ing with excitement. He gave me a nod and
a "How d'ye do, Montagu? Didn't know you were of the honest party," then
broke out with--

"Great news, Balmerino! The French fleet has sailed with transports for
fifteen thousand men. I have advices direct from the Prince. Marshal Saxe
commands, and the Prince himself is with them. London will be ours within
the week. Sure the good day is coming at last. The King--God bless
him!--will have his own again; and a certain Dutch beer tub that we know
of will go scuttling back to his beloved Hanover, glory be the day!"

Balmerino's eyes flashed.

"They have sailed then at last. I have been expecting it a week. If they
once reach the Thames there is no force in England that can stop them," he
said quietly.

"Surely the small fleet of Norris will prove no barrier?" asked another
dubiously.

"Poof! They weel eat heem up jus' like one leetle mouse, my frien',"
boasted a rat-faced Frenchman with a snap of his fingers. "Haf they not
two sheeps to his one?"

"Egad, I hope they don't eat the mutton then and let Norris go," laughed
Creagh. He was a devil-may-care Irishman, brimful of the virtues and the
vices of his race.

I had stumbled into a hornet's nest with a vengeance. They were mad as
March hares, most of them. For five minutes I sat amazed, listening to the
wildest talk it had ever been my lot to hear. The Guelphs would be driven
out. The good old days would be restored; there would be no more whiggery
and Walpolism; with much more of the same kind of talk. There was drinking
of wine and pledging of toasts to the King across the water, and all the
while I sat by the side of Balmerino with a face like whey. For I was
simmering with anger. I foresaw the moment when discovery was inevitable,
and in those few minutes while I hung back in the shadow and wished myself
a thousand miles away hard things were thought of Arthur Elphinstone Lord
Balmerino. He had hoped to fling me out of my depths and sweep me away
with the current, but I resolved to show him another ending to it.

Presently Mr. James Brown came up and offered me a frank hand of welcome.
Balmerino introduced him as Captain Donald Roy Macdonald. I let my
countenance express surprise.

"Surely you are mistaken, my Lord. This gentleman and I have met before,
and I think his name is Brown."

Macdonald laughed a little sheepishly. "The air of London is not just
exactly healthy for Highland Jacobite gentlemen at present.