“Had you given them no offence, sir?” demanded the Duke of Berwick.  “I can scarcely suppose that so dark and sanguinary an act would have been attempted had you not given some cause.  I saw the pistol levelled over Sir George Barkley’s shoulder, while he seemed speaking to you.  That I considered a most unfair act, and stopped it.  But you must surely have done something to provoke such deeds.—­Good heavens! the Lady Helen Oswald!” he continued, as the elder lady advanced, with Laura clinging to her.  “Madam, I fully thought you were at St. Germain.—­Can you tell us anything of this strange affair?”

“But too much, my lord,” replied the lady, speaking eagerly, “but too much for the honour of these men, who have thought fit to violate every principle of justice and humanity.  This young lady beside me has been dragged from her father’s house by the orders of some of these gentlemen here present, beyond all doubt.  This young gentleman has traced her hither, legally authorized to carry her back to her father; and although he plighted his honour, and I pledged my word for him, that he would do nothing and say nothing to compromise any of the persons here present, they not only refused to let him depart, but have, as you saw yourself, most treacherously attempted to take his life while they were affecting to parley with him.”

“Madam,” said the Duke of Berwick, in a sorrowful tone, “I am deeply grieved and pained by all that has occurred.  I confess I never felt despondency till I discovered that persons, pretending to be my father’s friends, have made his cause the pretext for committing crimes and acts like these.  I have already heard this young lady’s story.  All London is ringing with it; and the Earl of Aylesbury gave me this morning, what is probably the real explanation of the whole business.  We will not enter upon it now, for there is no time to be spared.  I feel and know—­and I say it with bitter regret—­that the deeds which these gentlemen have done, and the schemes which they have formed, will do more to injure the cause of their legitimate sovereign than the loss of twenty pitched battles.  Sir George Barkley, I beg you would make no reply.  Provide for your safety, sir.  Your long services and sufferings are sufficient to make some atonement; and I will take care to conceal from the ears of the King, as far as possible, how you have misused his authority.  Sir John Fenwick and the rest of you gentlemen must act as you think fit in regard to remaining in England, or going to the Continent.  But I am inclined to recommend to you the latter, as the safest expedient.  You will leave me to deal with this gentleman and his friends; for I need not tell you that I shall suffer no farther injury or insult to be offered to them.  As to the personage who actually fired the pistol, I have merely to tell him, that should I ever meet with him in circumstances where I have the power to act, I will undoubtedly punish him for his conduct this night.”