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."