OF THE GREAT CONFUSION PRODUCED BY A BALLAD
AND A DRUNKEN CROW
From this time until Saturday, May 19, the world seemed to go very
well for those concerned in the Bishop of Rochester's plot, which was
a waiting plot; and in the other scheme, the scheme for an immediate
rising, which was a hurrying scheme, and not at all known to the good
Bishop. There was a comforting air of discontent abroad; the losses
from the South Sea made minds heavy and purses light. Mr. Walpole had
smoked nothing of what was forward, so far as a man could see; and
within a month the country was to rise. Mr. Wogan from Paris travelled
to Havre-de-Grace, whence James Roche, an Irishman, settled in that
port, and a noted smuggler upon the English coast, set him across the
Channel, and put him ashore at the Three Sheds and Torbay near
Elephant Stairs in Rotherhithe. Mr. Wogan took his old name of Hilton,
and went about his business, paying a visit now and again to the Cocoa
Tree, where amongst other gossip he heard that Lady Oxford was still
on the worst of friendly terms with Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, and the
best of loving terms with Colonel Montague. There was more than one
jest aimed at Mr. Kelly on this last account, since a man who has been
fooled by a woman is ever a fair mark for ridicule; and when James
Talbot began to talk of the Parson with a mock pity, Wogan could no
longer endure it.
'Sure your compassion is all pure waste, Crow,' said he. 'I could tell
you a very pretty tale about the Parson were I so minded.'
Of course he _was_ minded, and he told the story of the Parson's
betrothal with a good many embellishments. He drew so tender a picture
of Rose, that he became near to weeping over it himself; he clothed
her in high qualities as in a shining garment, and you may be sure he
did not spare Lady Oxford in the comparison. On the contrary, he came
very near to hinting that it was the Parson jilted Lady Oxford, who
therefore fell back upon Colonel Montague to cover her discomfiture.
At all events that was the story which soon got about, and Mr. Wogan
never said a word to correct it, and in due time, of course, and in a
way not very agreeable, it came to her Ladyship's ears.
The Parson arrived in London on a Wednesday, the 13th of April. The
weather had been terrible on the sea, and the unhappy dog Harlequin
had contrived to slip his leg by a fall on deck. However, he soon
recovered of his injury, thanks to the care of Mrs. Barnes, and Mr.
Kelly carried him to the Bishop's house at Bromley, where his lady lay
a-dying. There, too, as he had good cause afterwards to remember, he
wrote certain letters for the Bishop, to the King, the Duke of Mar,
and General Dillon, and put them in the common post. They did but
carry common news, and excuses for delay. The Bishop's lady died on
the 26th of April, and on that very day Harlequin's hurt broke out
again, and the poor creature went whining lugubriously about the
gloomy house, as though it was mourning for its mistress. This fact
should be mentioned, because the Duke of Mar had made an inquiry in a
letter as to how Harlequin fared, and whether _Mr. Illington_, as the
Bishop was called, had as yet received the dog. Kelly replied that
'_Illington_ is in great tribulation for poor Harlequin, who is in a
bad way, having slipped his leg again,' which was true, for since the
dog by his tricks greatly lightened his lady's sickness, the Bishop
grew very fond of him, though at the Bishop's trial, when these things
were brought up to prove that Illington and he were the same man, it
was said 'he never loved a dog.' So much for Mr. Kelly.
Rose and her father reached London a fortnight or more after the
Parson. Wogan had no knowledge of her arrival, for since he left
Avignon he had not so much as clapped his eyes upon the Parson, who,
what with the Bishop's grief for his wife, and what with the Bishop's
gout, was much occupied at Bromley. It was not until that calamitous
day, the 19th of May, that the two friends met again. Events moved
very quickly upon that same day. It seemed they had been hatching this
long while out of sight, like thunderclouds gathering on a clear day
under the rim of the sea. Seven breathless hours saw the beginning and
the end. For it was not until six o'clock of the afternoon that Mr.
Wogan chanced upon the ballad, that was our ruin, and by three of the
morning all was over.
Now, on the 19th of May, in the morning, Mr. Wogan found himself far
enough from London, at the seat of Sir Harry Goring, a gentleman of
Sussex, and a very loud friend of the Cause.
This noisy Sir Harry drove Mr. Wogan back to town, in very great state
and splendour, and drew up before Burton's coffee-house, at an hour
when the streets had lost the high sun of the day. Mr. Wogan alighted,
thinking to seek his letters at Burton's, and the baronet's carriage
rolled off to his town house. Wogan entered the coffee-house; the
great room was extraordinary full, and there was an eager buzz of
talkers, who dropped their voices, and looked oddly at Mr. Wogan as he
passed through, and so upstairs to a little chamber kept private for
himself and his friends.
As he went he heard roars of laughter, and a voice chanting in the
deplorable, lamenting tone of the street ballad-singer. Mr. Wogan
caught a name he knew in this ditty, and knocking hastily in the
manner usual and arranged, was admitted. The room was thick with
tobacco smoke, and half-a dozen empty bottles made mantraps on the
floor. Through the Virginia haze Wogan saw two men; one was Tyrell, a
friend of the Cause, the other was a tall man, very black, in whom he
recognised his friend Talbot, of his own country and politics,
nicknamed the Crow from his appearance. The Crow was swaying on his
legs as he steadied himself by the table, and he sang:--
Let Weapons yield them to the Gown,
The Latin Singers say:
Ye Squires and Ladies of renown,
The tune is changed to-day!
A Lady loved a Parson good,
And vowed she'd still be true,
Alas, the Sword goes o'er the Hood,
The Sword of Montague!
'What ribaldry have you got now?' said Wogan, but the Crow hastily
embraced him in the French manner, holding the paper of the ballad
over his shoulder, and still chanting.
'The little Parson is made immortal,' quoth he. 'Here is the newest
ballad, all the story of his late amorous misfortune. Why do you look
so glum?'
For Wogan had gently disengaged himself from Mr. Talbot's embrace, who
exhaled a perfume of wine and strong waters.
'Crow, you fool, be quiet,' said Wogan; 'this is miching mallecho! Who
wrote that rant?'
'We think it is Lady Mary Montagu, from the Latin tags; it is headed
_Cedat Armis Toga_.'
But Lady Mary was not the writer, though she got the credit of the
mischievous nonsense, as was intended, and 'hence these tears,' as the
Parson said.
Mr. Wogan had snatched the ballad into his hands by this time, where
he intended to keep it.
'Gentlemen,' he asked, 'are you entirely sober?'
'Does my speech betray me? 'said Tyrell, who, to do him justice, was
wholly in his right mind.
'That is no answer; but, if it were, and if you don't care for a
lady's name--'
'She jilted the Parson!' cried the Crow.
'Have you no thought of the reputation of--Mr. Farmer?'
'Mr. Farmer?' exclaimed Tyrell. Mr. Farmer was the cant name for the
Chevalier, and Tyrell scratched his head, wondering what on earth the
Chevalier had to do in the same galley with the Parson's love affairs.
'Mr. Farmer!' replied the Crow, blinking his eyes reproachfully.
'Indeed, it is yourself has been drinking, Nick. What has the ballad
of poor George's misfortune to do with Mr. Farmer, a gentleman of
unbleb--upblem--I repeat, sir,' said the Crow with solemnity, 'a
gentleman of unblemished reputation?'
'Mark how a long word trips you up, and the evening so young!'
'Mr. Farmer's health! I buzz the bottle!' cried the Crow, putting out
his hand to the bottle, that was nearly empty.
Mr. Wogan stopped his hand.
'I tell you, Crow, the Affair hangs on your nonsense. We may all hang
for it,' he said in a certain tone of voice, which made Tyrell open
his mouth.
Wogan read through the ballad, which was full of insults enough to
drive any woman mad, let alone Lady Oxford. He knew what a woman wild
with anger can do, and blessed his stars that for so many months her
Ladyship had not met Kelly, and could know nothing of the inner plot
for an immediate rising. Still, she knew enough to do a power of
mischief. The ballad was written in a feigned hand, which Wogan did
not know.
'James,' he said to Talbot,' where did you get this thing? You are not
haunting the fine ladies who pass these wares about? Where did you get
it?' he said, shaking the Crow, who had fallen half asleep, as he
spoke.
'Got it from my friend Mr. Pope,' answered the Crow drowsily.
'You got it from Mr. Pope! _You!_ Where did you meet Mr. Pope?'
'At the Little Fox under the Hill, down by the water.'
This tavern was precisely the shyest meeting-place of the party, where
the smugglers came to arrange crossings and receive letters.
'Mr. Alexander Pope at the Fox under the Hill! Crow, you are raving!
What kind of man is your friend Mr. Pope?'
'Who's Mr. Pope? Don't know the gentleman. Hear he's poet.'
'The gentleman who gave you the ballad.'
'Didn't say Pope, said Scrotton,' answered the Crow. 'Very honest man,
my friend Mr. Scrotton. Met him often. Exshlent judge of wine, Mr.
Scrotton. Exshlent judge of plots. Mr. Scrotton applauded our scheme.'
'You told him about it? What plot did you tell him of? Not of the
rising? Not of this immediate Blow? Crow, you should be shot!'
'I told him! You inshult me, sir. Very good plot, very good wine. Mr.
Scrotton told me about plot. Often talked it over a bottle. I'm a most
cautious man. I don't drink except with very honest men. Dangerous!'
murmured the Crow.
'You are sure his name is Scrotton?'
'Quite certain. Said "Pope" because of poetry. Soshiation of ideas.
Mr. Pope's poet. You'd know that, but you are drunk, Mr. Wogan.'
There was nothing more to be got out of the Crow. Invited to give a
personal description of Mr. Scrotton, he fell back on his moral
character as 'a very honest man.' He might be, or, again, he might be
a spy. In any case, here was the ballad, and there was the furious
woman ready for any revenge.
'Go home; go to bed! Tyrell and I will walk with you to your rooms,'
said Mr. Wogan, who, stepping to the letter-rack, picked up an epistle
for Mr. Hilton. The handwriting of the superscription made him look so
blank that the others noticed his face and were silent. The letter was
in Lady Oxford's hand. He put it in his pocket.
They led the Crow to his door in Germain Street. He behaved pretty
well on the whole, only insisting that his fortune would be made if
Wogan would but give him the ballad and let him sing it at the corner
of St. James's.
'Affluence would be mine,' he said, and dropped a tear. 'Oh,
Wilton--Hogan, I would say--'tis a golden opportunity!'
But if the opportunity was golden, Wogan was of iron, and they did not
leave the debased Crow till he slept in the sheets, which on the night
before it was probable that his limbs had never pressed.
When the Crow was slumbering like a babe, Mr. Wogan and Tyrell stepped
out, turning the key of his chamber on the outside and entrusting it
to his landlady.
'Mr. Talbot has a fever,' Wogan told her, 'and will see nobody. He
must on no account see anyone except Mr. Tyrell, nor must he be
disturbed before his physician calls.'
Accompanied by the gift of a crown, the key was pocketed by the woman
of the house, who expressed anxiety for the health and repose of so
quiet a gentleman as Mr. Talbot.
'And now, what is all this pother about?' Tyrell asked when they were
got into the street.
'Come towards the Park and I will instruct you. I need quiet for
thought, and sylvan repose. What have you been doing all day?'
'Watching the Crow play the fool at Burton's.'
'You have no news?'
'I have seen nobody.'
They walked for a hundred yards or so in silence, Wogan frowning, and
Tyrell much perturbed with Wogan's perturbation.
'The new ballad is a true ballad,' said Wogan after a pause.
'Devil a doubt of it; but what then?'
'The greater the truth, the greater the libel.'
'_Et apres?_'
'And the greater is the rage of the libelled. This ballad must have
run through all the boudoirs before it reached the Crow.'
'And yet I do not smoke you. Where does this touch the affair?'
'The lady that's libelled knew George very well.'
Tyrell nodded his head.
'George knew everything,' continued Wogan.
Tyrell stopped and caught Wogan by the elbow.
'Then, what George knew the lady knows?'
'No. Thank God, she knows nothing of what is immediately intended. It
is a year and more since George and she have spoken. She knows nothing
of the Blow. But she knows the men who are directing it.'
'May be she's staunch,' said Tyrell.
Wogan quoted Lady Mary:
'Politics are nothing more to her than pawns in the game of love.'
The two men stood looking at each other for a moment. The matter was
too serious for them even to swear. Then they walked on again.
'Do you think,' asked Nick, 'she will be in the best of tempers when
she hears she is sung about in coffee-houses? Do you think she will
blame anybody but Kelly for blabbing? She will give the ballad to Lady
Mary Wortley Montagu, and isn't Kelly of Lady Mary's friends? No, he
did not blab, but never mind. She will think he did. And do you know
that she is a kinswoman of the minister, Mr. Walpole? Let her say a
word, and she _will_ say it, and where is Mr. Farmer's affair?'
'Where the Elector's hat and wig often are--in the fire,' answered
Tyrell, looking serious enough.
'That letter which I took up was from her; I know her hand. She is
stirring.'
Wogan opened the scented letter as he walked. It was but to say that
Lady Oxford had heard that Mr. Hilton was in town, and begged the
favour of his company at her rout that night.
He told Tyrell what there was to tell, both of them looking very
unlike a May sunset as they walked under the trees. Since he left
Brampton Bryan, Mr. Wogan had not been favoured with any compliments
from Lady Oxford. Why did she begin her favours to-day?
'She is stirring,' he said again.
By this time they were got within the Park.
There much was stirring. Carts were streaming in and out with soldiers
driving, soldiers lounging among the burdens of planks, tents, picks,
and spades. Beside the Walnut Walk soldiers in their shirt sleeves
were digging, trenching, measuring; a child could see what was
toward--they were meting out a camp.
Mr. Wogan looked at Mr. Tyrell, Mr. Tyrell looked at Mr. Wogan.
'The lady _has_ stirred,' said Tyrell in dismay. 'And what is more she
knows of the Blow.'
'Or Mr. Scrotton is not a very honest man,' said Wogan, and whistled
"Lilliburlero." He was disposed on the whole to agree with Tyrell.
Somehow Lady Oxford had got news of the inner plot; perhaps through
this mysterious Mr. Scrotton.
The Walnut Walk was all astir and agape with evening loungers; it
hummed with gossip. The two gentlemen went to the Cake House, sat
down, and called for glasses of ratafia. Studying the face of Mr.
Tyrell, of which his own was no doubt the very likeness, Mr. Wogan
inferred that they needed this refreshment.
They listened, with conscious grins of innocence, to the talk at the
tables, being a little comforted to hear many questions, but no
certain answers. The soldiers, it seems, being asked, could or would
give no answer but that they had orders to make a camp. Fair ladies,
smiling on private men, could get no other reply. It might be only for
practice. It might be that the French were expected. Mr. Wogan
heartily wished that they were, but nobody was expected, so far as he
knew, save these same ragged regiments of his countrymen with the
Duke. And, lo! a welcome was being got ready for them. As for the
regiment that had been tampered with in the Tower, they were pitching
tents in the Park. The two gentlemen, who had been conversing on faro
and Newmarket, and laying each other fantastic odds, arose and walked
eastwards.
'I think the air of the waterside would be wholesome,' remarked Mr.
Tyrell.
'I have to see a friend,' said Mr. Wogan, and they shook hands and
parted.
'You will warn the Crow to be on the wing?' said Wogan over his
shoulder, and the other nodded. Mr. Wogan could not but smile to think
of the Crow winging an unsteady flight across the Channel. He managed
to steer across, after all, thanks to Tyrell. Then Wogan read Lady
Oxford's _billet_ again, and he walked to Bury Street.
He knocked, and the door was opened by Mrs. Barnes.
'Mr. Johnson at home?'
'It would appear, Mr. Hilton, that I did not give satisfaction,' said
Mrs. Barnes, whose aspect was of a severity.
'Give satisfaction?'
'Mr. Kelly has thought to better himself, and if he prefers
bed-fellows such as shall be nameless, and the coals disappearing, and
his letters pryed into, and if he thinks that I ever mention my
gentlemen's affairs...!'
Here Mrs. Barnes threw her apron over her head, but gulps of
lamentation escaped aloud, though her emotion was veiled like that of
the Greek gentleman in the picture.
Mr. Wogan was not unpractised in the art of consoling Mrs. Barnes. He
led her within, she was slowly induced to unshroud her pleasing
features, and, at last, revealed the strange circumstance that Kelly
had left her rooms two days before without giving in any sound
justifying plea for this treason. Mr. Wogan, who was well aware of
Mrs. Barnes's curiosity and the fluency of her tongue, was in no doubt
as to the cause which had led the Parson to leave her, and thought the
step in this posture of their affairs altogether prudent.
'But he will return,' he reassured her. 'What!--you know Mr. Johnson,
he will never desert you.'
'So he said. He would come back in a month, and paid in advance to
reserve the rooms, but it would seem that I do not give satisfaction.
And here's all his letters to all manner of names. Look at them! Look
at them! And how many of them are signed Ugus? Oh, I know what that
will end in, and I'm just going to send the girl round with them--'
'I'll carry them myself, Mrs. Barnes,' said Wogan, interrupting her.
He picked up the letters from the table, and glanced about the room,
if by chance Mr. Kelly had left anything inconvenient behind him. But,
except the letters, there was not so much as a scrap of paper about to
show that ever he had lodged there. Wogan looked at the scrutoire on
which the strong-box he had given to his friend at Paris was used to
rest. It had held Lady Oxford's letters in the old days, but of late
it had lain unused, and the dust had gathered thick upon the lid, so
that in his haste the Parson might well have forgotten it. But he had
carried it away, and with it his big Bible, which had stood beside it
in such an incongruous juxtaposition.
'I'll carry them myself,' said Wogan, and putting the letters in his
pocket he went down the steps. He marched some twenty yards down the
street and then came to a stop. He looked round. Mrs. Barnes was
watching him from the doorway with as grim a smile as her cheery face
could compass.
'But, my dear woman, where will I carry them to? 'asks Wogan, coming
back.
'That's it,' cried she with a triumphant toss of her head. 'One minute
Mrs. Barnes is a tattling, troublesome woman, and, if you please,
we'll not take so much trouble as to say good-bye to her, and the next
it's Mrs. Barnes that must help us, and tell us where we are to go.
Mr. Johnson lodges at Mrs. Kilburne's in Ryder Street.'
'Mrs. Kilburne's! Why, she's your bosom friend, Mrs. Barnes.'
Mr. Wogan was a trifle surprised that the Parson should leave Mrs.
Barnes because of her curiosity and take a lodging with Mrs. Barnes's
bosom friend, who, to tell the truth, was no less of a gossip.
'Well,' said Mrs. Barnes, firing up. 'D'ye think I would let him go to
those I know nothing of, who would rob him and starve him of his last
crust of bread. No, for all that he scorns and despises me! No, he
asked me where he should go and I told him to Mrs. Kilburne.'
'Oh, he asked you,' said Wogan. 'Well, it is a very Irish proceeding.
I'll go to Mrs. Kilburne's and find him.'
'You may go to Mrs. Kilburne,' said she as Wogan turned away, 'but as
to finding him,' and she shrugged her shoulders.
'Why, what do you mean?'
'A man in that moppet's livery, for moppet she is, my Lady or not my
Lady, brought a note yesterday and he that had been hiding from her,
like the honest man he used to be before she came trapesing after
him.'
'A note? Was it anything like this?' asked Wogan, pulling from his
pocket his own invitation to Lady Oxford's rout.
'It was very like that,' said Mrs. Barnes. 'I sent the fellow on with
the scented thing.'
A note from Lady Oxford to George, an heroic epistle from Ariadne to
Theseus! An invitation too! Ariadne invites Theseus to her rout, and
for something more, conjectured Wogan, than the pleasure of winning
his money at cards. Wogan's anxiety concerning Lady Oxford's attitude
was much increased. There was the ballad, the camp in Hyde Park, there
were the letters of invitation. Mr. Wogan thought it high time to see
Theseus, and leaving Mrs. Barnes with a becoming blush on her features
that laughed through their tears, he walked to Ryder Street.
Mr. Wogan knocked at the door in the deepening dusk. The landlady
opened. She knew Wogan, who, indeed, had occupied her chambers at one
time. She smiled all over her jolly face:
'Mr. Hilton! Taller than ever, and welcome as ever.'
'Thank you, Mrs. Kilburne, I shall soon rival the Monument, but I can
still get under your lintel by stooping. Where is Mr. Johnson?'
'Mr. Johnson? Oh, sir, what a life that poor gentleman lives. Out all
night, home in the morning with mud or dust on him to the shoulder,
and so to bed all day.'
'Then Mr. Johnson must be wakened. I can do it, were he one of the
seven sleepers. George!' cried Mr. Wogan, lifting up his voice.
'Oh, sir, be quiet! A very dainty gentleman has my first floor, and he
will be complaining of the noise. You always were that noisy, Mr.
Hilton!' She walked down the passage as she spoke and threw open a
door upon the right. 'Mr. Johnson, he has my ground floor, but you
can't waken him, loud as you are, nor any man, so be quiet, Mr.
Hilton.'
'Have I to weep for my poor friend's decease?' asked Wogan, as he
entered the room.
'No, sir, or I would not be laughing at your nonsense.'
There was no doubt this was the Parson's lodging. For as Wogan stood
just within the door, he saw by the window Mr. Kelly's scrutoire. It
was the first thing indeed on which his eyes fell. He stepped across
the room and threw open the lid. He saw a dispatch-box, and from the
lock he knew it to be that in which Kelly kept safe the papers of the
Bishop's plot.
'So there's another lodger in the house,' said Nick thoughtfully. He
took up the box and tried the lid. It was locked. But Mr. Wogan would
have preferred that the Parson should have kept the papers in the box
which he had given him at Paris, of which the lock was stouter. That
box he saw further back in the scrutoire, half hidden in news-sheets.
But that too he found to be locked, and shaking it in his hand, was
aware that, like the other, it held papers. The lid of the box was
covered with dust, as though it had not been touched for months. Lady
Oxford's letters had been locked up there. No doubt they were there
still. Mr. Wogan wondered for a little at the strange sentiment which
makes a man keep such dead tokens of a dead passion. He put the box
back amongst the news-sheets, and turning to Mrs. Kilburne,
'But where is the man?' he cried. 'George!' and he rapped on the table
with his cane.
'You can't waken Mr. Johnson,' said Mrs. Kilburne 'because he awoke an
hour ago, and dressed in a hurry, but braver than common, with his
silver-hilted sword, Alencon ruffles, black coat and satin lining,
silver shoulder-knots, and best buckles, and out he goes. He was
summoned by a man in the livery of my Lord, the good Bishop of
Rochester.'
'Will you tell him, when he returns, that Mr. Hilton waited on him,
and greatly desires to see him in his best before he goes to bed?'
Wogan pulled the letters from his pocket and laid them on the table
which stood in the centre of the room.
'I will, sir, but, if you call again, pray, sir, be very quiet. My
first floor gentleman is such a dainty gentleman.'
'A mouse shall be noisy in comparison. I have a great tenderness, Mrs.
Kilburne, for the nerves of fine gentlemen.'
Mrs. Kilburne grinned in a sceptical sort.
'But,' Wogan added suddenly, 'it is very like I shall fall in with Mr.
Johnson before then.' He took some half-a-dozen of the letters again
into his hand and looked them over. They were inscribed to such cant
names as Illington, Hatfield, Johnson, Andrews, and were evidently
dangerous merchandise. Mr. Wogan thought they would be safer in his
pocket than on Mr. Kelly's table. He picked up the rest, but as he put
them back into his pocket, one fell on to the floor. Wogan caught
sight of the handwriting as it fell. Then it stared up at him from the
floor. The letter was written in a woman's hand, which Mr. Wogan was
well enough acquainted with, although it was neither Lady Oxford's nor
the hand of Rose. It was in the handwriting of Lady Mary Wortley
Montagu. Wogan stooped down and picked it up. For a letter, it was
extraordinary light. Wogan weighed it in his hand for a second,
wondering what it might be. However, there was no answer to be got
that way, and Mr. Wogan had weightier matter to engage his thoughts.
He put it into his pocket and marched to his own lodgings, which were
hard by in the same street.
Several problems, a swarm of skirmishing doubts, trooped through his
mind.
'What did my Lady Oxford mean by writing to Kelly?'
To this Wogan answered that she meant the same thing by Kelly as by
himself, and for some reason had bidden him to her rout. As to her
motive for that act of unexpected hospitality, Wogan had his own
thoughts, which he afterwards confided to his friend. 'But who,' he
pondered, 'can answer for a woman's motives when the devil of
perversity sits at her elbow?'
Next, why had Kelly made himself such a beau? It could not be merely
to do honour to a mourning prelate who would never glance at his
secretary's satin and point d'Alencon.
Mr. Wogan inferred that his first guess was right, that Lady Oxford
had bidden Kelly to her rout, and that, by the token of his raiment,
Mr. Kelly meant to accept the invitation.
Kelly knew nothing of the camp, and the discovery which it seemed to
speak of, when he left the lodgings where he had slept all day. Of the
ballad, too, it was like that Kelly knew nothing, and, in Wogan's
opinion, the ballad was the cause of the military stir. Lady Oxford,
inflamed with anger, blaming Lady Mary for the ballad, and blaming
Kelly for blabbing her fault to her enemy, Lady Mary; had doubtless
visited Mr. Walpole. The innocent Kelly, innocent of all these things,
would be going to Lady Oxford's to fathom the causes of her renewed
friendship.
Mr. Wogan puzzled his brains over these matters while he supped in
solitude at his lodgings. His friends have hinted that his mental
furnishing is not in a concatenation with his bodily stature. He has
answered that, if it were so, he would be Shakespeare and the Duke of
Marlborough rolled into one. Though refreshed with Burgundy, his head
felt weary enough when he turned to the question, 'What was he, Wogan,
to do next?' In his opinion, the boldest plan is ever the best;
moreover, he had a notion that there was no safer place in London for
him, that night, and perhaps for Mr. Kelly, than Queen's Square in
Westminster which Lady Oxford had taken for a permanence. For
if Lady Oxford had blabbed, the last place in London where the
Messengers would be like to look for the Parson was her ladyship's
withdrawing-room. Unless of course she was laying a trap, which did
not seem likely. In the face of this new ballad, Lady Oxford would not
dare to have the Parson arrested within, or even near her house. It
would provoke too great a scandal. He decided, therefore, first to go
to the Dean's house, at Westminster, where the Bishop of Rochester
stayed, see Mr. Kelly, if he could, and unfold his parcel of black
news. Next, he would take Kelly to Lady Oxford's, if Kelly would come,
for Wogan not only deemed this step the safest of his dangers, but
expected to enjoy a certain novelty of the emotions, in which he was
not disappointed. He therefore, imitating the clerical example, began
to decorate himself in his most seductive shoulder knots to do honour
to Lady Oxford.
It may be that Wogan's mind, already crowded by a number of
occurrences and dubitations, had exhausted its logical powers, for
there was one idea which should have occurred to him earliest, and
which only visited him while he was shaving. Who was the first person
he was likely to encounter at Lady Oxford's? Why, the very last person
whom at this juncture it was convenient for him to meet--namely,
Colonel Montague. Wogan heartily wished he had left the Colonel
between two fires at Preston barricade. But now there was no help for
it, go he must. The Colonel, like other people, might not remember the
boy in the man and under a new name, or, if he did--and then a fresh
idea occurred to Wogan which made him smile.
'I was born,' he said, 'to be a lightning conductor!'