n the morning, I inquired what was the matter. 'Master's just had
word brought him that some gem'men is a going to fight a jewel at five
o'clock, and I be come to call the constable, for master to give him
a warrant to take 'em hup.' 'And who is your master?' questioned I.
'Justice Bumbleby,' was the answer. This was enough for me; I made the
best of my way to the Hall, woke Oaklands, who was sleeping as calmly as
a child, poor fellow! and he immediately sent his own ~222~~groom, the
lad who went with us to the field, to inform Wilford and his second of
what I had heard, and to propose that the meeting should take place a
quarter of an hour earlier than the time originally agreed on, to which
they willingly consented."

"This then," thought I, "is the reason why Coleman's scheme failed, and
Cumberland arrived too late;--well, one good thing is, it will clearly
prove that neither Archer nor Oaklands connived at the intended
interruption."

The deep, the agonising grief of Sir John Oaklands, on receiving from my
lips the account of his son's danger, was most painful to witness, and
I was obliged to yield to his desire to return with me to the cottage,
although Ellis had strictly forbidden his being allowed to see Harry,
lest the excitement should prove injurious to the patient in the
precarious state in which he lay. On my return I found the surgeon
of the neighbourhood, Mr. (or as he was more commonly styled Dr.)
Probehurt, had arrived, and that they were endeavouring to extract
the ball, which, after a long and painful operation, they succeeded
in doing. From the marks on the coat and waistcoat, it appeared that
Wilford had aimed straight for the heart; but his deadly intentions
had been providentially frustrated by the accident of Oaklands having a
half-crown piece in a small pocket in his waist-coat, against which
the ball had struck, and, glancing off, passed between two of the
ribs, finally lodging amongst the muscles immediately under the
shoulder-blade. The great effusion of blood had been occasioned by its
having divided one of the smaller arteries, which Ellis had succeeded in
securing on the spot. The wound was, therefore, a very severe one;
but it was impossible to pronounce upon the exact amount of danger at
present, as the course which the ball had taken trenched closely on
so many important organs, that time alone could show the extent of the
injury sustained. With this opinion, in which (strange to say) b