e, I have always destroyed as soon as I
have read them. Perilous stuff of that sort should never be left
about. No; they may ransack the place from top to bottom, and
nothing will be found that could not be read aloud, without harm,
in the marketplace of Lancaster.

"So now, to bed, Charlie. It is long past your usual hour."

Chapter 2: Denounced.

"Charlie," Sir Marmaduke said on the following morning, at
breakfast, "it is quite possible that that villain who acted as
spy, and that other villain who employed him--I need not mention
names--may swear an information against me, and I may be arrested,
on the charge of being concerned in a plot. I am not much afraid of
it, if they do. The most they could say is that I was prepared to
take up arms, if his majesty crossed from France; but, as there are
thousands and thousands of men ready to do the same, they may fine
me, perhaps, but I should say that is all. However, what I want to
say to you is, keep out of the way, if they come. I shall make
light of the affair, while you, being pretty hot tempered, might
say things that would irritate them, while they could be of no
assistance to me. Therefore, I would rather that you were kept out
of it, altogether. I shall want you here. In my absence, there must
be somebody to look after things.

"Mind that rascal John Dormay does not put his foot inside the
house, while I am away. That fellow is playing some deep game,
though I don't quite know what it is. I suppose he wants to win the
goodwill of the authorities, by showing his activity and zeal; and,
of course, he will imagine that no one has any idea that he has
been in communication with this spy. We have got a hold over him,
and, when I come back, I will have it out with him. He is not
popular now, and, if it were known that he had been working against
me, his wife's kinsman, behind my back, my friends about here would
make the country too hot to hold him."

"Yes, father; but please do not let him guess that we have learnt
it from Ciceley. You see, that is the only way we know about it."

"Yes, you are right there. I will be careful that he shall not know
the little maid has anything to do with it. But we will think of
that, afterwards; maybe nothing will come of it, after all. But, if
anything does, mind, my orders are that you keep away from the
house, while they are in it. When you come back, Banks will tell
you what has happened.

"You had better take your ho