“Mr. Holland,” he said, “I cannot tell you how grateful I feel for this.  I have been hunted from the house where you saw me.  From what source they learned my abode—­my place of concealment—­I know not; but they found me out.”

“I need hardly say, Sir Francis, that it could not have occurred through me,” said Charles Holland.

“My young friend,” said Sir Francis, “I am quite sure you were not; and, moreover, I never, for one moment, suspected you.  No, no; some accidental circumstance alone has been the cause.  I have been very cautious—­I may say extremely so—­but at the same time, living, as I have, surrounded by enemies on all sides, it is not to be wondered at that I should be seen by some one, and thus traced to my lair, whither they followed me at their leisure.”

“They have been but too troublesome in this matter.  When they become a little reasonable, it will be a great miracle; for, when their passions and fears are excited, there is no end to the extremes they will perpetrate.”

“It is so,” said Varney, “as the history of these last few days amply testifies to me.  I could never have credited the extent to which popular excitement could be carried, and the results it was likely to produce.”

“It is an engine of very difficult control,” pursued Charles Holland; “but what will raise it will not allay it, but add fuel to the fire that burns so fiercely already.”

“True enough,” said Sir Francis.

“If you have done, will you again step this way?”

Sir Francis Varney followed Charles Holland into the sitting-room, and sat down with them, and before him was spread a light supper, with some good wine.

“Eat, Sir Francis,” said Mrs. Bannerworth.  “Such a state as that in which you are, must, of necessity, produce great exhaustion, and you must require food and drink.”

Sir Francis bowed as well as he was able, and even then, sore and bruised as he was, fugitive as he had been, he could not forget his courtesy; but it was not without an effort.  His equanimity was, however, much disturbed, by finding himself in the midst of the Bannerworths.

“I owe you a relation,” he said, “of what occurred to drive me from my place of concealment.”

“We should like to hear it, if you are not too far fatigued to relate it,” said Charles.

“I will.  I was sitting at the top of that house in which I sought to hide myself, when I heard sounds come that were of a very suspicious nature; but did not believe that it could happen that they had discovered my lurking-place; far from it; though, of late, I had been habitually cautious and suspicious, yet I thought I was safe, till I heard the noise of a multitude coming towards me.  I could not be mistaken in it, for the sounds are so peculiar that they are like nothing else.  I heard them coming.

“I moved not; and when they surrounded the house as far as was practicable, they gave an immense shout, and made the welkin ring with the sound.”