say that they both looked sorry, as they opened them, and looked at
the writing.

"'It is too true,' Peters said. 'Here is enough to hang a dozen
men.'

"They tumbled all the other papers into a sack, that one of the
constables had brought with him. Then they searched all the other
furniture, but they evidently did not expect to find anything. Then
they went back into the hall.

"'Well, gentlemen,' Sir Marmaduke said, 'have you found anything of
a terrible kind?'

"'We have found, I regret to say,' John Cockshaw said, 'the letters
of which we were in search, in your private cabinet--letters that
prove, beyond all doubt, that you are concerned in a plot similar
to that discovered three years ago, to assassinate his majesty the
king.'

"Sir Marmaduke sprang to his feet.

"'You have found letters of that kind in my cabinet?' he said, in a
dazed sort of way.

"The magistrate bowed, but did not speak.

"'Then, sir,' Sir Marmaduke exclaimed, 'you have found letters that
I have never seen. You have found letters that must have been
placed there by some scoundrel, who plotted my ruin. I assert to
you, on the honour of a gentleman, that no such letters have ever
met my eye, and that, if such a proposition had been made to me, I
care not by whom, I would have struck to the ground the man who
offered me such an insult.'

"'We are sorry, Sir Marmaduke Carstairs,' Mr. Peters said, 'most
sorry, both of us, that it should have fallen to our duty to take
so painful a proceeding against a neighbour; but, you see, the
matter is beyond us. We have received a sworn information that you
are engaged in such a plot. We are told that you are in the habit
of locking up papers of importance in a certain cabinet, and there
we find papers of a most damnatory kind. We most sincerely trust
that you may be able to prove your innocence in the matter, but we
have nothing to do but to take you with us, as a prisoner, to
Lancaster.'

"Sir Marmaduke unbuckled his sword, and laid it by. He was quieter
than I thought he could be, in such a strait, for he has always
been by nature, as you know, choleric.

"'I am ready, gentlemen,' he said.

"Peters whispered in Cockshaw's ear.

"'Ah yes,' the other said, 'I had well-nigh forgotten,' and he
turned to me. 'Where is Master Charles Carstairs?'

"'He is not in the house,' I said. 'He rode away this morning, and
did not tell me where he was going.'

"'When do you expect him back?'

"'I do