mes of those who laid it."
"But those names I will never give up," replied the other: "it is
quite sufficient for me, sir, to satisfy my own heart and my own
conscience, that I have given a full and timely warning of what is
likely to ensue. It matters not to me whether that warning be taken
or not; I have done what is right; I will tell no more. Lord Portland
knows that I am neither a, coward, nor a low born man. I expect
not--I ask not for favour, immunity, reward, or even thanks. All I do
ask is, in the words of the poet, 'that Caesar would be a friend to
Caesar.'"
"But you are doubtless aware," answered Keppel, after a pause, "that
by concealing the names, and in any degree the purposes of persons
guilty of high treason, you bring yourself under the same
condemnation."
"I both know the fact, sir," replied the other, "and I knew before I
came that it might be urged against me here; but I did not think that
Lord Portland would urge it. However that may be, I came fully
prepared to do what I think right, and as nothing, not even the cause
to which I am most attached, would induce me to become an assassin or
to wink at cold-blooded murder, so, sir, nothing on earth will induce
me to betray others to the death which I do not fear myself. At all
events, the truth of what I have told may be positively relied upon;
and that I ask no reward or recompence of any kind, may well be
received to show that the warning I have given is not vain."
Keppel again mused for a moment or two, and then said, "Well, sir, I
must not urge you by any harsh menace, nor was such my intention in
what I said. But there are other considerations which should induce
you to tell me more than you have told. One is, the safety of the
Great Personage we have mentioned himself. It is scarcely possible
for him to guard against the evil you apprehend in the manner you
propose. He is by far too fearless a man, as you well know, to shut
himself up within the walls of his palace, or even to conceal himself
in his carriage. If he rides out, he cannot always be surrounded by
guards, nor can he have a troop galloping after him through the
hunting field."
"Sir," replied the stranger, "to you and to his other friends and
attendants I must leave the guardianship of his person--I neither know
him nor his habits. I have done what I conceive to be my duty; I have
done it to the extreme limit of what I judge right; and neither fear
nor favour will make me go one step farther."
"These scruples are ve