontrollable fit of sobbing; so overcome was I by what +had happened, and what had almost happened. + +He looked at me, his lip twitching a little, and his breast heaving. +"Be easy, man," he said. "Were you set to watch me?" + +"Yes," I said. + +"And you heard all?" + +"All." + +"Who are you?" he said again. + +"Two months ago I was an honest man," I answered bitterly, "and then I +got into _his_ clutches. And he has ridden me. Ah, how he has ridden +me!" + +"I see," he said, nodding gravely. "Well, his riding days are over. +Hark you, Mr. Ferguson," he continued, turning to the prostrate man, +who, grovelling before us--I had taken the precaution of tying his +hands with my garters--acknowledged his attention by a hollow groan, +"I am no thief-taker, and I shall not soil my hands with you. But +within an hour the messengers will be here; and if they find you, look +to yourself; for I think that in that case you will indubitably hang. +In the meantime I will take your pistol." Then to me, "Come, my man," +he said, "if you wish to go with me." + +"I do," I cried. + +"Well, I owe you more than that," he answered kindly. "And I need you, +besides. Mr. Ferguson, I bid you farewell. You have proved yourself a +more foolish man than I thought you. A worse you could not. The best I +can wish you is that you may never see my face again." + + + + + CHAPTER XXIII + + +My lord, I found, had a coach, without arms or insignia, waiting for +him at the Great Turnstile in Holborn; where, if persons recognised +him as he alighted, he would be taken to have business with the +lawyers in Lincoln's Inn, or at my Lord Somers's in the Fields. +Following him to the coach on foot, I never saw a man walk in more +deep or anxious thought. He took no heed of me, after bidding me by a +gesture to attend him; but twice he stood in doubt, and once he made +as if he would return whence he had come, and once as if he would +cross the Fields--I think to Powis House. In the end he went on, and +arriving at the coach, the door of which was opened for him by a +footman in a plain livery, he bade me by a sign to follow him into it. +This I was not for doing, thinking it too great an honour; but on his +crying impatiently, "Man, how do you think I am to talk to you if you +ride outside?" I hastened to enter, in equal confusion and humility. + +Nevertheless, some time elapsed, and we had travelled the length of +Holborn before he spoke. Then rousing himself on a sudden from his +preoccupation, he looked at me. "Do you know a man called Barclay?" +said he. + +"No, your Grace," I answered. + +"Sir George Barclay?" + +"No, your Grace." + +"Or Porter? Or Charnock? Or King?" + +"No, your Grace." + +"Umph!" said he, seeming to be disappointed; and for a time he looked +out of the window. Presently, however, he glanced at me again, and so +sharply that I dropped my eyes, out of respect. "I have seen you +before," he said, at last. + +Surprised beyond measure that he remembered me, so many years having +elapsed, I confessed with emotion that he had. + +"Where?" he asked plainly. "I see many people. And I have not old +Rowley's memory." + +I told him. "Your Grace may not remember it," I said, greatly +moved, "but many years ago at Abbot's Stanstead, at Sir Baldwin +Winston's----" + +"What?" he exclaimed, cutting me short, with a flicker of laughter +in his grave eyes. And he looked me over. "Did I flesh my maiden +justice-sword on you? Were you the lad who ran away?" + +"Yes, my lord--the lad whose life you saved," I answered. + +"Well, then we are quits," he had the kindness to answer; and asked me +how I had lived since those days. + +I told him, naming Mr. Timothy Brome, and saying that he would give me +a character. The mention of the news-writer, however, had a different +effect from that I expected; his Grace conceiving a hasty idea that he +also was concerned with Ferguson, and muttering under this impression +that if such men were turning, it was vain to fight against the +stream. I hastened to disabuse him of the notion by explaining how I +came to fall into Ferguson's hands. On which he asked me what I had +done for the plotter, and how he had employed me. + +"He would send me on errands," I answered, "and to fetch papers from +the printers, and to carry his messages." + +"To coffee-houses?" + +"Often, your Grace." + +"Did he ever send you to Covent Garden?" he asked, looking fixedly at +me. + +"Yes, your Grace, to a gentleman with a white handkerchief hanging +from his pocket." + +"Ha!" said he; and with an eager light in his face he bade me tell him +all I knew of that man. This giving me the cue, I detailed what I had +seen and heard at the Seven Stars the previous evening, the toast of +the Squeezing of the Rotten Orange, the hints which had escaped the +drunken conspirator, not forgetting his references to the Hunting +Party, and the date, Saturday or Saturday week. I added also what I +had learned from the girl, but mentioned for this no authority. To all +my lord listened attentively, nodding from moment to moment, and at +last, "Then Porter is not lying this time," he said, drawing a deep +breath. "I feared--but here we are. Follow me, my friend, and keep +close to me." + +Engrossed in my story, and the attention that was due to his rank, I +had paid no heed either to the way we had come, or to our gradual +passage from the smoke and babble of London to country air and +stillness. A vague notion that we were still travelling the Oxford +Road was all I retained: and this was rudely shaken when, recalled to +the present by his words, I looked out, and discovered that the coach +was bowling along an avenue of lofty trees, with park-like pastures +stretched on either hand. I had no more than time to note so much and +that the horses were slackening their pace, before we rumbled under an +archway, and drew up in a spacious courtyard shut in on four sides by +warm-looking red-brick buildings, whereof the wing under which we had +driven was surmounted by a quaintly-shaded bell-turret. + +Ignorant where my lord lived, and little acquainted with the villages +which lie around London, I supposed that he had brought me to his +house. The sight of a couple of sentries, who walked with arms ported +before a wide, low flight of steps leading to the principal door, +should have enlightened me; but a flock of pigeons, that, disturbed by +our entrance, were now settling down, and beginning to strut the +gravel with the most absurd air of possession, caught my attention, +and diverted me from this mark of State. Nor did a knot of servants, +lounging silently under a portico, or two or three sedans which I +espied waiting a little apart, go far to detract from the general air +of peace and quietude which prevailed in the place. Other observations +I had no time to make; for my lord, mounting the steps, bade me follow +him. + +I did so, across a spacious hall floored with shining wood laid in +strange patterns. Here were three or four servants, who stood at +attention, but did not approach; and passing them without notice, we +had reached the foot of a wide and handsome staircase before a person +dressed plainly in black and carrying a tall slender wand came +forward, and with a low bow interposed himself. + +"Your Grace's pardon," he said, "the Council has broken up." + +"How long?" + +"About half an hour." + +"Ah! And Lord Somers? Did he go back to town?" + +"Yes, your Grace, immediately." + +The Duke at that asked a question which I, standing back a little out +of respect, and being awed besides by the grandeur of the place and +the silence, did not catch. The answer, however, "Only Lord Portland +and Mr. Sewell," I heard; and likewise the Duke's rejoinder, "I am +going up." + +"You will permit me to announce your Grace," the other answered +quickly. He seemed to be something between a gentleman and a servant. + +"No," my lord said. "I am in haste, and I have that will be my +warranty. This person goes with me." + +"I hope your Grace--will answer for it then," the man in black replied +respectfully, but with a little hesitation in his tone. + +"I will answer for it that you are not blamed, Nash," the Duke +rejoined, with good nature. "Yes, yes. And now let us up." + +On that the man with the wand stood aside--still a little doubtfully I +thought--and let us pass: and my patron preceding me, we went up a +wide staircase and along a silent corridor, and through one or two +swing doors, the Duke seeming to be conversant with the house. It was +impossible not to admire the sombre richness of the carved furniture, +which stood here and there in the corridor; or the grotesque designs +and eastern colouring of the China ware and Mogul idols that peered +from the corners, or rose boldly on brackets. Such a mode of +furnishing was new to me, but neither its novelty nor the evidences of +wealth and taste which abundantly met the eye, impressed me so deeply +as the stillness which everywhere prevailed; and which seemed so much +a part of the place, that when his Grace opened the second swing door, +and the shrill piping voice of a child, crowing and laughing in an +ecstasy of infantile pleasure, came forth and met us, I started as if +a gun had exploded. + +I know now that the sound, by giving my patron assurance that he whom +he sought was not there, but in his closet, led to my admission; and +that without that assurance my lord would have left me to wait at the +door. As it was, he said nothing to me, but went on; and I following +him in my innocence through the doorway, came, at the same moment he +did, on a scene as rare as it is by me well remembered. + + +[Illustration: A SLIGHT GENTLEMAN AMBLED AND PACED IN FRONT OF A +CHILD] + + +We stood on the threshold of a wide and splendid gallery, set here and +there with huge china vases, and hung with pictures; which even then I +discerned to be of great beauty, and afterwards learned were of no +less value. Letting my eyes travel down this vista, they paused +naturally on a spot under one of the windows; where with his back to +us and ribbons in his hands, a slight gentleman, who stooped somewhat +and was dressed in black, ambled and paced in front of a child of four +or five years old. The wintry sunlight which fell in cold bars on the +floor, proved his progress to be more showy than real; nevertheless +the child shrieked in its joy, and dancing, jerked the ribbons and +waved a tiny whip. In answer, the gentleman whose long curled periwig +bobbed oddly on his shoulders--he had his back to us--pranced more and +more stoutly; though on legs a little thin and bent. + +A long moment I stared at this picture, little thinking on what I +gazed; nor was it until a gentleman seated at a side table not far +from the pair, rose hurriedly from his chair and with a guttural +exclamation came towards us, that I remarked this third occupant of +the gallery. When I did so, it was to discern that he was angry, and +that my lord was taken aback and disturbed. It even seemed to me that +my patron made a hasty movement to withdraw. Before he could do so, +however, or I who, behind him barred the way, could take the hint, the +gentleman in black, warned of our presence by the other's exclamation, +turned to us, and still standing and holding the ribbons in his hands +looked at us. + +He had a long sallow face, which seemed the sallower for the dark +heavy wig that fell round it; a large hooked nose and full peevish +lips; with eyes both bright and morose. I am told that he seldom +smiled, and never laughed, and that while the best tales of King +Charles's Court passed round him, he would stand abstracted, or on +occasion wither the teller by a silent nod. The Court wits who dubbed +my Lord Nottingham, Don Dismallo, could find no worse title for him. +Yet that he had a well of humour, deeply hidden and rarely drawn upon, +no one could doubt who saw him approach us, a flicker of dry amusement +in his eyes giving the lie to his pursed-up lips and the grimness of +his visage. + +"Your Grace is always welcome," he said, speaking in English a little +broken and guttural. "And yet you might have come more _a propos_, I +confess." + +"A thousand pardons, sir," my lord answered, bowing until his knee +well-nigh touched the ground. "I thought that you were in your closet, +sir, or I should have taken your pleasure before I intruded." + +"But you have news?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Ha! And this person"--he looked fixedly at me--"is concerned." + +"Yes, sir." + +"Then, my Lord Buck--" and with that he turned and addressed the child +who was still tugging at the ribbons, "_Il faut partir!_ Do you hear +me, you must go? Go, _petit vaurien!_ I have business." + +The child looked at him boldly. "_Faut il?_" said he. + +"_Oui! oui!_ Say _merci_, and go." + +"_Merci, Monsieur_," the boy answered. And then to us with a solemn +nod. "J'ai eu sa Majeste for my chevaux!" + +"Cheval! Cheval!" corrected the gentleman in black. "And be off." + + + + + CHAPTER XXIV + + +Apprised by what I heard, not only that I stood in the Gallery of +Kensington Court--a mansion which His Majesty had lately bought from +Lord Nottingham, and made his favourite residence--but that the +gentleman in black whom I had found so simply employed was no other +than the King himself, I ask you to imagine with what interest I +looked upon him. He whom the old King of France had dubbed in bitter +derision, the "Little Squire of ----," and whom two revolutions had +successfully created Stadtholder of Holland and Sovereign of these +Isles, was at this time forty-six years old, already prematurely bent, +and a prey to the asthma which afflicted his later life. Reserved in +manner, and sombre, not to say melancholy, in aspect, hiding strong +passions behind a pale mask of stoicism as chilling to his friends as +it was baffling to his enemies, he was such as a youth spent under the +eyes of watchful foes, and a manhood in the prosecution of weighty and +secret designs, made him. Descended on the one side from William the +Silent, on the other from the great Henry of France, he was thought to +exhibit, in more moderate degree, the virtues and failings which +marked those famous princes, and to represent, not in blood only, but +in his fortunes, the two soldiers of the sixteenth century whose +courage in disaster and skill in defeat still passed for a proverb; +who, frequently beaten in the field, not seldom garnered the fruits of +the campaign, and rose, Antaeus-like, the stronger from every fall. + +That, in all stations, as a private person, a Stadtholder and a King, +his late Majesty remembered the noble sources whence he sprang, was +proved, I think, not only by the exactness with which his life was +wrought to the pattern of those old mottoes of his house, _S[oe]vus +tranquillus in Undis_, and _Tandem fit Surculus arbor_, whereof the +former was borne, I have read, by the Taciturn, and the latter by +Maurice of Nassau--but of two other particulars of which I beg leave +to mention. The first was that _more majorum_ he took naturally and +from the first the lead as the champion of the Protestant religion in +Europe; the second, that though he had his birth in a republic, and +was called to be King by election (so that it was no uncommon thing +for some of his subjects to put slights upon him as little more than +their equal--ay, and though he had to bear such affronts in silence), +he had the true spirit and pride of a King born in the purple, and by +right divine. Insomuch that many attributed to this the gloom and +reserve of his manners; maintaining that these were assumed less as a +shield against the malice of his enemies, than as a cloak to abate the +familiarity of his friends. + +And certainly some in speaking of him of late years belittle his birth +no less than his exploits, when they call him Dutch William, and the +like; speaking in terms unworthy of a sovereign, and as if he had +drawn his blood from that merchant race, instead of--as the fact +was--from the princely houses of Stuart, Bourbon, Nassau, and Medici; +and from such ancestors as the noble Coligny and King Charles the +Martyr. But of his birth, enough. + +For the rest, having a story to tell, and not history to write, I +refrain from recalling how great he was as a statesman, how +resourceful as a strategist, how indomitable as a commander, how +valiant when occasion required in the pitched field. Nor is it +necessary, seeing that before the rise of my Lord Marlborough (who +still survives, but alas, _quantum mutatus ab illo!_) he had no rival +in any of these capacities, nor in the first will ever be excelled. + +Nor, as a fact, looking on him in the flesh as I then did for the +first time, can I say that I saw anything to betoken greatness, or the +least outside evidence of the fiery spirit that twice in two great +wars stayed all the power of Louis and of France; that saved Holland; +that united all Europe in three great leagues; finally, that leaping +the bounds of the probable, won a kingdom, only to hold it cheap, and +a means to farther ends. I say I saw in him not the least trace of +this, but only a plain, thin, grave, and rather peevish gentleman, in +black and a large wig, who coughed much between his words, spoke with +a foreign accent, and often lapsed into French or some strange tongue. + +He waited until the door had fallen to behind the child, and the long +gallery lay silent, and then bade my lord speak. "I breathe better +here," he said. "I hate small rooms. What is the news you have +brought?" + +"No good news, sir," my patron answered. "And yet I can scarcely call +it bad. In the country it will have a good effect." + +"_Bien!_ But what is it?" + +"I have seen Ferguson, sir." + +"Then you have seen a d----d scoundrel!" the King exclaimed, with an +energy I had not expected from him; and, indeed, such outbreaks were +rare with him. "He is arrested, then?" + +"No, sir," the Duke answered. "I trust, however, that he will be +before night." + +"But if he be free, how came you in his company?" the King asked, +somewhat sharply. + +My lord hesitated, and seemed for a moment at a loss how to answer. +Being behind him, I could not see his face, but I fancied that he grew +red, and that the fourth person present, a stout, burly gentleman, +marked with the small-pox, who had advanced and now stood near the +King, was hard put to it not to smile. At last, "I received a letter, +sir," my lord said, speaking stiffly and with constraint, "purporting +to come from a third person----" + +"Ah!" said the King, drawling the word, and nodding dry comprehension. + +"On the faith of which, believing it to be from that other--if you +understand, sir----" + +"I understand perfectly," said the King, and coughed. + +"I was induced," my lord said doggedly, "to give the villain a +meeting. And learned, sir, partly from him, and partly from this man +here"--this more freely--"enough to corroborate the main particulars +of Mr. Prendergast's story." + +"Ah?" said the King. "Good. And the particulars?" + +"That Sir George Barclay, the person mentioned by Mr. Prendergast, is +giving nightly rendezvous in Covent Garden to persons mainly from +France, who are being formed by him into a band; the design, as stated +by Prendergast, to fall on your Majesty's person in the lane between +Fulham Green and the river on your returning from hunting." + +"Does he agree as to the names?" the King asked, looking at me. + +"He knows no names, sir," the Duke answered, "but he saw a number of +the conspirators at the Seven Stars in Covent Garden last night, and +heard them speak openly of a hunting party; with other things pointing +the same way." + +"Was Barclay there?" + +"He can speak to a person who I think can be identified as Barclay," +my lord answered. "He cannot speak to Charnock----" + +"That is the Oxford man?" + +"Yes, sir--or Porter, or King; or the others by those names. But he +can speak to two of them under the names by which Prendergast said +that they were passing." + +"_C'est tout!_ Well, it does not seem to me to be so simple!" the King +said with a touch of impatience. "What is this person's name, and who +is he?" + +The Duke told him that I had been Ferguson's tool. + +"That rogue is in it then?" + +"He is privy to it," the Duke answered. + +His Majesty shrugged his shoulders, as if the answer annoyed him. "You +English draw fine distinctions," he said. "Whatever you do, however, +let us have no repetition of the Lancashire fiasco. You will bear that +in mind, my lord, if you please. Another of Taafe's pseudo plots would +do us more harm in the country than the loss of a battle in Flanders. +Faugh! we have knaves at home, but you have a breed here--your Oates's +and your Taafes and your Fullers--for whom breaking on the wheel is +too good!" + +"There are rogues, sir, in all countries," my lord answered somewhat +tartly. "I do not know that we have a monopoly of them." + +"The Duke of Shrewsbury is right there, sir," the gentleman behind the +King who had not yet spoken, struck in, in a good-natured tone. "They +are things of which there is no scarcity anywhere. I remember----" + +"_Taisez! Taisez!_" cried the King brusquely, cutting short his +reminiscences--whereat the gentleman, smiling imperturbably, took +snuff. "Tell me this. Is Sir John Fenwick implicated?" + +"There may be evidence against him," my lord answered cautiously. + +The King sneered openly. "Yes," he said. "I see Porter and Goodman and +Charnock are guilty! But when it touches one of yourselves, my lord, +then 'There is evidence against him,' or 'It is a case of suspicion,' +or--oh, you all hang together!" And pursing up his lips he looked +sourly at us. "You all hang together!" he repeated. "I stand to be +shot at--_c'est dommage_. But touch a noble, and _Gare la Noblesse!_" + +"You do us an injustice, sir," my lord cried warmly. "I will answer +for it----" + +"Oh, I do you an injustice, do I?" the King said, disregarding his +last words. "Of course I do! Of course you are all faithful, most +faithful. You have all taken the oath. But I tell you, my Lord +Shrewsbury, the King to whom you swore allegiance, the King crowned in +'89 was not William the Third, but Noblesse the first! _La Noblesse!_ +Yes, my lord, you may look at me, and as angrily as you like; but it +was so. _Par dieu et diable_, you tie my hands! You tie my hands, you +cling to my sword, you choke my purse! I had as much power in Holland +as I have here. And more! And more!" + +He would have gone farther, and with the same candour I think; but at +that the gentleman who had interrupted him before, struck in again, +addressing him rapidly in what I took to be Dutch, and doubtless +pointing out the danger of too great openness. At any rate I took that +to be the gist of his words, not only from his manner, but from the +fact that when he had done--the King looking gloomy and answering +nothing--he turned to my lord. + +"The King trusts your Grace," he said bluntly. "He has never said as +much to an Englishman before. I am sure that the trust is well placed +and that his Majesty's feelings will go no farther." + +The Duke bowed. "Your Majesty authorises me to take the necessary +steps then," he said, speaking somewhat drily, but otherwise ignoring +what had passed. "To secure your safety, sir, as well as to arrest the +guilty, no time should be lost. Warrants should be issued immediately, +and these persons taken up." + +"Before Ferguson can warn them," the King said in his ordinary tone. +"Yes, see to it, my lord; and let the Council be recalled. The guards, +too, should be doubled, and the regiment Prendergast mentioned +displaced. Cutts must look to that, and do you, my lord," he continued +rapidly, addressing the gentleman beside him, whom I now conjectured +to be Lord Portland, "fetch him hither and lose no time. Take one of +my coaches. It is a plot, if all be true, should do us good in the +country. And that, I think, is your Grace's opinion." + +"It should, sir. Doubtless, sir, we English have our faults; but we +are not fond of assassins." + +"And you are confident that tins is no bubble?" the King said +thoughtfully. + +"Yes, sir, I am." + +By this time Lord Portland had withdrawn through a door at the farther +end of the gallery. The King, taking a turn this way and that, with +his hands clasped behind him, and his head bent low, so that his great +wig almost hid his features, seemed to be lost in thought. After +waiting a moment the Duke coughed, and this failing to attract the +King's attention, he ventured to address him. "There is another matter +I have to mention to you, sir," he said, with a touch of constraint in +his tone. + +The King paused in his walk, and looked sharply at him. "Ah, of +course," he said, nodding. "Did you see Lord Middleton." + +The Duke could not hide a start. "Lord Middleton, sir?" he faltered. + +The King smiled coldly. "The letter," he said, "was from him, I +suppose?" + +My lord rallied himself. "No, sir, it was not," he answered, with a +flash of spirit. "It purported to be from him." + +"Yet you went--wherever you went--thinking to see him?" his Majesty +continued, smiling rather disagreeably. + +"I did," my lord answered, his tone betraying his agitation. "But to +do nothing to the prejudice of your service, sir, and what I could to +further your interests--short of giving him up. He is my relative." + +The King shrugged his shoulders. + +"And for years," my lord cried warmly, "was my intimate friend." + +The King shrugged his shoulders again. "We have fought that out +before," he said, with a sigh of weariness. "And more than once. For +the rest in that connection and whatever others may say, Lord +Shrewsbury has no ground to complain of me." + +"I have cause, sir, to do far otherwise!" the Duke answered in a tone +suddenly changed and so full of emotion that it was not difficult to +discern that he had forgotten my presence; which was not wonderful, as +I stood behind him in the shadow of the doorway, whither out of +modesty I had retreated. "God knows I remember it!" he continued. +"Were it not for that, if I were not bound to your Majesty by more +than common ties of gratitude, I should not be to-day in a service +which--for which I am unfit! The daily duties of which, performed by +other men with indifference or appetite, fill me with pity and +distaste! the risks attending which--I speak without ceremony, +sir--make me play the coward with myself a hundred times a day!" + +"Caesar," the King said quietly, "lets none but Caesar call him coward." + +Kindly as the words were uttered, and in a tone differing much from +that which the King had hitherto used, the Duke took no heed of them. +"Others wish for my place; God knows I wish they had it!" he cried, +his agitation growing rather than decreasing. "Every hour, sir, I pray +to be quit of the faction and perjury in which I live! Every hour I +loathe more deeply the work I have to do and the people with whom I +have to do it. I never go to my office but my gorge rises; nor leave +it but I see the end. And yet I must stay in it! I must stay in it! I +tell you, sir," he continued impetuously, "on the day that you burned +those letters you but freed me from one slavery to fling me into +another!" + +"Yet an honest one!" said the King in a peculiar tone. + +My lord threw up his hands. "You have a right to say that, sir. But if +anyone else--or, no I--I forget myself." + +"Something has disturbed you," said the King intervening with much +kindness. "Take time! And in the meanwhile, listen to me. As to the +general distaste you express for my service, I will not, and I do not, +do you the injustice to attribute it--whatever you say yourself--to +your fears of what may happen in a possible event; I mean, _l'ancien +regime restitue_. If such fears weighed so heavily with you, you would +neither have signed the Invitation to me, nor come to me eight years +ago. But I take it with perhaps some apprehensions of this kind, you +have--and this is the real gist of the matter--a natural distaste for +affairs, and a natural proneness to be on good terms with all, rogues +as well as good men. It irks you to sign a death-warrant, to send one +to Newgate, and another to--bah, I forget the names of your prisons; +to know that your friends abroad are not as well placed at St. +Germain's as they were at St. James's! You have no care to push an +advantage, no anxiety to ruin a rival; you would rather trust a man +than bind him. In a word, my lord, you have no taste for public life +in dangerous and troubled times such as these; although perforce you +have played a high part in it." + +"Sir!" the Duke cried, with an anxiety and eagerness that touched me, +"you know me better than I know myself. You see my failings, my +unfitness; and surely, seeing them so clearly, you will not refuse +to----" + +"Release you?" the King said smiling. "That does not follow. For +consider, my lord, you are not the only one in the world who pursues +perforce a path for which he has little taste. To be King of England +has a higher sound than to be Stadtholder of Holland. But to be a King +and no King; to see your way clearly and be thwarted by those who see +no fool of the field; to have France by the throat and be baffled for +the lack of ten thousand men or a million guilders; above all, to be +served by men who have made use of you--who have one foot on either +shore, and having betrayed their old Master to gain their ends, would +now betray you to save their necks. This, too, forms no bed of roses! +But I lie on it! I lie on it!" he concluded phlegmatically; and as he +spoke he took a pinch of snuff. "In fine, my lord," he continued, "to +be high, or what the world calls high, is to be unhappy." + +The Duke sighed. "You, sir, have those qualities which fit you for +your part," he said sadly. "I have not." + +"Have I?" + +The King said no more, but the gesture with which he held out his +hands, as if he bade the other mark his feebleness, his short breath, +his hacking cough, his pallor, had more meaning than many words. "No, +my lord," he continued after a pause, "I cannot release you. I cannot +afford to release you, because I cannot afford to release the one man +who does not day by day betray me, and who never has betrayed me!" + +"I would to heaven that you could say that!" the Duke cried, much +moved. + +"I can, my friend," the King answered, with a gesture of kindness. "It +was nothing, and it is forgotten. I have long ceased to think of it. +But, _c'est vrai!_ I remember when I say I can trust no one else. I do +my good Somers an injustice. He is a dry man, however, like myself, +and poor company, and does not count for much." + +My lord, contending with his feelings, did not answer, and the King +who, while speaking, had seated himself in a high-backed chair, in +which he looked frailer and more feeble than when on his legs, let a +minute elapse before he resumed in a different and brisker tone, "And +now tell me what has troubled our good Secretary to-day?" + +"The Duke of Berwick, sir, is in London." + +To my astonishment, and I have no doubt to the Duke's, the King merely +nodded. "Ah!" he said. "Is he in this pretty plot, then?" + +"I think not," the Duke answered. "But I should suppose---- + +"That he is here to take advantage of it," the King said. "Well, he is +his uncle's own nephew. I suppose Ferguson sold him--as he has sold +every one all his life?" + +"Yes, sir. But not, I think, with the intention that I should carry +out the bargain." + +"Eh?" + +"It is a long tale, sir," the Duke said rather wearily. "And having +given your Majesty the information----" + +"You need not tell the tale? Well, no, for I can guess it!" the King +answered. "The old rogue, I suppose, was for ruining you with me if +you hid the news; and for damning you with King James if you informed: +which latter he did not think likely, but that instead he would have a +hold on you." + +The Duke in a tone of much surprise acknowledged that he had guessed +rightly. + +"Well, it was a pretty dilemma," said the King with a sort of gusto. +"And where is M. FitzJames in hiding?" + +"At Dr. Lloyd's in Hogsden Gardens," my lord answered. But he could +not conceal his gloom. + +"He must be arrested," said the King. "A warrant must be issued. Will +you see to it with the others?" + +My lord assented; but with such a sigh that it required no wizard to +discern both the cloud that hung over him, and also that now he had +done what Ferguson had dared him to do, the consequences lay heavy on +him. The King, after considering him a moment with a singular +expression, between amusement and reproach, broke the silence. + +"See here, my lord," he said with good nature. "I will tell you what +to do. Sit down now, and here, and write a line to Monsieur, bidding +him begone; and send it by a private hand, and the warrant by a +messenger an hour later." + +The Duke stared at the King in astonishment. "But he will escape, +sir," he faltered. + +"So much the better," the King answered indifferently. "If we take him +what are we to do with him? Besides, to tell you the truth, my lord, +he did me a great service eight years ago." + +"He, sir?" + +"Yes," said the King smiling. "He induced his father to fly the +country, when, if he had stayed--but you know that story. So do you +warn him, and the sooner he is beyond La Manche the better." + +The Duke looked unhappy. "I dare not do it, sir," he said at last, +after a pause. + +"Dare not do it? When I authorise it? Why not?" + +"No, sir. Because if I were impeached by the Commons----" + +The King shrugged his shoulders. + +"Ah, these safeguards!" he muttered. "These town councils, and +provincial councils, and States-General! And now these Commons and +Lords! Shall I ever be quit of them? Well, there is but one way then. +I must do it. If they impeach me, I go back to Loo; and they may stew +in their own juice!" + +He rose with that, and moving stiffly to the table at which Lord +Portland had been writing when we entered, he sought for and found a +pen. Then sitting in the chair which the Groom of the Stole had left +vacant, he tore a slip of paper from a folio before him and, writing +some lines on it--about six, as far as I could judge--handed the paper +to the Duke, who had remained standing at a formal distance. + +"Voila, Monsieur," he said. "Will that suit your lordship?" + +The Duke took it respectfully and looked at it. "But, sir, it is in my +name!" he cried, aghast. "And bears my signature." + +"_Eh, bien_, why not?" his Majesty answered lightly. "The name is the +name of Jacob, but the hand is the hand of Esau. Take it and send it +by a trusty messenger. Perhaps the man who came with you, and +who--pheugh, my lord! I had forgotten that this person was here! We +have spoken too freely." + +The oath which the Duke let fall as he turned, and the face of dismay +and anger with which he gazed on me, were proof enough that he shared +the King's opinion, as he had shared his mistake. For a moment, the +two glaring at me with equal disgust and vexation, I thought I should +sink into the floor. Then the King beckoned me to come forward, and I +obeyed him. + + + + + CHAPTER XXV + + +The odd and unexpected glimpse of generosity which the King had +allowed to escape him, in his interview with the Duke, somewhat +lessened the fears I must otherwise have entertained at that moment. +To which must be added that I am one of those who, when violence and +physical danger are not in question, retain a fair mastery of their +minds. Nevertheless, I am free to confess that as I went forward, I +wished myself anywhere else in the world, and would have sacrificed +half my remaining economies to be seated, pen in hand, and obscurely +safe, in Mr. Brome's room. + +But the thing took a turn which relieved me when I least expected it. +As I approached, the chagrin in the King's face gave place to a look +of surprise; and that again, but more slowly, to one of intelligence. +"Ah! _Je me trompais!_" he muttered rapidly. "What did you say his +name was?" + +"Price," the Duke answered, continuing to glower at me. + +"Price? _Ah, cela va sans dire!_ But--he is a cadet--a dependent? He +is in some way connected--how do you say it--related to your family!" + +"To mine, sir!" the Duke exclaimed in a voice of the utmost +astonishment; and he drew himself up as if the King had pricked him. + +"_N'est-ce pas ca?_" his Majesty replied, looking from one to the +other of us. "Yet he has so much a look of you that it might be +possible in some lights to take him for your grace, were he +differently dressed!" + +The Duke looked purely offended. "Your Majesty is under a strange +misapprehension," he said, very stiffly. "If this person resembles +me--of which I was not aware--I know nothing of the cause; and the +likeness for what it is worth, must be accidental. As a fact, I never +saw him but once before in my life, sir, and that perfectly by +chance." And he very briefly related the circumstances under which we +came together. + +The King listened to the story, but as if he scarcely believed it; and +he smiled when the Duke came to tell how he allowed me to escape. +Then, "And you have never seen him from that day to this?" he said +incredulously. + +"Never!" said the Duke, positively. "But it is not my intention to +lose sight of him again." + +"Ah?" the King said. + +"I have not told you, sir, all that happened," the Duke continued, +reading, I think, the King's thoughts, "But briefly. Mr. Ferguson, who +has come to be little short of a madman, drew a pistol on me at the +close of our interview; and but for his friend here--who had been +placed to listen, but at that broke from his place of hiding and +knocked up the muzzle, so that it exploded harmlessly--I should have +come off ill." + +"And I not much better," the King said, nodding and looking grave. +"You are unhurt." + +"Yes, sir." + +"Well, that puts another face on it; and if you are retaining him +beside you, what he has now heard will be of the less importance. Hark +you, my friend," he continued, addressing me, "can you keep your mouth +shut?" + +I said humbly that I could and would. + +"Then, _Taisez! Taisez!_" he answered emphatically. "And take this +letter to Hogsden Gardens to Bishop Lloyd's. See Bishop Lloyd and put +it in his hands. Say nothing, give no message, but go to your master's +in St. James's Square. Will you seal it, Duke, with a plain seal? +Good. And go you out, man, by the way you came in, and answer no +questions. And now for the council and the warrants, my lord. We have +lost too much time already!" + +To say that I went from the presence without knowing how I did it, and +when I reached the courtyard had no more idea how I had gained it, or +by what staircase I had descended, than if I had been blind, is but +the truth; nor is it to be wondered at when the amazing thing which +had happened to me is in the least degree taken into consideration. In +truth I walked on air and saw nothing, I was so deeply overjoyed; and +though it is certain that as I went out I met one and another, passed +the sentries, and ran the gauntlet of curious eyes--for who that quits +a court escapes that ordeal?--I was no more conscious of the +observations made upon me, or the surprise I excited as I went by, +than if I had really walked in the clouds. Issuing from the gates I +took by instinct rather than design the road to London, and hugging to +my breast the letter which the King--the King!--had entrusted to me, +made the best of my way towards Tyburn. + +I had been wiser had I gone by the other road through the village and +taken the first coach I found; there are commonly one or two at +Kensington waiting to carry passengers to London. But in the fluster +of my spirits, I did not measure the distance I had to go, or the time +I should consume in walking. My main anxiety for the moment was to be +alone; alone, and at leisure to probe my fortune and success, and +appreciate both the relief and the good luck I had compassed. I could +have sung as I walked; I could have skipped and danced; and a gleam of +sunshine breaking the March sky, and gilding the leafless arms of the +trees and the flat green pastures that border the road north of Hyde +Park, I was moved to raise my hat and look upwards and reverently +thank Providence for this wonderful instance of its goodness, which I +had not had the heart to do for some time. + +When I descended a little to earth--a step which was hastened by a +flash of recollection that showed me Ferguson's niece waiting at +Clerkenwell Gate, a little figure, forlorn and desolate, yet with eyes +of wrath and a face puckered with determination--when I came I say a +little to myself and to think of Hogsden Gardens, and remembered that +it lay on the farther side of town by Bunhill Fields, I was already at +Tyburn turning; and it seemed to be no longer worth while to ride. The +day was on the wane, and the road thence to St. Giles's Pound was +lively with persons come out to take the air, through whom I threaded +my way at a good pace, and coming to Holborn without mishap, turned up +Cow Lane, and so got speedily to Smithfield, and across the market to +Long Lane, knowing my way so far without having need to ask. + +Here, however, I took sudden fright. My mind, which as I walked had +been busy with the girl and the steps I should take to find her--if +indeed I wished to find her, about which I was puzzled, the +surrounding circumstances being so different--was invaded by the +notion that I had been long on the road. To this was added next moment +the reflection that messengers sent to arrest the Duke could by taking +a coach forestall me. The thought threw me into a hot fit, which +increased on me when I considered that I did not know the remainder of +the road, and might waste much time in tracing it. Naturally my first +impulse in this strait was to seek a guide; but Long Lane by +Smithfield is only one degree better than Whetstone Park, and I shrank +from applying to the sots and drabs who stood at the doors and +corners, or lounged out of the patched windows, and, lazily or rudely, +watched me go by. + +In this difficulty, and growing the more diffident and alarmed the +more slowly I walked, I looked about eagerly for some person, of +passable aspect, of whom I could enquire. I saw none, and my uncertain +glances and loitering steps were beginning to draw on me advances +and an attention that were anything but welcome, when, reaching a +corner where an alley, now removed--I think it was then called Dog +Alley--runs out of Long Lane, I saw a man, decently habited, come out +of a house a little way down the alley. He closed the door sharply +behind him, and, as I looked, went off in the opposite direction. + +Here was my opportunity. Without losing a moment I ran after him, and +he, hearing my steps, turned; and we came face to face. Then, when it +was too late to retreat, I saw with unutterable dismay that the man I +had stopped was no stranger, but the person who had dressed me up the +night before and taken me to the mysterious house in the suburbs; the +man called Smith whom I had first seen under the Piazza in Covent +Garden, and again in Ferguson's room. + +To come face to face with anyone of the gang with the knowledge that I +had but now left the palace after informing against them was of itself +enough to make my knees tremble under me. But of this man, though his +civil treatment had been in pleasant contrast to Ferguson's brutality, +I had conceived an instinctive dread, based as much on his silence and +reserve and a sort of strict power with which I credited him, as on +his contemptuous treatment of my tyrant. In a word, had I come on +Ferguson himself I could scarcely have been more overcome. + +On hearing my footsteps he had turned on me very sharply, with the air +of a man who had no mind to be followed, and no taste for followers. +But on seeing who it was his face grew light and he whistled his +surprise. "I was on my way to you," he said, "and here you are. That +is good luck. I suppose Ferguson sent you?" + +"No," I stammered, avoiding his eyes, and wondering, with inward +quakings, what was going to happen to me. "I--I lost my road." + +"Oh!" said he, and looked keenly at me. "Lost your road, did you? +Well, it was very much to the purpose, as it happened. May I ask where +you were going?" + +I shifted my feet uneasily. "To Bunhill Fields," I said, naming the +first place of which I could think. + +"Ah!" he answered, with apparent carelessness, and though it seemed +scarcely possible he should fail to observe the heat and disorder into +which his presence had thrown me, he made no sign. "Well, you are not +far out," he continued, "and I will come with you. When you have done +your errand we will talk over my business. This way. I know this end +of the town well. And so it was not Ferguson," he added with a sharp +look at me, "who sent you after me?" + +"No," I said. + +"Nor his errand that brought you here?" + +"No," I said again, my mouth dry. "And I need not give you the trouble +to come with me. I shall be taking you----" + +"Out of my way? Not at all," he answered briskly. "And it is no +trouble. Come along, my friend." + +I dared say no more, nor show farther reluctance; and so, with feet +like lead and eyes roving furtively for a way of escape, I turned and +went with him. Nay, it was not my feet only that were weighted; the +letter, and my consciousness of it, lay so heavy on my mind that it +was like lead in the pocket. + +I was indeed in a strait now! And in one so difficult I could discern +no way out of it; for though I could in part, and in part only, +command my countenance, I failed absolutely to command my thoughts, +which did nothing but revolve tumultuously about the words, "What am I +to do? What am I to do?" words that seemed written in red letters on +my brain. Only one thing was clear to me in the confusion, and that +was the urgent necessity I lay under of hiding my errand, the +disclosure of which must carry with it the disclosure of the place +whence I came and the company I had been keeping. With time to think +and coolness to distinguish I should doubtless have seen the +possibility of announcing my errand to the Duke, yet laying it on +Ferguson's shoulders; but pushed for time and unable at a pinch to +weigh all the issues, I could form no determination, much less one +leading to so daring a step. After one denial, that is. + +In the meantime we moved on; and at first my companion seemed to be +unconscious of my sluggish pace and my perturbation. But presently I +felt rather than saw that from minute to minute he glanced at me +askance, and that after each of these inspections he laughed silently. +The knowledge that I lay under this observation immeasurably increased +my embarrassment. I could no longer put a fair face on the matter, but +every time he looked at me looked away guiltily, unable to support his +eyes. This presently grew so insupportable that to escape from my +embarrassment I coughed and affected to choke. + +"You have a cold, I am afraid," he said, scarcely concealing the sneer +in his tone. "And yet you look warm. You must have walked fast, my +friend?" + +I muttered that I had. + +"To overtake me, perhaps! It was good of you," he said in the same +tone of secret badinage. "But we are here. What part of the Fields do +you want? Whitecross Street?" + +"No," I muttered. + +"Then it must be Baxter's Rents." + +"No." + +"Bunhill Row?" + +"No." + +"No? Well, there is not much else here," he said; and he shrugged his +shoulders, "except the Fields and the burial-ground. Your business +does not lie with the latter, I suppose?" + +"No," I said faintly. And we stood. + +At another time I must have shuddered at the dreary expanse on this +uttermost fringe of the town that stretched before us under a waning +light; an expanse of waste land broken only by the wall of the +burial-ground, or the chimney of a brick-kiln, and bordered, where its +limits were visible, by half-built houses, and squatter huts, and vast +piles of refuse. Ugly as the prospect was, however, and far from +reassuring to the timorous, I asked nothing better than to look at it. +and look at it, and continue to look at it. But Mr. Smith, who did not +understand this mood, turned with an impatient laugh. + +"I suppose that you did not come here to look at that," said he. + +Like a fool I jumped at the absurd, the flimsy pretext. + +"Yes," I said. "I--I merely came to take the air." + +The moment the words were spoken I trembled at my audacity. But he +took it better than I expected, for he merely paused to stare at me, +and then chuckled grimly. + +"Well," he said, "then, now that you have taken the air let us go +back. Have you anything to object to that, Mr. Taylor?" + +I could find nothing. + +"I will come with you," he continued. "I want to see Ferguson, and we +can settle my business there." + +But this only presented to me a dreadful vision of Ferguson, released +from his bonds, and mad with rage and the desire to avenge himself; +and I stopped short. + +"I am not going there," I said. + +"No? Then where, may I ask, are you going?" he answered, watching me +with a placid amusement, which made it as clear as the daylight, that +he saw through my evasions. "Where is it my lord's pleasure to go?" + +"To Brome's, in Fleet Street," I said hoarsely. And if he had had his +back to me at that instant, and I a knife in my hand, I could have run +him through! For as I said it, and he with mocking suavity assented, +and we stepped out together to return the way we had come through Long +Lane--over which the sky hung low in a dull yellow haze, the last of +the western light--I had a swift and stinging recollection of the King +and my lord, and the letter, and the passage of time; and could have +sprung from his side, and poured out curses on him in the impotence of +my rage and impatience. For the hour of grace which the King had +granted was gone, and a second was passing, and still the letter that +should warn the Duke of Berwick lay in my pocket, and I saw no chance +of delivering it. + +That Smith discerned the chagrin which this enforced companionship +caused me--though not the ground of it--was as plain as that the fact +gave him pleasure of no common kind. I had no longer such a command of +my features that I could trust myself to look at him; but I was +conscious, using some other sense, that he frequently looked at me, +and always after these inspections, smiled like a man who finds +something to his taste. And I hated him. + +How long with these feelings I could have borne to go with him, or +what I should have done in the last resort had he continued the same +tactics, remains unproved; for at the same corner half-way down Long +Lane, where I had first espied him, he paused. "I want to go in here," +he said coolly. "I need only detain you a moment, Mr. Taylor." + +"I will wait for you," I muttered, tingling all over with sudden hope. +While he was inside I could run for it. + +"Very well," he said. "This way." + +I fancied that he suspected nothing, and that perhaps I had been wrong +throughout; and overjoyed I went with him to the door of the house +from which I had seen him emerge; my intention being to begone hotfoot +the instant his back was turned. The house was three-storied high, +narrow and commonplace, one of a row not long built, and but partially +inhabited. Apparently he was at home there, for taking a key from his +pocket, he opened the door; and stood aside for me to enter. + +"I will wait," I muttered. + +"Very well. Yon can wait inside," he answered. + +If I had been wise I should have turned there and then, in the open +street, and taking to my heels have run for my life and stayed for +nothing. But, partly fool and partly craven, clinging to a hope which +was scarcely a belief, that when he went upstairs or into another +room, I might stealthily unlatch the door and begone, I let myself be +persuaded; and I entered. The moment I had done so, he whipped out the +key and thrusting the door to with his shoulder, locked it on the +inside. + +Then the man threw off all disguise. He turned with a laugh of triumph +to where I stood trembling in the half-dark passage. "Now," he said, +"we will have that letter, if you please, Mr. Taylor. I have a fancy +to see what is in it." + +"The letter!" I faltered. + +"Yes, the letter!" + +"I have no letter," I said. + +"Tut-tut, letter or no letter, out with it! Do you think I could not +see you touching your breast every half minute, to make sure that you +had it safe--and not know what was in the wind! You are a poor +plotter, Mr. Taylor, and I doubt if you will ever be of any use to me. +But come, out with it! Unless you want me to be rough with you. Out +with whatever it is you have there, and no tricks!" + +He had a way with him when he spoke in that tone, not loudly but +between his teeth, his eyes at the same time growing towards one +another, that was worse than Ferguson's pistol; and I was alone with +him in an empty house. Some, who would have done what I did, may blame +me; but in the main the world is sensible, and I shall forfeit no +prudent man's esteem when I confess that, after one attempt at evasion +which he met by wrenching my coat open, and thrusting me against the +wail so violently that my head spun again, I gave up the letter. + +"I warn you! I warn you!" I cried, in a paroxysm of rage and grief. +"It is for the Duke of Berwick, and if you open it----" + +"For the Duke of Berwick?" he answered, pausing and gazing at me with +his finger on the seal. "Why, you fool, why did you not tell me that +before? From whom? From that scum, Ferguson?" + +"From the Duke of Shrewsbury," I cried, rendered reckless by my rage. + +"What?" he cried, in a voice of extraordinary surprise. + + +[Illustration: "NOW WE WILL HAVE THAT LETTER, IF YOU PLEASE"] + + +"From the Duke of Shrewsbury," I repeated; thinking that he had not +understood me. + +"My God!" he said, with a deep breath. "And have I caught the fox at +last!" + +"You are more likely to be caught yourself!" I answered, furiously. + +Nevertheless, his words were a puzzle to me; but his tone of slow +growing, almost incredulous triumph told something. Taking very little +heed of me, and merely signing to me to follow him, he sprang up the +stairs, and opening a door led the way into a back-room bare and +miserable, but lighted by the last yellow glow of the western sky. It +was possible to read here, and without a moment's hesitation he broke +the seal of the letter, and tearing the packet open, read the +contents. + +That the perusal gave him immense satisfaction his face, which in the +level light, cast by the window, seemed to gleam with unholy joy, was +witness, no less than his movements. Flourishing the letter in +uncontrollable excitement he twice strode the floor, muttering +unformed sentences. Then he looked at the paper again and his jaw +fell. "But it is not his hand!" he cried, staring at it in very plain +dismay. And then recovering himself afresh, "No matter," he said. "It +is his name, and the veriest fool would have used another hand. Is it +yours? Did you write it, blockhead?" + +"No," I said. + +"No! But now I think of it--thousand devils, how came you by it? By +this--eh?" he rapped out. "This letter? What d----d hocus pocus is +here? What have you to do with the Duke of Shrewsbury, that he makes +you his messenger?" + +He bent his brows on me, and I knew that I had never been in greater +danger in my life. Yet something of evil came to me in this extremity. +Comprehending that if I said I came from Kensington I might expect the +worst, I lied to him; yet used the truth where it suited me. "The Duke +came to Ferguson's," I said. + +"To Ferguson's?" he answered, staring at me. + +"Yes, and bade him get that to the Duke, for his lodging was known and +warrants would be out." + +Smith clapped his hands together softly. "What!" he cried. "Is he in +it as deep as that? Oh, the cunning! Oh, the cunning of him! And +I to be going to all this trouble, and close on despair at that! +And--Ferguson gave you the letter?" + +"They both did." + +"That old fox, too! And I was beginning to think him a bygone! Yet he +beats us all! he beats us all! Or he would have beaten us if he +had not trusted this silly. But I am forgetting. The Duke must be +warned--if he has not started. When was this given to you, Mr. Trusty +Taylor?" + +"Two hours ago," I said, sullenly. + +I was pleased to see that that alarmed him. "You fool!" he said, "why +did you not tell me at once what you had got, and whither you were +going? If the Duke is taken it will lie at your door. And if he is +saved, it will be to my credit." + +"I will come with you," I said, plucking up a spirit as I saw him +about to leave. + +"No, you will not," he answered, drily. "I am much obliged to you, but +I prefer to gain the credit and tell the tale my own way. You will +stay here, Mr. Taylor, and when the Duke is away I'll come and release +you. In the meantime I would advise you to keep quiet. Hoity-toity, +what is this?" he continued, as in my despair I tried to push by him, +"Go back, you fool, or it will be the worse for you. You are _not_ +going out." + +And, resisting all my appeals and remonstrances, he thrust me forcibly +from the door; and whipping outside it, locked it on me. In vain I +hammered on it with my fist and called after him, and threatened him. +He clattered unheeding down the stair, and I heard the house-door +slammed and locked. I listened a moment, but all remained quiet; and +then, wild with rage, I turned to the window, thinking that by that +way I might still escape. Alas, it looked only into a walled yard, and +was strongly barred to boot. + +God knows I thought myself then the most unlucky of men; a man ruined +when on the point of a great and seemingly assured success. I flung +myself down in my despair, and could have dashed my head against the +boards. But presently, in the midst of my bewailing myself, and when +the first convulsive fit of rage was abating, a new thought brought me +to my feet in a panic. What if Smith, before he returned, fell in with +Ferguson? The meeting was the more probable, inasmuch as, if Ferguson +succeeded in freeing himself, he was as likely to hasten to the Duke +of Berwick to warn him as to do anything else. At any rate I was not +inclined to sit weighing the chances nicely, but hastening frantically +to the door, I tried it with knee and shoulder. To my joy it yielded +somewhat; on which, throwing caution aside, I drew back and flung +myself against it with all my weight. The lock gave way, and the door +flying open, I came near to falling headlong down the stairs. + +Still, I had succeeded. But I soon found that I was little nearer +freedom than before. The passage was now dark, and the house-door, +when I found my way to it, resisted all my efforts. This drove me to +seek another egress, which it was far from easy to find. At length, +and by dint of groping about, I hit on a door which led into a +downstairs room; it was unlocked and I entered, feeling before me with +my hands. The darkness, the silence of the empty house, and my hurry, +formed a situation to appal the boldest; but I was desperate, and +extending my arms I trod cautiously across the room to where the +window should be, and sought for and found the shutters. I tried the +bar, and to my joy felt it swing. I let it down softly and dragged the +shutters open, and sweating at every pore, saw through the leaded +panes the dark dull lane outside, with a faint light from a +neighbouring window falling on the wall opposite. + + +[Illustration: I SAW A MAN HAD COME TO A STAND BEFORE THE DOOR] + + +I was seeking for a part of the window that opened, and wondering +whether, failing that, I should have the courage to burst the casement +and run for it, when a step approaching along the lane set my heart +beating. The step came nearer and paused, and peering out, my face +nearer the glass, I saw a man had come to a stand before the door. I +looked, and then, to say that my knees quivered under me but faintly +expresses the terror I felt! For as the man moved he brought himself +within the circle of light I have mentioned, and at the same time he +raised his face, doubtless after searching in his pocket for the key; +and through the glass my eyes met those of Ferguson. + + + + + CHAPTER XXVI + + +If, a few minutes before, I had thought myself the most unlucky of men +and placed by that which had already happened beyond fear or +misfortune, I knew better when I saw that sight from the window; and +fell back into the darkness, as if even from the road and through the +panes Ferguson's eyes must discover me. Ignorant whether the room in +which I stood contained anything to shelter me, or barewalled must of +necessity discover me to the first person who entered with a light, my +natural impulse, when the moment of panic passed, was to escape from +it. + +But it was not easy to do this in haste. By the time that, trembling +in every limb, I had groped my way into the passage, the key was +turning in the lock of the outer door, and I saw myself within an +arm's length of capture. This so terrified me that I sprang +desperately for the staircase, but stumbled over the lowest step, and +fell on my knees with a crash that seemed to shake the walls. For a +moment the pain was so sharp that I could only lie where I fell; nor +when, spurred by the imminence of the danger, I had got to my feet, +could I do more than crawl up the stairs and crouch down on the +landing, a little to one side, and out of eye-shot from below. + +Willingly now, in return for present safety, would I have forgiven +Fortune all her past buffets; for if Ferguson came up, as I thought +him sure to come up, I was lost; since I could neither retreat without +noise, nor if I could, knew where to hide. In this extremity, my heart +beating so thickly that I could scarcely listen, and thought I must +choke, I was relieved to hear Ferguson--after spending what seemed to +me to be an age, striking flint and steel in the passage--go grumbling +into the lower room, whence a glimmer falling on the wall of the +passage told me that he had at last succeeded in procuring a light. + +It was no surprise to me as I sweated and cringed in my hiding-place, +to learn that he was in the worst of tempers. I heard him swear--as I +supposed--at the open shutter; then, almost before I had thanked +Providence for present safety, he was out again in the passage. I made +no doubt that he was going to ascend now, and I gave myself up for +lost. But instead, he stood and called "Mary! Mary! Do ye hear, you +hussy? If ye are hiding above there, it will be the worse for you, ye +d----d baggage! Come down, d'ye hear me?" + +Surely now, I thought, getting no answer, he would come up, and my +heart stood. But it seemed he called only to make sure, and not +because he thought that she was above; for he went back into the lower +room, and I heard him moving to and fro, and going about to light a +fire, the crackling of which gave an odd note of cheerfulness in the +house. I was beginning to weigh the possibility of slipping by the +half-open door, on the chance of finding the outer door unfastened; +and with this in view, had risen to my feet, when a key again grated +in the lock, and supposing it to be Smith, I returned to my former +position. + +Had it been Smith, it would have been some comfort to me; for I +thought him more prudent if no less dangerous than the plotter, and I +fancied that I had more to fear from one than from two. But the step +that entered was lighter than a man's, while Ferguson's greeting told +the rest and made the situation clear. + +"Ha, you are here at last, are you!" he cried with an angry oath. "Did +you want me to break every bone in your body, lass, that you stayed +out till now, and I to have the fire to light? You should have a +pretty good tale to tell or have kept clear of this! D'ye hear me? +Speak, you viper, and don't stand there glowering like a wood-cat!" + +"I am here now," was the answer. My heart leapt, for the voice was +Mary's; the tone, sullen and weary, I could understand. + +"Here now!" he retorted. "And that is to be all, is it? Perhaps, my +girl, I will presently show you two minds about that. Where is the +baggage?" + +"It is not here." + +"Not here?" he cried. + +"No," she answered. + +"And why not, you Jezebel?" + +"You need not misname me," she answered coolly. "I was followed and +could not come here; and I could not carry it about with me all day. +And I could not send it, for there was no one here to take it in. It +is at the Spread Eagle in Gracechurch Street, to go by tomorrow's +waggon to Colchester. That is what I told them, but it can be fetched +away to-morrow." + +"If I did not think you were a big liar, girl?" he answered +doubtfully; but I knew by his tone that he believed her. + +"You may think what you like," she replied. + +"And how do you think I am to do for to-night?" he answered +querulously. + +"You must do as you can," she said. "You have your Hollands, and I +have brought some bread and meat." + +"It is a dog's life," he said, with a snarl. + +"It is the life you choose," she retorted sharply. + +"_Peste!_" he answered after a pause of sheer astonishment at her +audacity. "What is it to you, you slut?" + +"Why, a dog's life too! and not of my choice!" she cried passionately, +her voice breaking. "What am I better, as I live, than an orange girl +in the streets? What do I get, and walk the pavement on your errands +night and day? What do I get? And always hiding and sneaking, hiding +and sneaking! And for what?" + +"For your living, yon beggarly baggage!" he roared. "Who feeds you and +clothes you, you graceless hussy? Who boards you and lodges you, and +finds you in meat and malt, you feckless toad? You shameless----" + +"Ay, call names!" she answered bitterly--and it was not hard to +discern that she was beside herself with the long sick waiting and the +disappointment. "It is what you are good for! It is all that your +plots end in! Call names, and you are happy! But I am tired, and tired +of it, I tell you. I am tired of bare boards and hiding, and all for +what? For those that, when you have brought them back, you will be as +fierce to oust as you are now to restore! And shameless it is you call +me?" she continued with feverish rapidity. "Shameless? Have you not +sent me out into the streets a hundred times, and close on midnight, +and not a thought or care what would happen to me so long as your +letter went safe? Have you not sent me where to be taken was to be +jailed and whipped, and not a thought of pity or what a life it was +for a girl? Have you not done this and more?" she continued, +breathless with passion. "And more? And yet you take praise for +feeding me! And call me graceless and shameless----" + +She paused and gave him room to speak, but though he put on a show of +bluster it was evident her violence alarmed him. "Odd's name, and what +is all this?" he said. "What ails the girl? What has set you up now, +you vixen?" + +"You!" she cried vehemently. "You and your trade!" + +"Well," he said, with a sort of sullen reasonableness, "and what is +the matter with the trade? What is wrong with the trade, I say? I'll +tell you this, my lass, you would live badly without it." + +"I would live honestly," she cried. "And as my father lived!" + +"You drab!" he cried. "Leave that alone." + +At that, and when judging from the tone of his voice I expected him to +break out with fresh oaths and curses, there was instead an +astonishing silence, which fell for me at an unlucky moment, for +forgetting, in my desire to see as well as hear, the risk I ran, I had +crept down the stairs, and now lacked but a pace of seeing into the +room. The noise ceasing, I dared neither take that step nor retreat; +and it was only when the silence had continued so long that curiosity +overcame fear, that I ventured the advance, and looking in, saw that +the girl, her fire and fury gone, was leaning against the wall beside +the hearth, her face averted; while Ferguson himself, in an attitude +of dejection scarcely less marked, stood near her, his head bowed and +his blood-shot eyes fixed on the fire. + +"Ay, he lived honestly, your father," he muttered at last. "It is +true, my lass. I grant it. But he had a fair wind, had Alan, and a +short course; and if he had lived to be sixty, God knows! We are what +we are made. I mind him well, and the burn we fished and the pickle +things we took out, and your mother that played with us in her cutty +sark, and not a shoe between us nor a bodle of money; but the green +hills round us, and all we knew of the world that it lay beyond them. +And that was all your father ever knew, my lass. And well for him! Ay, +well for him! But woe's me, and woe to the man who took my living, and +woe to the evil King!" + +His voice was beginning to rise; in a moment he would have reached his +usual pitch of denunciation, of which even now some of his many +writings afford a pale reflection; but at the word _King_ there came a +sharp knocking at the door, and he paused. For me, I turned in a +panic, and, heedless what noise I made, hurried up the stairs. The +steps creaked under me, but fortunately the knocking was repeated so +quickly and persistently that it covered the sound of my flight; and +before I had more than ensconced myself in the old place, Ferguson, +doubtless in obedience to some signal, was at the door and had opened +it. + +Immediately half-a-dozen men poured noisily in, breathing hard and +growling in low tones, and passed into the room below. But until the +outer door was closed and secured, nothing I could catch, though fear +sharpened my ears, was said. Then, as Ferguson went in after them, one +of the newcomers raised his voice in answer to a question, and cried +with a rattling oath, "What is up? What is up, old fox? Why, all is +up! And we'll all swing for it before the month is over, if we cannot +clear out to-night! You are a clever one, Mr. Ferguson, but you are +caught this time, with better men. God! if I had the sneak here that +peached on us, I would cut his liver out! I would----" + +Two or three voices joined in to the same tune and drowned his words, +one asking where Prendergast was, another where Porter was, a third +indulging in threats so horrid and blasphemies so profane that I +turned cold where I crouched. I began to understand what had happened, +and my situation; but that nothing might be spared me Ferguson, in a +quavering voice that proved all was news to him, asked again what was +the matter. + +"The Blues are moved," cried three or four at once. "They were +marching out when we left. The guards at Kensington are doubled, and +the orders for the King's hunting to-morrow are cancelled. They were +hurrying to and fro calling the Council when we came away, and +messengers were beginning to go round the taverns." + +"And they have seized the horses at the King of Bohemia's Head," added +another, "so they know a lot." + +"But is it--certain?" Ferguson asked, with a break in his voice. + +"Ay, as certain as that we shall hang if we do not get over!" was the +brutal answer. + +"And the Captain?" + +"I have been at his lodgings. He has not been heard of since noon. He +ordered his horse then and they say took the road; and hell to it, if +that is so, he is half way to France by this! And safe! Safe, you +devils, and we are left here caught like rats!" + +"Ay, we'll go farther than France!" one shrieked. "As for me I am off. +I shall----" + +"No, by God, you don't!" cried another; and flung himself, as it +seemed to me, between him and the door. "You don't go and sell the +rest of us, and save your own neck. You----" + +"Where is Porter?" a third struck in. + +"And Prendergast?" + +"They are not here! Nor Sir William! Nor Friend! So what is the good +of talking like that?" + +"He will make a fat hang, will Sir William!" said one, with a mad +laugh that died in his throat. "It will cure his gout." + +At that, one of the others cried with furious oaths for liquor; and I +judged that Ferguson gave them of his Hollands. But it was little +among so many, and was gone in a moment, and they calling for more. +"There is a keg upstairs," said he. "In the back-room. But get it for +yourselves. You have hung me. To think that I should have played the +game with such fools." + +They laughed recklessly, a savage note in their voices. "Ay, you +should have stuck to your pen, old fox," one cried. "Then it was only +the printer hung. But we'll drink your health before you swing. Up, +Keyes, and fetch the stuff. It may be bad, but we'll drink to the +squeezing of the rotten orange once more; if it be the last toast I +drink!" + + + + + CHAPTER XXVII + + +The terror that had gripped me on their first entrance, and driving +all the blood in my body to my heart had there set it bounding +madly--this terror I should vainly try to describe to persons who have +never been in such a situation or within a few feet of death, as I +then found myself. That, reckless and driven to the wall, the +conspirators would sacrifice me to their vengeance if they discovered +me I felt certain; and at any moment they might come up and discover +me. Yet behind me were the confining walls of the rooms whence I knew +of no exit, and before me, where alone evasion seemed to be possible, +the open door of the room below, and the flood of light that issued +from the doorway, forbade the attempt. I lay sweating and listening +therefore, while they snarled and cursed in the black mood of men +betrayed and hopeless; and yet because of the chance that after all +they might go out as they had come, I could so far keep my terror +within bounds. + +Not so, when I heard Ferguson bid the man mount and fetch the keg. Had +he come without a light I might still have controlled myself and kept +quiet; and holding my breath though I were suffocated, and silencing +my heart though I died, might have lain and let him pass in the +darkness. Nay, had I crouched low, he need not have observed me with a +light; for I was a little beside the stairhead, and to enter the room +whence I had broken out he need not face me. But when I heard him +stumbling upwards, a sudden sense of the loneliness of the house in +that far corner of town came on me; and with it, an overwhelming +perception of my helplessness and of the life and death struggle to +which the men below were committed--so that death seemed to be in the +air; which together so far overcame me that I did the last thing I +should have expected. As the man came up the stairs, the light in his +hand, I rose up and stood, gasping at him. + +He paused and held up the light. "The devil!" he said, staring. And +then, "Who the ---- are you? Here, Ferguson! Here's your man!" + +The only answer from below was a roar for liquor. + +"What are you doing here?" he went on, puzzled as much by my silence +as my presence. + +"I am--going," I stammered; a desperate hope rising in my breast at +sight of the man's perplexity. He might let me pass. + +For aught I know he would have done so; and it is possible that I +might have gone unseen by the open door below and gained the street. +But as he stood staring, a second man came into the passage, and +looked up and saw me. "Hallo!" he said. "Who is that?" + +"Ferguson's man," Keyes answered. "But, boil me, if I know what is the +matter with him!" + +The other called Ferguson and he came out, and saw me; looked, and +with a scream of rage, sprang up the stairs. In the fury of his +wrath--he threw himself on me so suddenly and with so much violence +and intention that I was a child in his hands; and but for the other's +exertions, who not understanding the matter tore him from me, I must +have been choked out of hand. As it was I was black in the face, +dizzy, and scarcely conscious when they freed me from him: nor in much +better case for the respite. For with all they could do he would not +release my shoulder, but dragging me down, cried breathlessly and +continuously to the others to listen--to listen! That he had the +traitor! that I was the informer! the spy, the blood-seller! And with +that, and as he partly forced and partly tugged me down the men +thickened round me, until dragged into the lighted room I found myself +hemmed in by a circle of lowering faces and gloomy eyes, a circle +that, look where I might, presented no breach or chance of escape, no +face that pitied or understood. He who seemed to be in highest +authority among them--afterwards I knew him for Charnock, the +unfrocked Fellow of Magdalen, who suffered with King and Keyes--did +indeed make Ferguson let me go; thrusting him back and calling on him +to tell his tale, and have done with his blasphemy. But though I +turned that way in momentary hope of aid, I read no encouragement in a +face as stern and relentless as it was fanatical. A lamp hooked high +on one wall, and so that it threw its light downwards, obscured half +the circle, and flung a bright glare on the other half; but in light +or shade, seen or unseen, and whether drink flushed it, or passion +blanched it, every face that met my shrinking gaze seemed to be +instinct with coming doom. + +In such situations fear, which spurs some minds, paralyses others. +Vainly I tried to think, to frame a defence, to deny or avoid. The +glare of the lamp dazzled and confused me. To Ferguson's passionate +iterations, "The Lord has delivered him into our hands! I tell you, +the Lord has delivered him into our hands! There is your informer! I +swear it! I can prove it!" I could find no answer except a feeble, "I +am not! I am not!" which I continued to repeat--while one plucked me +this way that he might see me better, and another that way--until +Keyes struck me on the mouth, and thrusting me back bade me be silent. + +"And you, too, Mr. Ferguson," Charnock said, raising his hand to still +the tumult, "have done with your blasphemy. And talk plainly. Say what +you know, and have no fear; if what you allege be proved, we will do +justice on him." + +"Ay, by----!" cried Cassel, the swearer. "A life for a life." + +"But, first, what do you know?" Charnock continued brusquely. "Speak +to the point. We must be gone by midnight if we are to save +ourselves." + +Then, and then only, I think, Ferguson, hitherto blinded by rage, +became sensible of the fact that he stood himself in a dubious +position; and that to tell all, and particularly to reveal the visit +which the Secretary had paid to him at his lodgings, would, even with +the addition of the attempt he had made on the Duke's life, place his +conduct in a light far from favourable. Not only were the men before +him in no mood to draw fine distinctions, or take all for granted, but +it was on the credit of his name and as his tool that I had come to be +mixed up in the matter and gained my knowledge of it. It took no great +acuteness, therefore, to foresee that their suspicions, once roused, +they would punish first and prove afterwards, and be as ready to turn +on the master as the man. + +These, when I came to review the scene afterwards, coolly and in +safety, were, I had no doubt, the reflections that gave Ferguson +pause at the last moment, and occasioned a kind of fit into which +he fell at that--his eyes glaring, his jaws moving dumbly, and +his hands springing out in uncouth gestures, like those of a man +half-paralysed--a fit which at the time was set down to pure rage and +a temper of mind always bordering on the insane. I suppose that in +that moment, and under cover of that display, his crafty brain, apt in +such crises, did its work, for when he found his voice he had his tale +pat; and where truth and a lie most ingeniously and sometimes +inexplicably mixed would scarcely serve his turn or win him credence, +he imposed on them, even on Charnock, by pure scorn and an air of +superior knowledge. + +"What I know?" said he. "You shall have it. It is enough to blast him +ten times. To-day it happened that the Secretary came to me to my +lodgings." + +For a moment the roar of surprise which followed this statement, +silenced him. But in a moment he recovered himself. + +"Ay!" he said, looking round him, defiantly. "The Secretary. What of +it? Do you think that you know everything, or that everything is told +to you? To-day, I say, the Duke of Shrewsbury came to my lodgings." + +"Why?" cried Charnock, between his teeth. "Why?" + +"Why?" Ferguson answered. "Well, if you will have it, to send a +message through me to the other Duke, as he has done three times +before since his Grace has been in England." + +"To the Duke of Berwick?" + +"What other Duke is there?" the plotter asked, scornfully. + +"But G----! If the Secretary knows that his Grace is in England----" + +"Well?" + +"What will he not know?" + +"I cannot say what he will not know, Mr. Charnock," the plotter +answered, with a cunning smile that brought his wig to his eyebrows. +"But I can say what he did not know. He knew nothing of your little +business. For the rest, when he left me I missed my man here, and +coming to enquire, learned that he had been seen to join the Secretary +at the door of the house, speak to him, and go away with him. That was +enough for me. I changed my lodging, slipped away here, and had been +here an hour when you came. As soon as you said that some one had +peached to-day I knew who it was. Then Keyes cried that he was here, +and there he was." + +"But how did he come to be here?" Charnock asked sternly, and with +suspicion. + +"God knows!" said Ferguson, shrugging his shoulders; "I don't." + +"You did not bring him?" + +"Go to, for a fool! Perhaps he came to listen, perhaps he was sent. He +knew of this place. For the rest, I have told you all I know, and it +is enough or should be. Hang the dog up! There is a beam and a hook. +You hound, you shall swing for it!" he shrieked, passionately, as he +brought his crimson, blotched face close to mine, and threatened me +with his two swollen fingers. "You thought to outwit me, did you? You, +you dog! You crossed me and thought to sell me, did you? You dolt! you +zany! you are sold yourself! Sold and shall swing! Swing! Ay, and so +shall all my enemies perish!" + +"An end to that," said Charnock, pushing him away roughly. "All the +same, if this is true, he shall swing." + +"Well, it is true enough," cried a man thrusting himself forward, +while with shaking knees and chattering teeth, and tongue that refused +to do its work, I strove to form words, to speak, to say or do +something--something that might arrest the instant doom that +threatened me. "It is true enough," continued he coolly. "I was on the +watch at the Kensington end this afternoon and saw the Secretary +arrive and go in to the Dutchman. And he had this bully boy with him. +I know him again and can swear to him." + + + + + CHAPTER XXVIII + + +I believe that it is one thing to confront with calmness a death that +is known to be inevitable, and quite another and a far more difficult +thing to assume the same brow where hope and a chance remain. I am not +greatly ashamed, therefore, that in a crisis which amply justified all +the horror and repugnance which mortals feel at the prospect of sudden +and violent dissolution, I fell below the heroic standard, and said +and did things, _miles impar Achilli_. + +Nevertheless, it is with no good-will I dwell on the matter; in +writing, as in life, there are decencies and indecencies; things to be +told and others to be implied. Let few words then suffice, alike for +the moment when Charnock, holding back the others, wrung from me, +half-swooning as I was, the admission that I had been to Kensington, +and that the sentry was not mistaken: and for those minutes of +frenzied terror which followed, when screaming and struggling in their +grasp, now trying to fling myself down, and now shrieking prayers for +mercy, I was dragged to a spot below the hook, and held there by +relentless fingers while a rope was being fetched from the next room. +I had no vision, as I have read some have, of the things done in my +life: but the set, dark faces that hemmed me in under the light, the +grim looks of one, and the scared pallor of another, even Ferguson's +hideous visage as he hovered in the background, biting his nails +between terror and exultation--all these, even enlarged and +multiplied, I saw with a dreadful clearness, and a keenness of vision +that of itself was torture. + +"Oh, God!" I cried at last. "Help! Help!" For from man I could see no +help. + +"Ay, man, pray," said Charnock, inexorably. "Pray, for you must die. +We will give you one minute. Here comes the rope. Who will fasten it?" + +"A fool," cried a hard gibing voice, from somewhere beyond the circle. +"No other." + +I started convulsively: I had forgotten the girl's presence. So +doubtless had the conspirators, for at the sound they turned quickly +towards her; and, the ring of men opening out in the movement, she +became visible to me. She stood confronting all, daring all. Her lips +red, her face white as paper, her eyes glittering with a strange, wild +fierceness. Long afterwards she told me that the sound of my shrieks +and cries ringing in her ears had been almost more than she could +bear: that as scream rose on scream she had driven the nails into her +palms until her hands bled, and so only had been able to restrain +herself, knowing well that if she would intervene to the purpose her +time was not yet. + +Now that it had come, nothing could exceed the mockery and scorn that +rang in her tone. "A fool," she cried, stridently, "has fetched it, +and a fool will fasten it! And, let who hang, they will hang. And two +of you. Ay, you at the back there, will hang them. Why, you are fools, +you are all fools, or you would take care that every man among you put +his hand to the job, and was as deep as another. Or, if you like +precedence, and it is a question of fastening--for the man who +fetched, he is as good as dead already--let the hand that wove the +noose, tie it! Let that man tie it!" And with pitiless finger she +pointed to the old plotter, who, sneaking, and cringing in the +background, had already his eye on the door and his mind on retreat. +"Let him tie it!" she repeated. + +"You slut!" he roared, his eyes squinting, his face livid with fury. +"Your tongue shall be slit. To your garret, vixen." + +But the others, as was not unnatural, saw the matter in a different +light. "By ----, the wench is right!" cried Cassel; and Keyes saying +the same, and another backing him, there was a general chorus of "Ay, +the girl is right! The girl is right!" At that the man who had brought +the rope, threw it down. "There's for me!" he said, gloomily, and with +an ugly gleam in his eyes. "Let the old devil take it up. It is his +job, not mine, and if I swing, he shall swing too." + +"Fair!" cried all. "That is fair!" And, "That is fair, Mr. Ferguson," +said Charnock. "Do you put the rope round his neck." + +"I?" Ferguson spluttered; glaring from under his wig. + +"Yes, you!" the man who had brought the rope retorted with violence. +"You! And why not, I'd like to know, my gentleman?" + +"I am no hangman!" cried the plotter, with a miserable assumption of +dignity. + +But the words and the evasion only inflamed the general rage. "And +are we?" Cassel roared, with a volley of oaths. "You covenanting, +psalm-singing, tub-thumping old quill-driver!" he continued. "Do you +think that we are here to do your dirty work, and squeeze throats at +your bidding? _Peste!_ For a gill of Hollands I would split your +tongue for you. That and your pen have done too much harm already!" + +"Peace!" Charnock said. "Go softly, man. And do you, Mr. Ferguson, +take up the rope and do your part. Otherwise we shall have strange +thoughts of you. There have been things said before, and it were well +you gave no colour to them." + +I cannot believe that even I, writhing as a few minutes before I had +writhed in their hands, and screaming and begging for life, could have +presented a more pitiable spectacle than Ferguson exhibited, thus +brought to book. All the base and craven instincts of a low and +cowardly nature, brought to the surface by the challenge thus flung in +his face, he quailed and cowered before the men; and shifting his feet +and breathing hard glanced askance, first at one and then at another, +as if to see who would support him, or who could most easily be +persuaded. But he found scant encouragement anywhere; the men, savage +and ill-disposed, to begin, and driven to the wall, to boot, had now +conceived suspicions, and in proportion as delay and his conduct +diverted their rage from me, turned it on him with growing ferocity. + +"Here is the cock of the pit!" cried Keyes, who seemed to be a trooper +and a man of no education, lacking even the occasional French word or +accent that betrayed the others' sojourn with King Louis. "D---- him! +He would have us hang the man, but won't lay a finger on him himself! +He is no Ketch, isn't he? Well, I hang no man either, unless I put a +hand on _him_." And he pointed full at the plotter. + +A murmur of assent, stern and full of meaning, echoed his words. + +"Mr. Ferguson," said Charnock, with grave politeness, "you hear what +this gentleman says? And mind you, if you ask me, he has reason. A few +minutes ago you were forward with us to hang this person. And among +gentlemen to urge another to do what you will not do yourself, lays +you open to comment. It may even be pretended, that if your rogue +informed, you were not so ignorant of the fact as you would have us +believe you." + +It was wonderful to see how the men, sore and desperate, caught at +that notion, and with what greedy ferocity they turned on the knave +who, only a few moments before, had swayed their passions to his will. +It was to no purpose that Ferguson, head and hands shaking as with a +palsy, strove frantically to hurl back the accusation. His wonted +profanity seemed to fail him on this occasion, while the violence +which had daunted men of saner temperaments proved no match for +Cassel's brutality, who, breaking in on him before he had stammered a +score of words, called him liar and sneak, and, denouncing him with +outstretched finger, was in the act to hound his comrades on him, when +something caught the ear of one of them, and with a cry of alarm this +man, who stood near the door, raised his hand for silence. + +Rage died down in the others' faces, and involuntarily they clustered +together. But the panic was of short duration; hardly had the alarm +been given and taken, or the lamp which hung against the wall been +snatched down and shaded, before the sound of a key in the door +reassured the conspirators. For me, who throughout the scene, last +described, had leaned half-swooning against the wall, listening, with +what feelings the reader may easily judge, to the contest for my +life--for me, who now stood reprieved, and for the moment safe, any +change might be expected to be fraught with terror. But whether I had +passed the bitterness of death, or sheer terror had exhausted my +capacity for suffering, it is certain that I awaited the event with +lack-lustre eyes; and hearing a cry of, "It's Mat Smith!" felt neither +fear nor surprise, nor even moved, when Smith entered, followed by a +woman, and with a quick glance took in the room and its occupants. + +"Good," said Cassel with an oath. "I thought that the soldiers were on +us. But if they had been, curse me, but I would have sent this old +Judas to his place before me!" + +Smith looked with a grim smile from the speaker to Ferguson; and +raising his eyebrows, "Judas," said he, with ironical politeness, as +he laid his cloak and cane upon the table, "is it possible that you +refer to my friend Mr. Ferguson?" + +"Strangle your friend!" Cassel answered coarsely. "Do you know that +his man there has blown on the thing and sold us?" + +Smith's eye had already found me, where I leaned against the wall, my +hands tied. "I see," he said coolly. "I knew before that the game was +up; and I have been somewhere, and warned someone," he added, with a +glance at Charnock, who nodded. "But I did not know how they had the +office." + +"He gave it! That is how they had it!" Cassel retorted. "And it is my +belief that like man like master! And that that poor piece there would +no more have dared to inform without his patron's leave than----" + +He left the end of his sentence to be understood; but Charnock, taking +up the tale and disregarding Ferguson's mutterings, described in a few +words what had happened. When he came to the girl's intervention in my +behalf, the woman who had entered with Smith, and who, though she +seemed to be known to the conspirators--for her appearance caused no +remark--had hitherto remained fidgetting in the background, moved +forward into the room; and approaching the girl, who was sitting +moodily at a table by the fire, touched her cheek with her fingers, +and slipping her hand under her chin, turned up her face. To this the +girl made no resistance, and the two women remained looking into one +another's eyes for a long minute. Then the elder, who was the same +woman I had seen with Smith at the great lady's house in the +outskirts, let the girl's face drop again, with a little flirt of her +fingers. + +"Doris and Strephon, I see?" she said with a sneer. + + + + + CHAPTER XXIX + + +What the girl answered I did not catch, for as she raised her head +again to reply, my ear caught the sound of rising danger. Ferguson was +speaking, his words, no longer coherent, a mere frothing of oaths and +calling of hideous fates on his head if he had ever betrayed, if he +had ever sold, if he had ever deceived, now ran in a steady current of +wrathful denunciation. And the men listened; he had their ears again; +he was no longer on his trial. Afterwards I learned that while my +attention was astray with the women. Smith, by stating what I had +stated to him--namely, that the Secretary had used Ferguson as the +intermediary through whom to warn Berwick--had confirmed the plotter's +story, and at a stroke had restored his position. Whereon, full of +spite, and desperately certain that however exposed he lay on other +sides I at any rate knew enough to hang him, the wretched man had set +himself anew to compass my destruction. Deterred neither by the check +he had received, nor by the gloomy looks of the conspirators, who +responded but sluggishly to his appeal, he drove home again and again, +and with wild words and wilder oaths, the one point on which he +relied, the one point that was so dear to him that he could not +understand their hesitation. + +"Waste of time?" he cried. "We would be better employed looking to +ourselves and slipping away to Romney, would we? But you are fools! +You are babes! There is the evidence that can swear to you all! There +is the evidence keen to do it! There is the evidence in your hands! +And you will let him escape?" + +"There is evidence without him," said King sulkily. "Where is +Prendergast?" + +"Oh, he is honest." + +"But where is he? And where is Porter?" + +"Where is Sir John Fenwick for that matter?" replied the man who had +answered for Prendergast. "He is too high and mighty to mix with us, +and will only eat the chestnut when we have got it out of the fire. +For that matter, where are Friend and Parkyns? They are not here." + +"Pshaw!" Ferguson cried, in a rage at the digression. "Why will you be +thinking of them? Cannot you see that they are tainted, they are in +it? They cannot if they will! And they are gentlemen besides, and not +dirty knaves like this fellow." + +"For the matter of that," said Cassel, bluntly, "Preston was a lord. +But he sold Ashton." + +The words brought a kind of cold breath of suspicion into the room, at +the chill touch of which each looked stealthily at his neighbour, as +if he said, "Is it he? Or he?" Ferguson seeing on this that he made +little progress, and that the men, though they looked at me +vengefully, were not to be kindled, grew furious and more furious, and +began to storm and rave. But Charnock in a moment cut him short. + +"Mr. Ferguson is so far right," said he, "that if we let this person +go to perfect his evidence against us, we shall be very foolish. +Clearly, it is to set a premium on treason." + +"Then let Mr. Ferguson deal with him," Cassel answered, curtly. "He is +his man, and it is his business. I don't lay a hand on him, and that +is flat." + +"Nor I! Nor I!" cried several, with eagerness. God knows if they +thought in their hearts to curry favour with me. + +"You are all mad!" Ferguson cried, beating the air. + +"And you are a coward!" Cassel retorted. "I'd as soon trust him as +you. If you are taken you'll peach, Ferguson! G-- ---- you! I know you +will. You will peach! You are as white-livered a cur as ever lived!" + +Then, seeing them divided, and the most bloody-minded of them--for +such Cassel had been a short time before--taking up my cause, I +thought that for certain the bitterness of death was past; and I took +courage, discerning for the first time solid land beyond the deeps and +black suffocating fears through which I had passed. For the first time +I allowed my thoughts to dwell on the future, and myself to hope and +plan. But the warm current of returning life had scarcely coursed +through my veins and set my heart beating, before Charnock's cold +voice, taking up the tale, smote on my ear, and in a moment dashed my +jubilation. There was that in his tone gripped my heart afresh. + +"Peace, man," he said. "Peace! Is this a time to be bickering? Let us +be clear before we separate, what is to be done with this man. For my +part, I am not for letting him go." + +"Nor I," said Smith, speaking almost for the first time. + +The others, lately so hot and impassioned, looked at the speakers and +at one another with a sort of apathy. + +Only Ferguson cried violently, "Nor I, by----! Nor I. We are many, and +what is one life?" + +"Quite so, Mr. Ferguson," Charnock retorted. "But will you take the +life?" + +The plotter drew back as he had drawn back before. "It is everybody's +business," he muttered. + +"Then will you take part in it? You are the first to condemn. Will you +be one to execute?" + +Ferguson moistened his lips with his tongue, and, swallowing with an +effort, looked shiftily at me and away again. The sweat stood on his +face. For me, I watched him, fascinated; watched him, and still he did +not answer. + +"Just so," said Charnock, at last. "You will not. And that being so, +is there anyone else who will? If not, what is to be done?" + +"Put him in a lugger," Keyes cried, "at the bridge; and by +morning----" + +"He wall be taken off at the Nore," Cassel answered scornfully. "And +you too if you think to get off that way. There are more Billops in +the Pool than the Billop who gave up Ashton." + +"Gag him and leave him here." + +"And have him found by the messengers to-morrow morning?" Cassel +answered. "As well and better, call a chair, and pay the chairmen, and +bid them take him to the Secretary's office with our compliments." + +"Well, if not here, in one of the other pens. Ferguson knows plenty." + +The woman who had come in with Smith laughed. "That might answer," she +said, "if his sweetheart were not here. Do you think she would leave +him to starve?" + +There was a general stir and muttering as the men turned to the girl. +"Pooh," said one, "it is Ferguson's girl." + +"And your spy's sweetheart," the woman repeated. + +The girl lifted her head and showed the room a face pale, weary, and +dull-eyed. "He is nothing to me," she said. + +And the men would have believed her; but the woman, with a swift, +cat-like movement, seized her wrist and held it. "Nothing to you, my +girl, isn't he?" she cried. "Then you have the fever or the small-pox +on you! One, two, three----" + +Her face flaming, the girl sprang up and snatched away her hand. + +The woman laughed--and how I hated her! "He is nothing to you, isn't +he?" she said in a mocking tone. "Yet what will you not give me to +save him, my chick? What will you not give me to see him safe out of +this house? What----?" + +"Peace, peace!" cried Charnock. "Time is everything, and we are +wasting it. Unless we would be taken, every man of us, we should be +half-way to Romney Marsh by morning." + +"Will you leave him to me!" said Smith suddenly. + +"Leave him?" + +"Ay. Or better, let me have two minutes' talk with him here, and if he +comes to my way of thinking, I will answer for him." + +"Answer for him?" cried Ferguson, with a sneer. "If you answer for him +no better than I did, you will give us small surety." + +"Ay, but I am not you, Mr. Ferguson," Smith retorted, in a tone of +contempt, whereat the older man writhed impotently. + +"This person--Mr. Taylor or Mr. Price--or whatever his name is--knows +me and that what I say I do." + +"Well, do--what you like with him," Charnock answered peevishly, "so +that you stop his mouth." + +To my great joy the other men assented in the same tone, being glad to +be rid of the burden. It may seem strange to some that those who had +prepared an hour before to take my life, should now be as ready to let +me go; but there are few men who are eager to take life in cold blood, +and kill a man as they would a sheep. Moreover, in favour of these +men--on whose memory the Assassination Plot has cast obloquy not +altogether deserved, since few of them were assassins in the strict +sense, and the worst of all, Ferguson, escaped his just fate--in their +favour I say, it is to be observed that the fact which they designed, +however horrid in the eyes of good citizens, and certainly not to be +defended by me, was not in their sight so much a murder as an act of +private warfare carried into the enemy's country. So fully I am +persuaded was this the case, that had it been a question of stabbing +the King in the back, or shooting him from a window, I believe not one +would have volunteered. Let this stand to their credit: to the credit +of men whom I saw and have described at their worst, drunken, +reckless, ill-combined, and worse governed; whose illegal design had +it been accomplished, must have postponed the Protestant succession in +these realms; but who, misguided and betrayed as they were by leaders +more evil than themselves, evinced some spark of chivalry in their +lives--for all did it in a measure for a cause--and in their +sufferings a fortitude that would have become better men and a nobler +effort. + +So much of them. One released my hands, and another at Smith's request +found him a light; and my new protector bidding me follow him, and +leading the way upstairs to the bare room at the back whence I had +broken out, those we left were deep in muttered plans and whisperings +of the Marsh, and Hunt's house, and Harrison's Inn at Dimchurch, +before we were out of hearing. + +Smith's first act, when we reached the room above, was to close the +door upon us. This done, he set his candle on the floor--whence its +flame threw dark wavering outlines of our figures on the ceiling--and +moved to the hearth. Here, while I stared, wondering at his silence, +he searched for some spring or handle, and finding it, caused a large +piece of the wainscot to fall out and reveal a cavity about three feet +deep and six long. He beckoned me to bring the candle and look in, and +supposing it to be a secret way out, I did so. However, outlet there +was none. The place was nothing more than a concealed cupboard. + + +[Illustration: THE PLACE WAS NOTHING MORE THAN A CONCEALED CUPBOARD] + + +"Well?" he said, when he had moved the candle to and fro that I might +see the better--his face the while wearing a smile that caught and +held my gaze. "Well? what do you think of it, Mr. Taylor?" + +I did not understand him, and I said so, trembling. + +"It is a tolerable hiding-place?" said he. + +I nodded; to please him I would have said it was a palace. + +"And not a bad prison?" + +I nodded again; staring at him, fascinated. I began to understand. + +"And a grave?" + +I shuddered. "What do you mean?" I muttered. + +"Lay a man in there, bound hand and foot, and gagged; what would you +find in a year's time, Mr. Price? Not much." + +I stared at him. + +"If they knew of that downstairs," he continued, stopping to snuff the +candle with his fingers, then looking askance at me, "would they use +it, I wonder? Would they use it? What do you think, Mr. Price?" + +Again I made no answer. + +"Shall I tell them?" said he easily. + +"What--what do you want?" I whispered hoarsely. + +"That is better," said he, nodding. "Well, to be candid, almost +nothing. Two pledges. First, that you will give no evidence against +anyone here. That of course." + +I muttered assent. I was ready to promise anything. + +"And secondly, that you will, when I call upon you, do me a little +favour, Mr. Price. It is a small matter, a trifle I asked you at my +lady's house three days back. Promise to do that for me, as and when I +demand performance, and in ten minutes from this time you shall leave +the house, safe, free, and unhurt." + +"I promise," I said eagerly. "I promise honestly!" + +But even while I spoke--this seemed to be the strangest of all the +things that had happened to me that night, that this man should think +it worth while to pledge me under such circumstances, or value at a +groat a promise so given. For the pledge was a pledge to do ill, and +as soon as he and the other conspirators were laid by the heels or had +fled the country, what sanction remained to bind me? I saw that as I +spoke, and promised--and promised. And would have promised fifty +times--with the reservation that I did so under force _majeure_. Who +would not have done the same, being in my place? + +But I suppose I answered too quickly to please him, and so he read my +thoughts, or he had it in his mind from the first to read me a lesson, +for the words were scarcely out of my mouth before he slid his hand +into his breast with the ugliest smile I ever saw on a man's face; and +he signed to me to get into the cupboard. "Get in," he said, between +his closed teeth; and then when, terrified by the change in him and +the order, I began to back from it, "Get in!" he said, in a voice that +set me shaking; "or take the consequences. Do you hear me? I am no +Ferguson to threaten and no more." + +I dared resist no longer, and I crawled in, trembling and praying him +not to shut me in--not to shut me in. + +"Lie down!" he said, gloating on me with cruel eyes, and his hand +still in his breast. + +I lay down, praying for mercy. + +"On your back! On your back!" he continued. "And your hands by your +sides. So! That is better. Now listen to me, Mr. Price, and think on +what I say. When you want to be laid out for good as you are laid +out now, when you are ready for your coffin and shroud--and the +worms--then break your promise to me, for coffin and shroud and worms +will be ready. Think of that--think of that and of me when the +temptation comes. And hark you, you fancy," he went on, fixing his +eyes on mine, "and you count on it, that I shall be taken with the +others, or escaping shall be where you need not fear me. Don't deceive +yourself. If a week hence I am in prison, take that for a sign, and +please yourself. But if I am free, obey, obey--or God help you!" + +I know not how to describe with any approach to fidelity the peculiar +effect which words apparently so simple had on me, or the terror, out +of all proportion to the means chosen--for he spoke without oath, +violence, or passion--into which they threw me, and which was very far +from passing with the sound. I had feared Ferguson, but I feared this +man more, a hundred times more! And yet I can give no reason, adduce +no explanation, save that he spoke quietly, and so seemed to mean all +and something beyond what he said. The plans for deceiving him and +breaking my word which I had entertained a moment before melted into +thinnest air while I lay and sweated in my narrow berth, not daring to +move eye or limb until he gave me leave. + +And he, as if he knew how fear of him grew on me under his gaze--or in +sheer cruelty, I know not which--kept me there, and sat smiling and +smiling at me (as the devil may smile at some dead man passed beyond +redemption)--kept me there God knows how long. But so long, and to +such purpose, that when at length he bade me rise, and looking closely +into my face, nodded, and told me I might go--nay, later than that, +when he had led me downstairs and opened the door for me, and +supported me through it--for in the cold air I staggered like a +drunken man--even then, I say, so heavy was the spell of fear laid +on me, and such his power, I dared not move or stir until he had +twice--smiling the second time--bidden me go. "Go, man," said he, "you +are free. But remember!" + + + + + CHAPTER XXX + + +Few men are condemned to such an ordeal as that through which I had +passed; and though some who read this, and are as remote from death as +the wife, that may be any day, and must be one day, is from the young +bachelor--though some, I say, and in particular those who never saw +blade drawn in anger in their lives, but have done all their fighting +in the cock-pit, may think that I carried it poorly in the +circumstances, and with none of the front and bravado suitable to the +occasion, I would have them remember the old saying, _Ne sutor supra +crepidam_, and ask of a scholar only a scholar's work. I would have +them remember that in the shadow of the scaffold, even a man so +gallant by repute as the Lord Preston of that day, stooped to be an +evidence; and that in the same situation the family pride of Richard +Hampden availed as little as the reckless courage of Monmouth, or the +effrontery of Sir John Fenwick, to raise its owner above the common +level. + +_Simpliciter_, it is one thing to vapour at the Cocoa-tree among wits +and beaux, and another to take the hazard when the time comes, as no +less a person than my Lord Bolingbroke discovered, and that no farther +back than '14. I would have large talkers to remember this. For myself +I am content that I came through the trial with my life; and yet, not +with so much of that either, that anything surer than instinct guided +my steps when all was over to the Duke's home in St. James's Square, +where arriving, speechless and helpless, it was wonderful I was not +put to the door without more. Fortunately, my lord, marvelling at my +failure to return before, and mindful, even in the turmoil of that +evening, of the service I had done him in the day, had given orders in +my behalf; and on my arrival I was recognised, half dead as I was, and +taken to the steward's room, and being let blood by a surgeon who was +hastily called in, was put to bed, all who saw me supposing that I was +suffering from vertigo, or some injury, though no marks of blows on +the head could be discovered. + +That was a night long remembered in London. Messengers with lights, +attended by files of soldiers, were every hour passing through the +streets, searching houses and arresting the suspected. From mouth to +mouth rumours of the conspiracy flew abroad; at nine o'clock it was +stated, and generally believed, that the King was wounded; at ten that +he had been seized; later that he was dead. Early in the evening the +draw-bridge at the Tower was drawn, and the sentries were doubled; the +City gates were closed and guarded; a whole battalion stood all night +under arms at Kensington; the Council was in perpetual sitting; many +houses were lighted from eve to dawn; nor since the great panic of +Beachy Head in '90 had there been an alarm so deep or widespread. + +If this was so in the city generally, at the Secretary's residence, +whither many of the prisoners were brought for examination as soon as +they were taken, the excitement was at its height. The Square outside, +then unenclosed, was occupied all night by successive groups of +sight-seers, or of persons more nearly interested in the event. +One consequence of this was that, with all this astir without, my +case attracted the less notice within; and, unheeded and almost +forgotten--which, perhaps, was the better for me--I was left in peace +to sleep off the shock and fright I had experienced, of which the +severity may be gauged by the fact that the afternoon of the next day +was well advanced before I awoke, and finding myself in bed in a +strange room, with cold broth and a little wine standing on a stool at +my elbow, sat up, and looked round me in amazement. The steep slope of +the ceiling towards the window, and the heavy flattened eaves which +projected over the latter, soon apprised me that I lay under the leads +of a great house; but this was the extent of my knowledge. However, my +stomach presently called for food, and I took it; and my head ceasing +to swim, I began to recall what had happened to me; and rising, and +going to the window, I recognised the great and fashionable Square on +which my window looked. At that and the thoughts of what I had gone +through, and the danger I had escaped, I fell to quaking again, and +for a moment the dizziness returned. But presently, the cheerful +aspect of the room much aiding me, I recovered myself, and dressing, +and finishing the food, I prepared to descend. + +No need to say that I wondered much at all I saw, and particularly at +the handsome and stately proportions of the staircase, which I +descended without seeing any person until I reached the landing on the +first floor. Here, looking timidly over the balustrade, I discovered +that the buzz and hum of voices which I had heard as soon as I opened +my door, came from the hall below, which appeared to be paved with +heads. First and nearest to where I stood were clustered on the lower +steps of the staircase a number of persons whom I took to be servants, +and who, standing as if in the boxes of a theatre, were taken up with +staring at what went on on the floor below them, and particularly at a +row of eight or nine men, who seated on chairs along one side of the +hall, seemed to be in the charge of a messenger and some tipstaves, +and to be prisoners awaiting examination. Between these last and the +stairs occupying the floor of the hall, and both moving and standing +still, were a crowd of persons of condition, the greater part, to all +appearance, clients of the Duke, or officers and persons who, having +the _entree_, had stepped in out of curiosity to see the sight. + +However, I had no eyes for these, for with a beating heart I +recognised among the dejected prisoners seated along the wall, four +whom I knew. King, Keyes, Cassel, and Ferguson himself, and I had +anything but a mind to stay to be recognised in my turn. I was in the +act of withdrawing, therefore, as quietly as I could, when I saw with +a kind of shock that the prisoner at the end of the row, the one +nearest to me and farthest from the door, was a girl. It scarcely +needed a second glance to tell me that the girl was Mary. The light at +that inner extremity of the hall was waning, and her face, always pale +and now in shadow, wore an aspect of grey and weary depression that, +natural as it was under the circumstances, went to my heart, and +impressed me deeply in proportion as I had always found her hard and +self-reliant. But moved as I was, I dared not linger, since to linger +might be to be observed. With a light foot, therefore, I carried out +my first intention, and drawing back undiscovered, sneaked up the +staircase to my room. + +My clue in the circumstances was clear. Plainly it was to lie close +and keep quiet and shun observation until the crisis was passed; then +by every means in my power--saving always the becoming an evidence in +court, which was too dangerous--to deserve the Duke's favour; and as +to the pledge I had given to Smith, to be guided by the future. + +Such a line of conduct was immensely favoured by the illness to which +I had so fortunately succumbed. Once back in my bed, I had only to lie +there, and affect weakness; and in a day or two I might hope that +things would be so far advanced that my share in them and knowledge of +them would go for little, and I, on the ground of the personal service +I had done his Grace, might keep his favour--yet run no risk. + +In fact nothing could seem more simple than such a line of conduct; on +which, the western daylight that still lingered in the room, giving my +retreat a most cheerful aspect, I felt that I had every reason to hug +myself. After the miseries and dangers of the past week I was indeed +well off. Here, in the remote top floor of my lord's great house in +the Square, I was as safe as I could be anywhere in the world, and I +knew it. + +But so contrary is human nature, and so little subject to the +dictations of the soundest sense, that I had not lain in my bed five +minutes, congratulating myself on my safety, before the girl, and the +wretchedness I had read in her face, began to trouble me. It was not +to be denied that she had gone some way towards saving my life--if she +had not actually saved it; and I had a kind of feeling for her on that +account. True, things were greatly altered since we had agreed to go +to Romford together, _et nuptias facere_; I had got no patron then, +nor such prospects as I now had, these troubles once overpast. But for +all that, it troubled me to think of her as I had seen her, pale and +downcast; and by-and-by I found myself again at the door of my room +with my hand on the latch. Thence I went back, shivering and ashamed, +and calling myself and doubtless rightly a fool; and tried, by +watching the crowd in the Square--but timidly, since even at that +height I fancied I might be recognised--to divert my thoughts. With so +little success in the end, however, that presently I was stealing down +the stairs again. + +I knew that it was impossible I could pass down the main staircase and +through the servants unobserved, but I took it that in such a house +there must be a backstairs; and coming to the first floor I turned +craftily down the main corridor leading into the heart of the house, +and pretty quickly found that staircase--which was as good as dark-- +and crept down it still meeting no one; a thing that surprised me +until I stood in the long passage on the ground floor corresponding +with the corridor above, and found that the door, which from its +position should cut it off from the front hall, was fastened. +Tantalised by the murmur of voices in the hall, and my proximity, I +tried the lock twice; but the second effort only confirming the result +of the first, I was letting down the latch as softly as I could, +hoping that I should not be detected, when the door was sharply flung +open in my face, all the noise and heat of the hall burst on me, and +in the opening appeared a stout angry man, who glared at me as if he +would eat me. + +"What are you doing here?" he cried, "when twice I have told you----" +There he stopped, seeing who it was, and "Hallo!" he continued in a +different and more civil tone, "it is you, is it? Are you better?" + +Afterwards I learned that he was Mr. Martin, my lord's house-steward, +but at the time I knew him only for someone in authority; and I +muttered an excuse. "Well, come through, now you are here," he +continued sharply. "But the orders are strict that this door be kept +locked while this business is going. You can see as well, or better, +from the stairs. There, those are the men. And a rare set of +Frenchified devils they look! Charnock is in with my lord now, and I +hope he may not blow him up with gunpowder or some fiendish trick." + +He had scarcely told me when, a stir in the body of the hall +announcing a new arrival, a cry was raised of "Room for my Lord +Marlborough and my Lord Godolphin!" and the press falling to either +side out of respect, I had a glimpse of two gentlemen in the act of +entering; one, a stout and very noble-looking man of florid +complexion, the other stout also and personable, but a trifle smug and +solemn. The steward had no sooner heard their names announced, than in +a great fluster he bade me keep the door a minute; and pushing himself +into the throng, he went with immense importance to receive them. + +So by a strange piece of luck at the moment that the check of his +presence was withdrawn, I found myself standing within three feet of +the girl, whose seat was close to the door; moreover, the movement, by +thrusting those who had before occupied the floor back upon the line +of prisoners, had walled us in, as it were, from observation. Under +these circumstances our eyes met, and I looked for a flush of joy and +surprise, a cry of recognition at least; but though Mary started, and +for an instant stared at me wide-eyed, her gaze fell the next moment, +and muttering something inaudible, she let her chin sink back on her +breast. + +I did not remember that she, supposing I had informed, and ignorant of +the scene which had bound me to the Duke of Shrewsbury, would see +nothing surprising in my presence in his house, and more deeply +wounded than I can now believe possible by her demeanour, I bent over +her. + +"Don't you know me?" I whispered. "Mary!" + +She shivered, but retained the same attitude, her eyes on the floor. + +"Can I do anything for you?" I persisted; but this time I spoke more +coldly; her silence began to annoy me. + +She looked up then with a wan smile; and, with lips so dry that they +scarcely performed their office, spoke. "You can let me escape," she +said. + +"That is impossible," I answered promptly--to put an end to such +notions. And then to comfort her, "Besides, what can they do to you!" +I said confidently. "Nothing! You are not a man, and they do not burn +women for treason now, unless it is for coining. Cheer up! They----" + +"They will send me to the Compter--and whip me," she muttered, +shuddering so suddenly and violently that the chair creaked under her. +And then, "If you can get me away," she continued, moistening her lips +and speaking with her eyes averted, "Well! But if not you had better +leave me. You do me no good," she added, after a slight pause, and +with a sob of impatience in her voice. + +I knew that it was not unlikely that the House of Correction would be +her fate; and that such a fate, even to a decent woman--and she was a +girl!--might be less tolerable than death. And I felt something of the +horror and lurking apprehension that parched her mouth and strained +her eyes. The hall was growing dark round us, and the throng of +persons of all sorts that filled it, poisoning the air with their +breathing and the odour of their clothes, I experienced an astonishing +loathing of the confinement and the place. I saw this the beginning of +the dreary road which she had to travel; and my heart revolting with +the pity of it, and the future of it, I fell into a passion, and did a +thing I very seldom did. I swore. + +And then--heaven knows how I went on to a thing so unwise and +reckless, and in every way so unlike me! Certainly it was not the mere +opportunity tempted me--though a chance more favourable, the general +attention being completely engrossed by the two noblemen, could not +have been conceived--yet it was certainly not that, I say, for I did +it on the impulse of the moment, in sheer blind terror, not looking to +see whether I were watched or not. Nor did it arise from any farther +suggestion on the girl's part. In fact, all I remember of it is that, +in a paroxysm of pity, feeling rather than seeing that the people +round us completely hid us, I touched the girl's shoulder, and that +she looked up with a wild look in her eyes--and that determined me. So +that without thinking I unlocked the door in a trembling, fumbling +sort of manner, and passed her through it, and followed her, no one +except Cassel, the prisoner who sat next her, being the wiser. Had I +been prudent, or acted under anything but the impulse of the moment, I +should have let her go through, and trusting to her woman's wits to +get her clear of the house, have remained on guard myself as if +nothing had happened; and certainly this would have been the safer +way, since I could have sworn, when I was challenged, that no one had +passed through the door. But I had not the nerve to think of this or +remain, and I went with her. + +The thing once done, my first thought, and the natural, if foolish, +impulse on which I acted was to take her to my room, hers to follow +where I led. The passage beyond the door was dark, but taking no +thought of slip or stumble, in a moment I had her up the small +staircase which led to the first floor, and through the door at the +head of the flight into the long corridor, which, spacious, lofty, and +comparatively light--in every way the strangest opposite to the +crowded hall below--ran from the well of the great staircase into the +depths of the house. By involving her in this upper part of the house, +whence escape was impossible, and where prolonged search must +inevitably discover her, I was really doing a most foolish thing. But +in the event it mattered nothing, for as we reached the corridor, and +paused to cast a wary glance down its length this way and that--I, for +my part, shaking like an aspen, and I doubt not as white as a sheet--a +single footstep rang on the marble floor that edged the matting of the +passage, and the next moment the Duke himself, issuing from a doorway +no more than five paces away, came plump upon us. + +The surprise was so complete that we had no time to move, and we stood +as if turned to stone. Yet even then, if I had retained perfect +presence of mind, and bethought me that he might not know the girl, +and would probably deem her one of his household--a still-room maid or +a seamstress--all might have been well. For though he did, in fact, +know the girl, having questioned her not half an hour before, it was +on me that his eye alighted; and his first words were proof that he +suspected nothing. + +"Are you better?" he said, pausing with the kindness and consideration +that so well became him--nay, that became no other man so well. "I am +glad to see that you are about. We shall want you presently. What was +it?" + +And then, if I had answered him at once, I have no doubt that he +would have passed on; but my teeth chattered so pitiably that I could +only gape at him; and on that, seeing in a moment that something was +wrong, he looked at my companion, and recognised her. I saw his eyes +open wide with astonishment, and his mouth grew stern. Then, "But +what--what, sir, is this?" he cried. "And what do you----" + +He said no more, for as he reached that word the door beside me opened +gently, and a man slid round it, looked, saw the Duke, and stood, his +mouth agape, a stifled oath on his lips. It was Cassel, his hands +shackled. + +At this fresh appearance the Duke's astonishment may be imagined, and +could scarcely be exceeded. He stared at the door as if he questioned +who still remained behind it, or who might be the next to issue from +it. But then, seeing, I suppose, something whimsical and bizarre in +the situation--which there certainly was, though at the time I was far +from discerning it--and being a man who, in all circumstances, +retained a natural dignity, he smiled; and recovering himself before +any one of us, took a tone between the grave and ironical. "Mr. +Cassel?" he said. "Unless my eyes deceive me? The gentleman I saw a +few minutes ago?" + +"The same," the conspirator answered jauntily; but his anxious eyes +roving beside and behind the Duke belied his tone. + +"Then, perhaps," my lord answered, taking out his snuff-box, and +tapping it with a good-humoured air, "you will see, sir, that your +presence here needs some explanation? May I ask how you came here?" + +"The devil I know or care, your Grace!" Cassel answered. "Except that +I came into your house with no good-will, and if I could have found +the door should not have outstayed my welcome." + +"I believe it," said my lord drily, "if I believe nothing else. But +you have lost the throw. And that being so, may I beg that you will +descend again? I am loth to use force in my own house, Mr. Cassel, and +to call the servants would prejudice your case. If you are wise, +therefore, I think that you will see the wisdom of retiring quietly." + +"Have no fear, I will go," the man answered with sufficient coolness. +"I should not have come up, but that I saw that Square-toes there +smuggle out the girl, and as no one was looking it seemed natural to +follow." + +"Oh!" said the Duke, flashing a glance at me that loosened my +knee-joints. "He smuggled her out, did he?" + +"He could not do much less," the conspirator answered. "She saved his +life yesterday." + +"Indeed!" + +"Ay, when Ferguson would have hung him like a dog! And not far wrong +either! But mum! I am talking. And save him or no, I did not think the +creature had the spunk to do the thing. No, I did not." + +"Ah!" said my lord, looking at him attentively. + +"No, and as for the wench, your Grace----" and with the word Cassel +dropped his voice, "she is no more than a child. You have enough. It +is all over. _Sacre nom de Dieu_, let her go, my lord. Let the girl +go." + +The Duke raised his eyebrows. "I see no girl," said he, slowly. "Of +whom are you talking, Mr. Cassel?" + +I do not know who was more astonished at that, Cassel or I. True, the +girl was gone; for a moment before, the Duke's back being half-turned, +she had slipped into a doorway a couple of paces away, and there I +could hear her breathing even now. But that my lord had failed to +detect the movement I could no more believe than that he had failed to +see the girl two minutes before, when, as clearly as I ever saw +anything in my life, I had seen him examine her features. + +Nevertheless, "I see no girl," he repeated coolly. "But I see you, Mr. +Cassel; and as the alarm maybe given at any moment, and I do not +choose to be found with you, I must beg of you to descend at once. Do +you, sir," he continued, addressing me sharply, "go with him, and when +you have taken him back to the hall bring me the key of the door." + +"Well, I am d----d!" said Cassel. + +For the first time the Duke betrayed signs of anger. "Go, sir"; he +said. "And do you"--this to me--"bring me the key of that door." + +Cassel turned as if to go; then with difficulty lifting his hands to +his head he took off his hat. "My lord," he said, "you are well called +the King of Hearts. For a Whig you are a d----d good fellow!" + + + + + CHAPTER XXXI + + +What was preparing, or what my lord intended by conduct so +extraordinary I had no time to consider. For though I got Cassel into +the hall again undetected--which was of itself a marvel--when it came +to taking the key from the lock my hand shook so violently with fear +and excitement that the first attempt failed. Before I had succeeded +the steward bustled up through the crowd, and seeing what I was about, +bade me desist with some roughness. + +"Do you want an escape that way?" said he, bursting with importance. +"Leave it to me. Here, hands off, man." And he drew me into the hall +and locked the door. + +So there I was, fixed as it were in the girl's empty place, with +Cassel grinning at me on one side and the steward grumbling on the +other, and the crowd so thick about us that it was impossible for me +to budge an inch. It amazed me that the girl's absence had not yet +been noticed, but I knew that in no short time it must be, and my +misery was in proportion. Presently "Hallo," cried the steward, +peeping first on one side of me and then on the other. "Where is that +slut that was here?" + +"In with your master," said Cassel coolly. + +"But Charnock is with him." + +"Well, I suppose he can have two at a time if he pleases, Mr. +Pudding-head! Thousand devils! Are we going to be kept in this crowd +all night?" + +The steward sniffed his indignation, but the answer satisfied him for +the time; and the messengers and tipstaves being engaged at the +farther end of the hall in shepherding their prisoners on the side of +the house-door, and being crowded upon besides by gentlemen whom they +feared to offend, had no notion of what had happened or that their +tale was not complete. Someone had lowered and lighted a round +lanthorn that hung in the middle of the hall; but the light hanging +low, and being intercepted by the heads of those before us, barely +reached the corner in which I stood. Still I knew that this was but a +respite, and my relief and joy were great, when a cry of "Price! +Price!" was raised, and "Price! Who is he? His Grace wants Price!" +passing from lip to lip, the steward thrust me forward, and called to +the nearest to make a way for me; and this being done I was speedily +passed through the crowd to a door at the farther side of the hall, +where two servants who stood on guard there, having satisfied +themselves that I was the man, I was admitted. + +I knew that I was not yet out of the wood. Moreover I had cause to +doubt how I now stood in the Duke's favour, or what might be his +intentions towards me. But at least I had escaped from the hall and +from the steward whom I had begun to regard with a mixture of fear and +hatred; and I prepared to face the ordeal before me with a courage +that now seems astonishing. However, for the moment my courage was not +to be proved. The room in which I found myself was large and lofty, +lined for the most part with books, and adorned with marble busts, +that gleamed ghostly in the obscured corners, or stood out bright and +white where the radiance of the candles fell on them. In the middle of +the rich dark carpet that covered the floor stood a table, furnished +with papers, pens, and books; and this, with three inquisitorial +chairs, set along the farther side of it, had a formidable air. But +the three persons for whose accommodation the chairs had been placed, +were now on their feet, standing in a group before the hearth, and so +deeply engrossed in the subject under discussion that, if they were +aware of my entrance, they took no notice of it. + +The Earl of Marlborough, the more handsome and courtly of the two +noblemen whom I had seen pass through the hall, a man even then of a +great and splendid presence and address, though not what he afterwards +became, was speaking, when finding myself unheeded, I gathered my wits +to listen. "I have no right to give advice, your Grace," he was saying +in suave and courtly accents, "But I think you will be ill-advised if +you pay much attention to what these rogues allege, or make it +public." + +"No man will be safe!" urged his companion, with, it seemed to me, a +note of anxiety in his voice. + +"Better hang them out of hand," responded the Earl blandly. And he +took snuff and delicately dusted his upper lip. + +"Yet I do not know," answered the Duke, who stood between the two with +his eyes on the fire, and his back towards me. "If we go too fast, +people may say, my lord, that we fear what they might disclose." + +The Earl laughed blandly. "You had little gain by Preston," said he, +"and you kept him long enough." + +"My Lord Devonshire is anxious to go into the matter thoroughly." + +"Doubtless he has his reasons," Lord Marlborough answered, shrugging +his shoulders. "The question is--whether your Grace has the same." + +"I know none why we should _not_ go into it," the Duke answered in +measured tones which showed pretty clearly that in spite of his +good-nature he was not to be led blindfold. "They can have nothing to +say that will reflect on me. And I am sure," he continued, slightly +inclining his head in courteous fashion, "that the same may be said of +Lord Marlborough." + +"_Cela va sans dire!_" answered the Earl in a voice so unconstrained +and with a gesture so proud and easy that if he lied--as some have +been found ready to assert--he showed a mastery of that art alike +amazing and incredible. "And of Lord Godolphin also." + +"By God, yes!" that peer exclaimed, in such a hurry to assent that his +words tumbled over one another. + +"Just so. I say so, my lord," the Earl repeated with a faint ring of +scorn in his tone, while Lord Godolphin wiped his forehead. "But +innocence is no shield against calumny, and if these rogues can +prolong their lives by a lie, do you think that they will not tell +one? Or even ten?" + +"Ay, by God, will they!" cried Godolphin. "Or twenty. I'll lay thee +long odds to that." + +My lord bowed and admitted that it was possible. + +"So possible," Lord Marlborough continued, lightly and pleasantly, +"that it is not long since your Grace, unless I am mistaken, suffered +after that very fashion. I have no mind to probe your secrets, +Duke--God forbid! I leave such tasks to my Lord Portland! But, unless +I am in error, when you last left office advantage was taken of +some"--he paused, and then with an easy motion of his white +hands--"some trifling indiscretion. It was exaggerated and increased +tenfold, and placed in a light so false that"--he paused again to take +a pinch of snuff from his box--"that for a time even the King was +induced to believe--that my Lord Shrewsbury was corresponding with +France. Most amusing!" + +The Duke did not answer for a moment; then in a voice that shook a +little, "It is an age of false witnesses," he said. + +"Precisely," Lord Marlborough answered, shrugging his shoulders with +charming _bonhomie_. "That is what I say. They do not greatly hurt you +or me. We have clear consciences and clean hands; and can defy these +ruffians. But the party must be considered." + +"There is something in that," said the Duke, nodding and speaking in +his natural tone. + +"And smaller men, as innocent, but more vulnerable--they too should be +considered." + +"True," said Lord Godolphin, nodding. "True, by God." + +The Duke assented thoughtfully. "I will bear it in mind," he said. "I +think it is a questionable policy." + +"In any event I am sure that your Grace's prudence will steer the +matter to a safe issue," Lord Marlborough answered in his courtliest +fashion. "I thank Heaven that you are here in this emergency, and not +Portland or Auverquerque, who see a foe to the King in every +Englishman." + +"I should be sorry to see any but an Englishman in the Secretary's +office," the Duke said, with a little heat. + +"And yet that is what we have to expect," Lord Marlborough answered +placidly. "But we are detaining your Grace. Come, my lord, we must be +going. I suppose that Sir John is not taken?" + +"Sir John Fenwick?" + +"Yes." + +"It has not been reported." + +With that the two noblemen took a formal farewell, and the Duke +begging them to go out by his private door that they might avoid the +press in the hall, they were crossing the room in that direction, when +a sudden hubbub arose outside and a cry of alarm, and before they had +more than raised their eyebrows, asking one another politely what it +meant, the door beside which I stood was opened, and a gentleman came +in. He looked with a flustered face at the Duke. "Your Grace's +pardon," he said hurriedly. "One of the prisoners has escaped!" + +"Escaped!" said the Duke. "How?" + +"The woman has somehow slipped away. Through the crowd it is believed, +your Grace. The messenger----" + +But at that moment the unfortunate official himself appeared in the +doorway, looking scared out of his life, "What is this?" said the Duke +sharply. + +The man whimpered. "'Fore God it is not my fault," he cried. "She +never passed through the door! May I die if she did, your Grace." + +"She may be still in the hall?" + +"We have searched it through and through!" the man answered +desperately. "It remains only to search the house, your Grace--with +your permission." + +"What!" the Duke cried, really or apparently startled. "Why the +house?" + +"She must have slipped into the house, for she never went out!" the +man answered doggedly. "She never went out!" + +The Duke shrugged his shoulders and turned to Lord Marlborough. "What +do you think?" said he. + +The Earl raised his eyebrows. By this time half the concourse in the +hall had pressed to the doorway, and were staring into the room. "Call +Martin," said the Duke. "And stand back there a little, if you +please," he continued haughtily. "This is no public court, but my +house, good people." + +It seemed to me--but I, behind the door, was in a boundless +fright--that the steward would never come. He did come at last, and +pushing his way through the crowd, presented himself with a bustling +confidence that failed to hide his apprehensions. Nor was the Duke's +reception of him calculated to set him at his ease. + +"Stand out, man!" he said harshly, and with a nearer approach to the +tyrannical than I had hitherto seen in a man, who was perhaps the +best-natured of his species. "Stand out and answer me, and no +evasions. Did I not give you an order of the strictest character, to +lock the inner door and leave it for nothing, and no one--while this +business was forward?" + +Martin gasped. "May it please your Grace," he said, "I----" + +"Answer, fool, what I ask," the Duke cried, cutting him short with the +utmost asperity. "Did I not give you those orders?" + +The man was astonished, and utterly terrified. "Yes," he said. "It is +true, your Grace." + +"And did you obey them?" + +Poor Martin, seeing that all the trouble was like to rest on his back, +answered as in all probability the Duke expected. "I did, your Grace," +he said roundly. "I have not been an arm's length from the door, nor +has it been unlocked. I have the key here," he continued, producing it +and holding it up. + +"Has anyone passed through the door while you have been on guard?" + +The steward had gone too far to confess the truth now, and swore +positively and repeatedly that no one had passed through the door or +could have passed through the door; that it was impossible; that the +door had been locked all the time, and the key in his possession: +finally, that if the girl had gone through the door she must have gone +through the keyhole, and was a witch. At which some present crossed +themselves. + +"I am satisfied," said the Duke, addressing the messenger. "Doubtless +she slipped through the crowd. But as you are responsible and will +have to answer for the girl, I would advise you to lose no time in +searching such of Mr. Ferguson's haunts as are known to you. It is +probable that she will take refuge in one or other of them. However, I +will report the matter as favourably as I can to the council. You can +go. Lodge the others according to the warrants, and make no second +blunder. See these people out, Martin. And for you, my lords, I am +sorry that this matter has detained you." + +"_La fille--ne velait pas beaucoup?_" said the Earl curiously. + +"_Pas de tout!_" my lord answered, and smiling, shrugged his +shoulders. "_Rien!_" + + + + + CHAPTER XXXII + + +With the least inclination towards merriment I must have laughed at +the face of horror with which Mr. Martin, when he went a few minutes +later, to expel the last stragglers, came on me where I stood, trying +to efface myself behind the door. He dared not speak, for the Duke was +standing at the table a few paces from him; and I would not budge. +Fortunately I remembered that a still tongue was all he need wish; and +I laid my finger on my lips and nodded to him. This a little +encouraged him, but not much; and in his fear of what I might, in +spite of my promise, let out, if I were left alone with his master, he +was still in two minds whether he should eject me or not, when the +Duke spoke. + +"Is Price there?" he said with his face averted, and his hands still +busy with the papers. "The man I sent for." + +"Yes, your Grace," Martin answered, making hideous faces at me. + +"Then leave us. Shut the door." + +If my lord had spoken the moment that was done and we were alone, I +think it would have relieved me. But he continued to search among the +papers on the table, and left me to sink under the weight of the +stately room with its ordered rows of books, its ticking dial, and the +mute busts of the great dead. The Duke's cloak lay across a chair, his +embroidered star glittering on the breast; his sword and despatch-box +were on another chair; and a thing that I took to be the signet +gleamed among the papers on the table. From the lofty mantel-piece of +veined marble that, supported by huge rampant dogs, towered high above +me (the work as I learned afterwards of the great Inigo Jones), the +portrait of a man in armour, with a warden in his mailed hand, frowned +down on me, and the stillness continuing unbroken, and all the things +I saw speaking to me gravely and weightily, of a world hitherto +unknown to me--a world wherein the foot exchanged the thick pile of +carpets for the sounding tread of Parian, and orders were obeyed +unspoken, and sable-vested servants went to and fro at a sign--a world +of old traditions, old observances, and old customs revolving round +this man still young, I felt my spirits sink--the distance was so +great from the sphere I had known hitherto. Every moment the silence +grew more oppressive, the ticking of the clock more monotonous; it was +an immense relief when the Duke suddenly spoke, and addressing me in +his ordinary tone, "You can write?" said he. + +"Yes, your Grace." + +"Then sit here," he replied, indicating a seat at the end of the +table, "and write what I shall tell you." + +And before I could marvel at the ease of the transition, I was seated, +quietly writing; what I can no longer remember, for it was the first +only of many hundred papers, of private and public importance, which I +was privileged to write for his signature. My hand shook, and it is +unlikely that I exhibited much of the natural capacity for such work +which it has been my lot to manifest since; nevertheless, his Grace +after glancing over it, was pleased to express his satisfaction. "You +learned to do this with Brome?" said he. + +"Yes, your Grace." + +"Then how," he continued, seating himself--I had risen +respectfully--"Tell me what happened to you yesterday." + +I had no choice but to obey, but before I told my story, seeing that +he was in a good humour and so favourably inclined to me, I spoke out +what was in my mind; and in the most moving terms possible I conjured +him to promise me that I should not be forced to be an evidence. I +would tell him all, I would be faithful and true to him, and ask +nothing better than to be his servant--but be an informer in court I +dared not. + +"You dare not?" he said, with an odd look at me. "And why not, man?" + +But all I could answer was, "I dare not!" + +"Are you afraid of these villains?" he continued, impatiently. "I tell +you, we have them: it is they who have to fear!" + +But I still clung to my point. I would tell, but I would give no +evidence; I dared not. + +"I am afraid, Mr. Price," he said at that, and with an air of some +contempt, "that you are something of a coward!" + +I answered, grovelling before him, that it might be--it might be; +but---- + +"But--who of us is not?" he answered, with a sudden gesture between +scorn and self-reproof. "Do you mean that, man?" And he fixed his eyes +on me. "Well, it is true. Who of us is not?" he repeated, slowly; and +turning from me, he began to pace the room, his hands clasped behind +him; so that before he had made a single turn it was easy to see that +he had forgotten my presence. "Who of us is not afraid--if not of +these scoundrels, still of the future, of the return, of Jacobus +_iracundus et ingens_, of another 29th of May? To be safe now and to +be safe then--who is not thinking of that and living for that, and +planning for that?" + + +[Illustration: AND TURNING FROM ME, HE BEGAN TO PACE THE ROOM, HIS +HANDS CLASPED BEHIND HIM] + + +He was silent a moment, then with something of anger in his voice, "My +Lord Marlborough, dipped to the lips in '88, who shall say that for +all that he has not made his peace? And has good reason to urge us to +let sleeping dogs lie? And Godolphin, is it only at Newmarket he has +hedged--that he says, the less we go into this the better? And +Sunderland who trusts no one and whom no one trusts? And Leeds--all +things for power? And Clarendon, once pardoned? And Russell, all +temper? Who knows what pledges they have given, or may give? +Devonshire--Devonshire only has to lose, and stands to lose with me. +With me!" + +As he spoke thus he seemed to be so human, and through the robe of +state and stateliness in which he lived the beating of the poor human +heart was so plainly visible, that my heart went out to him, and with +an eagerness and boldness that now surprise me, I spoke to him. + +"But, your Grace," I said, "while the King lives all goes well, and +were anything to happen to him----" + +"Yes?" said he, staring at me, and no little astonished at the +interruption. + +"There is the Princess Anne. She is here, she would succeed, and----" + +"And my Lord Marlborough!" said he, smiling. "Well, it may be. But who +taught you politics, Mr. Price?" + +"Mr. Brome," said I, abashed. "What I know, your Grace." + +"Ha! I keep forgetting," he answered, gaily, "that I am talking to one +of the makers of opinion--the formers of taste. But there, you shall +be no evidence, I give you my word. So tell me all you know, and what +befell you yesterday." + +I had no desire but to do so--on those terms, and one small matter +excepted--and not only to do that, but all things that could serve +him. Nevertheless, and though I had high hopes of what I might get by +his grace and favour, I was far from understanding that that was the +beginning of twenty years of faithful labour at his side; of a matter +of fifteen thousand papers written under his eye; of whole ledgers +made up, of estate accompts balanced and tallies collected; of many +winters and summers spent among his books, either in the placid shades +of Eyford or in the dignified quiet of St. James's Square. But, as I +have said, though I did not foresee all this, I hoped much, and more +as, my tale proceeding, my lord's generous emotion became evident. +When I had done, he said many kind things to me respecting the peril I +had escaped; and adding to their value by his manner of saying them, +and by the charm which no other so perfectly possessed, he left me at +last no resource but to quit the room in tears. + +Treated thus with a kindness as much above my deserts as it was +admirable in one of his transcendent rank, and assured, moreover, by +my lord's own mouth that henceforth, in gratitude for the service I +had done him in Ferguson's room, he would provide for me, I should +have stood, I ought to have stood, in the seventh heaven of felicity. +But as suffering moves unerring on the track of weakness, and no man +enjoys at any moment perfect bliss, I had first to learn the fate of +the girl whose evasion I had contrived. And when a cautious search and +questions as crafty had satisfied me that she had really effected her +escape from the house--probably in a man's dress, for one of the +lacqueys complained of the loss of a suit of clothes--I had still a +care; and a care which gnawed more sharply with every hour of ease and +safety. + +Needless to say, the one matter on which I had been reticent, the one +actor whose presence on the scene I had not disclosed to my lord, lay +at the bottom of my anxiety. Kind in action and generous in intention +as the Duke had shown himself, his magnanimity had not availed to oust +from my mind the terror with which Smith's threats had imbued it; nor +while confessing all else had I been able to bring myself to denounce +the conspirator or detail the terms on which he had set me free. +Though I had all the inducement to speak, which the certainty that his +arrest would release me, could present, even this, and the security of +the haven in which I lay, failed to encourage me to the point of +hazard. So strong was the hold on my fears which this man had +compassed; and so complete the slavery to which he had reduced my +will. + +But though at the time of confession, I found it a relief to be silent +about him, this same silence presently left me alone to cope with him, +and with fears sufficiently poignant, which his memory awakened: the +result being that with prospects more favourable and a future better +assured than I had ever imagined would be mine, or than any man of my +condition had a right to expect, I still found this drop of poison in +my cup. It was not enough that all things--and my patron--favouring +me, I sank easily into the position of his privy clerk, that I +retained that excellent room in which I had first been placed, that I +found myself accepted by the household as a fact--so that never a man +saved from drowning by a strand had a right to praise his fortune as I +had; nor that, the wind from every quarter, seeming at the same time +to abate, the prisoners went for trial, and nothing said of me, while +Ferguson, of whose complicity no legal proof could be found, lay in +prison under the suspension of the Habeas Corpus, and kept silence; +nor even that a note came from Mary, ostensibly from Dunkirk, and +without compromising me informed me of her safety. It was not enough, +I say, that each and all of these things happened beyond my hopes; for +in the midst of my prosperity, whether I stood writing at my lord's +elbow in the stillness of the stately library, or moved at ease +through the corridor, greeted with respect by my fellow-servants, and +with civility by all, I was alike haunted by the thought and terror of +Smith, and the knowledge that at any moment, the conspirator might +appear to hurl me from this paradise. The secrecy which I had +maintained about him doubled his power; even as the ease and luxury in +which I lived presented in darker and fouler colours the sordid scenes +and perils through which I had waded to this eminence. + + + + + CHAPTER XXXIII + + +I think that I had spent a week, or it might be more, in this +situation of mingled ease and torment, when on coming down one morning +after a hag-ridden night I heard a stir in the hall; and, going that +way to learn what it meant, met the servants returning in a crowd from +the front, and talking low about something. Martin, who was foremost, +cried, "Ha, you are too late!" And then drawing me aside, into a +little den he had beside the passage, "They have taken him to the +office," he said. "But, lord's sakes, Mr. Price," he continued, +lifting his eyebrows and pursing up his lips to express his +astonishment, "who would have thought it? Her ladyship will be in a +taking! I hope that there may be no more in it than appears!" + +"In what?" said I. + +"In this arrest," he answered, eyeing me with meaning, and then softly +closing the door on us. "I hope it may end there. That is all I say! +Between ourselves." + +"You forget," I cried with irritation, "that I know nothing about it! +What arrest? And who is arrested?" + +"Mr. Bridges's man of business." + +"What Mr. Bridges?" I cried. + +"Lord, Mr. Price, have you no wits?" he answered, staring at me. "My +lord's mother's husband. The Countess's, to be sure! You must know Mr. +Smith." + +It needed no more than that; although, without the name, we might have +gone on at cross purposes for an hour. But the name--the world held +only one Smith for me, and he it seemed was arrested. + +He was arrested! It was with the greatest difficulty that I could +control my joy. Fortunately the little cub, where we stood, was +ill-lighted, and Martin, a man too much taken up with his own +consequence to be over-observant of his companions. Still, for a +moment, I was perfectly overcome, the effervescence of my spirits such +that I could do nothing but lean against the wall of the room, my +heart bounding with joy and my head singing a paean of jubilation. +Smith was taken! Smith was in the hands of justice! Smith was arrested +and I was free. + +The first rapture past, however, I began to doubt; partly because the +news seemed to be too good to be true, and partly because, though +Martin had continued to babble, I had heard not a word. Wild, +therefore, to have the thing confirmed, I cut him short; and crying, +"But what Smith is it, do you say? Who is he?" I brought him back to +the point at which he had left me. + +"Why, Mr. Price," he answered, "I thought everyone knew Mr. Smith. Mr. +Smith, Mr. Bridges's factotum, land-steward, what you will! He married +the Countess's fine madam--madame they call her in the household, +though she is no French thing but Hertfordshire born, as I knew by her +speech when my lord first took up with her. But not everyone knows +that." + +"When my lord took up with her?" I said, groping among half-recognised +objects, and beginning--so much light may come through the least +chink--to see day. + +Mr. Martin nodded confidentially. "That is how she came to be with my +lady," he said. "And Mr. Smith, too! My lord met her somewhere when he +was young and gay and took up with her, and to please her got the +place for Mr. Smith, who had been her flame before. However, my lord +soon tired of her, for though she was a beauty she had common ways and +was bold as brass; so when he parted from her she went back to her old +love, who had first made her the mode, and married him. I have heard +that my lord was in a pretty taking when he found her planted at the +Countess's. But I have nothing to say against her." + +"Does my lord--see her now?" I said with an effort. + +"When he does he looks pretty black at her. And I fancy that there is +no love lost on her side." + +"What did you say that--they called her?" I asked. + +"Madame--Madame Monterey." + +I remembered where I had heard the name before and who had borne it; +and saw so much light that I was dazzled. "And my lord's mother--who +married Mr. Bridges. She is a Papist?" + +"Hush!" he said. "The less said about such things the better, Mr. +Price." + +But I persisted. "It was she who ran off with my Lord Buckingham in +King Charles's time," I cried, "and held his horse while he killed her +husband? And who had Mr. Killigrew stabbed in the street; and----" + +In a panic he clapped his hand on my mouth. "God, man!" he cried, "do +you know where you are, or is your head turned? Do you think that this +house is a fit place to give tongue to such things? Lord, you will be +but a short time here, and to the pillory when you go, if you throw +your tongue that way! I have not blabbed as much in twenty years, and +would not for a kingdom! Who are you to talk of such as my lady?" + +He was so righteously indignant at the presumption of which I had been +guilty in attacking the family that, though it was his own +indiscretion that had led me to the point, I made haste to mutter an +apology, and doing this with the better grace for the remembrance that +Smith was now powerless and his wicked plans abortive, I contrived +presently to appease him. But the ferment which the discovery I had +made wrought in my spirits moved me to escape as quickly as possible +to my room, there to consider at leisure the miserable position in +which, but for Smith's timely capture, I must have found myself. + +A suspicion of the truth I had entertained before; but this certainty +that the man I was to be trepanned into personating was my benefactor, +and that in the plot his own mother was engaged, filled me with as +much horror, when I considered the necessity of complying under which +I might have lain, as thankfulness when I reflected on the escape I +had had. Nor did these two considerations, overwhelming as they may +well appear, account for all the agitation I was experiencing. Mr. +Martin, in speaking of Madame Monterey's origin, had mentioned +Hertfordshire; and the name, bringing together two sets of facts +hitherto so distant in my mind that I had never undertaken to connect +them, had in a flash presented Smith and madame in their true colours. +Why I had not before associated the Smith I now knew with that Templar +Smith whom I darkly remembered as Jennie's accomplice in my early +trouble; why I had not recognised in the woman's coarsely handsome +features the charms that thirteen years before had fired my boy's +blood and brought me to the foot of the gallows, is not more difficult +to explain than why this one mention of Hertfordshire sufficed to +raise the curtain; ay, and not only to raise it, but to set the whole +drama so plainly before me that I could be no wiser had I followed +every scene in madame's life, and, a witness of her shameful _debut_ +under Smith's protection, her seduction of my lord and her period of +splendour, had attended her in her final declension when, a discarded +mistress, she saw no better alternative than a marriage with her +former protector. + +How greatly this identification of the two conspirators increased, as +well as the loathing in which I held their schemes, as my relief upon +the reflection that those schemes were now futile, I will not say. +Suffice it that the knowledge that, but for Smith's arrest, I must +have chosen between playing the basest part in the world and running a +risk whereat I shuddered, filled me with thankfulness immeasurable, a +thankfulness which I did not fail to pour out on my knees, and which +was in no degree lessened by a shuddering consciousness that in that +dilemma, had Providence not averted it, I might have--ay, should +have--played the baser part! + +No wonder that a hundred harrowing recollections crowded on my mind, +or that under the pressure of these the tumult of my spirits became so +powerful that I presently seized my hat, and hastily escaping from the +house, sought in rapid movement some relief from the unpleasant +retrospect. Crossing the Green Park, I chose a field path that led by +the Pimlico marshes to Fulham; and gradually the songs of the larks +and the spring sunshine--for the day was calm and serene--leading my +mind into a more cheerful groove, I began to dwell rather on the fact +of my escape than on the crime from which I had escaped, and +contemplating the secure career that now lay in view before me, I was +not long in seeing that thankfulness should be my strongest feeling. +Turning my back on Smith and his like, I began to build my house +again; saw a smiling wife and babes, and days spent between my home +and my lord's papers; and then a green old age and slippered feet +tottering through the quiet shades of a library. Before I turned I had +roofed the house with an honourable headstone, and felt the tears rise +in generous sympathy with the village assembled to do the old man +honour. + +In a word, tasting the full relief of emancipation, I became so gay +and lightsome that even the smoke and din of London, when I re-entered +it, failed to subdue the unusual humour. I could have sung, I could +have laughed aloud. Let the dead past bury its dead! For Ferguson, +Smith, the Monterey--a fig! Who had come off best after all? And of +their fine plottings and contrivings what had been the upshot? They +had failed and I had triumphed; they were prisoners, I was free and +safe. + +Near the garden-wall of Buckingham House there was a bear dancing, and +a press of people round it. I stayed to watch, and in my mood, found +the fun so much to my taste that I threw the man a penny and went on +laughing. A little further, by the edge of the lake, was a man with a +barrow and dice--then a novelty, though now so prevalent that at the +last sessions, I am told, the thing was presented for a nuisance. I +stood here and saw a man lose, and in the exaltation of my spirits, +pushed him aside and laid down a shilling, and won, and won again--and +again; whether the cog failed or the truckster who owned the barrow +thought me a good bait. Either way I took up my winnings with an air +and hectored away as good a bully as another; placed for the moment so +far above myself and common modesty, that I wondered whether I should +ever sink back into the timid citizen, or feel my eyes drop before a +bravo's. + +Alas, in a moment, _quantum mutatus ab illo!_ At the corner of the +Cockpit, towards Sion House, I met Matthew Smith. + +I had no doubt. I knew all in an instant, and turned sick. He was +free, alone, walking with his head high and an easy gait. Worse, he +saw me; saw how I cowered and shrank into myself, and became another +man at sight of him! + +Slackening his pace as he came up, he halted before me, with that +quiet devil's grin on his face. "Well," he said, "how are you, Mr. +Price? I was looking for you." + +"For me?" I muttered. "I thought--I heard--that you were arrested." + +"A mistake!" he answered, continuing to smile. "A mistake! Some other +Smith." + +"And you were not arrested?" I whispered. + +"Oh, I was arrested!" he answered jauntily. "And taken to the +Secretary. And of course released. There! you have it all." + +I uttered an exclamation; two words wrung from me by despair. + +Thereat, and pretending to misunderstand me. "You thank God? Very kind +of you, Mr. Price," said he grinning. "Like master, like man, I see. +The Duke was kindness itself. But I must be going." And then, +arresting himself in the act of leaving me, "You have heard," he +continued, "that the poor devil Charnock stands his trial to-morrow? +Porter is an evidence, and by Monday the parson will swing. It should +be a warning to us," he continued, shaking his head with a smile that +chilled the marrow in my bones, "what company we keep. A rascal like +Porter might see you or me in the street--and swear to us. Ha! Ha! It +sounds monstrous odd, but so it might be. But by-by, Mr. Price. I must +not keep you." + + + + + CHAPTER XXXIV + + +The state in which I crawled back to the house after this encounter +maybe conceived but not described. From an exaltation of mind to which +the epithet delirious might be applied with propriety, I fell in an +instant to a depth of abjectness as monstrous as my late felicity, but +more real and reasonable. All the things, on my escape from which I +had been congratulating myself, now lay before me, and formed a vista +as gloomy as the point to which it tended was dreadful. To be a slave +to the woman and man who had ruined my youth; to live outwardly at +ease, while inwardly devoured by daily and hourly terror; to hang +between the choice of danger or baseness, comfort or treachery; to +discern in my own destruction or my patron's the inevitable ending; +beyond all, to foresee that I should choose the evil and eschew the +good, and to wish it otherwise and be powerless to change it--these +things, and particularly the last, filled me with anticipations of +misery so great that I rolled on my bed, and cursed Providence and my +fate; and next day went down so pale, and ill, and woe-begone that the +servants took note of it. + +"Pheugh, Mr. Price," said Martin, "you might be Charnock himself, or +Keyes, poor devil! You could not look more like hanging! What is it?" + +I muttered that I was not well. + +"It is Keyes I am sorry for," continued the steward, who was taking +his morning draught, "if so be they go to the end with him. I have +heard of a master given up by his servant, but never before of a +servant hung on his master's evidence--and his master the one that +drew him into it! Hang Captain Porter, say I! A fine Captain!" + +"Oh, they will let the poor devil live," said another. + +"Keyes?" + +"Ay." + +"Not they!" said Mr. Martin with great appearance of wisdom. "He was +in the Blues, do you see, my man, and if it spread there? No, he will +swing. He will swing for the example. Don't you think so, Mr. Price? +You are in there with my lord, and should know." + +But I muttered something and escaped, finding solitude and my own +reflections as tolerable as their gossip. A little later, my lord, +sending for me, kept me close at work until evening; which was so far +fortunate, as the employment, by diverting my thoughts, helped to lift +me out of the panic into which I had fallen. True, the news that the +three conspirators were found guilty and were to die the following +Monday, exactly as Smith had foretold, threw me again into the cold +fit, and heralded another night of misery. But as it is not possible +for mortals to lie long under the same peril without the sense of +danger losing its edge, in three days I began to find life bearable. +The stateliness of the household, the silence and books that +surrounded me, the regular hours and steady employment soothed my +nerves; and Smith making no sign, and nothing occurring to indicate +that he meant to keep his word or summon me to fulfil mine, I lulled +myself into the belief that all was a dream. + +Yet I was very far from being happy: to be that, with such +apprehensions as never quite left me, was beyond my philosophy. And I +had rude awakenings. One day it was the execution of Charnock, King, +and Keyes at Tyburn, followed by the hawking of their last dying +speeches and confessions in the streets, that jogged me out of my +fancied security, and sent me sick and white-faced from the windows. +Another it was the sentence on Sir John Friend and Sir William +Perkins, the two elderly citizens whom I had twice seen among the +plotters, and never without wondering how they came to be of the gang. +A little later, three more suffered, and again the Square rang with +the shrill cries of the chapmen who peddled their last speeches from +door to door. Against all these Captain Porter and a man commonly +called "Scum Goodman," both _participes criminis_, and persons of the +most infamous character, bore witness; their evidence being +corroborated by that of a man of higher standing, Mr. Prendergast. +Whether they could not prove against Cassel and Ferguson, or reasons +of State intervened, these, with several of their fellows, lay in +prison untried; a course which, in other circumstances, might have +involved the Government in obloquy. But so keen at this time was the +general feeling against the plotters, and so high the King's +popularity that he might have shed more blood had he chosen. Here, +however, the executions stopped; and his Majesty showing mercy if not +indulgence, the hue and cry, despite the popular indignation, +gradually slackened until it was restricted to Sir John Fenwick, who +was believed to be still in hiding in the country, and on whose +punishment the King was reported to be firmly set. + +How deeply these events and rumours, which formed the staple of +conversation during the summer of '96, troubled my existence, I leave +to the imagination; provising only that in proportion to the outward +quiet of my life was the power to agitate which they exerted. + +Moreover, there were times when a terror more substantial trespassed +on my peace. One day going hastily into the hall I found the servants +all peeping, Mr. Martin holding open the door, a dozen faces staring +curiously in from the sunshine of the Square, and my lord standing, +very stiff, on the threshold of his room, while in the middle of the +floor stood a scowling man, flashily dressed. + +The Duke was speaking when I appeared. "At the office, sir," I heard +him say. "You misunderstood me. I can see you there only." + +"Your Grace is hard on me," the man muttered with a glance that would +be rebellious, and was hang-dog. "I have done the King good service, +and this is the way I am requited. It is enough----" + +"It is more than enough. Captain Porter," my lord said, quietly taking +him up. "At the office, if you please. This house is for my friends." + +"And the King's friends? They may shift for themselves?" the +wretch--who even then wore finery bought with blood--cried bitterly. + +"The King is served in many ways," my lord answered with a fine air of +contempt. "Martin, the door! And remember, another time I am not +within to Captain Porter. At three in the office, sir, if you please." + +The man slunk away at that; but as he passed through the doorway, I +heard him mutter that when Sir John Fenwick was taken he would see; +and that proud as some people were now, they might be glad to save +their necks when the time came. He passed out of sight then, and +hearing my lord speak, I turned, and saw Matthew Smith, whom I had not +before noticed, waiting on him with a letter. The Duke, pausing on the +threshold of the library, broke the seal, and ran his eye over the +paper. + +"I will send an answer," he said, "later in the day. Or----" and he +looked up quickly. "Are you returning, sir?" + +"If your Grace pleases." + +"It shall be ready then by two o'clock," my lord answered stiffly. +"Good-morning." + +"Good-morning, your Grace." + +And my lord went in. The colloquy had been of the slightest; but I had +noted that my patron's tone, when he spoke to Smith, was guarded and +civil, if distant, and that through the few formal words they had +exchanged peered a sort of understanding. This shook me; and when +Smith turned to me, a faint sneer on his lips, and told me that I was +a bold man, my heart was water. He was at home here as everywhere; +what could I do against him? + +"Do you understand, Mr. Price?" he repeated. "Or are you a bigger fool +than I take you for?" + +"Why?" I stammered. + +"Why? Why, to push in on Porter after that fashion," he muttered under +his breath--for Martin was making towards us. "Lucky he did not +recognize you and denounce you! For a groat he would do it--or to +spite the Duke! Take care, man," he continued seriously, "if you do +not want to join Charnock, whose head is in airy quarters to-night." + +This left me the prey of a new terror; for remembering that I had once +seen Porter at Ferguson's lodging, I could not shut my eyes to the +reasonableness of the warning. I saw myself beset by dangers on that +side also, went for a time on eggs, and trembled at every sound; +indeed, for a full fortnight I never passed the threshold--excusing +myself on the ground of vertigo, if ordered to go on errands. In the +course of that fortnight I had a thousand opportunities of contrasting +the quiet in which I lived, behind the dull windows of the great +house, with the dangers into which I might at any moment be flung; and +if any man ever repented of anything, I repented of my lack of candour +respecting Smith. From time to time I saw him pass--grim, reserved, a +walking menace. When he looked up at the windows, I read mastery and a +secret knowledge in his eye; while the way in which he went and came, +free and unquestioned, was itself a monition; was it to be wondered +that I feared this man, who, while Charnock's head mouldered on a +spike on Temple Bar, and Friend and Perkins passed to the gallows, +walked the Strand, and lounged in the Mall, as safe in appearance as +my lord himself? + +I knew that at any moment he might call upon me to fulfil my word. +Whether in that case, the demand being such as to allow me leisure to +forecast the consequences, I should have complied, or taking my +courage in my hands, have thrown myself on my lord's indulgence, I +cannot now say; for in the issue a sudden and unforeseen shifting of +scene prevented my calculations, and hurried me onwards, whether I +would or no. + +It happened, I have said, suddenly. One afternoon there came a great +bustle in the Square; and who should it be but the Countess, my lord's +mother, come to visit him in her coach-and-six, with such a +paraphernalia of gentlewomen and negro pages, outriders, and running +footmen, as drew together all the ragamuffins from the mews, and +fairly brought back King Charles's days. As the great coach, which +held six inside, swung and lumbered to a stand at the door, I saw a +painted face, with bold black eyes, glaring from the window, cheek by +jowl with a parrot and three or four spaniels; and I waited to see +little more, a single glance sufficing to certify me that this was the +same lady to whose house Smith had taken me. Smith was in attendance +on her, and a gentleman in a plain black suit and wig--who was a +Papist priest if I ever saw one--and Monterey, and two or three other +gentlewomen; and, as I had no mind to be recognised by these, or for +that matter, by their mistress, I made haste to retire behind the +flock of servants whom Martin had marshalled in the hall to do the +honours. + +My lord went out to the coach and brought the Countess in, with a +great show of reverence; and for three-quarters of an hour they were +closeted together in his room. I took advantage of this to retire +upstairs, and had been wiser had I stayed there, or better still, +slipped out at the back. But a craving came on me to see Monterey +again, and with the knowledge I now had, ascertain if she really was +my old mistress. This drew me to the hall again, where, the crowd +being great, and the servants taken up with teasing the Countess's +parrot and blackamoors, I managed to avoid observation, and at the +same time see what I wanted. The woman who had once been all the world +to me--and of whom I could not now think without a tender regret, +directed, not to her, but to the state of blissful, dawning passion, +of which she had been the cause, and whereof no man is twice +capable--was still handsome in a coarse fashion, and when seen at a +distance. I could not deny that. But if I desired revenge, I had it; +for not only was her complexion gone, so that her good looks vanished +when the viewer approached, but her lips had grown thin, and her face +hard, with the indescribable hardness which speaks of past sin long +grown bitter--and an hourly, daily recognition that the wage of sin is +death. + +Presently, while Mr. Martin was pressing his civilities on her, and I, +from a corner near the door through which I had let Mary escape, was +curiously reading her countenance, the door of my lord's room opened, +and the Countess came out, supported on the one side by the Duke's +arm, on the other by her great ebony cane. The servants hurried to +form two lines; and I suppose curiosity led me to press nearer than +was prudent, or her eyes were of peculiar sharpness; or perhaps she +looked for me, and had I not been there would have called for me. At +any rate, she had not moved three steps towards her coach before her +gaze, roving along the line of servants, alighted on me; and she +stood. + +"I'll have _that_ rascal!" she cried in her high, shrill voice--and +she pointed at me with her cane, and stood. "He looks as if butter +would not melt in his mouth, but if he is not a lad of wax, call me a +street slut! Hark you, my man; you come with me. Bid him, Shrewsbury!" + +My lord, his face flushing, spoke low, and seemed to make demur; but +she persisted. + +"Odd's life; you make me sick!" she cried irritably. "You will not +this, and you fancy that! The servants---- Go to for a fool! In my +time master was master, and if any blabbed, man or maid, it was strip +and whip! But now--do you quarrel with me, or do you not?" + +The Duke shrugged his shoulders, and smiled uneasily. "Times are +somewhat changed, madam," he said. + +"Ay, by our lord, they are," she cried, swearing roundly. "And why? +Because there are no men nowadays, but mealy-mouthed Josephs, like +that trembler yonder, whose heart is in his boots because I want him +carry a message." And she pointed to me with her long cane, while her +head quivered with excitement and age. "Sort him out; sort him out and +send him with me; or we quarrel, my lord." + +"Well, madam, your will is law in this house," the Duke said; +"but----" + +"But no lies!" she cried. "D'ye send him." + +My lord bowed reluctantly. "Go," he said, looking at me. + +"And bid him do as I tell him," she cried sharply. "But he had better, +or---- Still, tell him, tell him." + +"Price," my lord said soberly, "the Countess is good enough to wish +you to do an errand for her. Be good enough to consider yourself at +her disposal, and go with the coach now. Be easy," he continued, +nodding pleasantly--it was impossible for me to hide my +apprehensions--"her ladyship needs you for a week only." + +"Ay, sure!" she cried. "After that he may go to the devil for me!" + + + + + CHAPTER XXXV + + +Rightly has the Latin poet sung of the _dura ilia_ of the Fates, who +either resistless rout all human resolutions, or, where the mind has +been hardened to meet the attack, turn the poor wretch's flank, and +lo! while he squares his shield, and shortens his spear to meet the +occasion, _habet_--he has it under the fifth rib. + +So it was with me. While I dreamed of resistance, and would harden my +heart and set fast my feet, fate cross-buttocked me; and I fell, not +knowing. The Countess's coach bore me away, unresisting; and Smith, +whom I hated as I never hated even Ferguson, gave me the word. From my +plain clothes, to the long curled peruke, the cravat, ruffles, and +fine suit in which I had once before paraded myself, was but a step; I +took it perforce, and being conducted, when I was ready, into the +Countess's chamber, to wait her pleasure, could have fancied the last +six months a dream--could have fancied the conspirators still at work, +Captain Barclay still pacing the Piazza, my lord still a stranger to +me, the library a vision; in a word, I could have fancied all those +events, which had filled half a year, to be no more than creatures of +the imagination, so unchanged was the great silent room, where my +lady, while I waited, played piquet with Monterey, amid the +gorgeousness of her rose-and-silver suite. + +The monkey gibbered as of old, and the parrot vied with the broidered +parrots on the wall; and now, as then, the air was heavy with scent +and musk, while the light, cunningly arranged, fell on the part where +the Countess sat, now grumbling and now swearing, or now, while the +cards were dealing, thumping the floor impatiently with her stick. She +had so perfectly the grand air of a past generation, that when her eye +turned in my direction I trembled, and thought no more of resistance; +yet when she resumed the game, she gradually--and more and more +completely, as I watched--sank into a querulous, feeble, fierce old +woman, whose passion, where it did not terrify, moved to derision, and +whose fads and fancies, as patent as the day, placed her at the mercy +of all who cared to flatter or cozen her. + +Madame was about it now; letting her win, and again gaining a slight +advantage; mingling hints at old vanities and conquests (whereat my +lady grew garrulous) with new scandals, coarse and spiteful; whining a +little when my lady, in a fury caused by a bad hand, struck her across +the face with a fan to teach her to be awkward, but cheering up at +once when the Countess's mood changed with the cards. In a word, as +she had betrayed me young, she cozened my lady old; but seeing her +features grown hard with time, and her eyes grown lifeless, and the +devil grinning more plainly from behind the mask, that once had been +so fair, it was a wonder to me that even the Countess was deceived. + +Presently my lady threw down her cards in a rage, and calling her +opponent a cheating slut, proceeded to turn her anger on me. + +"What is the gaby doing, standing there like a gawk?" she shrieked. +"Why is he not about his business?" + +Monterey whispered her that I had not had my instructions. + +"Then give them, and let him go!" she cried. "Where is the ring? Here, +you daw in peacock's feathers--like my son, indeed? About as like as +that squinting vixen Villiers is to a beauty! Take that, and ride with +Matthew Smith, and give it to the gentleman you will meet at the inn +at Ashford, and say--Monterey, tell him what to say." + +"Say, 'Colonel Talbot sends this ring, and his service.' And if the +gentleman asks 'Whither?' or this, or that, to whatever he asks, +answer thus: 'I am not here. Sir John, to answer questions. Favour me +by conveying that ring and my services whither you are going. I do not +talk, but when the time comes I shall act.'" + +"_C'est tout!_" said the Countess, nodding approval. "If you are not +man enough to repeat that, whip you for a noodle! Say it, man." + +But when I went to say it, first I could not remember it, and broke +down; and then when, my lady storming at me for a fool and an +imbecile, I had got the sentences into my head, I but whimpered them, +bringing no heart to the task. My lady, when she saw that, flew out at +me afresh, and threw first the vapours bottle and then her cane at me, +which, breaking a piece of china, put her fairly beside herself. "Come +here!" she shrieked, swaying to and fro in her chair. "Do you hear, +you puling, psalm-singing canter? Come here, I say!" And when, +trembling and scared, I had approached, she leant forward, and seizing +hold of my ear, as Ferguson had once seized it, she twisted it with +such unexpected strength and spite that I roared with pain, and fairly +fell on my knees beside her. + +"There is for you, _gros cochon!_" she cried. "So you _can_ speak up +when you like! Now go to the end of the room, my man, and play your +part again, and play it better! Or, by ----, I will have up those who +shall lash your back to the bone. Hoity toity! These are fine times, +when scum like you, my lad, put on airs!" + +This was not the discipline, nor were these the threats, to give an +actor courage; but in sheer desperation, I spoke up, and, this time, +had the good fortune to please her; and, Monterey mocking me, and +pushing me this way and that, I went through my part a dozen times. At +length the Countess expressed herself satisfied, and with a grim nod, +and an "Odds my life, he is not so unlike, after all!" gave me leave +to go. But when I was half way to the door, she called me back, and +after I had timidly obeyed, she sat awhile, glowering at me in +silence. At last, "No," she said irritably, "it is too late!" and she +struck on the floor with her stick. "It is too late to turn back! The +cross devil did nothing but thwart me to-day, and what he will not do +_bon gre_, he shall do perforce. He has brought it on himself, and he +must abide his _destin!_ Yet--Monterey!" + +The woman was at her side in a moment. "Yes, madam!" + +"I suppose that there is no danger of a _contretemps_," she said, +stirring restlessly in her chair. "Sir John will get away? They will +not take him, and find the ring on him--and learn whose it is?" + +On that, if I had been quick, and had had both wits and courage at +command, I should have thrown myself at her feet; and so I might have +opened her eyes. But I wavered, and before I had found heart to do it, +the waiting-woman, smooth and watchful, was in the breach. + +"Ashford, my lady, is only three hours' riding from Dymchurch in the +Marsh," she said, "where the boat waits for him to-morrow night. Sir +John is well mounted, and it will be odd, if, after baffling pursuit +for months, he should be taken in that time." + +"Yes, yes!" my lady said querulously. "Let him go! Let him go! Though +you are a fool to boot. A man is taken or not taken in less than three +hours. Even now, if that contrary devil of a son of mine had not +argued with me, and argued with me to-day--but, let him go! Let him +go!" + +The woman lost no time in taking her at her word, and hurrying me out; +not by the main entrance through which I had come in, but by the +little side door, leading to the dingy closet at the head of the +private staircase. In the closet a bright, unshaded lamp burned on the +dusty table, and beside it stood Matthew Smith, wearing a cloak, +riding-boots, and a great flapped hat. He looked eagerly at the woman, +his eyes shining in the glare of the lamp; but he did not speak until +she had closed the door behind her. Then, "Is it right?" he whispered. + +She nodded. + +"You have got the ring?" + +She gave it to him with a smile of triumph. + +He looked at it, and with a grim face slipped it into his pocket. +"Good," he said, "and now, my friend, the sooner we are away, the +better." + +But my gorge rose. On the table beside him, in the full glare of the +lamp, lay a cloak and holsters, a mask, sword, and riding-whip. I knew +what these objects meant, and for whom they were prepared; and at the +prospect of the plunge into the dark night, of the journey, and the +perils of the unknown road, I cried out that I would not go! I +would not go! And I tried to force my way back into the Countess's +room--with what intention heaven knows. + +But Smith whipped between me and the door. "You fool!" he said, +pushing me back. "Are you mad? Or don't you know me yet?" "I know you +too well!" I cried, beside myself with rage, and with apprehensions of +the plunge on the brink of which I stood. "You have cursed me from the +first day I saw you at Ware! You have been the curse of my life! You, +and that Jezebel!" + + +[Illustration: SHE CAME A STEP NEARER TO ME, AND PEERED AT ME] + + +"Are you mad?" he said again; and threatened me with his hand. + +But she came a step nearer to me, and peered at me; and after one look +took the lamp from the table and held it to my face. "At Ware?" she +said. "At Ware?" And then, putting the lamp back on the table, she +fell to laughing. "He is right!" she said. "I know him now. But you +told me that his name was Taylor." + +"Taylor?" he said wrathfully. "So it is; and Price, and half a dozen +other names, for all I know. What does it matter what his name is?" + +"Oh, it matters very much," she said, affecting to ogle me in an +exaggerated fashion. "He is an old flame of mine. His face always +brought something to my mind--but I thought that it was his likeness +to the Duke." + +He cursed her old flames, and the Duke. And then, "What does it mean?" +he said. "Who is he?" + +"He is the lad we left at Ware--in the old woman's room," she +answered, her voice sinking, and growing almost soft. "Lord! it seems +so long ago, it might have happened in another life! You remember him. +Matt? You saw him with me at The Rose one night? The first night I saw +you?" + +He looked at me, long and strangely. "And what does it mean?" he said +at last, scowling between wonder and suspicion. + +She shrugged her shoulders. "_Sais pas!_" she answered. "Ask him!" + +"You ruined me once!" I cried. "And he saved me! And now you would +have me ruin him. You are devils, you are! Devils! But I defy you!" + +He did not answer, but continued to stare at me; as if he discerned or +suspected that there was more in this than appeared on the surface. At +length the woman laughed, and he turned to her, rage in his face. "I +see nothing to laugh at," he said. + +"But I do!" she answered pertly. "You three all mixed up! It would +make a cat laugh my lad." + +He cursed her. "Have done with that!" he said fiercely. "And say, what +is to be done?" + +"Done?" she answered briskly, and in a tone of genuine surprise. "Why, +that which was to be done. What difference does this make?" + +But he looked at her, pondering darkly, as if it did make a +difference. I suppose that somewhere, deep down in his nature, there +lurked a grain of superstition, which found in this singular +coincidence, this sudden stringing together of persons long parted, an +evil omen. Or it may be that he had still some scrap of conscience +left, that, seared and deadened as it was, stirred and started at this +strange upheaval of an old crime. At any rate, "I don't know," he +growled at last. "I don't like it, and that is flat. There is some +practice in this." + +"There is a fool in it," she answered naively. "And there are like to +be two!" + +I thought to back him up, and I braced myself against the wall, to +which I had retired. "I won't go!" I said doggedly. "I will call for +help in the streets, first!" + +"You will do as you are told," she answered coolly. "And you," she +continued to Smith in a voice of stinging scorn, "are you going to +give it up now, when all is safe? Will you stand to my lord as this +poor silly fellow stands to you? Have you waited for years for your +revenge--to move aside now? Why, my G--d! the Duke is worth ten of +you. He is a man, at any rate. He is----" + +"Peace, girl," he cried, with I know not what of menace in his tone. + +"Then, will you go?" + +"Yes, I will go!" he answered between his teeth. "But by heaven, you +slut, if ill comes of it, I will wring your neck! I will, so help me +heaven! You shall deceive no other man! If there is practice of yours +in this, if this tool is here by your connivance----" + +"He is not!" she answered. "Be satisfied." + +Apparently he was satisfied, for he drew a deep breath, and stood +silent. She turned to me. "Get ready," she said sharply. + +"No," I muttered, summoning all my resolution. "I shall not go. I--I +have not----" + +Smith turned to me, and the refusal died on my lips. The struggle with +the woman had roused the man's passions; and I read in his eyes such a +glare of ferocity as chilled my blood and unstrung my knees. Nor was +that all; for when I went, trembling, to take the cloak, "One moment," +he said grimly, "not so fast, my friend. Let us understand one another +before we start. Mr. Price or Mr. Taylor or whatever your name is, +take note, do you hear me, of three things? One, that the business we +are on is life or death. Do you grasp that?" + +I muttered a shuddering assent. + +"Secondly," he continued, with the same gruesome civility, "my hand +will never be more than six inches from the butt of a pistol, until I +see this home again. Do you grasp that?" + +I nodded. + +"Thirdly, at the least sign of treachery or disobedience on your part, +I blow out your brains first, and my own afterwards, if that be +necessary. Do you grasp that?" + +I nodded. + +"That is especially well," he said. "Because the last item is +important to you. On the other hand, Mr. Price, play honest John with +me, and in forty-eight hours you shall be back in your master's house, +free and safe; and I shall trouble you no more. Do you understand +that?" + +I said I did; my teeth chattering, and my eyes seeking to evade his. + +"Then, now, yon may get into those things," he said. "And do you ride +when I bid you, and halt when I bid you, and speak when I say speak, +and be silent when I say be silent--do those four things, I say, and +you will die in your bed. They are all I ask." + +I stooped, shaking all over, to take up the boots. "Heart up, pretty!" +cried the woman, with an odd laugh that broke off short with a sort of +quaver. "It is clear that you are not born to be hanged. And for the +rest----" + +"Peace, peace, wench," said Smith impatiently. "And dress him." + + + + + CHAPTER XXXVI + + +It wanted two hours of midnight on a fine night when we two rode over +London Bridge, and through a gap in the houses saw the river flowing +below, a ripple of silver framed in blackness, and so cold to the eye +that involuntarily I shivered; feeling a return of all the vague fears +and apprehensions which, originally awakened by the prospect of the +journey, had been set at rest for the time by the awe in which I held +my companion. I began to recall a dozen stories of footpads and +highwaymen, outrage and robbery, which I had read, and found but cold +comfort in the reflection that the Kent Road, from the amount of +traffic that used it, was accounted one of the safest in England. It +was not wonderful, that with nerves so disordered, I went in front of +danger; or that when--opposite the Marshalsea, where the chain crosses +the road, near the entrance to White Horse Yard--a man came suddenly +out of a passage and caught hold of my companion's rein, I cried out, +and all but turned my horse to fly. + +Smith himself appeared to be taken off his guard; for, after bidding +me beware what I did, he called with the same harshness to the man to +release the rein, or take the consequences. + +"Oh, I am all right," the fellow answered roughly, peering at him +through the darkness. "You are Mr. Smith?" + +"Well?" + +"Fairholt sent me--to stop you." + +"Fairholt!" + +"Ay, he is here." + +"Here?" my companion cried, in a tone of rage and surprise. "What +the----! Why, he should be--you know where, by this time!" + +"Ay, but his horse threw him this morning, and he is lying at the +White Horse here, with a broken leg!" + +Smith cursed the absent man for a fool. "I wish he had broken his +neck!" he said savagely. And then, after an interval, "Has he sent +anybody?" + +"He has had something else to think about," the man answered drily. +"And so would you, master, with his leg!" + +Smith swore again, and sat gloomily silent. + +"He says if you can stead it off for twenty-four hours," the man +continued, "he will arrange that----" + +"No names," Smith cried sharply, interrupting him. + +"Well, that--someone shall take his place and do the job." + +Smith did not answer for a time, but at length in a curt, incisive +tone, "Tell him, yes," he said. "I will see to it. And you--keep a +still tongue, will you? You were going with him, I suppose?" + +"Ay." + +"And you will come with the other?" + +"May be. And if not I shall not blab." + +Smith by a nod showed that the man had taken his meaning; after which, +bidding him good-night, he pricked up his horse. "Come on," he said, +addressing me with impatience. "I thought to have had companions, and +so ridden more securely. But we must make the best of it." + +Heaven knows that I too would have liked companions, and took the road +again dolefully enough. Nor was that the worst of it; Smith, in +speaking to the stranger, had mentioned Fairholt. Now, I knew the +name, and knew the man to be one of the messengers attached to the +Secretary's office, one whose business it was to execute warrants and +arrest political prisoners. But what had Smith, riding to a secret +interview with a man outlawed and in hiding, to do with messengers? +With Fairholt? + +And then, as if this were not enough to disturb me with a view of +treachery, black as gulf seen by traveller through a rift in the +mist--if this glimpse, I say, were not enough, how was I going to +reconcile Smith's statement that he had expected companions with his +first cry, uttered in wrath and surprise--that Fairholt ought to be by +this time--well, at some distant point? + +In fine, I was so far from being persuaded that Smith had expected +company, that I gravely suspected that he had made quite other +arrangements; arrangements of the most perfidious character. And as +the horses' hoofs rang monotonously on the hard road, and we rose and +fell in the saddle, and I peered forward into the gloom, fearing all +things and doubting all things, for certain I feared and doubted +nothing so much as I did the dark and secret man beside me; whose +scheming brain, spinning plot within plot, each darker and more +involved than the other, kept all my ingenuity at a stretch to +overtake the final end and purpose he had at heart. + +Indeed, I despair of conveying to others how gravely this sombre +companionship and more sombre uncertainty aggravated the terrors of a +journey, that at the best of times must have been little to my taste. +To the common risks of the road, deserted at that hour by all save +cutpurses and rogues, was added a suspicion, as much more harassing +than these, as unseen dangers ever surpass the known. It was in vain +that I strove to divert my mind from the figure by my side; neither +the bleak heath above Greenwich--whence we looked back at the reddish +haze that canopied London, and forward to where the Thames marshes +stretched eastward under night--nor the gibbet on Dartford Brent, +where a body hung in chains, poisoning the air, nor the light that +shone dim and solitary, far to the left, across the river, and puzzled +me until he told me that it was Tilbury--neither of these things, I +say, though they occupied my thoughts by turns and for a moment, had +power to drive him from my mind, or divert my fears to dangers more +apparent. And in this mood, now glancing askance at him, and now +moving uneasily under his gaze, I might have ridden to Rochester if my +ear had not caught--I think when we were two or three miles short of +the city--the sound of a horse trotting fast on the road behind us. + +At first it followed so faintly on the breeze that I doubted, thinking +it might be either the echo of our hoofs, or a pulse beating in my +ears. Then, on a hard piece of ground, it declared itself +unmistakably; and again as suddenly it died away. + +At that I spoke involuntarily. "He has stopped," I said. + +Smith laughed in his teeth. "He is crossing the wet bottom, fool--by +the creek," he said. + +And before I could answer him the dull sound of a horse galloping +fast, but moving on the turf that ran alongside the road, proved him +to be right. "Draw up!" he whispered in something of a hurry, and +then, as I hesitated, "Do you hear?" he continued, sharply seizing my +rein. "What do you fear? Do you think that night birds prey on night +birds?" + +Whatever I feared, I feared him more: and turning my horse, I sat +shivering. For notwithstanding his confident words I saw that he was +handling his holster; and I knew that he was drawing a pistol; and it +was well the suspense was short. Before I had time for many qualms, +the horseman, a dark figure, lurched on us through the gloom, pulled +his horse on to its haunches, and, with raised hand, cried to us to +deliver. + +"And no nonsense!" he added sharply. "Or a brace of balls will +soon----" + +Smith laughed. "Box it about!" he cried. + +"Hallo!" the stranger answered, taking a lower tone; and he +peered at us, bending down over his horse's neck. "Who are you, in +fly-by-night?" + +"A box-it-about!" my companion answered with tartness. "That is enough +for you. So good-night. And I wish you better luck next time." + +"But----" + +"St!" Smith answered, cutting him short. "I am going to my father, and +the less said about it the better." + +"So? Well, give him my love, then." And backing his horse, the +stranger bade us good-night, and with a curse on his bad fortune +turned and rode off. Smith saw him go, and then wheeling we took the +road again. + +Safely, however, as we had emerged from this encounter, and far as it +went towards proving that we bore a talisman against the ordinary +perils of travellers, it was not of a kind to reassure a law-abiding +man. To be hung as the accomplice of footpads and high-tobys was a +scarcely better fate than to be robbed and wounded by them, and I was +heartily glad when we found ourselves in the outskirts of Rochester, +and stopping at a house of call outside the sleeping city, roused a +drowsy hostler, and late as the hour was, gained entrance and a +welcome. + +I confess, that safe in these comfortable quarters, on a sanded +hearth, before a rekindled fire, with lights, and food, and ale at my +elbow, and a bed in prospect, I found my apprehensions and misgivings +less hard to bear than on the dark road above Tilbury flats. I began +to think less of the body creaking in its irons on the gibbet above +Dartford, and more of the chances of ultimate safety. And Smith +growing civil, if not genial, I went on to count the hours that must +elapse, before, our miserable mission accomplished, I should see +London again. After all, why should I not see London again? What was +to prevent me? Where lay the hindrance? In three days, in three days +we should be back. So I told myself; and looking up quickly met +Smith's eyes brooding gloomily on me. + + + + + CHAPTER XXXVII + + +Such a night ride as I have described, would have been impossible, or +at least outrageously dangerous, a year or two later; when a horde of +disbanded soldiers, dismissed from the colours by the Peace of +Ryswick, took to the roads for a subsistence, and for a period, until +they perished miserably, made even the purlieus of Kensington unsafe. + +At the time of which I write we ran risk enough, as has been +demonstrated; but the reasons which induced Smith to leave London at +that hour, and under cover of darkness, may be conceived. Apparently +they did not extend to the rest of the journey; for, after lying late +at Rochester, we rode on by Sittingbourne to Feversham, and thence +after a comfortable dinner, turned south by Badlesmere, and so towards +Ashford, where we arrived a few minutes after nightfall. + +Those who are acquainted with the Old Inn at the entrance into +Ashford will remember that the yard and stables are as conspicuous for +size and commodiousness as the house, a black and white building, a +little withdrawn from the street, is strikingly marked by the lack +of those advantages. I believe that the huge concourse thither of +cattle-drovers at the season of the great fairs is the cause of this; +those persons lying close themselves but needing space for their +beasts. And at such times I can imagine that the roomy _enceinte_, and +those long lines of buildings, may be cheerful enough. + +But seen, as we saw them, when we rode in, by the last cold light of a +dull evening, with nothing clear or plain save the roof ridge, and +that black against a pale sky, they and the place looked infinitely +dismal. Nor did any warmth of welcome, or cheerful greeting, such as +even poor inns afford to all and sundry, amend the first impression of +gloom and decay, which the house and its surroundings conveyed to the +mind. On the contrary, not a soul was to be seen, and we had ridden +half way across the yard, and Smith had twice called "House! House!" +before anyone was aroused. + +Then the upper half of a stable-door creaked open, and a man holding +up a great horn lanthorn, peered out at us. + +"Are you all asleep?" cried my companion. And when the man made no +answer, but still continued to look at us, "What is in the house," he +added, angrily, "that you stick out your death's head to frighten +company? Is it lace or old Nantz? Or French goods? Any way, box it +about and be done with it, and attend to us." + +"Eight, master, right, I am coming," the man answered, suddenly +rousing himself; and opening the lower half of the door, he came +heavily out. "At your service," he said. "But we have little company." + +"The times are bad?" + +"Ay, they looked a bit better six months back." + +"But nothing came of it?" + +"No, worse luck." + +"And all that is called for now--is common Hollands, I suppose?" + +The fellow grinned. "Right," he said. "You have the hang of it, +master." + +My companion slid to the ground, and began to remove his pistols and +saddlebag. "Still you have some guests, I suppose?" he said. + +"Ay, one," the man answered, slowly, and I thought, reluctantly. + +"Is he, by any chance, a man of the name of--but never mind his name," +Smith said. "Is he a surgeon?" + +The hostler or host--for he had the air of playing both parts--a big +clumsy fellow, with immobile features and small eyes, looked at us +thoughtfully and chewed a straw. "Well, may be," he said, at last. "I +never asked him." And without more he took Smith's horse by the rein +and lurched through the door into the stable; the lanthorn swinging in +his hand as he did so, and faintly disclosing a long vista of empty +stalls and darkling roof. As I followed, leading in my sorry mare, a +horse in a distant stall whinnied loudly. + +"That is his hack, I suppose," said Smith; and coolly taking up the +lanthorn, which the other had that moment set down, he moved through +the stable in the direction whence the sound had come. + +The man of the house uttered something between an oath and a grunt of +surprise; and letting fall the flap of the saddle which he had just +raised that he might slacken the girths, he went after him. "Softly, +master," he said, "every man to his----" + +But Smith was already standing with the lanthorn held high, gazing at +a handsomely-shaped chestnut horse that pricking its ears turned a +gentle eye on us and whinnied again. "Umph, not so bad," my companion +said. "His horse, I suppose?" + +The man with the straw looked the animal over reflectively. At length +with something between a grunt and a sigh, "He came on it," he said. + +"He won't go on it in a hurry." + +"Why not?" said the man, more quickly than he had yet spoken: and he +looked from the horse to my companion with a hint of hostility. + +"Have you no eyes?" Smith answered, roughly. "The off-fore has filled; +the horse is as lame as a mumper!" + +"Grammon!" cried the other, evidently stung. And then, "You know a +deal about horses in London! And never saw one or a blade of green +grass, maybe, until you came Kent way!" + +"As you please," Smith said, indifferently. "But my business is not +with the horse but the master. So take us in, my good friend, and give +us supper, for I am famished. And afterwards, if you please, we will +see him." + +"That is as he pleases," the fellow answered sulkily. But he raised no +second objection, and when we had littered down the horses he led the +way into the house by a back door, and so along a passage and down a +step or two, which landed us in a room with a sanded floor, a fire, +and a show of warmth and comfort, as welcome as it was unexpected. +Here he left us to remove our cloaks, and we presently heard him +giving orders, and bustling the kitchen. + +The floor of the room in which he had left us was sunk a little below +the level of the road outside; and the ceiling being low and the +window of greater width than height, and the mantel-shelf having for +ornament a row of clean delft and pewter, I thought that no place had +ever looked more snug and cosy. But whatever comfort I looked to +derive from surroundings so much better than I had expected, was +dashed by Smith's first words, who, as soon as we were alone came +close to me under the pretence of unclasping my cloak, and in a low, +guarded tone, and with a look of the grimmest, warned me to play my +part. + +"We go upstairs after supper, and in five minutes it will be done," he +muttered. "Go through with it boldly, and in twenty-four hours you may +be back in London. But fail or play me false, Mr. Price, and, by +heaven, I put a ball through your head first, and my own afterwards. +Do you mark me? Do you mark me, man?" + +I whispered in abject nervousness--seeing that he was indeed in +earnest--that I would do my best; and he handed me a ring which was +doubtless the same that the Countess had given to her woman. It had a +great dog cut cameo-wise on the stone, which I think was an opal; and +it fitted my finger not ill. But I had no more than time to glance at +it before the host and his wife, a pale, scared-looking woman, came in +with some bacon and eggs and ale, and as one or other of them stayed +with us while we ate, and watched us closely, nothing more passed. +Smith talking indifferently to them, sometimes about the fruit +harvest, and sometimes in cant phrases about the late plot, the arrest +of Hunt at Dymchurch (who had been used to harbour people until they +had crossed), how often Gill's ship came over, Mr. Birkenhead's many +escapes, and the like. Probably the man and woman were testing Smith; +but if so, he satisfied them, for when we had finished our meal, and +he asked openly if Sir John would see us, they raised no objection, +but the man, taking a light from the woman's hand, led the way up a +low-browed staircase to a room over that in which we had supped. Here +he knocked, and a voice bidding us enter. Smith went in, and I after +him, my heart beating furiously. + +The room, which resembled the one beneath it in being low in the +ceiling, looked the lower for the gaunt height of its one occupant, +who had risen, and stood in the middle of the floor to receive us. +Thin and spare by nature, the meagre and rather poor-looking dress +which he wore added to the singularity of his aspect. With a +dry-as-dust complexion, and a three-days'-old beard, he had eyes +light-coloured, quick-glancing, and sanguine, and notwithstanding the +danger and uncertainty of his position, a fugitive in this wayside +house, with a thousand guineas on his head--for I never doubted I was +looking on Sir John Fenwick--his manner was at one moment arrogant and +boastful, and at another dreamy. He had something of the air of a +visionary; nor could any one be long in his company without discerning +that here was the very man for our purpose; one to whom all his geese +were swans, and a clasp of the hand, if it marched with his hopes and +wishes, of as much value as a pledge signed and sealed. + +All this taken for granted, it is to be confessed that at first sight +of us, his face fell, and his chagrin was unmistakable. "It is you. +Smith, is it," he said, with a sigh. "Well, well, and I thought it was +Birkenhead. Brown said it was not, but I thought that it must be. It +is not every one knows Birkenhead when he sees him." + +"No, Sir John, that is true." + +"However, I shall see him in the morning. I go on board at New Romney +at four, and doubtless he will be with Gill. When we come back----" + +"Ah, Sir John, times will be changed then!" Smith said. + +"They will, sir, with this Dutch crew and their low beast of a master +swept into the sea! And gentlemen in their homes again! I have been +amusing myself even now," he continued, his eyes wandering to the +table on which lay a litter of papers, an inkhorn, and two snuffy +candles, "with plans for a new wing at Fenwick Hall, in the old style, +I think, or possibly on the lines of the other house at Hexham. I am +divided between the two. The Hall is the more commodious; the old +Abbey has greater stateliness. However, I must put up my scripts now +for I must be in the saddle in an hour. Have you commands for the +other side of the water, Mr. Smith? If so I am at your service." + +Smith answered with a little hesitation, "Certainly, my business has +to do with that, Sir John." And he was proceeding to explain when the +baronet, rubbing his hands in glee, cut him short. + +"Ha! I thought so," he cried, beaming with satisfaction. "Faith, it is +so with everyone. They are all of a tale. My service, and my respects, +and my duty--all to go you know where; and it is 'Make it straight for +me. Sir John,' and 'You will tell the King, Sir John?' and 'Answer for +me as for yourself, Sir John!' all day long when they can come at me. +Why, man, you know something, but you would be surprised what messages +I am carrying over. And when people have not spoken they have told me +as much by a look; and those the least likely. Men who ten years ago +were as black Exclusionists as old Noll himself!" + +"I can believe it, Sir John," said Smith with gravity, while I, who +knew how the late conspiracy had united the whole country in King +William's defence, so that the man who refused to sign the Common's +Association to that end went in peril of violence, listened with as +much bewilderment as I had felt three minutes before, on hearing how +this same man, a fugitive and an outlaw, bound beyond seas, had been +employing his time! + +However, he was as far from guessing what was in my mind as he was +from doubting Smith's sincerity; and encouraged by the latter's assent +he continued: "It is parlous strange to me, Mr. Smith, how the drunken +Dutch boor stands a day! Strange and passing strange! But it cannot +last. It will not last out the year. These executions have opened +men's eyes finely! And by Christmas we shall be back." + +"A merry Christmas it will be," said Smith. "Heaven grant it. But you +have not asked, Sir John, who it is I have with me." + +At that and at a sign he made me, I let fall the collar of the cloak I +was wearing; which, in obedience to his directions, I had hitherto +kept high about my chin. Sir John, his eyes drawn to me, as much by my +action as by Smith's words, stared at me a moment before his mouth +opened wide in recognition and surprise. Then, "I--I am surely not +mistaken!" he cried, advancing a step, while the colour rose in his +sallow face. "It is--it certainly is----" + +"Sir John," Smith cried in haste, and, he, too, advanced a step and +raised a hand in warning, "this is Colonel Talbot! Colonel Talbot, +mark you, sir; I am sure you understand me, and the reasons which make +it impossible for any but Colonel Talbot to visit you here. He has +done me the honour to accompany me. But, perhaps," he continued, +checking himself with an air of deference, "it were more fitting I +left you now." + +"No," I said hurriedly, repeating the lesson I had learned by rote, +and in which Smith had not failed to practice me a dozen times that +day. "I am here to one end only--to ask Sir John Fenwick to do Colonel +Talbot a kindness; to take this ring and convey it with my service and +duty--whither he is going." + + +[Illustration: SIR JOHN ... STARED AT ME A MOMENT] + + +"Oh, but this is extraordinary!" Sir John cried, lifting his hands and +eyes in a kind of ecstasy. "This is a dispensation! A providence! But, +my lord," he continued with rapture, "there is one more step you may +take, one more effort you may make. Be the restorer, the Monk of this +generation! So ripe is the pear that were you to ride through the City +to-morrow, and proclaim our rightful sovereign, not a citizen but +would bless you, not a soldier but would throw down his pike! The +Blues are with us to a man, and enraged besides at Keyes's execution. +And the rest of the army--do you dream that they see Dutch colonels +promoted and Dutch soldiers overpaid, and do not resent it? I tell +you, my lord--your Grace, I should say, for doubtless the King will +confirm it." + +"Sir John," I said hastily, assuming an anger I did not feel. "You +mistake me. I am Colonel Talbot and no other. And I am here not to +listen to plans or make suggestions, but to request a favour at your +hands. Be good enough to convey that ring with my service whither you +are going." + +"And that is all?" he cried reproachfully. "You will say no more?" + +"That is all, sir," I answered; and then catching Smith's eye, I +added, "Save this. You may add that, when the time comes, I shall know +what to do, and I shall do it." + +This time, sobered by my words and manner, he took in silence the ring +I proffered; but having glanced at it, gave way to a second burst of +rapture and Jubilation, more selfish and personal than the first, but +not less hearty. "This will be the best news Lord Middleton has had +for a twelvemonth!" he cried gleefully. "And that I should succeed +where I am told that he failed! Gad! I am the proudest man in England, +your Grace--Colonel Talbot, I mean. We will pound Melfort and that +faction with this! We will pound them to powder! He has wasted half a +million and not got such an adherent! Good Lord, I shall not rest now +until I am across with the news." + +"Nor I--until Colonel Talbot is on the road again," said Smith, +intervening deftly. "At the best this is no very safe place for him." + +"That is true," said Sir John, with ready consideration. "And I should +be riding within the half-hour. But to Romney. You, I suppose, return +to London?" + +"To London," I said, mechanically. + +"Direct?" said he, with deference. + +"As directly as we dare," Smith answered; and with the word moved to +the door and opened it. On which I bowed and was for going out; +perhaps with a little awkwardness. But Sir John, too deeply impressed +by the honour I had done him to let me retire so lamely, started +forward, and snatching up a candle, would hold the door and light me; +bending his long back, and calling to Brown to look to us--to look to +us! Nor was this all; for when I halted half way down the stairs, and +turned, feeling that such courtesy demanded some acknowledgement or at +least a word of thanks, he took the word out of my mouth. + +"Hist! Colonel Talbot!" he cried in a loud whisper; and leaning far +over the stairs he held the light high with one hand and shaded his +eyes with the other. "You know that we have the Tower?" + +"The Tower?" I muttered, not understanding him. + +"To be sure. Ailesbury has it in his hand. It will declare for us +whenever he gets the word. But--you know it from him, I suppose?" + +"From Lord Ailesbury?" I exclaimed in sheer surprise. "But he is a +prisoner!" + +Sir John winked. "Prisoner and master!" he muttered, nodding +vigorously. "But there, I must not keep you. Good luck and _bon +voyage_, M. le duc." + +Which was the last I saw of him for that time. Nor did I ever see him +again save on one occasion. That he was a violent and factious man, +and a foe to the Protestant succession I do not deny; nor that some +passages in his life do him little credit, and the most bruited the +least. But for all this, and though I was then even a stranger to him, +I am fain to confess that as I stumbled down the stairs, and left the +poor misguided gentleman alone in his mean room to pack up those plans +for the extension of the old house that would never again own a +Fenwick for its master, and so to set out on his dark journey, I felt +as much pity for him, as loathing for the trickster who employed me. +And so far was this carried and so much influence had it with me that +when we reached the room below and the landlord having left us to see +to the horses, Smith in his joy at our success clapped me on the +shoulder, I shrank from his hand as if it burned me; shrank, and burst +into childish tears of rage. Naturally Smith, unable to comprehend, +stared at me in astonishment. "Why, man," he cried, "what is the +matter? What ails you?" + +"You!" I said. "You, curse you." + + + + + CHAPTER XXXVIII + + +And doubtless it was this outbreak, or rather the suspicion of me +which it sowed in Smith's mind, that occasioned the sequel of our +adventure; for when he had cursed me for a fool and had put on his +cloak, being now ready to go out, he seemed to be in two minds about +it; as if he dared neither leave me where I was, lest I should +communicate with Sir John, nor take me with him on his immediate +errand. More than once he went to the door, and eying me askance and +sourly, came back; but in the end and after standing a while +irresolute, biting his nails, he made up his mind, and curtly bade me +follow him. + +"Do you think that I am to saddle for you, you whelp?" he cried. "Be +stirring! and have a care, or I shall bore that hole in you yet. Take +that bag and go before me. By G----, I wish you were at the bottom of +the nearest horse-pond!" + +His words had the effect he intended, of bringing me to my senses; but +they went farther. For in proportion as they cooled my temper they +awakened my fears; and though I obeyed him abjectly, took up my bag +and followed him, it was with a sudden and horrible distrust of his +purpose. I saw that I had not only ceased to be of use to him, but was +now in his way, and might be a danger to him, and the night--which +enveloped us the moment we crossed the threshold and seemed the more +dreary and forbidding for the ruddy light and comfort we left behind +us--reminding me of the long dark miles I must ride by his side, each +mile a terror to one and an opportunity to the other, I had much ado +not to give way to instant panic there and then. However, for the time +I controlled myself; and stumbling across the gloomy yard to the spot +where a faint gleam of light indicated the door of the stables, I went +in. + +The landlord was saddling our horses; and a little cheered by the +warmth of his lanthorn, I went to help him. Smith turned aside, as I +thought, into the next stall. But Brown was sharper and more +suspicious, and in a twinkling called to him lustily, to know what he +was doing. Getting no answer, "Devil take him," the landlord cried. +"He cannot keep from that horse! Here, you! What are you doing there?" + +"Coming!" Smith answered; but even as he spoke I caught the smart +click of iron falling on iron, and the horse in the distant stall +moved sharply with a hurried clatter of hoofs on the stones. "Coming!" +Smith repeated. "What is the matter with you, man?" + +"You had better come," the landlord answered savagely. "Or I shall +fetch you. Here you!" this to me, "lead yours out, will you. I want to +see your backs, and be quit of you!" + +I took my horse by the bridle, and led it out of the stable, while +Brown went to bit the other. And so, being alone outside, and the moon +rising at the moment over the roof of the house and showing me the +open gates at the end of the yard, the impulse to escape from Smith +while I had the opportunity came on me with overpowering force. Better +acquainted than the landlord with the villain's plans I had not a +doubt that at that very moment he was laming Sir John's horse for the +purpose of detaining him; and the cold-blooded treachery of this act, +filling me with as much terror on my own account--who might be the +next victim--as hatred of the perpetrator, I climbed softly to my +saddle, and began to walk my horse towards the gates. Doubtless Smith +was too busy, cloaking his own movements, to be observant of mine. I +reached the gates unnoticed, and turning instinctively from London--in +which direction I fancied that he would be sure to pursue me--I kicked +my mare first into a quick walk, then into a cautious trot, finally +into a canter. The beast, though far from speedy, was fresh from its +corn; it took hold of the bit, shied at a chance light in a cotter's +window, and went faster and faster, its ears pricked forward. In a +minute we had left Ashford behind us, and were clattering through the +moonlight. With one hand on the pommel and the other holding the +shortened reins I urged the mare on with all the pressure of my legs; +and albeit I trembled, now at some late-seen obstacle, which proved to +be only the shadow of a tree, thrown across the road, and now at the +steepness of a descent that appeared suddenly before me, I never +faltered, but uphill and downhill drove in my heels, and with fear +behind me, rode in the night as I had never before dared to ride in +the daylight. + +I had known nothing like it since the summer day twelve years before +when I had fled across the Hertfordshire meadows on my feet. The sweat +ran down me, I stooped in the saddle out of pure weakness; if the +horse pricked its ears forward I spread mine backward listening for +sounds of pursuit. But such a speed could not be long maintained, and +when we had gone, as I judged, two miles, the mare began to flag, and +the canter became a trot. Still for another mile I urged her on, until +feeling her labour under me, and foreseeing that I must ride far, I +had the thought to turn into the first lane to which I came, and there +wait in the shadow of a tree until Smith, if he followed, should pass. + +I did this, sprang down, and standing by my panting horse, in a marshy +hollow, some two hundred paces from the road, listened intently, for +twenty minutes, it may be, but they seemed to be hours to me. After +the life I had been leading in London, this loneliness in the night in +a strange and wild place, and with a relentless enemy on my track, +appalled my very soul. I was hot and yet I shivered, and started at +the least sound. The scream of a curlew daunted me, the rustling of +the rushes and sedge shook me, and when a sad wail, as of a multitude +of lost souls passed overhead, I cowered almost to my knees. Yet, +inasmuch as these sounds, doleful and dreary as they were, were all I +heard, and the night air brought no trampling of distant hoofs to my +ear, I had reason to be thankful, and more than thankful; and my mare +having by this time got her wind again, I led her back to the road, +climbed into the saddle and plodded on steadily; deriving a wonderful +relief and confidence from the thought that Smith had followed me +London-wards. + +Moreover, I had conceived a sort of horror of the loneliness of the +waste country-side, and to keep the highway was willing to run some +risk. I took it that the road I was travelling must bring me to +Romney, and for a good hour and a half, I jogged with a loose rein +through the gloom, the way becoming ever flatter and wetter, the wind +more chill and salt, and the night darker, the moon being constantly +overcast by clouds. In that marshy district are few hamlets or farms, +and those of the smallest, and very sparsely scattered. Once or twice +I heard the bark of a distant sheep dog, and once far to the left I +saw a tiny light and had the idea of making for it. But the reflection +that a dozen great ditches, each wide enough and deep enough to +smother my horse, might lie between me and the house, availed to keep +me in the road; the more as I now felt sure from the saltness of the +night air that Romney and the sea were at no great distance in front +of me. Presently indeed, I made out in front of me two moving lights, +that I took to be those of ships riding at anchor, and my weary mare +quickened her pace as if she smelt the stable and the hayrack. + +For five minutes after that I plodded on in the happy belief that my +journey was as good as over, and I saved; and I let my mind dwell on +shelter and safety, and a bed and food and the like, all awaiting me, +as I fancied, in the patch of low gloom before me where my fancy +pictured the sleeping town. Then on a sudden, my ear caught the dull +beat of a horse's hoofs on the road behind me; and my heart standing +still with terror, I plucked at my reins, and stood to listen. Ay, and +it was no fancy; a moment satisfied me of that. Thud-thud, thud-thud, +and then squash-squash, squish-squish! a horse was coming up behind +me; and not only behind me, but hard upon me--within less than a +hundred paces of me. The soft wet road had smothered the sound up to +the last moment. + +The rider was so close to me indeed, and I was so much taken by +surprise that the moon sailing at that instant into a clear sky, +showed me to him before I could set my horse going; and, as I started, +whipping and spurring desperately, I heard the man shout. That was +enough for me; plunging recklessly forward along the wet, boggy road, +I flogged my horse into a jaded canter, and leaning low in the saddle +in mortal fear of a bullet, closed my eyes to the dangers that lay +ahead, and thought only of escape from that which followed on my +heels. + +Suddenly, and while I was still kicking and urging on my horse, before +the first flush of fear had left me, I heard a crash and a cry behind +me; but I did not dare at the moment to look back. I only leaned the +lower, and clung the more tightly to my horse's mane and still pressed +on. By-and-by, however, hearing nothing, it flashed on me that I was +riding alone, that I was no longer pursued; and a little later taking +courage to draw rein and look back wearily, I found that I could see +nothing, nor hear any sound save the heavy panting of my own horse. I +had escaped. I had escaped and was alone on the marsh. But as I soon +satisfied myself, I was no longer on the causeway along which I had +been travelling when the man surprised me. The wind which had then met +me was now on my right cheek; the lights for which I had been heading +were no longer visible. The track, too, when I moved cautiously +forward, seemed more wet and rough; after that it needed little to +convince me that I had strayed from the highway, probably at the point +where my pursuer had fallen. + +This, since I dared not return by the way I had come, terribly +perplexed me. I dismounted, and wet and shivering stood by my horse, +which hung its head, and restlessly lifted its feet by turns as if it +already felt the engulfing power of the moss. Peering out every way I +saw nothing but gloom and mist, the dark waste and unknown depths of +the marsh. It was a situation to try the stoutest, nor did it need the +mournful sough of the wind as it swept the flats, or the strange +gurgling noises that from time to time rose from the sloughs about me +to add the last touch of fear and melancholy to the scene. + +Though, for my own part, I sank in no farther than my ankles, the +horse by its restlessness evinced a strong sense of danger, and I +dared not stand still. But as clouds had again obscured the moon and +the darkness was absolute, to advance seemed as dangerous as to +remain. However, in fear that the horse, if I stood where I was, would +break loose from me, I led it forward cautiously: and then the track +growing no worse but rather better, and the beast seeming to gain +confidence as it proceeded, I presently took courage to remount again, +and dropping the reins allowed it to carry me whither it would. This +it did slowly and with infinite caution, smelling rather than feeling +the way, and often stopping to try a doubtful spot. Observing how +wonderfully the instinct of the beast aided it, and remembering that I +had once been told that horses feared nothing so much as to be smoored +(as the fenmen call it), and would not willingly run that risk, I +gained confidence myself; which the event justified, for by-and-by I +caught the dull sound of sea-waves booming on a beach, and a few +minutes afterwards discerned in the sky before me the first faint +streaks of dawn. + +Heaven knows how welcome it was to me! I was wet, weary and shivering +with cold and with the aguish air of that dreary place; which is so +unwholesome that I am told the natives take drugs to stave off the +fever, as others do ale and wine. But at the sight I pricked up, and +the horse too; and we moved on briskly; and presently by the help of +the growing light, and through a grey mist which trebled the size of +all objects, I saw a huge wall or bank loom across my path. I was +close to it when I discerned it; and I had no more than time to +despair of surmounting it, before the horse was already clambering up +it. Scrambling and slipping among the stones, in a minute or so and +with a great clatter we gained the summit; and saw below and before us +the smooth milky surface of the sea lifting lazily under the fog. + +So seen it had a strangely weird and pallid aspect, as of a dead sea, +viewed in dreams: and I stood a moment to breathe my horse and admire +the spectacle; nor did I fail to thank God that I was out of that +dreary and treacherous place. Then, considering my future movements +and not knowing which way I ought to take--to right or left along the +beach--to gain the more quickly help and shelter, I was reining my +mare down the sea side of the bank when a welcome sound caught my ear. +It was a man's voice giving an order. I halted and peered through the +sea-haze; and by-and-by I made out a boat, lying beached at the edge +of the tide, some hundred and fifty yards to my left. There were men +standing in it, I could not see how many; and more were in the act of +pushing it off the strand. Their voices came to me with singular +clearness; but the words were unintelligible. + +The sight gave me pause: and for a moment I stood reconnoitring the +men. To advance or not was the question, and I was still debating it, +and striving to deduce something from the men's appearance, when +something, I never knew what--perhaps some noise ill-apprehended--led +me to turn aside my head. Whatever the cause of the movement, it +apprised me of something little suspected. Not fifty paces behind me I +saw the figure of a giant horseman looming out of the mist. He was +advancing along the summit of the sea-wall below which I stood; hence +I saw him before he made me out: and this gave me the start and the +advantage. I had time to take in the thing, and seize my horse by the +head, and move eight or ten paces towards the boat before he took the +cue. Then on neither side was there any concealment. With a cry, a +yell rather, the mere sound of which flung me into a panic, the man +urged his horse down the bank shouting fiercely to me to stand; I in +utter terror spurred mine across the beach towards the men I had seen. + +I have said that I had some sixty yards of start, and two hundred or +so to cross, to reach the boat; but the horses were scarcely able to +trot; a yard was a furlong; and the sand swallowing up the sound of +hoofs, it was a veritable race of ghosts, of phantoms, labouring +through the mist across the flat, with the oily Stygian sea lapping +the shore beside us. He cried out in the most violent fashion, now +bidding me stay and now bidding the men stop me. And for all I know +they might be in his pay, or at best be some of the reckless +desperadoes who on that coast live by owling and worse practices. But +they were my only hope and I too cried to them; and with joy I saw +them put in again--they had before got afloat. Believing Smith to be +gaining, I cried pitifully to them to save me, and then my horse +stumbling, I flung myself from the saddle, and plunged through the +sand towards them. At that, two sprang out to meet me and caught me +under my arms; and in a moment, amid a jargon of cries in a foreign +tongue whipped me over the side into the boat. Then they pushed it off +and leaped in themselves, wet to the thighs; and as my pursuer came +lurching down the beach, a pistol drawn in his hand, a couple of +powerful strokes drove the boat through the light surf. Waving +frantically he yelled to the men to wait, and rode to his boot-soles +into the water; but with a jeering laugh and a volley of foreign words +the sailors pulled the faster and the faster, and the mist lying thick +on the water, and the boat sitting low, in half a minute we lost the +last glimpse of him and his passion, and rode outward on a grey +boundless sea. + + + + + CHAPTER XXXIX + + +I should have been less than a man had I not thanked God for my +escape. But it is in the sap of a tree to run upward in the spring, +and in the blood of a man to live in the present and future, the past +going for little; and I had not crouched two minutes on the thwart +before the steady lurch of the boat outwards and seawards fixed my +attention. From this to asking myself by what chance I had been saved, +and who were the men who sat round me--and evinced no more curiosity +about me than if they had been sent to the spot purely and simply to +rescue me--was but a step. + +I took it, scanned them stealthily, and was far from reassured; the +sea-garb was then new to me, and these wearers of it were the wildest +of their class. The fog which enfolded us magnified their clumsy +shoulders and great knitted night-caps and the tarry ringlets that +hung in festoons about their scarred and tanned faces. The huge +gnarled hands that swung to and fro with the oars were no more like +human flesh than the sea-boots which the men wore, drawn high on their +thighs. They had rings in their ears, and from all came a reek of +tobacco, and salt-fish, and strange oaths; nor did it need the +addition of the hanger and pistol which each wore in his belt to +inform me that I had fallen once again among fierce and desperate men. + +Dismayed by all I saw, it yet surprised me that no one questioned me. +He who sat in the stern of the boat, and seemed to be in command, had +a whistle continually at his lips, and his eyes on the curtain of haze +before us; but if the tiller and navigation of the boat took up his +thoughts, there were others. These, however, were content to pull on +in silence, eyeing me with dull brutish stares, until the fog lifting +disclosed on a sudden the hull of a tall ship looming high beside us. +A shrill piping came from it--a sound I had heard before, but taken to +be the scream of a sea-bird; and this, as we drew up, was followed +by a hail. The man by my side let his whistle fall that he might +answer--which he did, in French. A moment later our boat grated +against the heaving timbers, and I, looking up through the raw morning +air, saw a man in a boat-cloak spring on the bulwarks and wave his +hat. + +"Welcome!" he cried, lustily. "And God save the King! A near thing +they tell me, sir. But come on board, come on board, and we shall see +Dunquerque the sooner. Up with you, Sir John, if you please, and let +us be gone with the fog, and no heel-taps!" + +Then, without another word, I knew what had happened; I knew why the +boat which had picked me up, had been waiting on the beach at that +hour; and as I rose to my feet on the seat, and clutched the rope +ladder which the sailors threw down to me, my knees knocked together; +for I foresaw what I had to expect. But the deck was surer ground for +debate or explanation than the cockle-shell wherein I sat, and which +tossed and ducked under me, threatening every moment to upset my +stomach; and I went up giddily, grasped the bulwark, and, aided by +half-a-dozen grinning seamen, night-capped and ringletted, I sprang +down on the deck. + +The man in the boat-cloak received me with a clumsy bow, and shook my +hand. "Give you joy, Sir John!" he said. "Glad to see you, sir. I +began to fear that you were taken! A little more, and I must have left +you. But all's well that ends well, and--your pardon one moment." + +With that he broke off, and shouted half-a-dozen orders in French and +English and French to the sailors; and in a moment the capstan, as I +afterwards heard it called, was creaking round, and there was a hurry +of feet, first to one side and then to the other, and a great shouting +and a hauling at ropes. The ship heeled over so suddenly that if I had +not caught at the rail I must have lost my footing, and for an instant +the green seas seemed to swell up on a level with the slanting deck as +if they would swallow us bodily. Instead, the sloop, still heeling +over, began to gather way, and presently was hissing through the +water, piling the white surf before it, only to pour it foaming to +either side. The haze, like a moving curtain, began to glide by us; +and looking straight ahead I saw a yellow glare that told of the sun +rising over the French dunes. + +The man who had received me, and who seemed to be the master, returned +to my side. "We are under way, sir," he said, "and I am glad of it. +But you will like to see Mr. Birkenhead? He would have met you, but +the sea-colic took him as he lay on the swell outside Dunquerque +whistling for a wind. He gets it badly one time, and one time he is as +hearty as you are. He is better this morning, but he is ill enough." + +I muttered that I would see him by-and-by, when he was better. That I +would lie down a little, and---- + +"Oh! I have got a bunk for you in his cabin," the master answered +briskly. "I thought you would want to talk State secrets. Follow me, +if you please, and look to your sea-legs, sir." + +He led the way to a hatch or trap-door, and raising it began to +descend. Not daring to refuse I followed him, down a steep ladder into +the dark bowels of the ship, the reek of tar and bilge-water, cheese +and old rum, growing stronger with every foot we descended. At the +bottom of the ladder he pushed aside a sliding panel, and signed +me to pass through the opening. I obeyed, and found myself in a +sort of dog-hole--as it seemed to me who knew nothing of ships' +cabins--lighted only by a span-wide round window, so dark, therefore, +that I stood a moment groping, and so close and foul-smelling that my +gorge rose. + +Out of the gloom came a groan as of a sick sheep. "Here is Sir John, +safe and sound!" cried the master in his sea tones. "There is good +medicine for you, Mr. Birkenhead." And he peered into the darkness. + +The only answer was a second groan. "Do you hear, sir?" the captain +repeated. "Sir John is here." + +A voice feebly yet unmistakably d----d Sir John and the captain. + +The master chuckled hoarsely. "Set a frigate behind us with a noose +flying at the yard-arm, and there is no man like him!" he said. "None, +Sir John; and I have carried him across seventy times and over, sick +and well, he should know the road from the Marsh to Southwark if any +man does. But let him be for the present, and do you lie down in the +bunk above him, and I will bring you some Nantz and a crust. When he +is better, he will be as glad to see you as if you were his brother." + +I obeyed, and fortified by the strong waters he brought me, was glad +to lie down, and under cover of darkness consider my position and what +chance I had of extricating myself from it. For the time, and probably +until we reached Dunquerque, I was safe; but what would happen when +Birkenhead--the man whom the Jacobites called the Royal Post, and who +doubtless knew Sir John Fenwick by sight--what would happen, I say, +when he roused himself, and found that he had not only taken off the +wrong man but left Sir John to his fate? Would he not be certain to +visit the mischance on my head? Or if I escaped his hands, what must I +expect, a stranger, ashore in a foreign land with little money, and no +language at my command? I shuddered at the prospect; yet shuddered +more at the thought of Birkenhead's anger; so that presently all my +fore-looking resolved itself into a strenuous effort to put off the +evil day, and prolong by lying still and quiet the sleep into which he +appeared to have fallen. + +He lay so close to me, divided only by the one board on which I +reclined, that all the noises of the ship--the creaking of the +timbers, the wash of the seas as they foamed along the quarter, and +the banging of blocks and ropes--noises that never ceased, failed to +cover the sound of his breathing. And this nearness to me, taken with +the fact that I could not see him, so tormented me with doubt whether +he was awake or asleep, was recovering or growing worse, that more +than once I raised my head and listened until my neck ached. In the +twilight of the cabin I could see his cloak swaying lazily on a hook; +on another hung a belt with pistols, that slid this way and that with +the swing of the vessel. And presently watching these and listening to +the regularity of his breathing, I laid my head down and did the last +thing I proposed to do or should have thought possible; for I fell +asleep. + +I awoke with a man's hand on my shoulder; and sat up with a start of +alarm, a man's voice in my ear. The floor of the cabin slanted no +longer, the cloak and swordbelt hang motionless on the wall; and in +place of the sullen plash of the waves and the ceaseless creaking of +joists and knees, that had before filled the inwards of the ship, a +medley of shouts and cries, as shrill as they were unintelligible, +filled the pauses of the windlass. These things were, and I took them +in and drew the inference, that we were in harbour; but mechanically, +for it seemed, at the moment, that such wits as terror left me were in +the grasp of the man who shook me and swore at me by turns; and whose +short hair--for he was wigless--fairly bristled with rage and +perplexity. + +"You! Who the devil are _you?_" he cried, frantically. "What witchcraft +is this? Here, Gill! Gill! Do you hear, you tarry pudding-head? Who is +this you have put in my cabin? And where is Fenwick? Where----" + +"Where is Sir John?" cried a voice somewhat distant, as if the +speaker stooped to the hatchway. "He is there, Mr. Birkenhead. I set +him there myself. And between gentlemen, such words as those, Mr. +Birkenhead----" + +"As what?" cried the man who held me. + +"As tarry. But never mind; between friends----" + +"Friends be hanged!" cried my assailant with violence. "Who is this +fool? That is what I asked. And you, have you no tongue?" he +continued, glaring at me. "Who are you, and where is Sir John +Fenwick?" + +Before I could answer, the master, who had descended, crowded himself +into the doorway. "That is Sir John," he said, sulkily. "I thought +that you----" + +"This, Sir John?" the other exclaimed. + +"Ay, to be sure." + +"As much Sir John as you are the warming-pan!" Birkenhead retorted; +and released me with so much violence that my head rapped against the +panels. "This, Sir John Fenwick?" And then, "Oh, man, man, you have +destroyed me," he cried. "Where is my reputation now? You have left +the real Simon Pure to be taken, and brought off this--this--you +booby, you grinning ape, who are you?" + +Trembling, I told him my name. + +"And Sir John?" he said. "Where is he?" + +"I left him at Ashford," I muttered. + +"It is a lie!" he cried in a voice that thrilled me to the marrow. +"You did not leave him at Ashford! He was with you on the beach--he +was with you and you deserted him! You left him to be taken, and saved +yourself. You wretch! You Judas!" + +God knows by what intuition he spoke. For me, I swear that it was not +until that moment, not until he had put the possibility into words +that I knew--ay, knew, for that was the only word, so certain was I +after the event--that the man who had ridden down the beach and called +vainly on the sailors to wait, the man from whom we had rowed away +laughing, taking with us his last hope of life, was not Matthew Smith, +but Sir John Fenwick! _Now_, things which should have opened my eyes +then, and had not, came back to me. I recalled how tall and gaunt the +rider had looked through the haze, and a something novel in his voice, +and plaintive in his tone. True, I had heard the click-clack of +Smith's horse's shoes as clearly as I ever heard anything in my life; +but if Sir John, alarmed by the sound of my hasty departure, and +fearing treachery, had sallied out, and leaping on the first horse he +found, had ridden after me, then all was clear. + +I saw that, and cowered before the men's accusing eyes: so that they +had been more than Solomons had they taken my sudden disorder for +aught but guilt--guilt brought home. For Birkenhead, his rage was +terrible. He seized me by the throat, and disregarding my pitiful +pleas that I had not known, I had not known, he dragged me from the +berth, and made as if he would choke me there and then with his naked +hands. Instead, however, he suddenly loosed me. "Faugh," he cried; "I +will not dirty my hands with you! That such as you--_you_ should be a +man's death! _You!_ But you shall not escape. Gill, up with him! Up +with him and to the yard-arm. String him up! He shall swing before he +is an hour older!" + +"In Dunquerque harbour?" said the other. + +"Why not?" + +"Why not?" said the master. "Because, Mr. Birkenhead, I serve a King +_de jure_ and not _de facto_. That is why not. And if you want another +reason----" + +"Well?" + +"I am not aware that His Majesty has raised you to the Bench," the +master answered sturdily. + +"Oh, you have turned sea-lawyer, have you?" + +"Law is law," said the shipmaster. "England, or France, or the high +seas." + +"And owling is owling!" the other retorted with passion. "And +smuggling, smuggling! You are a fine man to talk! If you will not hang +him--as they will hang Fenwick, so help me, never doubt it!--what will +you do with him?" + +"Give my men a bag of sand apiece, and let him run the gauntlet," the +captain answered, with a phlegm that froze me. "Trust me, sir, they +will not leave much of a balance owing." + +It was terrible to see how Birkenhead, vain, choleric and maddened by +disappointment, jumped at the cruel suggestion. For me, I shrank into +the bunk into the farthest corner, and cried for mercy; I might as +well have cried to the winds. I was hauled out, the word passed up, +and despite my desperate struggles, prayers and threats--the latter +not unmingled with the name of Shrewsbury, which did but harden +them--I was dragged to the foot of the ladder. Thence I was carried on +deck, where, half-dead with fear and powerless in the hands of three +stout seamen, I met none but grinning faces and looks of cruel +anticipation. Few need to be told with what zest the common herd flock +to a scene of cruel sport, how hard are their bosoms, how fiendish the +pleasure which all but the most humane and thoughtful take in helpless +suffering. Small was the chance that my pleas of innocence and appeals +for a hearing would gain attention. All was ready, the men bared their +arms and licked their lips, and in a moment I must have been set for +the baiting. + +But in certain circumstances the extremity of fear is another name for +the extremity of daring; and the master, at this last moment going to +range the crew in two lines, and one of the sailors who had me in +charge releasing me for an instant, that he might arm himself with a +sand-bag, I saw my opportunity. With a desperate swing I wrenched +myself from the grasp of the other men. That done, a single bound +carried me to the plank which joined the deck to the shore. I flew +across it, swift as the wind; and as the whole crew seeing what had +happened broke from their stations and with yells and whoops of glee +took up the chase, I sprang on shore. Bursting recklessly through the +fringe of idlers whom the arrival of the ship had brought to the +water's edge, I sped across the open wharf, threaded a labyrinth of +bales and casks, and darted up the first lane to which I came. + +Fear gave me wings, and I left the wharf a score of yards ahead of my +pursuers. But the seamen, who had taken up the chase with the gusto of +boys let loose from school, made up for the lack of speed by whooping +like demons; and the English among them halloing "Stop Thief!" and the +others some French words alike in import, the alarm went abreast of +me. Fortunately the lane was almost deserted, and I easily evaded +the halfhearted efforts to stop me, which one or two made. It seemed +that I should for the present get away. But at the last moment, at the +head of the lane fate waited for me: an old woman standing in a +doorway--and who made, as I came up, as if she was afraid of me--flung +a bucket after me. It fell in front of me, I trod on the edge and fell +with a shriek of pain. + +Before I could rise or speak, the foremost of the sailors came up and +struck me on the head with a sand-bag; and the others as they arrived +rained blows on me without mercy. I managed to utter a cry, then +instinctively covered my head with my arms. They belaboured me until +they were tired and I almost senseless; when, thinking me dead, they +went off whistling, and I crawled into the nearest doorway and fainted +away. + + + + + CHAPTER XL + + +When I recovered my senses I was on my back in one of eighteen beds, +in a long white-walled room, having barred windows, and a vaulted +ceiling. A woman, garbed strangely in black, and with a queer white +cap drawn tight round her face, leaned over me, and with her finger +laid to her lips, enjoined silence. Here and there along the wall were +pictures of saints; and at the end two candles burned before a kind of +altar. I had an idea that I had been partly conscious, and had lain +tossing giddily with a burning head, and a dreadful thirst through +days and nights of fever. Now, though I could scarcely raise my head, +and my brain reeled if I stirred, I was clear-minded, and knew that +the bone of my leg was broken, and that for that reason I had a bed to +myself where most lay double. For the rest I was so weak I could only +cry in pure gratitude when the nun came to me in my turn, and fed me, +and plain, stout, and gentle-eyed, laid her fingers on her lip, or +smiling, said in her odd English "Quee-at, quee-at, monsieur!" + +In face of the blessings which the Protestant Succession, as settled +in our present House of Hanover, has secured to these islands, it +would little become me to find a virtue in papistry; and my late lord, +who early saw and abjured the errors of that faith, would have been +the last to support or encourage such a thesis. Notwithstanding which, +I venture to say that the devotion of these women to their calling is +a thing not to be decried, merely because we have no counterpart of +it, nor the charity of that hospital, simply because the burning of +candles and worshipping of saints alternate with the tendance of the +wretched. On the contrary, it seems to me that were such a profession, +the idolatrous vows excepted, grafted on our Church, it might redound +alike to the credit of religion--which of late the writings of Lord +Bolingbroke have somewhat belittled--and to the good of mankind. + +So much with submission; nor will the most rigid of our divines blame +me, when they learn that I lay ten weeks in the Maison de Dieu at +Dunquerque, dependent for everything on the kind offices of those good +women; and nursed during that long period with a solicitude and +patience not to be exceeded by that of wife or mother. When I had so +far recovered as to be able to leave my bed, and move a few yards on +crutches, I was assisted to a shady courtyard, nestled snugly between +the hospital and the old town wall. Here, under a gnarled mulberry +tree which had sheltered the troops of Parma, I spent my time in a +dream of peace, through which nuns, apple-faced and kind-eyed, flitted +laden with tisanes, or bearing bottles that called for the immediate +attention of M. le Medecin's long nose and silver-rimmed spectacles. +Occasionally their Director would seat himself beside me, and silently +run through his office: or instruct me in the French tongue, and the +evils of Jansenism--mainly by means of the snuff-box which rarely left +his fine white hands. More often the meagre apothecary, young, yellow, +dry, ambitious, with a hungry light in his eyes, would take an English +lesson, until the coming of his superior routed him, and sent him to +his gallipots and compounding with a flea in his ear. + +Such were the scenes and companions that attended my return to health; +nor, my spirits being attuned to these, should I have come to seek or +desire others, though enhanced by my native air--a species of inertia, +more easily excused by those who have viewed French life near at hand, +than by such as have never travelled--but for an encounter as +important in its consequences as it was unexpected, which broke the +even current of my days. + +It was no uncommon thing for the nuns to bring one of my own +countrymen to me, in the fond hope that I might find a friend. But as +these persons, from the nature of the case, were invariably Jacobites, +and either knowing something of my story, thought me well served, or +coming to examine me, shied at the names of Mr. Brome and Lord +Shrewsbury, such efforts had but one end. When I heard, therefore, for +the fourth or fifth time that a compatriot of mine, amiable, and of a +vivacity _tout-a-fait marveilleuse_ was coming to see me, I was as far +from supposing that I should find an acquaintance, as I was from +anticipating the interview with pleasure. Imagine my surprise, +therefore, when S[oe]ur Marie called me into the garden at the +appointed time; and, her simple face shining with delight, led me to +the old mulberry tree, where, who should be sitting but Mary Ferguson! + +She had as little expected to meet me as I to meet her, but coming on +me thus suddenly, and seeing me lame, and in a sense a cripple, +reduced, moreover, by the long illness through which I had passed, she +let her feelings have way. Such tenderness as she had entertained for +me before welled up now with irresistible force, and giving the lie to +a certain hoydenish hardness, inherent in a disposition which was +never one of the most common, in a moment she was in my arms. If she +did not weep herself, she pardoned, and possibly viewed with pleasure, +those tears on my part, which weakness and surprise drew from me, +while a hundred broken words and exclamations bore witness to the +gratitude she felt on the score of her escape. + +Thus brought together, in a strange country, and agitated by a hundred +memories, nothing was at first made clear, except that we belonged to +one another, and S[oe]r Marie had long fled to carry the tale with +mingled glee and horror into the house, before we grew sufficiently +calm to answer the numberless questions which it occurred to each to +ask. + +At length Mary, pressed to tell me how she had fared since her escape, +made one of the odd faces I could so well remember. And "Not as I +would, but as I could," she said, dryly. "By crossing with letters." + +"Crossing?" I exclaimed. + +"To be sure," she answered. "I go to and from London with letters." + +"But should you be taken?" I cried, with a vivid remembrance of the +terror into which the prospect of punishment had thrown her. + +She shrugged her shoulders; yet suppressed, or I was mistaken, a +shudder. Then "What will you?" she said, spreading out her little +hands French fashion, and making again that odd grimace. "It is the +old story. I must live, Dick. And what can a woman do? Will Lady +Middleton take me for her children's _governante?_ Or Lady Melfort +find me a place in her household? I am Ferguson's niece, a backstairs +wench of whom no one knows anything. If I were handsome now, _bien!_ +As I am not--to live I must risk my living." + +"You are handsome enough for me!" I cried. + +She raised her eyebrows, with a look in her eyes that, I remember, +puzzled me. "Well, may be," she said a trifle tartly. "And the other +is neither here nor there. For the rest, Dick, I live at Captain +Gill's, and his wife claws me Monday and kisses me Tuesday." + +"And you have taken letters to London?" I said, wondering at her +courage. + +"Three times," she answered, nodding soberly. "And to Tunbridge +once. A woman passes. A man would be taken. So Mr. Birkenhead says. +But----" and with the word she broke off abruptly, and stared at me; +and continued to stare at me, her face which was rounder and more +womanly than in the old days, falling strangely. + + +[Illustration: SHE LISTENED IN SILENCE, STANDING OVER ME WITH +SOMETHING OF THE SEVERITY OF A JUDGE] + + +It wore such a look indeed, that I glanced over my shoulder thinking +that she saw something. Finding nothing, "Mary!" I cried. "What is it? +What is the matter?" + +"Are you the man who came with Sir John Fenwick to the shore?" she +cried, stepping back a pace--she had already risen, "And betrayed him? +Dick! Dick, don't say it!" she continued hurriedly, holding out her +hands as if she would ward off my words. "Don't say that you are +_that_ man! I had forgotten until this moment whom I came to see; who, +they said, was here." + +Her words stung me, even as her face frightened me. But while I winced +a kind of courage, born of indignation and of a sense of injustice +long endured, came to me; and I answered her with spirit. "No," I +said, "I am not that man." + +"No?" she cried. + +"No!" I said defiantly. "If you mean the man that betrayed Sir John +Fenwick. But I will tell you what man I am--if you will listen to me." + +"What are yon going to tell me?" she answered, the troubled look +returning. And then, "Dick, don't lie to me!" she cried quickly. + +"I have no need," I said. And with that, beginning at the beginning, I +told her all the story which is written here, so far as it was not +already known to her. She listened in silence, standing over me with +something of the severity of a judge, until I came to the start from +London with Matthew Smith. + +There she interrupted me. "One moment," she said in a hard voice; and +she fixed me with keen, unfriendly eyes. "You know that Sir John +Fenwick was taken two days later, and is in the Tower?" + +"I know nothing," I said, holding out my hands and trembling with the +excitement of my story, and the thought of my sufferings. + +"Not even that?" + +"No, nothing; not even that," I said. + +"Nor that within a month, in all probability, he will be tried and +executed!" + +"No." + +"Nor that your master is in peril? You have not heard that Sir John +has turned on him and denounced him before the Council of the King?" + +"No," I said. "How should I?" + +"What?" she cried incredulously. "You do not know that with which all +England is ringing--though it touches you of all men?" + +"How should I?" I said feebly. "Who would tell me here? And for weeks +I have been ill." + +She nodded. "Go on," she said. + +I obeyed. I took up the thread again, told her how we reached Ashford, +how I saw Sir John, how I fled, and how I was pursued; finally how I +was received on board the boat, and never, until the following day, +when Birkenhead flung it in my teeth, guessed that I had forestalled +Sir John, and robbed him of his one chance of escape. "For if I had +known," I continued warmly, "why should I fly from him? What had I to +fear from him? Or what to gain, if Smith with a pistol were not at my +heels, by leaving England? Gain?" I continued bitterly, seeing that I +had convinced her. "What _did_ I gain? This! This!" And I touched my +crippled leg. + +"Thank God!" she said, with emotion. "Thank God, Dick. But----" + +"But what!" I retorted sharply; for in the telling of the story I had +come to see more clearly than before how cruelly I had been treated. +"But what?" + +"Well, just this," she said gently. "Have you not brought it on +yourself in a measure? If you had been more--that is, I mean, if you +had not been so----" + +"So what?" I cried querulously, seeing her hesitate. + +"Well, so quick to think that it was Matthew Smith--and a pistol," she +answered, smiling rather heartlessly. "That is all." + +"There was a mist," I said. + +She laughed in her odd way. "Of course, Dick, there was a mist," she +agreed. "And you cannot make bricks without straw. And after all you +did make bricks in St. James's Square, and it is not for me to find +fault. But there is a thing to be done, and it must be done." And her +lips closed firmly, after a fashion I remembered, and still remember, +having seen it a hundred times since that day, and learned to humour +it. "One that must be done!" she continued. "Dick, you will not leave +the Duke to be ruined by Matthew Smith? You will not lie here and let +those rogues work their will on him? Sir John has denounced him." + +"And may denounce me!" I said, aghast at the notion. "May denounce +me," I continued with agitation. "_Will_ denounce me. If it was not +the Duke who was at Ashford, it was I!" + +"And who are you?" she retorted, with a look that withered me. +"Who will care whether you met Sir John at Ashford or not? King +William--call him Dutchman, boor, drunkard, as it's the fashion this +side, call him I say what you will--at least he flies at high game, +and does not hawk at mice!" + +"Mice?" + +"Ay, mice!" she answered with a snap of her teeth--and she looked all +over the little vixen she could be. "For what are we? What are we now? +Still more, what are we if we leave the Duke to his enemies, leave him +to be ruined and disgraced, leave him to pay the penalty, while you, +the cause of all this, lie here--lie safe and snug? For shame, Dick! +For shame!" she continued with such a thrill in her voice that the +pigeons feeding behind her fluttered up in alarm, and two or three +nuns looked out inquisitively. + +I had my own thoughts and my own feelings about my lord, as he well +knew in after years. I challenge any to say that I lacked either +respect or affection for him. But a man's wits move more slowly than a +woman's, and the news came on me suddenly. It was no great wonder if I +could not in a moment stomach the prospect of returning to risk and +jeopardy, to the turmoil from which I had been so long freed, and the +hazards of a life and death struggle. In the political life of twenty +years ago men carried their necks to market. Knowing that I might save +the Duke and suffer in his place--the fate of many a poor dependant; +or might be confronted with Smith; or brought face to face with +Ferguson; or perish before I reached London in the net in which my +lord's own feet were caught, I foresaw not one but a hundred dangers; +and those such as no prudent man could be expected to regard with +equanimity, or any but a harebrained girl would encounter with a light +heart. + +Still I desired to stand well with her; and that being so I confess +that it was with relief I remembered my lameness; and named it to her. +Passing over the harshness of her last words, "You are right," I said. +"Something should be done. But for me it is impossible at present. I +am lame, as you see." + +"Lame?" she cried. + +"More than lame," I answered--but there was that in her tone which +bade me avoid her eyes. "A cripple, Mary." + +"No, not a cripple," she answered. + +"Yes," I said. + +"No, Dick," she answered in a voice low, but so grave and firm that I +winced. "Let us be frank for once. Not a cripple, but a coward." + +"I never said I was a soldier," I answered. + +"Nor I," she replied, wilfully misunderstanding me. "I said, a coward! +And a coward I will not marry!" + +With that we looked at one another: and I saw that her face was white. +"Was it a coward saved your life--in the Square?" I muttered at last. + +"No," she answered. "But it was a coward played the sneak for +Ferguson. And a coward played the rogue for Smith! It was a coward +lost Fenwick--because he dare not look behind! And a coward who will +now sacrifice his benefactor, to save his own skin. And _you_ only +know in how many other things you have played the craven. But the +rather for that, up, now, and play the man! You have a chance now! Do +this one brave thing and all will be forgiven. Oh, Dick, Dick!" she +continued--and with a sudden blaze in her face she stooped and threw +her arms round me, "if you love me, do it! Do it for us both! Do +it--or if you cannot, God knows it were better we were hung, than +married!" + +I cannot hope to describe the fervour, which she threw into these last +words, or the effect which they wrought on me, weakened as I was by +long illness. In a voice broken by tears I conjured her to give me +time--to give me time; a few days in which to consider what I would +do. + +"Not a day!" she answered, springing from me in fresh excitement, and +as if my touch burned her. "I will give you no time. You have had a +lifetime, and to what purpose? I will give you no time. Do you give me +your word." + +"To go to England?" + +"Yes." + +I was ashake from head to foot; and groaned aloud. In truth if I had +known the gallows to be the certain and inevitable end of the road, on +which I was asked to enter, I could not have been more sorely beset; +between rage and fear, and shame of her and desire for her. But while +I hung in that misery, she continuing to stand over me, I looked, as +it happened, in her face; and I saw that it was no longer hot with +anger, but sad and drawn as by a sharp pain. And I gave her my word, +trembling and shaking. + +"Now," said she, "are you a brave man; and perhaps the bravest." + + + + + CHAPTER XLI + + +That the arrest of Sir John Fenwick, reported in London on the 13th of +June, was regarded by all parties as an event of the first magnitude, +scarce exceeded in importance by a victory in Flanders or a defeat in +the Mediterranean, is a thing not to be denied at this time of day; +when men, still in their prime, can recall the commotion occasioned by +it. The private animosity, which was believed to exist between Sir +John and the King, and which dated, if the gossip of Will's and +Garraway's went for anything, not from the slight which he had put +upon the late Queen, but from a much earlier period, when he had +served under William in Flanders, aroused men's curiosity, and in a +sense their pity; as if they were to see here the end of a Greek +drama. + +Nor, apart from the public and general interest, which Sir John's +birth and family connections, no less than his share in the plot, +considerably augmented, was there any faction which could view his +arrest with indifference. He had been so deep in the confidence of St. +Germain's that were he to make a discovery, not Tories and Jacobites +only lay at his mercy, but all that large class among the Whigs who +had stooped to palter with James. These, as they were the more +culpable had also more to fear. Trembling at the prospect of a +disclosure which must convict them of practices at variance with their +most solemn professions, they were supported by none of those +sentiments of loyalty, honourable if mistaken, which excused the +others; while as each fondly thought his perfidy unknown to his +neighbour, and dreaded nothing so much as detection by the rank and +file of the party, he found the burden of apprehension weigh the more +heavily, because he had none to share it with him. + +The absence of the King, who was campaigning in Flanders, aggravated +the suspense; which prevailed so widely for the reasons above, and +others, that it is not too much to say that barely four politicians +could be found of the first or second rank who were not nearly +concerned in the question of Sir John Fenwick's silence. Of these, +however, I make bold to say that my lord was one; and though the news +that Sir John, who lay in the Tower, had sent for the Duke of +Devonshire may have excited a passing feeling of jealousy in his +mind--since he and not the other Duke was the person to whom Sir John +might more fitly unbosom himself--I am confident, and, indeed, had it +from his own lips, that at this time he had no notion of any danger +threatening himself. + +His eyes were first opened by the Earl of Marlborough; who, calling +upon him one day, ostensibly on business connected with the Princess +Anne (to whom the King had been reconciled before his departure), +presently named Sir John. From this to the statement made to the Duke +of Devonshire, and the rumours of its contents which filled the +coffee-houses, was but a step. The Earl seemed concerned; my lord, in +his innocence, sceptical. + +At length the latter spoke out what was in his mind. "To tell you the +truth, my lord," he said frankly, "I think it is a mare's nest. I +don't believe that any statement has been made." + +The Earl looked astonished. "May I ask why not?" he said. + +"Because, unless I am much mistaken," my lord answered smiling, "the +Duke would have brought it straight to me. And I have heard nothing of +it." + +"You have not asked the Duke?" + +"Of course not." + +"But--he was with Sir John," the Earl persisted steadily. "There is no +doubt of that, is there?" + +"Oh, no." + +"Well, then, is not that in itself strange?" + +"I think not, there have always been friendly relations," my lord +continued, "between the Duke and Sir John." + +"Just so," Lord Marlborough answered, taking a pinch of snuff. "Still, +do those relations warrant the Lord Steward in visiting him now?" + +The Secretary looked a little startled. "Well, I don't know," he said. +"But the Duke of Devonshire's patriotism is so well established----" + +"That he may steal the horse, while we look over the wall," Lord +Marlborough answered, taking him up with a smile. "Be that as it may," +he continued, "and I am sure that the same may be said of the Duke of +Shrewsbury,"--here the two noblemen bowed to one another--"I think +your Grace's information is somewhat faulty on this point. I happen to +know that immediately after the interview a special messenger left +Devonshire House for Loo; and that the matters he carried were reduced +into writing by his Grace's own hand. That being so, Duke, you are +better qualified to draw the inference than I am." + +My lord, at that, looked grave and nodded, being convinced; and I do +not doubt that he felt the slight which the other Duke's silence +implied. But though, of all the men I have ever met, he was the most +sensitive, he was the last also, to wear his heart on his sleeve; and +not only did he refrain from complaint of his colleague's conduct, but +he hastened to dispel by a word or two the effect of his momentary +gravity. "Ah, then I can guess what happened," he said, nodding his +comprehension. "I have no doubt that Sir John made it a term that his +discovery should be delivered to the King at first hand--and to no one +else." + +Lord Marlborough rose. "Duke," he said firmly, "I think it is fair +that I should be more frank with you. The reason you give is not the +reason they are giving in the coffee-houses--for the Lord Steward's +reticence." + +"No!" said my lord, with a faint note of scorn in his voice. + +"No," said the Earl. "On the contrary, they say at Will's--and for the +matter of that at the St. James's too, that the statement is kept +close because it touched men in power." + +"In power?" said my lord, with the same note in his voice. "In the +Council, do you mean?" + +"Yes; three men." + +"Do they name them?" + +"Certainly," said my Lord Marlborough, smiling. "And they join with +the three one who is not in power." + +"Ah!" + +"Myself." + +Nothing could exceed the placid indifference, as natural as it was +free from exaggeration, which the Earl contrived to throw into his +last word. Yet my lord started, and shuffled uneasily in his chair. +Knowing something, and perhaps suspecting more, aware of the character +which his enemies attributed to Lord Marlborough, he would not have +been the statesman he was, if he had not fancied an ulterior design, +in an admission not a little embarrassing. He confined himself, +therefore, to a polite shrug expressive of incredulity, and to the +words "_Credat Judaeus_." + +"Just so," said Lord Marlborough, whose erudition was not on a par +with the marvellous strategical powers he has since displayed. "What, +then, will your Grace say--to Ned Russell?" + +"The First Lord of the Admiralty? Is _he_ named?" + +"In the coffee-houses." + +"Ah!" + +"Lord Godolphin!" + +"Impossible!" + +"Not so impossible as the fourth," Lord Marlborough answered, with a +light laugh, in which courtesy, amusement, and a fine perception of +the ridiculous were nicely mingled. "Can you not guess, Duke?" + +But my lord, too prudent to suggest names in that connection, shook +his head. "Who could?" he said, raising his eyebrows scornfully. "They +might as well name me, as some you are mentioning." + +Lord Marlborough laughed softly. "My very dear Duke," he said, "that +is just what they are doing! They do name you. You are the fourth." + +I believe that my lord had so little expected the answer that for a +space he remained, staring at the speaker, in equal surprise and +dismay. Then his indignation finding vent: "It is not possible!" he +cried. "Even in the coffee-houses! And besides, if your story is true, +my lord, the Duke of Devonshire alone knows what Sir John has +discovered, and whom he has accused!" + +Lord Marlborough pursed up his lips. "Things get known--strangely," he +said. "For instance, the shadow which came between your Grace and His +Majesty in '90--probably you supposed it to be known to the King only, +or if to any besides, to Portland at most? On the contrary, there was +scarce a knot of chatterers at Garraway's but whispered of your +dinners with Middleton, and meetings with Montgomery, watched for the +event, and gave the odds on St. Germain's in guessing." + +The Earl spoke in his airiest manner, took snuff _in medio_, and with +a carelessness that none could so well affect, avoided looking at his +hearer. Nevertheless, the shaft went home. My lord, smitten between +the joints of his harness, suffered all that a proud and sensitive +man, apprised on a sudden that his dearest secrets were the property +of the market-place, could suffer; and rage dissipating the composure +which self-respect would fain have maintained, "My lord, this is going +too far!" he gasped. "Who gave your lordship leave to--to touch on a +matter which concerns only myself?" + +"Simply this later matter," the Earl answered in a plain, +matter-of-fact tone that at once sobered the Duke, and seemed to +justify his own interference. "If there is anything at all in this +rumour--if Sir John has really said anything, I take it that the old +gossip is at the bottom of it." + +The Duke stared before him with a troubled face; and did not answer. +To some it might have seemed the most natural course to carry the war +into the informant's country, and by a dry question or a pregnant word +suggest that at least as good grounds existed for the imputation cast +on _him_. But such a line of argument was beneath the dignity, which +was never long wanting, to my lord; and he made no attempt to disturb +the other's equanimity or question his triumph. After a time, however, +"I beg your pardon," he said. "I forgot myself and spoke hastily. But +he is a most impudent fellow!" + +"A d----d impudent fellow," the Earl cried, with more fervour than he +had yet exhibited. + +"And he is playing an impudent game," my lord continued, thoughtfully. +"But a dangerous one." + +"As he will find to his cost, before he has done!" Lord Marlborough +answered. "It is cunningly thought of. If he will save his head he +must give up some one. So, as he will not give up his friends he will +ruin his enemies; if the King is a fool, and can spare us." + +"The King is no fool!" said the Duke, rather coldly. It was no secret +that between William and Lord Marlborough love was not lost. + +"Well, that may be a good thing for us!" the Earl answered lightly. He +had not the reputation even with his friends of setting his feelings +before his interest; nor probably in all England was there a man who +looked out on the world with a keener eye to benefit by the weaknesses +of men and make profit of their strength. + +I know that it ill-becomes one in my station to carp at the great +Duke, as men now style him; though of all his greatness, genius, and +courage, there remains but a poor drivelling childishness, calling +every minute for a woman's tendance. And far am I from giving voice or +encouragement to the hints of those, who, hating him, maintain that in +future times things incredibly base will be traced to his door. But +truth is truth; that he knew more of the matter now threatening and +stood to lose more by it than my lord, I have little doubt; nor that +this being so, the real object of his visit was to ensure the solidity +of the assailed phalanx, and particularly to make it certain that the +Secretary, whose weight with the King was exceeded only by his +popularity with the party, should not stand aloof from the common +hazard. + +Having attained this object, so far as it could be obtained in a +single interview, and finding that the Duke, in spite of all his +efforts to the contrary, continued moody and distraught, he presently +took his leave. But to my lord's astonishment, he was announced again +ten minutes later. He re-entered with profuse apologies. + +"I went from your Grace's to the Venetian Ambassador's on the farther +side of the Square," he said. "There I heard it confidently stated +that Goodman, one of the two witnesses against Sir John, had +absconded. Have you heard it, Duke?" + +"No," my lord answered with some dryness. "And I am sure that it is +not true." + +"You would have heard it?" + +"Necessarily." + +"Nevertheless, and craving your pardon," the Earl answered slowly, "I +think that there is something in it. If he has not been induced to go, +I fancy from what I hear that he is hesitating." + +"Then he must be looked to." + +"Yet! were he to go, you see--it would make all the difference--to Sir +John," the Earl said. "There would be only Porter; and the Act +requires two witnesses." + +My lord lifted his eyebrows; that two witnesses were required in a +case of treason was too trite a statement to call for comment. Then +seeing the other's drift, he smiled. "That were to lick the platter, +my lord, in order to keep the fingers clean," he said. + +Lord Marlborough laughed airily. "Well put," he said, not a whit +abashed. "So it would. You are right, Duke, as you always are. But I +have detained you too long." With which, and another word of apology, +he took his leave a second time. + +That he left an unhappy man behind him, none can doubt, who knew the +Duke's sensitive nature, and respect for his high position and +dignity. To find that the weakness, venial and casual, of which he had +been guilty years before in stooping to listen to Lord Middleton's +solicitations--a fault which he had fancied known only to the King and +by him forgiven--to find that this was the property of the public, was +burden enough; but to learn that on this was to be founded a fresh +charge, for the proper refutation of which the past must be raked up, +was torture intolerable. In a fine sense of the ridiculous, my lord +excelled any man of his time; he could feather therefore out of his +own breast the shafts of evil that would be aimed at the man, who, one +of the seven to bring over William in '88, had stooped in '89 to +listen to the Exile! He could see more clearly than any all the +inconsistency, all the folly, all the weakness of the course, to which +he had, not so much committed himself, as been tempted to commit +himself. The Minister unfaithful, the patriot importuned, were parts +in which he saw himself exposed to the town, to the sallies of Tom +Brown, and the impertinences of Ned Ward; nay, in proportion as he +appreciated the grandeur of honest rebellion, of treason, open and +declared, he felt shame for the pettiness of the part he had himself +played, a waverer when trusted, and a palterer when in power. + +Such reflections weighed on him so heavily that though one of the +proudest and therefore to those below him one of the most courteous +and considerate of men, he could scarcely bring himself to face his +subordinates, when the hour came for him to attend the office. Sir +John Trumball still deferred to him, Mr. Vernon still bowed until +the curls of his wig hid his stout red cheeks, the clerks where he +came still rose, pale, smug, and submissive, in his honour. But he +fancied--quite falsely--something ironical in this respect; he +pictured nods and heard words behind his back; and suspecting the +talk, which hushed at his entrance rose high on his departure, to be +at his expense, he underwent a score of martyrdoms before he returned +to St. James's Square. + +Meanwhile the absence of the King aggravated his position; firstly, by +depriving him of the only confidant his pride permitted him; secondly, +by adding to his troubles the jealousies which invariably attend +government by a Council. Popularly considered, he was first Minister +of the Crown, and deepest in the King's confidence. But the knowledge +that one of his colleagues withheld a matter from him, and was in +private communication with William in respect to it, was not rendered +less irksome by the suspicion, amounting almost to a certainty, that +his own concern in the business was that of a culprit. This it was +which first and most intimately touched his dignity; and this it was +which at the end of a fortnight of suspense drove him to a desperate +resolution. He would broach the matter to the Duke of Devonshire; and +learn the best and the worst of it. + +Desiring to do this in a manner the least formal he took occasion to +dismiss his coach at the next Council meeting, and telling the Duke +that he wished to mention a matter to him, he begged a seat in his +equipage. But whether the Lord Steward foresaw what was coming and +parried the subject discreetly, or my lord's heart failed him, they +reached the Square, and nothing said, except on general topics. There, +my lord's people coming out to receive them, it seemed natural to ask +the Duke of Devonshire to enter; but my lord, instead, begged the Duke +to drive him round and round a while; and when they were again +started, "I have not been well lately," he said--which was true, more +than one having commented on it at the Council Table--"and I wished to +tell you, that I fear I shall find it necessary to go into the country +for a time." + +"To Roehampton?" said his companion, after a word or two of regret. + +"No, to Eyford." + +For a moment his Grace of Devonshire was silent; and my lord without +looking at him had the idea that he was startled. At length as the +coach went by London House, "I would not do that--just at this time," +he said, quietly. + +"Why not?" asked my lord. + +"Because--well, for one thing, the King's service may suffer." + +"That is not your reason!" quoth my lord, stubbornly. "You are +thinking of the Fenwick matter." + +Again the other Duke delayed his answer: but when he spoke his voice +was both kind and earnest. "Frankly, I am," he said. "If you know so +much, Duke, you know that it would have an ill-appearance." + +"How?" said my lord. "Let me tell you that all Sir John knows or can +know, the King knows--and has known for some time." + +This time there was no doubt that the Lord Steward was startled. "You +cannot mean it, Duke," he said, in a constrained voice, and with a +gesture of reproach. "You cannot mean that it was with his Majesty's +knowledge you had a meeting with Sir John, he being outlawed at the +time and under ban? That were to make His Majesty at best an abettor +of treason; and at worst a viler thing! For to incite to treason and +then to persecute the traitor--but it is impossible!" + +"I have not the least notion what your Grace means," my lord said, in +a freezing tone. "What is this folly about a meeting with Sir John?" + +The Duke of Devonshire was as proud as my patron; and nothing in the +great mansion which he was then building in the wilds of the +Derbyshire Peak was likely to cause the gaping peasants more +astonishment than he felt at this setback. "I don't understand your +Grace," he said, at last, in a tone of marked offence. + +"Nor I you," my lord answered, thoroughly roused. + +"I am afraid--I have said too much," said the other, stiffly. + +"Or too little," my lord retorted. "You must go on now." + +"Must? Must?" quoth the Duke, whose high spirit had ten years before +led him to strike a blow that came near to costing him his estate. + +"Ay, must--in justice," said my lord. "In justice to me as well as to +others." + +After a brief pause, "That is another thing," answered the Lord +Steward civilly. "But--is it possible, Duke, that you know so much, +and do not know that Sir John asserts that you met him at Ashford two +days only before his capture, and entrusted him with a ring and a +message--both for St. Germain's?" + +"At Ashford?" + +"Yes." + +"This is sheer madness," my lord cried, holding his hand to his head. +"Are you mad, Devonshire, or am I?" + +Whether the Duke, having heard Sir John's story and marked his manner +of telling it, had prejudged the cause, or thought that my lord +over-acted surprise, he did not immediately answer; and when he did +speak, his tone was dry, though courteous. "Well, of course--it may be +Sir John who is mad," he said. + +"D----n Sir John," my lord answered, sitting up in the coach and +fairly facing his companion. "You do not mean to tell me that you +believe this story of a cock and a bull, and a--a----" + +"A ring," said the Duke of Devonshire, quietly. + +"Well?" + +"Well, Duke, it is this way," the Lord Steward replied. "Sir John has +something to say about three others. Lord Marlborough, Ned Russell, +and Godolphin. And what he says about them I know in the main to be +true. Therefore----" + +"You infer that he is telling the truth about me?" cried my lord, +fuming, yet covering his rage with a decent appearance since a hundred +eyes were on them as they drove slowly round in the glass coach. + +"Not altogether. There are other things." + +"What other things?" + +"The talk there was about your Grace and Middleton at the time of your +resignation." + +My lord groaned. "All the world knows that, it seems," he said. "And +should know that I have never denied it." + +"True." + +"But this! It is the most absurd, the most ridiculous, the most +fantastical story! How could I go out of town for twenty-four hours, +and the fact not be known to half London? Let Sir John name the day." + +"He has," the other Duke answered. "He lays it on the tenth of June." + +"Well?" + +"There was a Land Bank meeting of the Council on that day. But your +Grace did not attend it." + + +[Illustration: HE SHUT HIMSELF IN WITH HIS TROUBLE] + + +"No? No, I remember I did not. It was the day my mother was taken ill. +She sent for me, and I lay at her house that night and the next." + +His Grace of Devonshire coughed. "That is unfortunate," he said, and +leaned forward to bow to the Bishop of London, whose chariot had just +entered the Square. + +"Why?" said my lord, ready to take offence at anything. + +"Because, though I do not doubt your word, the world will require +witnesses. And Lady Shrewsbury's household is suspect. Her Jacobite +leanings are known, and her people's evidence would go for little. +That that should be the day--but there, there, your Grace must take +courage," the Duke continued kindly. "All that the party can do will +be done. Within the week Lord Portland will be here bringing his +Majesty's commands, and we shall then know what he proposes to do +about it. If I know the King, and I think I do----" + +But the picture which these words suggested to my lord's mind was too +much for his equanimity. To know for certain that the King, who had +extended indulgence to him once, was in possession of this new +accusation, and perhaps believed it, that was bad enough. But to hear +that Portland also was in the secret, and grim, faithful Dutchman as +he was, might presently, in support of the low opinion of English +fidelity which he held, quote him, the first Minister of England, was +too much! In a hoarse voice he cut the Duke short, asking to be set +down before they quarrelled; and his Grace, hastening with a hurried +word of sympathy to comply, my lord stepped out, and looking neither +to right nor left, passed into the house, and to the library, where, +locking the door, he shut himself in with his trouble. + + + + + CHAPTER XLII + + +I have commonly reckoned it among my lord's greatest misfortunes that +in a crisis of his affairs which demanded all the assistance that +friendship, the closest and most intimate could afford, he had neither +wife nor child to whom he could turn, and from whom, without loss of +dignity, he might receive comfort and support. He was a solitary man; +separated from such near relations as he had, by differences as well +religious as political, and from the world at large by the grandeur of +a position which imposed burdens as onerous as the privileges it +conferred were rare. + +To a melancholy habit, which some attributed to the sad circumstances +attendant on his father's death, and others to the change of faith, +which he had been induced to make on reaching manhood, he added a +natural shyness and reserve, qualities which, ordinarily veiled from +observation by manners and an address the most charming and easy in +the world, were none the less obstacles, where friendship was in +question. Not that of friendship there was much among the political +men of that day, the perils and uncertainties of the time inculcated a +distrust, which was only overcome where blood or marriage cemented the +tie--as in the case of Lords Sunderland, Godolphin, and Marlborough, +and again of the Russells and Cavendishes. But, be that as it may, my +lord stood outside these bonds, and enjoyed and rued a splendid +isolation. As if already selected by fortune for that strange +combination of great posts with personal loneliness, which was to be +more strikingly exhibited in the death-chamber of her late Majesty +Queen Anne, he lived, whether in his grand house in St. James's +Square, or at Eyford among the Gloucestershire Wolds, as much apart as +any man in London or in England. + +Withal, I know, men called him the King of Hearts. But the popularity, +of which that title seemed the sign and seal, was factitious and +unreal; born, while they talked with him, of his spontaneous kindness +and boundless address; doomed to perish an hour later, of spite and +envy, or of sheer inanition. Since the Duke was sensitive, over-proud +for intimacy, flattered no man, and gave no man confidences. + +Such an one bade fair, when in trouble, to eat out his heart. Prone to +fancy all men's hands against him, he doubled the shame and outdid the +most scandalous. So far, indeed, was he from deriving comfort from +things that would have restored such men as my Lord Marlborough to +perfect self-respect and composure, that I believe, and in fine had it +from himself, that the letter which the King wrote to him from Loo +(and which came to his hands through Lord Portland's, three days after +the interview with his Grace of Devonshire) pained him more sensibly +than all that had gone before. + +"You may judge of my astonishment," His Majesty wrote, "at his +effrontery in accusing you. You are, I trust, too fully convinced of +the entire confidence which I place in you to think that such stories +can make any impression on me. You will observe this honest man's +sincerity, who only accuses those in my service, and not one of his +own party." + +It will be understood that that in His Majesty's letter which touched +my lord home was less the magnanimity displayed in it than the +remembrance that once before the Sovereign had dealt with the subject +in the same spirit, and that now the world must know this. Of the +immediate accusation, with all its details of time and circumstance, +he thought little, believing, not only that the truth must quickly +sweep it away, but that in the meantime few would be found so +credulous as to put faith in it. But he saw with painful clearness +that the charge would rub the old sore and gall the old raw; and he +winced, seated alone in his library in the silence of the house, as if +the iron already seared the living flesh. With throes of shame he +foresaw what staunch Whigs, such as Somers and Wharton, would say of +him; what the _Postboy_ and the _Courant_ would print of him; what the +rank and file of the party--exposed to no danger in the event of a +Restoration, and consequently to few temptations to make their peace +abroad--would think of their trusted leader, when they learned the +truth. + +On Marlborough and Russell, Godolphin and Sunderland, the breath of +suspicion had blown: on him never, and he had held his head high. How +could he meet them now? How could he face them? Nay, if that were all, +how, he asked himself, could he face the honest Nonjuror? Or the +honest Jacobite? Or the honest Tory? He, who had taken the oaths to +the new government and broken them, who had set up the new government +and deceived it, who had dubbed himself patriot--_cui bono?_ Presently +brooding over it, he came to think that there was but one man in +England, _turpissimus_; that it would be better in the day of +reckoning for the meanest carted pickpocket, whose sentence came +before him for revision, than for the King's Secretary in his garter +and robes! + +Nor, if he had known all that was passing, and all that was being +said, among those with whom his fancy painfully busied itself, would +he have been the happier. For Sir John's statement got abroad with +marvellous quickness. Before Lord Portland arrived from Holland the +details were whispered in every tavern and coffee-house within the +Bills. The Tories and Jacobites, aiming above everything at finding a +counterblast to the Assassination Plot, the discovery of which had so +completely sapped their credit with the nation, pounced on the scandal +with ghoulish avidity, and repeated and exaggerated it on every +occasion. Every Jacobite house of call, from the notorious Dog in +Drury Lane, the haunt of mumpers and foot-pads, to the Chocolate House +in St. James's rang with it. For Sir John, all (they said among +themselves) that they had expected of him was surpassed by this. He +was extolled to the skies alike for what he had done and for what he +had not done; and as much for the wit that had confounded his enemies +as for the courage that had protected his friends. For what Jacobite, +seeing the enemy hoist with his own petard could avoid a snigger? Or +hear the word Informer without swearing that Sir John was the most +honest man who ever signed his name to a deposition. + +The Whigs on the other hand, exasperated by an attack as subtle as it +was unforeseen, denied the charges with a passion and fury that of +themselves betrayed apprehension. Here, they said, was another Taafe; +suborned by the same gang and the same vile machinations that had +brought about the Lancashire failure, and hounded Trenchard to his +death. Not content with threatening Sir John with the last penalties +of treason and felony, and filling the Rose Tavern with protestations, +which admitted the weight while they denied the truth of the charges +brought against their leaders, the party called aloud for meetings, +enquiries, and prosecutions; to which the leaders soon found +themselves pledged, whether they would or no. + +My lord out of sensitiveness, or that over-appreciation of what was +due to himself and others which in a degree unfitted him for public +life, had a week before this, pleading indisposition, begun to keep +the house; and to all requests proffered by his colleagues that he +would take part in their deliberations, returned a steadfast negative. +This notwithstanding, everything that was done was communicated to +him; and announcements of the meetings, which it was now proposed to +hold--one at Lord Somers' in Lincoln's Inn Fields, and the other at +Admiral Russell's--would doubtless have been made to him within the +hour. As it chanced, however, he received the news from another +source. On the day of the decision, as he sat alone, dwelling gloomily +on the past, the Square was roused at the quietest time of the +forenoon by an arrival. With a huge chitter, the Countess's glass +chariot, with its outriders, running footmen, and lolling +waiting-women, rolled up to the door; and in a moment my lady was +announced. + +It is probable that there was no one whom he had less wish to see. But +he could not deny himself to her; and he rose with an involuntary +groan. The Countess on her side was in no better temper, as her first +words indicated. "My life, my lord, what is this I hear," she cried +roundly, as soon as the door closed upon her. "That you are lying down +to be trodden on! And cannot do this, and will not do that, but pule +and cry at home while they spin a rope for you! Sakes, man, play the +one side, play the other side--which you please! But play it! play +it!" + +My lord, chagrined as much by the intrusion as by the reproach, +answered her with more spirit than he was wont to use to her. "I +thought, Madam," he answered sharply, "that the one thing you desired +was my withdrawal from public life?" + +"Ay, but not after this fashion!" she retorted, striking her ebony +cane on the floor and staring at him, her reddled face and huge curled +wig trembling. "If all I hear be true--and I hear that they are going +to hold two inquests on you--and you continue to sit here, it will be +a fine withdrawal! You will be doomed by James and blocked by William, +and that d----d rogue John Churchill will wear your clothes! +Withdrawal say you? No, if you had withdrawn six months ago when I +bade you, you would have gone and been thanked. But now, the fat is in +the fire, and, wanting courage, you'll frizzle, my lad." + +"And whom have I to thank for that, Madam?" he asked, with bitterness. + +"Why, yourself, booby!" she cried. + +"No, Madam, your friends!" he replied--which was so true and hit the +mark so exactly that my lady looked rather foolish for a moment. +Without noticing the change, however, "Your friends. Madam," he +continued, "Lord Middleton and Sir John Fenwick, and Montgomery, and +the rest, whom you have never ceased pressing me to join! Who unable +to win me will now ruin me. But you are right, Madam. I see, for +myself now, that it is not possible to play against them with clean +hands, and therefore I leave the game to them." + +"Pack of rubbish!" she cried. + +"It is not rubbish. Madam, as you will find," he answered coldly. "You +say they will hold two inquests on me? There will be no need. Within +the week my resignation of all my posts will be in the King's hands." + +"And you?" + +"And I, Madam, shall be on my way to Eyford." + +Now there is nothing more certain than that for a year past the +Countess had strained every nerve to detach the Duke from the +Government, with a view to his reconciliation with King James and St. +Germain's. But, having her full share of a mother's pride, she was as +far from wishing to see him retire after this fashion as if she had +never conceived the notion. And to this the asperity of her answer +bore witness. "To Eyford?" she cried, shrilly. "More like to Tower +Hill! Or the Three Trees and a thirteenha'penny fee--for that is your +measure! God, my lad, you make me sick! You make me sick!" she +continued, her wrinkled old face distorted by the violence of her +rage, and her cane going tap-a-tap in her half-palsied hand. "That a +son of mine should lack the spirit to turn on these pettifoggers!" + +"Your friends, Madam," he said remorselessly. + +"These perts and start-ups! But you are mad, man! You are mad," she +continued. "Mad as King Jamie was when he fled the country--and who +more glad than the Dutchman! And as it was with him so it will be with +you. They will strip you, Charles. They will strip you bare as you +were born! And the end will be, you'll lie with Ailesbury in the +Tower, or bed with Tony Hamilton in a garret--_la bas!_" + +"Which is precisely the course to which you have been pressing me," he +replied with something of a sneer. + +"Ay, with a full purse!" she screamed. "With a full purse, fool! With +Eyford and fifty thousand guineas, my lad! But go, a beggar, as you'll +go, and it is welcome you'll be--to the doorkey and the kennel, or +like enough to King Louis' Bastile! Tell me, man, that this is all +nonsense! That you'll show your face to your enemies, go abroad and be +King again!" + +My lord answered gravely that his mind was quite made up. + +"To go?" she gasped. "To go to Eyford?" And raising her stick in her +shaking hand, she made a gesture so menacing that, fearing she would +strike him, my lord stepped back. + +Nevertheless, he answered her firmly. "Yes, to Eyford. My letter to +the King is already written." + +"Then that for you, and your King!" she shrieked; and in an excess of +uncontrolled passion, she whirled her stick round and brought it down +on a stand of priceless Venice crystal which stood beside her; being +the same that Seigniors Soranzo and Venier had presented to the Duke +in requital of the noble entertainment which my lord had given to the +Venetian Ambassadors, the April preceding. The blow shivered the +vases, which fell in a score of fragments to the floor; but not +content with the ruin she had accomplished, the Countess struck +fiercely again and again. "There's for you, you poor speechless fool!" +she continued. "That a son of mine should lie down to his enemies! +There was never Brudenel did it. But your father, he too was a----" + +"Madam!" he said, taking her up grimly. "I will not hear you on that!" + +"Ay, but you shall hear me!" she screamed, and yet more soberly. "He, +too, was a----" + +"Silence!" he said; and this time, low as his voice rang, ay, and +though it trembled, it stilled her. "Silence, Madam," he repeated, "or +you do that, which neither the wrong you wrought so many years ago to +him you miscall, nor those things common fame still tells of you, nor +differences of creed, nor differences of party, have prevailed to +effect. Say more of him," he continued, "and we do not meet again, my +lady. For I have this at least from you--that I do not easily +forgive." + +She glared at him a moment, rage, alarm, and vexation, all distorting +her face. Then, "The door!" she hissed. "The door, boor! You are still +my son, and if you will not obey me, shall respect me. Take me out, +and if ever I enter your house again----" + +She did not complete the sentence, but lapsed into noddings and +mowings and mutterings, her fierce black eyes flickering vengeance to +come. However, my lord paid no heed to that, but glad, doubtless, to +be rid of her visit even at the cost of his Venetian, offered her his +arm in silence and led her into the hall and to her chariot. + +She could not avenge herself on him; and it might be, she would not if +she could. But there was one on whom her passion alighted, who with +all her cunning little expected the impending storm. The most astute +are sometimes found napping. And the smoothest pad-nag will plunge. +Whether the favourite waiting-woman had overstepped her authority of +late, presuming on a senility, which existed indeed, but neither +absolutely blinded my lady nor was to be depended on in face of gusts +of passion such as this; whether this was the case, I say, or +Monterey, rendered incautious by success, was unfortunate enough to +betray her triumph, by some look of spite and malice during the drive +home, it is certain that at the door the storm broke. Without the +least warning the Countess, after using her arm to descend, turned on +her, a very Bess of Bedlam. + +"And you, you grinning ape!" she cried, "you come no farther! This is +no home of yours; begone, or I will have you whipped! You don't go +into my house again!" + +The astonished woman, taken utterly aback, and not in the least +understanding, began to remonstrate. Her first thought was that the +Countess was ill. "Your ladyship--is not well?" she cried, with +solicitude veiling her alarm. "You cannot mean----" + +"Ay, but I can! I can!" the old lady answered, mocking her. "You have +done mischief enow, and do no more here! Where is that man of yours, +who went, and never came back, and nought but excuses? And now this." + +"Oh, my lady, what ails you?" the waiting-woman cried. "What does this +mean?" + +"You know!" said my lady with an oath. "So begone about your business, +and don't let me see your face again or it will be the worse for you." + +Disarmed of her usual address by the suddenness of the attack, the +Monterey began to whimper; and again asked how she had offended her +and what she had done to deserve this. "I, who have served you so +long, and so faithfully?" she cried. "What have I done to earn this?" + +"God and you know--better than I do!" was the fierce answer. And then, +"Williams," the Countess cried to her major-domo, who, with the +lacqueys and grooms, was standing by, enjoying the fall of the +favourite--"see that that drab does not cross my threshold again; or +you go, do you hear? Ay, mistress, you would poison me if you could!" +the old lady went on, gibing, and pointing with her stick at the face, +green with venom and spite, that betrayed the baffled woman's +feelings. "Look at her! Look at her! There is Madame Voisin for you! +There is Madame Turner! She would poison you all if she could. But you +should have done it yesterday, you slut! You will not have the chance +now. Put her rags out here--here on the road; and do you, Williams, +send her packing, and see she takes naught of mine, not a pinner or a +sleeve, or she goes to Paddington fair for it! Ay, you drab," my lady +continued, with cruel exultation, "I'll see you beat hemp yet! and +your shoulders smarting!" + +"May God forgive you!" cried the waiting-woman, fighting with her +rage. + +"He may or He may not!" said the dreadful old lady, coolly turning to +go in. "Anyway, your score won't stand for much in the sum, my girl." + +And not until the Countess had gone in and Madame Monterey saw before +her the grinning faces of the servants, as they stood to bar the way, +did she thoroughly take in what had happened to her, or the utter ruin +of all her prospects which this meant. Then, choking with passion, +rage, despair, "Let me pass," she cried, advancing and trying +frantically to push her way through them. "Let me pass, you boobies. +Do you hear? How dare----" + +"Against orders, Madame Voisin!" said the majordomo with a hoarse +laugh; and he thrust her back. And when, maddened by the touch, and +defeat, she flung herself on him in a frenzy, one of the lacqueys +caught her round the waist lifting her off her legs, carried her out +screaming and scratching, and set her down in the road amid the +laughter of his companions. + +"There," he said, "and next time better manners, mistress, or I'll +drop you in the horse pond. You are not young enough, nor tender +enough for these airs! Ten years ago you might have scratched all you +pleased!" + +"Strike you dead!" she cried, "my husband--my husband shall kill you +all! Ay, he shall!" + +"When he gets out of the Gatehouse, we will talk, mistress," the man +answered. "But he's there, and you know it!" + + + + + CHAPTER XLIII + + +My lord persisted in his design of retiring to Eyford; nor could all +the persuasions of his friends, and of some who were less his friends +than their own, induce him to attend either the meeting of the party +at Admiral Russell's, or that which was held in Lincoln's Inn Fields; +a thing which I take to be in itself a refutation of the statement, +sometimes heard in his disparagement, that he lacked strength. For it +is on record that his Grace of Marlborough, in the great war, where he +had in a manner to contend with Emperors and Princes, held all +together by his firmness and conduct; yet he failed with my lord, +though he tried hard, pleading as some thought in his own cause. To +his arguments and those of Admiral Russell and Lord Godolphin, the +hearty support of the party was not lacking, if it could have availed. +But as a fact, it went into the other scale, since in proportion as +his followers proclaimed their faith in my lord's innocence, and +denounced his accusers, he felt shame for the old folly and +inconsistency, that known by some, and suspected by more, must now be +proclaimed to the world. It was this which for a time paralysed the +vigour and intellect that at two great crises saved the Protestant +Party; and this, which finally determined him to leave London. + +It was not known, when he started, that horse-patrols had been ordered +to the Kent and Essex roads in expectation of His Majesty's immediate +crossing. Nor is it likely that the fact would have swayed him had he +known it, since it was not upon His Majesty's indulgence--of which, +indeed, he was assured--or disfavour, that he was depending; my lord +being moved rather by considerations in his own mind. But at +Maidenhead, where he lay the first night, Mr. Vernon overtook +him--coming up with him as he prepared to start in the morning--and +gave him news which presently altered his mind. Not only was His +Majesty hourly expected at Kensington, where his apartments were being +hastily prepared, but he had expressed his intention of seeing Fenwick +at once, and sifting him. + +"Nor is that all," Mr. Vernon continued. "I have reason to think that +your Grace is under a complete misapprehension as to the character of +the charges that are being made." + +"What matter what the charges are?" my lord replied wearily, leaning +back in his coach. For he had insisted on starting. + +"It does matter very much--saving your presence, Duke," Mr. Vernon +answered bluntly; a sober and downright gentleman, whose +after-succession to the Seals, though thought at the time to be an +excessive elevation, and of the most sudden, was fully justified by +his honourable career. "Pardon me, I must speak, I have been swayed +too long by your Grace's extreme dislike of the topic." + +"Which continues," my lord said drily. + +"I care not a jot if it does!" Mr. Vernon cried impetuously, and then +met the Duke's look of surprise and anger with, "Your Grace forgets +that it is treason is in question! High Treason, not in the clouds and +_in pr[oe]terito_, but _in pr[oe]senti_ and in Kent! High Treason in +aiding and abetting Sir John Fenwick, an outlawed traitor, and by his +mouth and hand communicating with and encouraging the King's enemies." + +"You are beside the mark, sir," my lord answered, in a tone of +freezing displeasure. "That has nothing to do with it. It is a foolish +tale which will not stand a minute. No man believes it." + +"May be! But by G----d! two men will prove it." + +"Two men?" quoth my lord, his ear caught by that. + +"Ay, two men! And two men are enough, in treason." + +My lord stared hard before him. "Who is the second?" he said at last. + +"A dubious fellow, yet good enough for the purpose," the +Under-Secretary answered, overjoyed that he had at last got a hearing. +"A man named Matthew Smith, long suspected of Jacobite practices, and +arrested with the others at the time of the late conspiracy, but +released, as he says----" + +"Well?" + +"Corruptly," quoth the Under-Secretary coolly, and laid his hand on +the check-string. + +My lord sprang in his seat. "What?" he cried; and uttered an oath, a +thing to which he rarely condescended. Then, "It is true I know the +man----" + +"He is in the Countess's service." + +"In her husband's. And he was brought before me. But the warrant was +against one John Smith--or William Smith, I forget which--and I knew +this man to be Matthew Smith; and the messenger himself avowing a +mistake, I released the man." + +"Of course," said Mr. Vernon, nodding impatiently. "Of course, but +that, your Grace, is not the gravamen. It is a more serious matter +that he alleges that he accompanied you to Ashford, that you there in +his presence saw Sir John Fenwick, that you gave Sir John a ring--and, +in a word, he confirms Sir John's statement in all points. And there +being now two witnesses, the matter becomes grave. Shall I stop the +coach?" And he made again as if he would twitch the cord. + +The Duke, wearing a very sober face--yet one wherein the light of +conflict began to flicker--drummed softly on the glass with his +fingers. "How do you come by his evidence?" he said at last. "Has Sir +John approved against him?" + +"No, but Sir John sent for him the morning he saw Devonshire for the +second time, and I suppose threatened him, for the fellow went to +Trumball and said that he had evidence to give touching Sir John, if +he could have His Majesty's word he should not suffer. It was given +him, more or less; and he confirmed Sir John's tale _totidem verbis_. +They have had him in the Gatehouse these ten days, it seems, on +Trumball's warrant." + +The Duke drew a deep breath. "Mr. Vernon, I am much obliged to you," +he said. "You have played the friend in my teeth. I see that I have +treated this matter too lightly. Sir John, unhappy as he is in some of +his notions, is a gentleman, and I was wrong to think that he would +accuse me out of pure malice and without grounds. There is some ill +practice here." + +"Devilish ill," Mr. Vernon answered, scarce able to conceal his +delight. + +"Some plot." + +"Ay, plot within plot!" cried the Under-Secretary, chuckling. "Shall I +pull the string?" + +The Duke hesitated, his face plainly showing the conflict that was +passing in his mind. Then, "If you please," he said. + +And so there the coach came to a standstill, as I have often heard, on +an old brick bridge short of Nettlebed, near the coming into the +village from Maidenhead. One of the outriders, spurring to the +carriage window for orders, my lord cried "Turn! Maidenhead!" + +"No, London," said Mr. Vernon firmly. "And one of you," he continued, +"gallop forward, and have horses ready at the first change house. And +so to the next." + +The Duke, his head in a whirl with what he had heard, pushed +resistance no farther, but letting the reins fall from his hands, +consented to be led by his companion. In deference to his wishes, +however--not less than to his health, which the events of the last few +weeks had seriously shaken--it was determined to conceal his return to +town; the rather as the report of his absence might encourage his +opponents, and lead them to show their hands more clearly. Hence, in +the common histories of the day, and even in works so learned and +generally well-informed as the Bishop of Salisbury's and Mr. ----'s, +it is said and asserted that the Duke of Shrewsbury retired to his +seat in Gloucestershire before the King's return, and remained there +in seclusion until his final resignation of the Seals. It is probable +that by using Mr. Vernon's house in place of his own, and by his +extreme avoidance of publicity while he lay in town, my lord had +himself to thank for this statement; but that in making it these +writers, including the learned Bishop, are wanting in accuracy, the +details I am to present will clearly show. + +Suffice it that entering London late that night, my lord drove to Mr. +Vernon's, who, going next morning to the office, presently returned +with the news that the King had ridden in from Margate after dining at +Sittingbourne, and would give an audience to Sir John on the following +day. But, as these tidings did no more than fulfil the expectation, +and scarcely accounted for the air of briskness and satisfaction which +marked the burly and honest gentleman, it is to be supposed that he +did not tell the Duke all he had learned. And, indeed, I know this to +be so. + + + + + CHAPTER XLIV + + +About ten on the morning of the 3rd of November of that year eight +gentlemen of the first rank in England were assembled in the gallery +at Kensington, awaiting a summons to the King's closet. With the +exception of Lord Godolphin, who had resigned his office three days +earlier, all belonged to the party in power, notwithstanding which, a +curious observer might have detected in their manner and intercourse +an air of reserve and constraint, unusual among men at once so highly +placed, and of the same opinions. A little thought, however, and a +knowledge of the business which brought them together, would have +explained the cause of this. + +While the Duke of Devonshire, the Marquis of Dorset, and Lord Portland +formed a group apart, it was to be noticed that Lords Marlborough and +Godolphin and Admiral Russell, who seemed to fall naturally into a +second group--and though the movements of the company constantly left +them together--never suffered this arrangement to last; but either +effected a temporary change, by accosting the Lord Keeper or Mr. +Secretary Trumball, or through the medium of Sir Edward Russell's loud +voice and boisterous manners, wrought a momentary fusion of the +company. + +"By the Eternal, I am the most unlucky fellow," the Admiral cried, +addressing the whole company, on one of these occasions. "If Sir John +had lied about me only, I should have given it him back in his teeth, +and so fair and square; it is a poor cook does not know his own batch. +But because he drags in the Duke, and the Duke chooses to get the +fantods, and shirks him, I stand the worse!" + +"Sir Edward," said Lord Dorset, speaking gravely and in a tone of +rebuke, "No one supposes that the Duke of Shrewsbury is aught but ill. +And, allow me to say that under the circumstances you are unwise to +put it on him." + +"But d----n me, he has no right to be ill!" cried the seaman, whose +turbulent spirit was not easily put down. "If he were here, I would +say the same to his face. And that is flat!" + +He was proceeding with more, but at that moment the door of the Royal +closet was thrown open, and a gentleman usher appeared, inviting them +to enter. "My lords and gentlemen," he said, "His Majesty desires you +to be seated, as at the Council. He will be presently here." + +The movement into the next room being made, the conversation took a +lower tone, each speaking only to his neighbour; one, discussing the +King's crossing and the speed of his new yacht, another the excellent +health and spirits in which His Majesty had returned; until a door at +the lower end of the room being opened, a murmur of voices, and stir +of feet were heard, and after a moment's delay. Sir John Fenwick +entered, a prisoner, and with a somewhat dazed air advanced to the +foot of the table. + +The Lord Steward rose and gravely bowed to him; and this courtesy, in +which he was followed by all except the Admiral, was returned by the +prisoner. + +"Sir John," said the Duke of Devonshire, "the King will be presently +here." + +"I am obliged to your Grace," Fenwick answered, and stood waiting. + +His gaunt form, clothed in black, his face always stern and now +haggard, his eyes--in which pride and fanaticism, at one moment +overcame and at another gave place to the look of a hunted +beast--these things would have made him a pathetic figure at any time +and under any circumstances. How much more when those who gazed on him +knew that he stood on the brink of death! and knew, too, that within a +few moments he must meet the prince who for years he had insulted and +defied, and in whose hands his fate now lay! + +That some, less interested in the matter than others, harboured such +thoughts, the looks of grave compassion which Lords Devonshire and +Dorset cast on him seemed to prove. But their reflections--which, +doubtless, carried them back to a time when the most brilliant and +cynical of courtiers played the foremost part in the Whitehall of the +Restoration--these, no less than the mutterings and restless movements +of Russell, who, in his enemy's presence, could scarcely control +himself, were cut short by the King's entrance. + +He came in unannounced, and very quietly, at a door behind the Lord +Steward; and all rising to their feet, he bade them in a foreign +accent, "Good-day," adding immediately, "Be seated, my lords. My Lord +Steward, we will proceed." + +His entrance and words, abrupt, if not awkward, lacked alike the grace +which all remembered in Charles, and the gloomy majesty which the +second James had at his command. And men felt the lack. Yet, as he +took his stand, one hand lightly resting on the back of the Lord +Steward's chair, the stooping sombre figure and sallow, withered face +staring out of its great peruque, had a dignity of their own. For it +could not be forgotten that he was that which no Stuart King of +England had ever been--a soldier and a commander from boyhood, at home +in all the camps of Flanders and the Rhine, familiar with every peril +of battle and breach; at his ease anywhere, where other men blenched +and drew back. And the knowledge that this was so invested him with a +certain awe and grandeur even in the eyes of courtiers. On this day he +wore a black suit, relieved only by the ribbon of the Garter; and as +he stood he let his chin sink so low on his breast, that his eyes, +which could on occasion shine with a keen and almost baleful light, +were hidden. + +The Lord Steward, in obedience to his command, was about to address +Sir John, when the King, with a brusqueness characteristic of him, +intervened. "Sir John," he said, in a harsh, dry voice, and speaking +partly in French, partly in English, "your papers are altogether +unsatisfactory. Instead of giving us an account of the plots formed by +you and your accomplices, plots of which all the details must be +exactly known to you, you tell us stories without authority, without +date, without place, about noblemen and gentlemen, with whom you do +not pretend to have had any intercourse. In short, your confession +appears to be a contrivance, intended to screen those who are really +engaged in designs against us, and to make me suspect and discard +those in whom I have good reason to place confidence. If you look for +any favour from me, therefore, you will give me this moment, and on +this spot, a full and straightforward account of what you know of your +own knowledge. And--but do you tell him the rest, my lord." + +"Sir John," said the Lord Steward in a tone serious and compassionate, +"His Majesty invites your confidence, and will for good reasons show +you his favour. But you must deserve it. And it is his particular +desire that you conclude nothing from the fact that you are admitted +to see him." + +"On the contrary," said the King, dryly, "I see you, sir, for the sake +of my friends. If, therefore, you can substantiate the charges you +have made, it behoves you to do it. Otherwise, to make a full and free +confession of what you do know." + +"Sir," said Sir John hoarsely, speaking for the first time, "I stand +here worse placed than any man ever was. For I am tried by those whom +I accuse." + +The King slightly shrugged his shoulders. "_Fallait penser la_, when +you accused them," he muttered. + +Sir John cast a fierce despairing glance along the table, and seemed +to control himself with difficulty. At length, "I can substantiate +nothing against three of those persons," he said; whereon some of +those who listened breathed more freely. + +"And that is all, sir, that you have to say?" said the King, +ungraciously; and as if he desired only to cut short the scene. + +"All," said Sir John firmly, "against those three persons. But as to +the fourth, the Duke of Shrewsbury, who is not here----" + +The King could not suppress an exclamation of contempt. "You may spare +us that fable, sir," he said. "It would not deceive a child, much less +one who holds the Duke high in his esteem." + +Sir John drew himself to his full height, and looked along the table, +his gloomy eyes threatening. "And yet that fable I can prove, sir," he +said. "That I can substantiate, sir. To that I have a witness, and a +witness above suspicion! If I prove that, sir, shall I have your +Majesty's favour?" + +"Perfectly," said the King, shrugging his shoulders, amid a general +thrill and movement; for though rumours had gone abroad, by no means +the whole of Sir John's case was known, even to some at the table. +"Prove it! Prove that, sir, and not a hair of your head shall fall. +You have my promise." + +However, before Sir John could answer, Mr. Secretary Trumball rose in +his place and intervened. "I crave your indulgence, sir," he said, +"while, with your Majesty's permission, I call in the Duke of +Shrewsbury, who is in waiting." + +"In waiting," said the King, in a voice of surprise; nor was the +surprise confined to him. "I thought that he was ill, Mr. Secretary." + +"He is so ill, sir, as to be very unfit to be abroad," the Secretary +answered. "Yet he came to be in readiness, if your Majesty needed him. +Sir John Fenwick persisting, I ask your Majesty's indulgence while I +fetch him." + +The King nodded, but with a pinched and dissatisfied face; and Sir +William retiring, in a moment returned with the Duke. At his entrance. +His Majesty greeted him dryly, and with a hint of displeasure in his +manner; thinking probably that this savoured too much of a _coup de +theater_, a thing he hated. But seeing the next instant, and before +the Secretary took his seat, how ill the Duke looked, his face +betrayed signs of disturbance; after which, his eyelids drooping, it +fell into the dull and Sphinx-like mould which it assumed when he did +not wish his thoughts to be read by those about him. + +That the Duke's pallor and wretched appearance gave rise to suspicion +in other minds is equally certain; the more hardy of those present, +such as my Lord Marlborough and the Admiral, being aware that nothing +short of guilt, and the immediate prospect of detection, could so +change themselves. And while some felt a kind of admiration, as they +conned and measured the stupendous edifice of skilful deceit, which my +lord had so long and perfectly concealed behind a front of brass, as +to take in all the world, others were already busied with the effect +it would have on the party, and how this might be softened, and that +explained, and in a word another man substituted with as little shock +as possible for this man. Nor were these emotions at all weakened when +my lord, after saluting the King, took his seat, without speaking or +meeting the general gaze. + +"Now, sir," said the King impatiently, when all was quiet again, "the +Duke is here. Proceed." + +"I will," Sir John answered with greater hardiness than he had yet +used, "I have simply to repeat to his face what I have said behind his +back: that on the 10th of last June, in the evening, he met me at +Ashford, in Kent, and gave me a ring and a message, bidding me carry +both with me to St. Germain's." + +My lord looked slowly round the table; then at Sir John. And it +startled some to see that he had compassion in his face. + +"Sir John," he said--after, as it seemed, weighing the words he was +about to speak, "you are in such a position, it were barbarous to +insult you. But you must needs, as you have accused me before His +Majesty and these gentlemen, hear me state, also before them, that +there is not a word of truth in what you say." + +Sir John stared at him and breathed hard. "_Mon dieu!_" he exclaimed +at length. And his voice sounded sincere. + +"I was not at Ashford on the 10th of June," the Duke continued with +dignity, "or on any day in that month. I never saw you there, and I +gave you no ring." + +"_Mon Dieu!_" Sir John muttered again; and, his gaze fallen, he seemed +to be unable to take his eyes off the other. + +Now it is certain that whatever the majority of those present thought +of this--and the demeanour of the two men was so steadfast that even +Lord Marlborough's acumen was at fault--the King's main anxiety was to +be rid of the matter, and with some impatience he tried to put a stop +to it at this point. "Is it worth while to carry this farther, my +lords?" he said, fretfully. "We know our friends. We know our enemies +also. This is a story _pour rire_, and deserving only of contempt." + +But Sir John at that cried out, protesting bitterly and fiercely, +and recalling the King's promise, and the Duke being no less +urgent--though as some thought a little unseasonably for his own +interests--that the matter be sifted to the bottom, the King had no +option but to let it go on. "Very well," he said ungraciously, "if he +will have his witness let him." And then, with one of those spirits of +peevishness, which stood in strange contrast with his wonted +magnanimity, he added, to the Duke of Shrewsbury, "It is your own +choice, my lord. Don't blame me." + +The querulous words bore a meaning which all recognised; and some at +the table started, and resumed the calculation how they should trim +their sails in a certain event. But nothing ever became the Duke +better than the manner in which he received that insinuation. "Be it +so, sir," he said with spirit, "My choice and desire is that Sir John +have as full a share of justice as I claim for myself, and as fair a +hearing. Less than that were inconsistent with your Majesty's +prerogative, and my honour." + +The King's only answer was a sulky and careless nod. On which Sir +William Trumball, after whispering to the prisoner, went out, and +after a brief delay, which seemed to many at the table long enough, +returned with Matthew Smith. + + + + + CHAPTER XLV + + +That the villain expected nothing so little as to see the man he was +preparing to ruin, I can well believe; and equally that the ordeal, +sudden and unforeseen, tried even his iron composure. I have heard +that after glancing once at the Duke he averted his eyes; and +thenceforth looked and addressed himself entirely to the end of the +table where the King stood. But, this apart, it could not be denied +that he played his part to a marvel. Known to more than one as a +ruffling blade about town, who had grown sober but not less dangerous +with age and the change of times, he had still saved some rags and +tatters of a gentleman's reputation; and he dressed himself +accordingly, insomuch that, as he stood beside Sir John, his stern set +face, and steadfast bearing, made an impression not unfavourable at +the set out. + +Nor when bidden by the King to speak and say what he knew, did he fall +below the expectations which his appearance had created, though this +was probably due in some measure to my lord's self-control, who +neither by word nor sign betrayed the astonishment he felt, when a man +to whom for years past he had only spoken casually, and once in six +months as it were, proceeded to recount with the utmost fullness and +particularity every detail of the journey, which, as he said, they two +had taken together to Ashford. At what time they started, where they +lay, by what road they travelled--at all Smith was pat. Nor did he +stop there; but went on to relate with the same ease and exactness the +heads of talk that had passed between Sir John and his companion at +the inn. + +Nor was it possible that a story so told, with minutiae, with date, and +place, and circumstances, should fall on ears totally deaf. The men +who listened were statesmen, versed in deceptions and acquainted with +affairs--men who knew Gates and had heard Dangerfield; yet, as they +listened, they shut their eyes and reopened them, to assure themselves +that this was not a dream! Before his appearance, even Lord Portland, +whose distrust of English loyalty was notorious, had been inclined to +ridicule Sir John's story as a desperate card played for life; and +this, even in teeth of my lord's disorder, so incredible did it appear +that one of the King's principal Ministers should stoop to a thing so +foolish. Now, it was a sign pregnant of meaning that no one looked at +his neighbour, but all gazed either at the witness or at the table +before them. And some who knew my lord best, and had the most +affection for him, felt the air heavy, and the stillness of the room +oppressive. + +Suddenly the current of the story was broken by the King's harsh +accent, "What was the date?" he asked, "on which you reached Ashford?" + +"The 10th of June, sir." + +"Where was the Duke on that day?" William continued; and he turned to +the Lord Steward. His tone and question, implying the most perfect +contempt for the tale to which he was listening, to an extent broke +the spell; and had the reply been satisfactory all would have been +over. But the Duke of Devonshire, turning to my lord for the answer, +got only that he lay those two nights at his mother's, in the suburbs; +and thereon a blank look fell on more than one face. The King, indeed, +sniffed and muttered, "Then twenty witnesses can confute this!" as if +the answer satisfied, and was all he had expected; but that others +were at gaze, and in doubt, was as noticeable, as that those who +looked most solemn and thoughtful, were the three who had themselves +stood in danger that day. + +At a nod from the King, Smith resumed his tale; but in a moment he was +pulled up short by Lord Dorset, who requested His Majesty's leave to +put a question. Having got permission, "How do you say that the +Duke--came to take _you_ with him?" the Marquis asked sharply. + +"To take me, my lord?" + +"Yes." + +"Must I answer that question?" + +"Yes," said Lord Dorset, with grave dignity. + +"Well, simply because I had been the medium of communication between +his Grace and Sir John," Smith answered, dryly. "Even as on former +occasions I had acted as agent between his Grace and Lord Middleton." + +My lord started violently and half rose. + +Then, as he fell back into his seat, "That, sir, is the first word of +truth this person has spoken," he said, with dignity. "It is a fact +that in the year '92 he twice brought me a note from Lord Middleton +and arranged a meeting between us." + +"Precisely," Smith answered with effrontery, "as I arranged this +meeting." + +On that for the first time my lord's self-control abandoned him. He +started to his feet. "You lie!" he cried, vehemently. "You lie in your +teeth, you scoundrel! Sir--pardon me, but this is--this is too much! I +cannot sit by and hear it!" + +By a gesture not lacking in kindness, the King bade him resume his +seat. Then, "_Peste!_" he said, taking snuff with a droll expression +of chagrin. "Will anyone else ask a question. My Lord Dorset has not +been fortunate. As the _Advocatus Diaboli_, perhaps, he may one day +shine." + +"If your Majesty pleases," Lord Marlborough said, "I will ask one. But +I will put it to Sir John, and he can answer it or not as he likes. +How did you know. Sir John, that it was the Duke of Shrewsbury who met +you at Ashford, and conferred with you there?" + +"I knew the Duke," Sir John answered clearly. "I had seen him often, +and spoken with him occasionally." + +"How often had you spoken to him before this meeting?" + +"Possibly on a dozen occasions." + +"You had not had any long conversation with him?" + +"No; but I could not be mistaken. I know him," Sir John added, with a +flash of bitter meaning, "as well as I know you, Lord Marlborough!" + +"He gave his title?" + +"No, he did not," Sir John answered. "He gave the name of Colonel +Talbot." + +Someone at the table--it was Lord Portland--drew his breath sharply +through his teeth; nor could the impression made by a statement that +at first blush seemed harmless, and even favourable to the Duke, be +ignored or mistaken. Three out of four who sat there were aware that +my lord had used that name in his wild and boyish days, when he would +be _incognito_; and, moreover, the use of even that flimsy disguise +cast a sort of decent probability over a story, which at its barest +seemed credible. For the first time the balance of credit and +probability swung against my lord; a fact subtly indicated by the +silence which followed the statement and lasted a brief while; no one +at the table speaking or volunteering a farther question. For the time +Matthew Smith was forgotten--or the gleam of insolent triumph in his +eye might have said somewhat. For the time Sir John took a lower seat. +Men's minds were busy with the Duke, and the Duke only; busy with what +the result would be to him, and to the party, were this proved; while +most, perceiving dully and by instinct that they touched upon a great +tragedy, shrank from the _denouement_. + +At last, in the silence, the Duke rose; and swaying blindly on his +feet, caught at the table to steady himself. For two nights he had not +slept. + +"Duke," said the King suddenly, "you had better speak sitting." + +The words were meant in kindness, but they indicated a subtle change +of attitude--they indicated that even the King now felt the need of +explanation and a defence; and my lord, seeing this, and acknowledging +the invitation to be seated only by a slight reverence, continued to +stand, though the effort made his weakness evident. Yet when he had +cleared his throat and spoke, his voice had the old ring of +authority--with a touch of pathos added, as of a dying King from whose +hand the sceptre was passing. + +"Sir," he said, "the sins of Colonel Talbot were not few. But this, to +which this fellow speaks, is not of the number. Nor have you, or my +lords, to do with them. Doubtless, with my fellows, I shall have to +give an account of them one day. But as to the present, and the Duke +of Shrewsbury--with whom alone you have to deal--I will make a plain +tale. This man has said that in '93 he was a go-between, for me and +Lord Middleton. It is true; as you, sir, know, and my lords if they +know it not already, must now know, to my shame. For the fact, Lord +Middleton and I were relations, we met more than once at that time, we +supped together before he went to France. I promised on my part to +take care of his interests here, he in return offered to do me good +offices there. As to the latter I told him I had offended too deeply +to be forgiven; yet tacitly I left him to make my peace with the late +King if he could. It was a folly and a poltroonery," the Duke +continued, holding out his hands with a pathetic gesture. "It was, my +lords, to take a lower place than the meanest Nonjuror who honourably +gives up his cure. I see that, my lords; and have known it, and it has +weighed on me for years. And now I pay for it. But for this"--and with +the word my lord's voice grew full and round and he stood erect, one +hand among the lace of his steinkirk tie and his eyes turned +steadfastly on his accuser--"for this which that man, presuming on an +old fault and using his knowledge of it, would foist on me, I know +nothing of it! I know nothing of it. It is some base and damnable +practice. At this moment and here I cannot refute it; but at the +proper time and in another place I shall refute it. And now and here I +say that as to it, I am not guilty--on my honour!" + +As the last word rang through the room he sat down, looking round him +with a kind of vague defiance. There was a silence, broken presently +by the Lord Steward, who rose, his voice and manner betraying no +little emotion. "His Grace is right, sir, I think," he said. "I +believe with him that this is some evil practice; but it is plain that +it has gone so far that it cannot stop here. I would suggest therefore +that if your Majesty sees fit----" + +A knock at the door interrupted him, and he turned that way +impatiently, and paused. The King, too, glanced round with a gesture +of annoyance. "See what it is," he said. + +Sir William Trumball rose and went; and after a brief conference, +during which the lords at the table continued to cast impatient +glances towards the door, he returned. "If it please you, sir," he +said, "a witness desires to be heard." And with that his face +expressed so much surprise that the King stared at him in wonder. + +"A witness?" said the King, and pished and fidgeted in his chair. +Then, "This is not a Court of Justice," he continued, peevishly. "We +shall have all the world here presently. But--well, let him in." + +Sir William obeyed, and went and returned under the eyes of the +Council; nor will the reader who has perused with attention the +earlier part of this history be greatly surprised to hear that when he +returned, I, Richard Price, was with him. + +I am not going to dwell on the misery through which I had gone in +anticipation of that appearance; the fears which I had been forced to +combat, or the night watches, through which I had lain, sweating and +awake. Suffice it that I stood there at last, seeing in a kind of maze +the sober lights and dark rich colours of the room, and the faces at +the table all turned towards me; and stood there, not in the humble +guise befitting my station, but in velvet and ruffles, sword and +peruke, the very double, as the mirror before which I had dressed had +assured me, of my noble patron. This, at Mr. Vernon's suggestion and +by his contrivance. + + +[Illustration: ... I STOOD THERE AT LAST ... THE FACES AT THE TABLE +ALL TURNED TOWARDS ME....] + + +While I had lived in my lord's house, and moved to and fro soberly +garbed, in a big wig or my own hair, the likeness had been no more +than ground for a nudge and a joke among the servants. Now, dressed +once more, as Smith had dressed me, in a suit of the Duke's clothes, +and one of his perukes, and trimmed and combed by one who knew him, +the resemblance I presented was so remarkable that none of the lords +at the table could be blind to it. One or two, in sheer wonder, +exclaimed on it; while Sir John, who, poor gentleman, was more +concerned than any, fairly gasped with dismay. + +It was left to the Duke of Devonshire to break the spell. "What is +this? Who is this?" he said, in the utmost astonishment. "What does it +mean?" + +The King, who had noted on an occasion that very likeness, which all +now saw, and was the first to read the riddle, laughed dryly. "Two +very common things, my lord," he said, "a rogue and a fool. Speak, +man," he continued, addressing me. "You were in the Duke's household +awhile ago? _n'est-ce pas ca?_ I saw you here?" + +"Yes, your Majesty," I said, hardly keeping my fears within bounds. + +"And you have been playing his part, I suppose? Eh? At--how do you +call the place--Ashford?" + +"Yes, your Majesty--under compulsion," I said, trembling. + +"Ay! Compulsion of that good gentleman at the foot of the table, I +suppose?" + +The words of assent were on my lips, when a cry, and an exceeding +bitter cry, stayed their utterance. It came from Sir John. Dumbfounded +for a time, between astonishment and suspicion, between wonder what +this travesty was and wonder why it was assumed, he had at length +discerned its full scope and meaning, and where it touched him. With a +cry of rage he threw up his hands in protest against the fraud; then +in a flash he turned on the villain by his side. "You d----d +scoundrel!" he cried. "You have destroyed me! You have murdered me!" + +Before he could be held off, his fingers were in Smith's neckcloth, +and clutching his throat; and so staunch was his hold that Admiral +Russell and Sir William Trumball had to rise and drag him away by +force. "Easy, easy, Sir John," said the Admiral with rough sympathy. +"Be satisfied. He will get his deserts. Please God, if I had him on my +ship an hour his back should be worse than Oates's ever was!" + +Sir John's rage and disappointment were painful to witness, and trying +even to men of the world. But what shall I say of the fury of the man +at bay, who denounced and convicted in his moment of triumph saw, +white-faced, his long-spun web swept easily aside? Doubtless he knew, +as soon as he saw me, that the game was lost, and could have slain me +with a look. And most men would without more ado have been on their +knees. But he possessed, God knows, a courage as rare and perfect as +the cause in which he displayed it was vile and abominable; and in a +twinkling he recovered himself, and was Matthew Smith once more. While +the room rang with congratulations, questions, answers and +exclamations, and I had much ado to answer one half of the noble lords +who would examine me, his voice, raised and strident, was heard above +the tumult. + +"Your Majesty is easily deceived!" he cried, his very tone flouting +the presence in which he stood; yet partly out of curiosity, partly in +sheer astonishment at his audacity, they turned to listen. "Do you +think it is for nothing his Grace keeps a double in his house? Or that +it boots much whether he or his Secretary went to meet Sir John? But +enough! I have here! here," he continued, tapping his breast and +throwing back his head, "that, that shall out-face him; be he never so +clever! Does his double write his hand too? Read that, sir. Read that, +my lords, and say what you think of your Whig leader!" + +And with a reckless gesture, he flung a letter on the table. But the +action and words were so lacking in respect for royal chambers that +for a moment no one took it up, the English lords who sat within reach +disdaining to touch it. Then Lord Portland made a long arm, and taking +the paper with Dutch phlegm and deliberation opened it. + +"Have I your Majesty's leave?" he said; and the King nodding +peevishly, "This is not his Grace's handwriting," the Dutch lord +continued, pursing up his lips, and looking dubiously at the script +before him. + +"No, but it is his signature!" Smith retorted, fiercely. And so set +was he on this last card he was playing, that his eyes started from +his head, and the veins rose thick on his hands where they clutched +the table before him. "It is his hand at foot. That I swear!" + +"Truly, my man, I think it is," Lord Portland answered, coolly. "Shall +I read the letter, sir?" + +"What is it?" asked the King, with irritation. + +"It appears to be a letter to the Duke of Berwick, at the late Bishop +of Chester's house in Hogsden Gardens, bidding him look to himself, as +his lodging was known," Lord Portland answered, leisurely running his +eye down the lines as he spoke. + +It was wonderful to see what a sudden gravity fell on the faces at the +table. This touched some home. This was a hundred times more likely as +a charge than that which had fallen through. Could it be that after +all the man had his Grace on the hip? Lord Marlborough showed his +emotion by a face more than commonly serene; Admiral Russell by a +sudden flush; Godolphin by the attention he paid to the table before +him. Nor was Smith behindhand in noting the effect produced. For an +instant he towered high, his stern face gleaming with malevolent +triumph. He thought that the tables were turned. + +Then, "In whose hand is the body of the paper?" the King asked. + +"Your Majesty's," Lord Portland answered, with a grim chuckle, and +after a pause long enough to accentuate the answer. + +"I thought so," said the King. "It was the Friday the plot was +discovered. I remember it. I am afraid that if you impeach the Duke, +you must impeach me with him." + +At that there was a great roar of laughter, which had not worn itself +out before one and another began to press their congratulations on the +Duke. He for his part sat as if stunned; answering with a forced smile +where it was necessary, more often keeping silence. He had escaped the +pit digged for him, and the net so skilfully laid. But his face +betrayed no triumph. + +Matthew Smith, on the other hand, brought up short by that answer, +could not believe it. He stood awhile, like a man in a fit; then, the +sweat standing on his brow, he cried that they were all leagued +against him; that it was a plot; that it was not His Majesty's hand! +and so on, and so on; with oaths and curses, and other things very +unfit for His Majesty's ears, or the place in which he stood. + +Under these circumstances, for a minute no one knew what to do, each +looking at his neighbour, until the Lord Steward, rising from his +chair, cried in a voice of thunder, "Take that man away, Mr. +Secretary, this is your business! Out with him, sir!" On which Sir +William called in the messengers, and they laid hands on him. By that +time, however, he had recovered the will and grim composure which were +the man's best characteristics; and with a last malign and despairing +look at my lord, he suffered them to lead him out. + + + + + CHAPTER XLVI + + +That was a great day for my lord, but it was also, I truly believe, +one of the saddest of a not unhappy life. He had gained the battle, +but at a cost known only to himself, though guessed by some. The story +of the old weakness had been told, as he had foreseen it must be told; +and even while his friends pressed round him and crying, _Salve +Imperator!_ rejoiced in the fall he had given his foes, he was aware +of the wound bleeding inwardly, and in his mind was already borne out +of the battle. + +Yet in that room was one sadder. Sir John, remaining at the foot of +the table, frowned along it, gloomy and downcast; too proud to ask or +earn the King's favour, yet shaken by the knowledge that now--now was +the time; that in a little while the door would close on him, and with +it the chance of life--life with its sunshine and air, and freedom, +its whirligigs and revenges. Some thought that in consideration of the +trick which had been played upon him, the King might properly view him +with indulgence; and were encouraged in this by the character for +clemency which even his enemies allowed that Sovereign. But William +had other views on this occasion; and when the hubbub which Smith's +removal had caused had completely died away, he addressed Sir John, +advising him to depend rather on deserving his favour by a frank and +full discovery, than on such ingenious contrivances as that which had +just been exposed. + +"I was no party to it," the unhappy gentleman answered. + +"Therefore it shall tell neither for nor against you," the King +retorted. "Have you anything more to say." + +"I throw myself on your Majesty's clemency." + +"That will not do. Sir John," the King answered. "You must speak, +or--the alternative does not lie with me. But you know it." + +"And I choose it," Sir John cried, recovering his spirit and courage. + +"So be it," said His Majesty slowly and solemnly. "I will not say that +I expected anything less from you. My lords, let him be removed." + +And with that the messengers came in and Sir John bowed and went with +them. It may have been fancy, but I thought that as he turned from the +table a haggard shade fell on his face, and a soul in mortal anguish +looked an instant from his eyes. But the next moment he was gone. + +I never saw him again. That night the news was everywhere that +Goodman, one of the two witnesses against him, had fled the country; +and for a time it was believed that Sir John would escape. How, in +face of that difficulty those who were determined on his death, +effected it; how he was attainted, and how he suffered on Tower Hill +with all the forms and privileges of a peer--on the 28th of January of +the succeeding year--is a story too trite and familiar to call for +repetition. + +On his departure the Council broke up. His Majesty retiring. Before he +went, a word was said about me, and some who had greater regard for +the _post factum_ than the _p[oe]nitentia_ were for sending me to the +Compter, and leaving the Law Officers to deal with me. But my lord, +rousing himself, interposed roundly, spoke for me and would have given +bail had they persisted. Seeing, however, how gravely he took it, and +being inclined to please him, they desisted, and I was allowed to go, +on the simple condition that the Duke kept me under his own eye. This +he very gladly consented to do. + +Nor was it the only kindness he did me, or the greatest; for having +heard from me at length and in detail all the circumstances leading up +to my timely intervention, he sent for me a few days later, and +placing a paper in my hands bade me read the gist of it. I did so, and +found it to be a free pardon passed under the Great Seal, and granted +to Richard Price and Mary Price his wife for acts and things done by +them jointly or separately against the King's Most Excellent Majesty, +within or without the realm. + +It was at Eyford he handed me this; in the oak parlour looking upon +the bowling-green; where I had already begun to wait upon him on one +morning in the week, to check the steward's accounts and tallies. The +year was nearly spent, but that autumn was fine, and the sunlight +which lay on the smooth turf blended with the russet splendour of the +beech trees that rise beyond. I had been thinking of Mary and the +quiet courtyard at the Hospital, which the bowling-green somewhat +resembled, being open to the park on one side only; and when perusing +the paper, my lord smiling at me, I came to her name--or rather to the +name that was hers and yet mine--I felt such a flow of love and +gratitude and remembrance overcome me as left me speechless; and this +directed, not only to him but to her--seeing that it was her advice +and her management that had brought me against my will to this haven +and safety. + +The Duke saw my emotion and read my silence aright. "Well," he said. +"Are you satisfied?" + +I told him that if I were not I must be the veriest ingrate living. + +"And you have nothing more to ask?" he continued, still smiling. + +"Nothing," I said. "Except--except that which it is not in your +lordship's power to grant." + +"How?" said he, with a show of surprise and resentment. "Not +satisfied yet? What is it?" + +"If she were here!" I said. "If she were here, my lord! But +Dunquerque----" + +"Is a far cry, eh! And the roads are bad. And the seas----" + +"Are worse," I said gloomily, looking at the paper as Tantalus looked +at the water. "And to get word to her is not of the easiest." + + +[Illustration: SHE WAS MAKING MARKS ON THE TURF WITH A STICK] + + +"No," the Duke said. "Say you so? Then what do you make of this, +faint-heart?" And he pointed through the open window. + +I looked, and on the seat--which a moment before had been vacant--the +seat under the right-hand yew-hedge where my lord sometimes smoked his +pipe--I saw a girl seated with her shoulder and the nape of her neck +turned to us. She was making marks on the turf with a stick she held, +and poring over them when made, as if the world held nothing else, so +that I had not so much as a glimpse of her face. But I knew that it +was Mary. + +"Come," said my lord, pleasantly. "We will go to her. It may be, she +will not have the pardon--after all. Seeing that there is a condition +to it." + +"A condition?" I cried, a little troubled. + +"To be sure, blockhead," he answered, in high good humour. "In whose +name is it?" + +Then I saw what he meant and laughed, foolishly. But the event came +nearer to proving him true than he then expected. For when she saw the +paper she stepped back and put her hands behind her, and would not +touch or take it; while her small face cried pale mutiny. "But I'll +not tell!" she cried. "I'll not tell! I'll not have it. Blood-money +does not thrive. If that is the price----" + +"My good girl," said my lord, cutting her short, yet without +impatience. "That is not the price. This is the Price. And the pardon +goes with him." + + + * * * * * + + +I believe that I have now told enough to discharge myself of that +which I set out to do: I mean the clearing my lord in the eyes of all +judicious persons of those imputations which a certain faction have +never ceased to heap on him; and this with the greater assiduity and +spite, since he by his single conduct at the time of the late Queen's +death was the means under Providence of preserving the Protestant +Succession and liberties in these islands. + +That during the long interval of seventeen years that separated the +memorable meeting at Kensington, which I have ventured to describe, +from the still more famous scene in the Queen's death-chamber, he took +no part in public life has seemed to some a crime or the tacit avowal +of one. How far these err, and how ill-qualified they are to follow +the workings of that noble mind, will appear in the pages I have +written; which show with clearness that the retirement on which so +much stress has been laid, was due not to guilt, but to an +appreciation of honour so delicate that a spot invisible to the common +eye seemed to him a stain _non subito delanda_. After the avowal made +before his colleagues--of the communications, I mean, with Lord +Middleton--nothing would do but he must leave London at once and seek +in the shades and retirement of Eyford that peace of mind and ease of +body which had for the moment abandoned him. + +He went: and for a time still retained office. Later, notwithstanding +the most urgent and flattering instances on the King's part--which yet +exist, honourable alike to the writer and the recipient--he persisted +in his resolution to retire; and on the 12th of December, 1698, being +at that time in very poor health, the consequence of a fall while +hunting, he returned the Seals to the King, In the autumn of the +following year he went abroad; but though he found in a private +life--so far as the life of a man of his princely station could be +called private--a happiness often denied to place men and favourites, +he was not to be diverted when the time came from the post of danger. +Were I writing an eulogium merely, I should here enumerate those great +posts and offices which he so worthily filled at the time of Queen +Anne's death, when as Lord Treasurer of England, Lord Chamberlain, and +Lord Lieutenant of Ireland--an aggregation of honours I believe +without precedent--he performed services and controlled events on the +importance of which his enemies no less than his friends are agreed. +But I forbear: and I leave the task to a worthier hand. + +This being so, it remains only to speak of Matthew Smith and his +accomplice. Had my lord chosen to move in the matter, there can be no +doubt that Smith would have been whipped and pilloried, and in this +way would have come by a short road to his deserts. But the Duke held +himself too high, and the men who had injured him too low, for +revenge; and Smith, after lying some months in prison, gave useful +information, and was released without prosecution. He then tried to +raise a fresh charge against the Duke, but gained no credence; and +rapidly sinking lower and lower, was to be seen two years later +skulking in rags in the darkest part of the old Savoy. In London I +must have walked in hourly dread of him; at Eyford I was safe; and +after the winter of '99, in which year he came to my lord's house to +beg, looking broken and diseased, I never saw him. + +I was told that he expected to receive a rich reward in the event of +the Duke's disgrace, and on this account was indifferent to the loss +of his situation in my lady's family. It seems probable, however, that +he still hoped to retain his influence in that quarter by means of his +wife, and thwarted in this by that evil woman's dismissal, was no +better disposed to her than she was to him. They separated; but before +he went the ruffian revenged himself by beating her so severely that +she long lay ill in her apartments, was robbed by her landlady, and +finally was put to the door penniless, and with no trace of the beauty +which had once chained my heart. In this plight, reduced to be the +drudge of a tradesman's wife, and sunk to the very position in which I +had found her at Mr. D----'s, she made a last desperate appeal to the +Duke for assistance. + +He answered by the grant of a pension, small but sufficient, on which +she might have ended her days in a degree of comfort. But, having +acquired in her former circumstances an unfortunate craving for drink, +which she had now the power to gratify, she lived but a little while, +and that in great squalor and misery, dying, if I remember rightly, in +a public-house in Spitalfields in the year 1703. + + + + + PRINTED FROM AMERICAN PLATES + AT THE ABERDEEN UNIVERSITY PRESS + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Shrewsbury, by Stanley J. 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