atment he had received, Mr. Wilding
came forth from the Castle to find Trenchard awaiting him among the
crowd of officers and men that thronged the yard.

Nick linked his arm through his friend's and led him away. They quitted
the place in silence, and in silence took their way south towards the
High Street, Nick waiting for Mr. Wilding to speak, Mr. Wilding's mind
still in turmoil at the things he had endured. At last Nick halted
suddenly and looked keenly at his friend in the failing light.

"What a plague ails you, Tony?" said he sharply. "You are as silent as I
am impatient for your news."

Wilding told him in brief, disdainful terms of the reception they
had given him at the Castle, and of how they had blamed him for the
circumstance that London had failed to proclaim itself for Monmouth.

Trenchard snarled viciously. "'Tis that mongrel Grey," said he. "Oh,
Anthony, to what an affair have we set our hands? Naught can prosper
with that fellow in it." He laid his hand on Wilding's arm and lowered
his voice. "As I have hinted before, 'twould not surprise me if time
proved him a traitor. Failure attends him everywhere, and so unfailingly
that one wonders is not failure invited by him. And that fool Monmouth!
Pshaw! See what it is to serve a weakling. With another in his place
and the country disaffected as it is, we had been masters of England by
now."

Two ladies passed them at that moment, cloaked and hooded, walking
briskly. One of them turned to look at Trenchard, who, waving his arms
in wild gesticulation, was a conspicuous object. She checked in her
walk, arresting her companion.

"Mr. Wilding!" she exclaimed. It was Lady Horton.

"Mr. Wilding!" cried Diana, her companion.

Wilding doffed his hat and bowed, Trenchard following his example.

"We had scarce looked to see you in Bridgwater again," said the mother,
her mild, pleasant countenance reflecting the satisfaction it gave her
to behold him safe and sound.

"There have been moments," answered Wilding, "when myself I scarce
expected to return. Your ladyship's greeting shows me what I had lost
had I not done so."

"You are but newly arrived?" quoth Diana, scanning him in the gloaming.

"From London, an hour since."

"An hour?" she echoed, and observed that he was still booted and
dust-stained. "You will have been to Lupton House?"

A shadow crossed his face, his glance seemed to grow clouded, all of
which watchful Diana did not fail to observe.