Here they were permitted to collect or disperse at will. The ladies,
however, had not been allowed to participate in the order for release.
Gunning knew most of them by sight,--they were worthy neither of
consideration nor respect,--paid satellites of Mistress Endicott's,
employed to keep up the good spirits of that lady's clientele.

The soldiers drove them all together before them, in a compact,
shrinking and screaming group. Then the word of command was given. The
soldiers stood at attention, turned and finally marched out of the room
with their prisoners, Gunning being the last to leave.

He locked the door behind him and in the wake of his men presently
wended his way down the tortuous staircase.

Once more the measured tramp was heard reverberating through the house,
the cry of "Attention!" of "Quick march!" echoed beneath the passage
and the tumble-down archway, and anon the last of these ominous sounds
died away down the dismal street in the direction of the river.

And in one of the attics at the top of the now silent and lonely house
in Bath Street--lately the scene of so much gayety and joy, of such
turmoil of passions and intensity of despair--two figures, a man and a
woman, crouched together in a dark corner, listening for the last dying
echo of that measured tramp.

PART III

CHAPTER XXI

IN THE MEANWHILE

The news of the police raid on a secret gambling club in London,
together with the fracas which it entailed, had of necessity reached
even as far as sea-girt Thanet. Squire Boatfield had been the first to
hear of it; he spread the news as fast as he could, for he was overfond
of gossip, and Dame Harrison over at St. Lawrence had lent him able
assistance.

Sir Marmaduke had, of course, the fullest details concerning the affair,
for he himself owned to having been present in the very house where the
disturbance had occurred. He was not averse to his neighbors knowing
that he was a frequenter of those exclusive and smart gambling clubs,
which were avowedly the resort of the most elegant cavaliers of the day,
and his account of some of the events of that memorable night had been
as entertaining as it was highly-colored.

He avowed, however, that, disgusted at Richard Lambert's shameful
conduct, he had quitted the place early, some little while before my
Lord Protector's police had made a descent upon the gamblers. As for
Mistress de Chavasse, her name was never mentioned in connec