is affair will be revived, and you will receive the
full punishment you deserve.

"For the present you will be lodged in prison, as you will be
needed to give evidence, when the matter of John Dormay comes up
for hearing."

Nicholson was at once removed in custody. The two young officers
retired, an usher bringing them a whispered message, from
Marlborough, that they had better not wait to see him, as the
council might sit for some time longer; but that, if they would
call at his house at five o'clock, after his official reception, he
would see them.

"This is more than we could have hoped for," Harry said, as they
left Saint James's. "A fortnight ago, although I had no intention
of giving up the search, I began to think that our chances of ever
setting eyes on that rascal were of the slightest; and now
everything has come right. The man has been found. He has been made
to confess the whole matter. The case has been heard by the
council. Our fathers are free to return to England, and their
estates are restored to them; at least, the council recommends the
queen, and we know the queen is ready to sign. So that it is as
good as done."

"It seems too good to be true."

"It does, indeed, Charlie. They will be delighted across the water.
I don't think my father counted, at all, upon our finding
Nicholson, or of our getting him to confess; but I think he had
hoped that the duke would interest himself to get an order, that no
further proceedings should be taken in the matter of the alleged
plot. That would have permitted them to return to England. He spoke
to me, several times, of his knowledge of the duke when he was a
young man; but Churchill, he said, was a time server, and has
certainly changed his politics several times; and, if a man is
fickle in politics, he may be so in his friendships. It was a great
many years since they had met, and Marlborough might not have been
inclined to acknowledge one charged with so serious a crime.

"But, as he said to me before I started, matters have changed since
the death of William. Marlborough stands far higher, with Anne,
than he did with William. His leanings have certainly been, all
along, Jacobite, and, now that he and the Tories are in power, and
the Whigs are out of favour, Marlborough could, if he chose, do
very much for us. It is no longer a crime to be a Jacobite, and
indeed, they say that the Tories are intending to upset the act of
succession, and bring in a fresh