He swallowed some wine and then sat up, leaning against me as I sat at
the bottom of the stairs, quite himself again, and assuring us that he
was not hurt; Perrault never touched him--"Threatened you, then," said
Fulk.

"No," said Alured, as if he hadn't spirit to be indignant; "I meant him
to get off."

"Lord Trevorsham!" cried a voice in great displeasure, and I saw that
Mr. Halsted, the nearest magistrate, was standing over us.

"He told me--Trevor did"--said Alured.

"Told you to assist the murderer to escape!" exclaimed Mr. Halsted.

Alured let his head fall back, and would not answer, and Fulk said,
"There is no need for him to speak at present, is there? The constable
and the rest are gone after Perrault, but I do not yet know what has
directed the suspicion against him."

And then at the stair foot, for there was no other place to go to, we
came to an understanding, the two gentlemen and Brand the keeper
standing, and I seated on the step with my boy lying against me. I
could not trust him out of my sight, nor, indeed, was he fit to be left.

It seems that Brand had been uneasy about the number of shooters whom
the report of the swans had attracted; and though the bank of the river
was not Trevorsham ground, he had kept along on the border of the
covers higher up the hill, to guard his hares and pheasants.

Thus he had seen everything distinctly in the moonlight against the
snowy bank below; and he had observed one figure in particular, moving
stealthily along, in a parallel line with that which he knew our party
would take, though they were in shadow, and he could not see them.

Suddenly, a chance shot fired somewhere made all the ducks fly up. A
head and shoulders that Brand took for his young lord's, appeared
beyond the shadow, beside Fulk's; and, at the same moment, he saw the
man whom he had been watching level his gun from behind, and fire. Then
came the cry, and Brand running down in horror himself, was amazed to
see this person doing the same, and when they came up with the group,
he recognised Perrault; and found, at the same time, that Trevor was
the sufferer, and that Lord Trevorsham was safe. He then would have
thought it an accident, but for Perrault's own needless wonder, whence
the shot came, and that same remark, that Billy Blake, the half-witted
son of a farmer, was about that night.

Brand, a shrewd fellow, restrained his reply, that Mr. Perrault knew
most about it himself. He