Keppel again mused for a moment or two, and then said, “Well, sir, I must not urge you by any harsh menace, nor was such my intention in what I said.  But there are other considerations which should induce you to tell me more than you have told.  One is, the safety of the Great Personage we have mentioned himself.  It is scarcely possible for him to guard against the evil you apprehend in the manner you propose.  He is by far too fearless a man, as you well know, to shut himself up within the walls of his palace, or even to conceal himself in his carriage.  If he rides out, he cannot always be surrounded by guards, nor can he have a troop galloping after him through the hunting field.”

“Sir,” replied the stranger, “to you and to his other friends and attendants I must leave the guardianship of his person—­I neither know him nor his habits.  I have done what I conceive to be my duty; I have done it to the extreme limit of what I judge right; and neither fear nor favour will make me go one step farther.”

“These scruples are very extraordinary,” replied Keppel—­“indeed, I cannot understand them:  but at all events I must beg you to remain a little, while I go and speak to Lord Portland upon the subject.  Perhaps, if the King himself were to hear you, you might say more.”

“I should say no more to the Personage you mention,” replied the other, “than I should to Lord Portland—­for to the one I am obliged, to the other, not.”

“Well, wait a few minutes,” replied Keppel, and quitted the room.

The other remained standing where the courtier had left him, though the thought crossed his mind, “My errand is now done.  Why should I remain any longer?  I should risk less by going now than by lingering.”

But still be stayed; and in two minutes, or perhaps less, the door again opened, giving admission, not to Keppel, but to the elder personage with whom he had spoken before.  Advancing into the middle of the room, he leaned upon the table, near which the other was standing, and said—­

“Monsieur Keppel has told me all that you have said, and, moreover, what you have refused to say.  First, let me tell you that I am much obliged to you for the intelligence you have brought; and next, let me exhort you to make it more full and complete to render it effectual.”

“I have made it as complete, my lord,” replied his visitor, “as it is possible for me to do without betraying men who were once my friends, and who have only lost my friendship by such schemes as these.  I must not say any more even at your request; for I must not take from you the power of saying, that you saved the life of a man of honour.  You must contrive means to secure the Great Personage we speak of, and I doubt not you will be able to do so.  I had but one object in coming here, my lord, and that object was not a personal one; it was to tell you of the danger, and thereby enable you to guard against it; it was to tell you, that a body of rash and criminal men have conspired together, to assassinate a Personage who stands in the way of their schemes.”