facing westwards to the fountain; the other, a small casement strongly
barred, and looking on to the green in front of the Hall. This window was
too high to reach from the ground; but, mounting on a buffet which stood
beneath it, Father Holt showed me how, by pressing on the base of the
window, the whole framework of lead, glass, and iron stanchions, descended
into a cavity worked below, from which it could be drawn and restored to
its usual place from without; a broken pane being purposely open to admit
the hand which was to work upon the spring of the machine.

"When I am gone," Father Holt said, "you may push away the buffet, so that
no one may fancy that an exit has been made that way; lock the door; place
the key--where shall we put the key?--under _Chrysostom_ on the book-shelf;
and if any ask for it, say I keep it there, and told you where to find it,
if you had need to go to my room. The descent is easy down the wall into
the ditch; and so, once more farewell, until I see thee again, my dear
son." And with this the intrepid father mounted the buffet with great
agility and briskness, stepped across the window, lifting up the bars and
framework again from the other side, and only leaving room for Harry
Esmond to stand on tiptoe and kiss his hand before the casement closed,
the bars fixing as firm as ever seemingly in the stone arch overhead. When
Father Holt next arrived at Castlewood, it was by the public gate on
horseback; and he never so much as alluded to the existence of the private
issue to Harry, except when he had need of a private messenger from
within, for which end, no doubt, he had instructed his young pupil in the
means of quitting the Hall.

Esmond, young as he was, would have died sooner than betray his friend and
master, as Mr. Holt well knew; for he had tried the boy more than once,
putting temptations in his way, to see whether he would yield to them and
confess afterwards, or whether he would resist them, as he did sometimes,
or whether he would lie, which he never did. Holt instructing the boy on
this point, however, that if to keep silence is not to lie, as it
certainly is not, yet silence is, after all, equivalent to a negation--and
therefore a downright No, in the interest of justice or your friend, and
in reply to a question that may be prejudicial to either, is not criminal,
but, on the contrary, praiseworthy; and as lawful a way as the other of
eluding a wrongful demand. For instance (says