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!"