. For the present he preferred to
know nothing about them.

An officer entered the room and handed a letter to Lord Dunseveric.
It was a request, in civil language enough, that he would meet General
Clavering in the public room of the inn at nine o'clock, and that
Maurice would accompany his father.

General Clavering sat at the head of the table when Lord Dunseveric and
Maurice entered. Three or four of the senior officers of the regular
troops sat with him. Captain Twinely, in a suit of clothes he had
borrowed from the master of the inn, and one of his men, stood near the
fireplace. The room had been cleared of the drunken sleepers, but a good
deal of the _debris_ of their revel--empty bottles, broken glasses, and
little pools of spilt wine--were still visible on the floor.

"I have to announce to you, Lord Dunseveric," said the general, "that
the prisoner who was confined in the inn cellar last night, Neal Ward,
has escaped."

Lord Dunseveric bowed, and smiled slightly. His eye lighted on Captain
Twinely, and his smile broadened. The landlord's suit fitted the captain
extremely ill.

"Indeed," he said, "Captain Twinely seems to be unfortunate with regard
to this particular prisoner. This is, let me see, the third time that
Neal Ward has--ah!--evaded his vigilance."

"The sentry who guarded the door of the cellar," said General
Clavering, "was attacked, overpowered, bound, and gagged."

"By the prisoner?"

"No, my lord, by some one who assisted the prisoner to escape, who,
after dealing with the sentry as I have described, unlocked the door of
the cellar with a key, the duplicate of that which Captain Twinely had
in his pocket. This man and the prisoner subsequently stripped Captain
Twinely of his uniform, and, as I learn from my sentries, Neal Ward
passed through our lines in the disguise of a captain of yeomanry."

"You surprise me," said Lord Dunseveric, "a daring stratagem; a
laughable scheme, too. I trust you took no cold, Captain. I confess that
I should have liked to have seen you in your shirt tails this morning.
You were, I presume," he stirred a little heap of broken glass with his
foot as he spoke, "_vino gravatus_ when they relieved you of your tunic.
But what has all this to do with me?"

"Merely this," said General Clavering, "that your son is accused of
having effected the prisoner's escape."

Lord Dunseveric looked at Maurice, looked him quietly up and down, as if
he saw him then for the