Brown bowed his head, and taking fresh paper, proceeded to write down the Earl’s words, as follows:—­

“Sir,—­Immediately upon the receipt of this, you will be
pleased to proceed to the village of ------, in the county
of ------, and make immediate inquiries, once more, in
regard to the personages concerning whom you instituted an
investigation some ten or twelve years ago.  Any additional
documents you may procure, concerning Colonel Sherbrooke,
Colonel Lennard Sherbrooke, or any of the other parties
concerned in the transactions which you know of as taking
place at that time, you will be pleased to send to me forthwith.”

Wilton perceiving that the Earl did not proceed, looked up, as if to see whether he had concluded or not.  The Earl’s eyes were fixed upon him with a stern, intense gaze, as if he would have read his very soul.  Wilton’s looks, on the contrary, were so perfectly unconscious, so innocent of all knowledge that he was doing anything more than writing an ordinary letter of business, that—­if the Earl’s gaze was intended to interpret his feelings by any of those external marks, which betray the secrets of the heart, by slight and transitory characters written on nature’s record book, the face—­he was convinced at once that there was nothing concealed below.  His brow relaxed, and he went on dictating, while the young gentleman proceeded calmly to write.

“You will be particular,” the letter went on, “to inquire what became of the boy, as his name was not down in the list found upon the captain’s person; and you will endeavour to discover what became of the boat that carried Lennard Sherbrooke and the boy to the ship, and whether all on board it perished in the storm, or not.”

The Earl still watched Wilton’s countenance with some degree of earnestness; and, to say the truth, if his young companion had not been put upon his guard, by detecting the first stern, dark glance the minister had given him, some emotion might have been visible in his countenance, some degree of thoughtful inquiry in his manner, as he asked, “To whom am I to address it, my lord?”

The words of the Earl, in directing an inquiry about the fisherman, the boy, the boat, and the wreck, seemed to connect themselves with strange figures in the past—­figures which appeared before his mind’s eye vague and misty, such as we are told the shadows always appear at first which are conjured up by the cabalistic words of a necromancer.  He felt that there was some connecting link between himself and the subject of the Earl’s investigation; what, he could not tell:  but whatever it was, his curiosity was stimulated to tax his memory to the utmost, and to try by any means to lead her to a right conclusion, through the intricate ways of the past.

That first gaze of the Earl, however, had excited in his bosom not exactly suspicion, but that inclination to conceal his feelings, which we all experience when we see that some one whom we neither love nor trust is endeavouring to unveil them.  He therefore would not suffer his mind to rest upon any inquiry in regard to the past, till the emotions which it might produce could be indulged unwatched; and, applying to the mechanical business of the pen, he wrote on to the conclusion, and then demanded, simply, “To whom am I to address it?”