u remain, sir?" demanded the surgeon. "Who are
you?"
"I am her husband, sir," replied Lord Sherbrooke, firmly and
distinctly.
"Oh, sir, that makes a very great difference," replied the surgeon.
"I make you a very low bow, and have nothing to say; only I hope you
will behave quietly and rationally, and talk as little as possible."
"I will do everything, sir," replied Lord Sherbrooke, with a somewhat
stately look--"I will do everything that may tend to promote the
recovery of one I love so well."
At this moment, Wilton was in the doorway: but the Lady Helen laid
her hand upon his arm, saying, "Wait for me in the neighbouring room,
Wilton. I must speak with you before you go."
Wilton promised to remain, and quitted the chamber. He found at the
top of the stairs the greater part of the sailors whom he had seen
before, and with them Plessis himself and another man.
The sailors were talking with Plessis vehemently; and Wilton soon
found that the worthy Frenchman was using all his powers of
vituperation in various tongues--French and English, with a word or
two of Dutch every now and then, and some quaint specimens of
Portuguese--to express his indignation at the sailors for the unlucky
business in which they had engaged.
The master of the vessel was defending himself stoutly, saying, "Why,
didn't I meet the boy from the Blackamoor's Head at the very door of
the place here? and didn't he tell me that there was a man coming
down with a Messenger of State to seize the ship and the cargo, and
you, and I, and every one else?"
"Poo! nonsense, nonsense!" cried Plessis: "all stuff and
exaggeration. No Messenger, I dare say, at all. So be off, all of
you, as fast as you can go; and get out of the way, for fear of any
inquiries being made."
"Why here's the young gentleman himself!" cried the master: "he don't
look like a Messenger, sure enough. But there was another man that
ran away, he may have been the Messenger."
The man looked to Wilton as he spoke, who instantly replied, "You are
right, sir. He was a Messenger; but neither he nor I came hither
about anything referring to you. Indeed, neither of us even knew of
your existence before we saw you."
At that moment, the stranger who was standing beside Plessis, and who
was very different from the sailors in appearance, stepped forward to
Wilton, and said in a low tone, "May I, sir, ask your name?"
The countersign that Green had given him immediately returned to
Wilton's memory, and he replied, "My name