“That was rash,” said the King.  “You are sure you do not know his real name?”

“I cannot even guess it, sire,” replied Wilton; and the King, after exchanging a mute glance with his attendant, went on,—­“Well, when you had discovered the place of meeting of these conspirators, and reached it, what happened then?”

“I did not go, may it please your majesty, to discover their place of meeting, but to discover the place where Lady Laura was detained, which, when I had done, aided by a person I had got to assist me—­after Arden, formerly Messenger of State, had fled from me in a most dastardly manner, in a casual rencounter with some people—­smugglers, I believe—­I made the master of the house and some other persons whom we found there, set the Lady Laura at liberty.  I informed her of the authority that her father had given me, and she was but too glad to accept the assistance of any friend with whom she was acquainted.”

“So, so; stop!” said the King.  “So, then, Arden was not with you at this time?”

“No, sire,” replied Wilton—­“he had run away an hour before.”

“That was not like a brave man,” said William.

“No, indeed, sire,” replied Wilton, “nor like one of your majesty’s friends, for it is your enemies that generally run away.”

A faint smile came upon William’s countenance, and he said, “Go on.  What happened next?”

“Before we could make our escape from the house,” replied Wilton, “we were stopped by a large party of men, who entered; and, principally instigated by Sir John Fenwick, who was one of them, they opposed, in a violent manner, our departure.”

Hitherto Wilton had been very careful of his speech, unwilling to compromise any one, and especially unwilling to mention the name of Lord Sherbrooke, the Lady Helen Oswald, or anybody else except the conspirators who had taken a part in the events of that night.  Now, however, when he had to dwell principally upon the conduct of the conspirators and himself; he did so more boldly, and gave a full account of all that had been said and done till the entrance of the Duke of Berwick.  He knew, or rather divined, from what had already passed, that this was in reality the point to which the examination he underwent principally tended.  But yet he spoke with more ease, for, notwithstanding the danger which existed at that moment in acknowledging any communication whatsoever with Jacobites, he well knew that the conduct of the Duke of Berwick himself only required to be truly reported, to be admired by every noble and generous mind; and he felt conscious that in his own behaviour he had only acted as became an upright and an honourable heart.  He detailed then, particularly, the fact of his having seen one of his opponents in the act of pointing a pistol at him over the shoulder of their principal spokesman:  he mentioned his having cocked his own pistol to fire in return, and he stated that at the time he felt perfectly sure his life was about to be made a sacrifice to apprehensions of discovery on the part of the conspirators; and he then related to the King how he had seen a stranger enter and strike up the muzzle of the pistol pointed at him, at the very moment the other was in the act of firing.