ause or its associates can have taken a very
strong hold of your mind. I am sure that you must have received your
impressions, such as they are, from artful and designing persons, who
had only their own ends in view when involving you in their plots. If I
am justified in this opinion, and if you will pledge me your honor--"

"I say, Cooke, you can't do this. The warrant sets forth--"

"Well, well, we 'll admit him to bail."

"It is not bailable. Right Honorable," said Barton, addressing the large
man at the table.

"Phelan," said the younger man, turning away in pique, "we really have
matters of more importance than this boy's case to look after."

"Boy as he is, sir," said Barton, obsequiously, "he was in the full
confidence of that notorious French captain for whose capture you
offered a reward of one thousand pounds."

"You like to run your fox to earth. Barton," replied the
Under-Secretary, calmly, for it was he who spoke.

"In alliance with France," continued the dark man, reading from
the paper, over which he continued to pore ever since, "for the
propagation--ay, that's it--the propagation of democratic--"

"Come, come, Browne; never mind the warrant. If he can find bail--say
five hundred pounds--for his future appearance, we shall be satisfied."

Browne, who never took his eyes from the paper, and seemed totally
insensible to everything but the current of his own thoughts, now looked
up, and fixing his dark and beetling look upon me, uttered in a deep,
low tone,--

"You see, sir, the imminent danger of your present position, and at
the same time the merciful leniency which has always characterized his
Majesty's Government,--ahem! If, therefore, you will plead guilty to any
transportable felony, the grand jury will find true bills--"

"You mistake, Browne," said Cooke, endeavoring with his handkerchief to
repress a burst of laughter; "we are going to take his bail."

"Bail!" said the other, in a voice and with a look of amazement
absolutely comic.

Up to this moment I had not broken silence, but I was unable to remain
longer without speaking.

"I am quite ready, sir," said I, resolutely, "to stand my trial for
anything laid to my charge. I am neither ashamed of the opinions I
profess, nor afraid of the dangers they involve."

"You hear him, sir; you hear him," said Barton, triumphantly, turning
towards the Secretary, who bit his lip in disappointment, and frowned
on me with a mingled expression