y be astir, and to-night I deem it doubly prudent."

"And who hast thou in the house, good Guido?" asked Garnet blandly;
"no one, I trust, who will interrupt our conversation?"

Fawkes laughed softly. "None are within," replied he, "except my old
mother, who, were she to stand beside yon fireplace, would scarce note
the meaning of our discourse; and my daughter, a loyal Catholic, yet,
being a maid, and gifted with a woman's curiosity, it might be her
pleasure to seek the meaning of so rare a gathering beneath my roof."

Garnet nodded approvingly. That he had come to London in disguise had
filled him with some apprehension, and the cautiousness of his host
quieted his fears.

"Thy cavalier is indeed a man of much promise," said he to Winter,
after the soldier left the room, "and I warrant that none will venture
to disturb us. Hast sounded him thoroughly upon religious matters?"

"Thou shalt see," replied Sir Thomas. "If the zeal of each Catholic in
England reached but to the half of his loyalty to the holy cause,
there would scarce be need that a father of the Church don plumed hat
and rapier."

Fawkes, in the meantime, had betaken himself to the upper floor of the
house, where was situate his daughter's chamber. There was no fear in
his mind that his aged mother would note the arrival of his guests,
for 'twas her custom to retire at sundown by reason of infirmities;
but about his daughter there arose some apprehension. He felt sure
that no words which, by chance, might reach her ear would be carried
further, yet, 'twas against his wish that anything should add to her
disquietude.

Coming to the door of her room, which was directly above that
occupied by the four friends, he listened intently, and hearing no
sound within, softly turned the knob and peered into the apartment.
The light of the full moon shining through the window, revealed to him
the interior bathed in a mellow radiance. No sound greeted his ear
save the crackling of the fagots in the huge fireplace below, and the
faint murmur of the voices of his guests. He paused,--a hundred
conflicting emotions filling his breast. The sight of the curtained
bed standing in an angle of the wall drew his attention. He pushed the
door yet further open, and holding his scabbard that its rattle might
not disturb the sleeper, slipped across the threshold and approaching
noiselessly, parted the hangings and looked down.

The maid was lying with her face turned full up