“Stop, sir!” cried the young gentleman, catching him by the collar.  “Do you mean to say, that you will now disobey my orders, after having left me to provide for my own security, with the dastardly cowardice that you have displayed?  Did not the Earl direct you to obey me in everything?”

“I will answer it all to the Earl,” replied the man, in an insolent tone.  “If he chooses to put me under a boy, I do not choose to be collared by one.  Let me go, Mr. Brown, I say.”

“I order you, sir,” said Brown, without loosing his hold, “to go instantly back, and aid the people in searching the grounds of that house!—­now, let me see if you will disobey!”

“I will search here first, though,” said the man.  “By, I believe that’s Sir George Barkley, on before there.  He’s known to be in England.  Let me go, Mr. Brown, I say, or worse will come of it!” and he put his hand to his belt, as if seeking for a pistol.

Without another word, Wilton instantly knocked him down with one blow of his clenched fist, and at the same moment he called out aloud, “Captain Byerly! and you constable, who are showing the way—­come back here, and take this man into custody, and bear witness that he refuses to search for the Jacobites in the way I order him.  Constable, I shall want you to take him to town in custody this night.  I will show you my warrant for what I do when we get to the inn.”

The two persons whom he addressed came back instantly at his call; and when the Messenger rose—­considerably crest-fallen from Wilton’s sudden application to measures which he had not expected—­he found himself collared by two strong men, and led along unwillingly upon the road he had before been treading.

“Do not let him chatter, Captain,” Wilton whispered to Captain Byerly, as he passed on; and then immediately walking forward, he joined the Duke and the Lady Laura.  Byerly, who understood what he was about, kept the Messenger at some distance behind; but, nevertheless, some sharp words passing between them reached Wilton’s ear during the first quarter of an hour of their journey; then came a dogged silence; but at length the voice of Byerly was again heard, exclaiming, “Mr. Brown, Mr. Arden says, that, if you will overlook what has passed, he will go back, and do as you order.”

“I shall certainly not look over the business,” replied Brown, aloud, “unless he promises not only to obey my orders at present, but also to make a full apology to me to-morrow.”

“He says he will do what you please, sir,” replied Byerly; and Wilton turning back, heard the sullen apologies of the Messenger.

“Mr. Arden,” he said, “you have behaved extremely ill, well knowing, as you do know, that you were placed entirely under my orders.  However, I shall pardon your conduct both upon the first occasion, and in regard to the present business, if you now do exactly as you are told.  By your running away at the time you ought to have come forward to assist me, you have lost an opportunity of serving the state, in a manner which does not occur every day.  In regard to the gentleman who has gone on, and whom you were foolish enough to think Sir George Barkley, I pledge you my honour that such is not the case.  Sir George Barkley cannot be less than twenty years older than he is, and may be thirty.”