In a lofty, spacious room of the town hall at Taunton sat Sir Edward
Phelips and Colonel Luttrell to dispense justice, and with them, flanked
by one of them on either side of him, sat Christopher Monk, Duke of
Albemarle, Lord-Lieutenant of Devonshire, who had been summoned in
all haste from Exeter that he might be present at an examination which
promised to be of so vast importance. The three sat at a long table at
the room's end, attended by two secretaries.
Before them, guarded by constable and tything-men, weaponless, their
hands pinioned behind them--Blake's arm was healed by now--stood Mr.
Westmacott and his friend Sir Rowland to answer this grave charge.
Richard, not knowing who might have betrayed him and to what extent, was
very fearful--having through his connection with the Cause every reason
so to be. Blake, on the other hand, conscious of his innocence of any
plotting, was impatient of his position, and a thought contemptuous.
It was he who, upon being ushered by the constable and his men into the
august presence of the Lord-Lieutenant, clamoured to know precisely of
what he was accused that he might straightway clear himself.
Albemarle reared his great massive head, smothered in a mighty black
peruke, and scowled upon the florid London beau. A black-visaged
gentleman was Christopher Monk. His pendulous cheeks, it is true, were
of a sallow pallor, but what with his black wig, black eyebrows, dark
eyes, and the blue-black tint of shaven beard on his great jaw and upper
lip, he presented an appearance sombrely sinister. His netherlip was
thick and very prominent; deep creases ran from the corners of his mouth
adown his heavy chin; his eyes were dull and lack-lustre, with great
pouches under them. In the main, the air of this son of the great
Parliamentarian general was stupid, dull, unprepossessing.
The creases of his mouth deepened as Blake protested against what he
termed this outrage that had been done him; he sneered ponderously,
thrusting further forward his heavily undershot jowl.
“We are informed, sir, of your antecedents,” he staggered Blake by
answering. “We have learnt the reason why you left London and your
creditors, and in all my life, sir, I have never known a man more ready
to turn his hand to treason than a broken gamester. Your kind turns by
instinct to such work as this, as a last resource for the mending of
battered fortunes.”
Blake crimsoned from chin to brow. “I'm forejudged, it, seems,” he made
answer haughtily, tossing his fair locks, his blue eyes glaring upon his
judges. “May I, at least, know the name of my accuser?”
“You shall receive impartial justice at our hands,” put in Phelips,
whose manner was of a dangerous mildness. “Depend on that. Not only
shall you know the name of your accuser, but you shall be confronted by
him. Meanwhile, sirs”--and his glance strayed from Blake's flushed and
angry countenance to Richard's, pale and timid--“meanwhile, are we to
understand that you deny the charge?”
“I have heard none as yet,” said Sir Rowland insolently.
Albemarle turned to one of the secretaries. “Read them the indictment,”
said he, and sank back in his chair, his dull glance upon the prisoners,
whilst the clerk in a droning voice read from a document which he took
up. It impeached Sir Rowland Blake and Mr. Richard Westmacott of holding
treasonable communication with James Scott, Duke of Monmouth, and of
plotting against His Majesty's life and throne and the peace of His
Majesty's realms.
Blake listened with unconcealed impatience to the farrago of legal
phrases, and snorted contemptuously when the reading came to an end.
Albemarle looked at him darkly. “I do thank God,” said he, “that through
Mr. Westmacott's folly has this hideous plot, this black and damnable
treason, been brought to light in time to enable us to stamp out this
fire ere it is well kindled. Have you aught to say, sir?”
“I have to say that the whole charge a foul and unfounded lie,” said Sir
Rowland bluntly: “I never plotted in my life against anything but my own
prosperity, nor against any man but myself.”
Albemarle smiled coldly at his colleagues, then turned to Westmacott.
“And you, sir?” he said. “Are you as stubborn as your friend?”
“I incontinently deny the charge,” said Richard, and he contrived that
his voice should ring bold and resolute.
“A charge built on air,” sneered Blake, “which the first breath of truth
should utterly dispel. We have heard the impeachment. Will Your Grace
with the same consideration permit us to see the proofs that we may lay
bare their falseness? It should not be difficult.”
“Do you say there is no such plot as is here alleged?” quoth the Duke,
and smote a paper sharply.
Blake shrugged his shoulders. “How should I know?” he asked. “I say I
have no share in any, that I am acquainted with none.”
“Call Mr. Trenchard,” said the Duke quietly, and an usher who had stood
tamely by the door at the far end of the room departed on the errand.
Richard started at the mention of that name. He had a singular dread of
Mr. Trenchard.
Colonel Luttrell--lean and wiry--now addressed the prisoners, Blake more
particularly. “Still,” said he, “you will admit that such a plot may,
indeed, exist?”
“It may, indeed, for aught I know--or care,” he added incautiously.
Albemarle smote the table with a heavy hand. “By God!” he cried in that
deep booming voice of his, “there spoke a traitor! You do not care, you
say, what plots may be hatched against His Majesty's life and crown! Yet
you ask me to believe you a true and loyal subject.”
Blake was angered; he was at best a short-tempered man. Deliberately he
floundered further into the mire.
“I have not asked Your Grace to believe me anything,” he answered hotly.
“It is all one to me what Your Grace believes me. I take it I have not
been fetched hither to be confronted with what Your Grace believes. You
have preferred a lying charge against me; I ask for proofs, not Your
Grace's beliefs and opinions.”
“By God, sir, you are a daring rogue!” cried Albemarle.
Sir Rowland's eyes blazed. “Anon, Your Grace, when, having failed of
your proofs, you shall be constrained to restore me to liberty, I shall
ask Your Grace to unsay that word.”
Albemarle stared, confounded, and in that moment the door opened, and
Trenchard sauntered in, cane in hand, his hat under his arm, a wicked
smile on his wizened face.
Leaving Blake's veiled threat unanswered, the Duke turned to the old
rake. “These rogues,” said he, pointing to the prisoners, “demand proofs
ere they will admit the truth of the impeachment.”
“Those proofs,” said Trenchard, “are already in Your Grace's hands.”
“Aye, but they have asked to be confronted with their accuser.”
Trenchard bowed. “Is it your wish, then, that I recite for them the
counts on which I have based the accusation I laid before Your Grace?”
“If you will condescend so far,” said Albemarle.
“Blister me...!” roared Blake, when the Duke interrupted him.
“By God, sir!” he cried, “I'll have no such disrespectful language here.
You'll observe the decency of speech and forbear from profanities, you
damned rogue, or by God! I'll commit you forthwith.”
“I will endeavour,” said Blake, with a sarcasm lost on Albemarle, “to
follow Your Grace's lofty example.”
“You will do well, sir,” said the Duke, and was shocked that Trenchard
should laugh at such a moment.
“I was about to protest, sir,” said Blake, “that it is monstrous
I should be accused by Mr. Trenchard. He has but the slightest
acquaintance with me.”
Trenchard bowed to him across the chamber. “Admitted, sir,” said
he. “What should I be doing in bad company?” An answer this that set
Albemarle bawling with laughter. Trenchard turned to the Duke. “I will
begin, an it please Your Grace, with the expressions used last night in
my presence at the Bell Inn at Bridgwater by Mr. Richard Westmacott, and
I will confine myself strictly to those matters on which my testimony
can be corroborated by that of other witnesses.”
Colonel Luttrell interrupted him to turn to Richard. “Do you recall
those expressions, sir?” he asked him.
Richard winced under the question. Nevertheless, he braced himself to
make the best defence he could. “I have not yet heard,” said he, “what
those expressions were; nor when I hear them must it follow that I
recognize them as my own. I must admit to having taken more wine,
perhaps, than... than...” Whilst he sought the expression that he needed
Trenchard cut in with a laugh. “In vino veritas, gentlemen,” and
His Grace and Sir Edward nodded sagely; Luttrell preserved a stolid
exterior. He seemed less prone than his colleagues to forejudging.
“Will you repeat the expressions used by Mr. Westmacott?” Sir Edward
begged.
“I will repeat the one that, to my mind, matters most.” Mr. Westmacott,
getting to his feet and in a loud voice, exclaimed, “God save the
Protestant Duke!”
“Do you admit it, sir?” thundered Albemarle, his eyes glowering upon
Richard hesitated a moment, pale and trembling.
“You will waste breath in denying it,” said Trenchard suavely, “for I
have a drawer from the Bell Inn, and two gentlemen who overheard you
waiting outside.”
“I'faith, sir,” cried Blake, “what treason was therein that? If he...”
“Silence!” thundered Albemarle. “Let Mr. Westmacott speak for himself.”
Richard, inspired by the defence Blake had begun, took the same line of
argument. “I admit that in the heat of wine I may have used such words,”
said he. “But I deny their intent to be treasonable. There are many men
who drink to the prosperity of the late Kings's son...”
“Natural son, sir; natural son,” Albemarle amended. “It is treason to
speak of him otherwise.”
“It will be a treason presently to draw breath,” sneered Blake.
“If it be,” said Trenchard, “it is a treason you'll not be long
committing.”
“Faith, you are right, Mr. Trenchard,” said the Duke with a laugh.
Indeed, he found Mr. Trenchard a most pleasant and facetious gentleman.
“Still,” insisted Richard, endeavouring in spite of these irrelevancies
to make good his point, “there be many men who drink daily to the
prosperity of the late King's natural son.”
“Aye, sir,” answered Albemarle; “but not his prosperity in horrid plots
against the life of our beloved sovereign.”
“True, Your Grace; very true,” purred Sir Edward. “It was not so I meant
to toast him,” cried Richard. Albemarle made an impatient gesture,
and took up a sheet of paper. “How, then,” he asked, “comes this
letter--this letter which makes plain the treason upon which the Duke
of Monmouth is embarked, just as it makes plain your participation in
it--how comes this letter to be found in your possession?” And he waved
the letter in the air.
Richard went the colour of ashes. He faltered a moment, then took refuge
in the truth, for all that he knew beforehand that the truth was bound
to ring more false than any lie he could invent.
“That letter was not addressed to me,” he stammered.
Albemarle read the subscription, “To my good friend W., at Bridgwater.”
He looked up, a heavy sneer thrusting his heavy lip still further out.
“What do you say to that? Does not 'W' stand for Westmacott?”
“It does not.”
“Of course not,” said Albemarle with heavy sarcasm. “It stands for
Wilkins, or Williams, or... or... What-not.”
“Indeed, I can bear witness that it does not,” exclaimed Sir Rowland.
“Be silent, sir, I tell you!” bawled the Duke at him again. “You shall
bear witness soon enough, I promise you. To whom, then,” he resumed,
turning again to Richard, “do you say that this letter was addressed?”
“To Mr. Wilding--Mr. Anthony Wilding,” Richard answered.
“I would have Your Grace to observe,” put in Trench ard quietly, “that
Mr. Wilding, properly speaking, does not reside in Bridgwater.”
“Tush!” cried Albemarle; “the rogue but mentions the first name with a
'W' that occurs to him. He's not even an ingenious liar. And how, sir,”
he asked Richard, “does it come to be in your possession, having been
addressed, as you say, to Mr. Wilding?”
“Aye, sir,” said Sir Edward, blinking his weak eyes. “Tell us that.”
Richard hesitated again, and looked at Blake. Blake, who by now had
come to realize that his friend's affairs were not mended by his
interruptions, moodily shrugged his shoulders, scowling.
“Come, sir,” said Colonel Luttrell, engagingly, “answer the question.”
“Aye,” roared Albemarle; “let your invention have free rein.”
Again poor Richard sought refuge in the truth. “We--Sir Rowland here and
I--had reason to suspect that he was awaiting such a letter.”
“Tell us your reasons, sir, if we are to credit you,” said the Duke, and
it was plain he mocked the prisoner. It was, moreover, a request that
staggered Richard. Still, he sought to find a reason that should sound
plausible.
“We inferred it from certain remarks that Mr. Wilding let fall in our
presence.”
“Tell us the remarks, sir,” the Duke insisted.
“Indeed, I do not call his precise words to mind, Your Grace. But they
were such that we suspicioned him.”
“And you would have me believe that hearing words which awoke in you
such grave suspicions, you kept your suspicions and straightway forgot
the words. You're but an indifferent liar.”
Trenchard, who was standing by the long table, leaned forward now.
“It might be well, an it please Your Grace,” said he, “to waive the
point, and let us come to those matters which are of greater moment. Let
him tell Your Grace how he came by the letter.”
“Aye,” said Albemarle. “We do but waste time. Tell us, then, how came
the letter into your hands?”
“With Sir Rowland, here, I robbed the courier as he was riding from
Taunton to Bridgwater.”
Albemarle laughed, and Sir Edward smiled. “You robbed him, eh?” said His
Grace. “Very well. But how did it happen that you knew he had the letter
upon him, or was it that you were playing the hightobymen, and that in
robbing him you hoped to find other matters?”
“Not so, sir,” answered Richard. “I sought but the letter.”
“And how knew you that he carried it? Did you learn that, too, from Mr.
Wilding's indiscretion?”
“Your Grace has said it.”
“'Slife! What an impudent rogue have we here!” cried the angry Duke,
who conceived that Richard was purposely dealing in effrontery. “Mr.
Trenchard, I do think we are wasting time. Be so good as to confound
them both with the truth of this matter.”
“That letter,” said Trenchard, “was delivered to them at the Hare and
Hounds, here at Taunton, by a gentleman who put up at the inn, and was
there joined by Mr. Westmacott and Sir Rowland Blake. They opened
the conversation with certain cant phrases very clearly intended as
passwords. Thus: the prisoners said to the messenger, as they seated
themselves at the table he occupied, 'You have the air, sir, of being
from overseas,' to which the courier answered, 'Indeed, yes. I am from
Holland. 'From the land of Orange,' says one of the prisoners. 'Aye, and
other things,' replies the messenger. 'There is a fair wind blowing,' he
adds; to which one of the prisoners, I believe it was Sir Rowland, makes
answer, 'Mayit prosper the Protestant Duke and blow Popery to hell.'
Thereupon the landlord caught some mention of a letter, but these
plotters, perceiving that they were perhaps being overheard, sent him
away to fetch them wine. A half-hour later the messenger took his leave,
and the prisoners followed a very few minutes afterwards.”
Albemarle turned to the prisoners. “You have heard Mr. Trenchard's
story. How do you say--is it true or untrue?”
“You will waste breath in denying it,” Trenchard took it again upon
himself to admonish them. “For I have with me the landlord of the Hare
and Hounds, who will corroborate, upon oath, what I have said.”
“We do not deny it,” put in Blake. “But we submit that the matter is
susceptible to explanation.”
“You can keep your explanations till your trial, then,” snapped
Albemarle. “I have heard more than enough to commit the pair of you to
gaol.”
“But, Your Grace,” cried Sir Rowland, so fiercely that one of the
tything-men set a restraining hand upon his shoulder, “I am ready to
swear that what I did, and what my friend Mr. Westmacott did, was done
in the interests of His Majesty. We were working to discover this plot.”
“Which, no doubt,” put in Trenchard slyly, “is the reason why, having
got the letter, your friend Mr. Westmacott locked it in a desk, and you
kept silence on the matter.”
“You see,” exclaimed Albemarle, “how your lies do but serve further to
bind you in the toils. It is ever thus with traitors.”
“I do think you are a damned traitor, Trenchard,” began Blake; “a
foul...”
But what more he would have said was checked by Albemarle, who thundered
forth an order for their removal, and then, scarce were the words
uttered than the door at the far end of the hall was opened, and through
it came a sound of women's voices. Richard started, for one was the
voice of Ruth.
An usher advanced. “May it please Your Grace, there are two ladies here
beg that you will hear their evidence in the matter of Mr. Westmacott
and Sir Rowland Blake.”
Albemarle considered a moment. Trenchard stood very thoughtful.
“Indeed,” said the Duke, at last, “I have heard as much as I need hear,”
and Sir Phelips nodded in token of concurrence.
Not so, however, Colonel Luttrell. “Still,” said he, “in the interests
of His Majesty, perhaps, we should be doing well to receive them.”
Albemarle blew out his cheeks like a man wearied, and stared an instant
at Luttrell. Then he shrugged his shoulders.
“Admit them, then,” he commanded almost peevishly, and Ruth and Diana
were ushered into the hall. Both were pale, but whilst Diana was
fluttered with excitement, Ruth was calm and cool, and it was she who
spoke in answer to the Duke's invitation. The burden of her speech was
a clear, succinct recitation--in which she spared neither Wilding
nor herself--of how the letter came to have remained in her hands and
silence to have been preserved regarding it. Albemarle heard her very
patiently.
“If what you say is true, mistress,” said he, “and God forbid that
I should be so ungallant as to throw doubt upon a lady's word, it
certainly explains--although most strangely--how the letter was not
brought to us at once by your brother and his friend Sir Rowland. You
are prepared to swear that this letter was intended for Mr. Wilding?”
“I am prepared to swear it,” she replied.
“This is very serious,” said the Duke.
“Very serious,” assented Sir Edward Phelips.
Albemarle, a little flustered, turned to his colleagues. “What do you
say to this? Were it perhaps well to order Mr. Wilding's apprehension,
and to have him brought hither?”
“It were to give yourselves useless trouble, gentlemen,” said Trenchard,
with so much assurance that it was plain Albemarle hesitated.
“Beware of Mr. Trenchard, Your Grace,” cried Ruth. “He is Mr. Wilding's
friend, and if there is a plot he is sure to be in it.”
Albemarle, startled, looked at Trenchard. Had the accusation come from
either of the men the Duke would have silenced him and abused him;
but coming from a woman, and so comely a woman, it seemed to His Grace
worthy at least of consideration. But nimble Mr. Trenchard was easily
master of the situation.
“Which, of course,” he answered, with fine sarcasm, “is the reason why
I have been at work for the past four-and-twenty hours to lay proofs of
this plot before Your Grace.”
Albemarle was ashamed of his momentary hesitation.
“For the rest,” said Trenchard, “it is perfectly true that I am Mr.
Wilding's friend. But the lady is even more intimately connected with
him. It happens that she is his wife.”
“His... his wife!” gasped the Duke, whilst Phelips chuckled, and Colonel
Luttrell's face grew dark.
Trenchard's wicked smile flickered upon his mobile features. “There are
rumours current of court paid her by Sir Rowland, there. Who knows?” he
questioned most suggestively, arching his brows and tightening his lips.
“Wives are strange kittle-kattle, and husbands have been known before to
grow inconvenient. Upon reflection, Your Grace will no doubt discern the
precise degree of faith to attach to what this lady may tell you against
Mr. Wilding.”
“Oh!” exclaimed Ruth, her cheeks flaming crimson. “But this is
monstrous!”
“Tis how I should myself describe it,” answered Trenchard without shame.
Spurred to it thus, Ruth poured out the entire story of her marriage,
and so clear and lucid was her statement that it threw upon the affair a
flood of light, whilst so frank and truthful was her tone, her narrative
hung so well together, that the Bench began to recover from the shock to
its faith, and was again in danger of believing her. Trenchard saw this
and trembled. To save Wilding for the Cause he had resorted to this
desperate expedient of betraying that Cause. It must be observed,
however, that he had not done so save under the conviction that betrayed
it was bound to be, and that since that was inevitable the thing had
better come from him--for Wilding's sake--than from Richard Westmacott.
He had taken the bull by the horns in a most desperate fashion when he
had determined to hoist Richard and Blake with their own petard, hoping
that, after all, the harm would reach no further than the destruction of
these two--a purely defensive measure. But now this girl threatened
to wreck his scheme just as it was being safely steered to harbour.
Suddenly he swung round, interrupting her.
“Lies, lies, lies!” he clamoured, and his interruption coming at such a
time served to impress the Duke most unfavourably--as well it might.
“It is our wish to hear this lady out, Mr. Trenchard,” the Duke reproved
him.
But Mr. Trenchard was undismayed. Indeed, he had just discovered a
hitherto neglected card, which should put an end to this dangerous game.
“I do abhor to hear Your Grace's patience thus abused,” he exclaimed
with some show of heat. “This lady makes a mock of you. If you'll allow
me to ask two questions--or perhaps three--I'll promise finally to prick
this bubble for you. Have I Your Grace's leave?”
“Well, well,” said Albemarle. “Let us hear your questions.” And his
colleagues nodded.
Trenchard turned airily to Ruth. Behind her Diana sat--an attendant had
fetched a chair for her--in fear and wonder at what she saw and heard,
her eyes ever and anon straying to Sir Rowland's back, which was towards
her.
“This letter, madam,” said he, “for the possession of which you have
accounted in so... so... picturesque a manner, was intended for and
addressed to Mr. Wilding, you say. And you are prepared to swear to it?”
Ruth turned indignantly to the Bench. “Must I answer this man's
questions?” she demanded.
“I think, perhaps, it were best you did,” said the Duke, still showing
her all deference.
She turned to Trenchard, her head high, her eyes full upon his wrinkled,
cynical face. “I swear, then...” she began, but he--consummate actor
that he was and versed in tricks that impress an audience--interrupted
her, raising one of his gnarled, yellow hands.
“Nay, nay,” said he. “I would not have perjury proved against you. I do
not ask you to swear. It will be sufficient if you pronounce yourself
prepared to swear.”
She pouted her lip a trifle, her whole expression manifesting her
contempt of him. “I am in no fear of perjuring myself,” she answered
fearlessly. “And I swear that the letter in question was addressed to
Mr. Wilding.”
“As you will,” said Trenchard, and was careful not to ask her how she
came by her knowledge. “The letter, no doubt, was in an outer wrapper,
on which there would be a superscription--the name of the person to whom
the letter was addressed?” he half questioned, and Luttrell, who saw the
drift of the question, nodded gravely.
“No doubt,” said Ruth.
“Now you will acknowledge, I am sure, madam, that such a wrapper would
be a document of the greatest importance, as important, indeed, as the
letter itself, since we could depend upon it finally to clear up this
point on which we differ. You will admit so much, I think?”
“Why, yes,” she answered, but her voice faltered a little, and her
glance was not quite so fearless. She, too, saw at last the pit he had
dug for her. He leaned forward, smiling quietly, his voice impressively
subdued, and launched the bolt that was to annihilate the credibility of
the story she had told.
“Can you, then, explain how it comes that that wrapper has been
suppressed? Can you tell us how--the matter being as you state it--in
very self-defence against the dangers of keeping such a letter, your
brother did not also keep that wrapper?”
Her eyes fell away from his face, they turned to Albemarle, who sat
scowling again, and from him they flickered unsteadily to Phelips and
Luttrell, and lastly, to Richard, who, very white and with set teeth,
stood listening to the working of his ruin.
“I... I do not know,” she faltered at last.
“Ah!” said Trenchard, drawing a deep breath. He turned to the Bench.
“Need I suggest what was the need--the urgent need--for suppressing that
wrapper?” quoth he. “Need I say what name was inscribed upon it? I think
not. Your Grace's keen insight, and yours, gentlemen, will determine
what was probable.”
Sir Rowland now stood forward, addressing Albemarle. “Will Your Grace
permit me to offer my explanation of this?”
Albemarle banged the table. His patience was at an end, since he came
now to believe--as Trenchard had earlier suggested--that he had been
played upon by Ruth.
“Too many explanations have I heard already, sir,” he answered. He
turned to one of his secretaries. In his sudden excess of choler he
forgot his colleagues altogether. “The prisoners are committed for
trial,” said he harshly, and Trenchard breathed freely at last. But the
next instant he caught his breath again, for a ringing voice was heard
without demanding to see His Grace of Albemarle at once, and the voice
was the voice of Anthony Wilding.