“Perhaps, my lord,” said the Earl, sitting down again, and speaking in a low voice, “we had better discuss the matter in private.  Could I not speak to you apart for a moment or two?  Suppose we go into the anteroom.”

“Nay, nay,” said the Duke, “Laura will leave us.—­Go to your room, my love,” he added, raising his voice.  “I would fain have a few minutes conversation with my noble friend alone.”

“Very wrong of you, Lord Byerdale,” she said, with a smile, as she walked towards the door, “to turn me out of the room in this way.”

Lord Byerdale smiled, and bowed, and apologized, all with an air of courtier-like mockery.  The moment she was gone, however, he turned to the Duke, saying, “Now, my lord duke, we are alone, and I will beg your grace to give me your honour that no part of our present conversation transpires in any circumstances.  I can then hold much more free communication with you.  I can lay before you what is possible, and what is probable, and you can choose whatever path you like.”

“Most solemnly I pledge my honour,” replied the Duke, “and I can assure your lordship that I fully appreciate Mr. Brown’s merits and his services to me.  He has not only talents and genius, but a princely person and most distinguished manners, and I could not have the slightest objection, as soon as his birth is clearly ascertained and acknowledged—­”

“My lord duke,” replied the Earl, interrupting him, “I fear your lordship is somewhat deceiving yourself as to your own situation and his.  Wilton, I tell you, can easily find the means of effecting your escape from this prison, and can insure your safe arrival in any continental port you may think fit to name.  I do not mean to say that I must not shut my eyes; but for his sake and for yours I am very willing to do so, if I see his happiness made sure thereby.”

The Duke’s eyes sparkled with joy and hope, and the Earl went on.

“Your situation, my lord, at the present moment, you see, is a very unfortunate one, or such a step would in no degree be advisable.  But at this period, when the passions of the people and the indignation of the King are both excited to the highest pitch; when there is, as I may call it, an appetite for blood afloat; when the three witnesses, Sir John Fenwick, Smith, and Cook, to say nothing of the corroborative evidence of Goodman, establish beyond doubt that you were accessorily, though perhaps not actively, guilty of high treason—­at this period, I say, there can be little doubt that if you were brought to trial—­that is, in the course of next week, as I have heard it rumoured—­the result would be fatal, such, in short, as we should all deplore.”

The Duke listened, with a face as white as a sheet, but only replied, in a tremulous tone, “But the escape, my lord! the escape!”

“Is quite possible and quite sure,” replied the Earl.  “I must shut my eyes, as I have said, and Wilton must act energetically; but I cannot either shut my eyes or suffer him to do so, except upon the following precise condition, which is indeed absolutely necessary to success.  It is, that the Lady Laura, your daughter, be his wife before you set your foot from without these walls.”