“The ball,” he said, “passed through the window above my head, and seeing that new assistance had come to my aid, I did not fire.”

“Stay, stay!” said the King.  “Let me ask you a question or two first.  Did you see, in the course of all this time, the person called Sir George Barkley amongst these conspirators?”

“I saw a person, sire,” replied Wilton, “whom I believed at the time to be Sir George Barkley, and have every reason to believe so still.”

“And this person who came to your assistance so opportunely was not the same?” demanded the King.

“Not the least like him, sire,” replied Wilton.  “He was a young gentleman, of six or seven and twenty, I imagine, but certainly no more than thirty.”

“What was his name?” demanded the King.

“The name he gave,” replied Wilton, “was Captain Churchill.”

“Go on,” said William, and Wilton proceeded.

Avoiding all names as far as possible, he told briefly, but accurately, the severe and striking reprehension that the Duke of Berwick had bestowed upon Sir George Barkley and the rest of the conspirators:  he dwelt upon the hatred he had displayed of the crime they were about to commit, and of the noble and upright tendency of every word that he had spoken.  William’s eyes glistened slightly, and a glow came up in his pale cheek, but he made no comment till Wilton seemed inclined to stop.  He then bade him again go on, and made him tell all that had happened till he and Lady Laura had quitted the house, to make the best of their way to Halstow.  He then said—­

“Three questions.  Why did you not give instant information of this conspiracy when you came to town?”

“May it please your majesty,” replied Wilton, “I found immediately on my arrival that the conspiracy was discovered, and warrants issued against the conspirators.  Nothing, therefore, remained for me to do, but to explain to Lord Byerdale the facts, which I did.”

“If your majesty remembers,” said the gentleman on the King’s left, mingling in the conversation for the first time, “Lord Byerdale said so.”

“Secondly,” said the King, “Is it true that this gentleman who came to your assistance went with you, and under your protection, to the inn at Halstow, and thence, by your connivance, effected his escape?”

The King’s brow was somewhat dark and ominous, and his tone stern, as he pronounced these words:  but Wilton could not evade the question so put without telling a lie, and he consequently replied at once, “Sire, he did.”

“Now for the third question,” said the King,—­“What was his real name?”