seen in this business
hitherto, and if you will take my advice, you will not meddle with it
now.--Stand back, sir; for as I live, I will shoot you through the
head if you take one single step forward; and you know I will keep my
word!"
"But there is more to be inquired into, sir," exclaimed Sir George
Barkley--"there is blood--blood upon the stairs, blood--"
"Hear me, Sir George," said Lady Helen, advancing. "You know me well,
and must believe what I say."
"I have the pleasure of recollecting your ladyship very well,"
replied Sir George; "but I thought that you and Miss Villars had
sailed back for France by this time."
"Alas! Sir George," replied the lady--"poor Caroline, I fear, will
not be able to be moved. She has met with a severe accident to-night,
and it is her blood, poor child, that you saw upon the stairs. This
gentleman has had nothing farther to do with the matter, except
inasmuch as he was accidentally present, and kindly carried her
upstairs to the room where she now lies."
"That alters the case," said Sir George Barkley: "but who is he? We
have heard reports by the way which give us alarm. Will he pledge his
honour, as a gentleman, never to mention anything he has seen this
night--or, at least, not for six months?"
"On that condition," demanded Wilton, "will you give me perfect
freedom of egress with this lady and the gentleman who is with me?"
"Not with the lady!" exclaimed Sir George Barkley, sharply; and at
the same moment Sir John Fenwick, Rookwood, and Parkyns all
surrounded the Jacobite leader, speaking eagerly, but in a low tone,
and evidently remonstrating against his permitting the departure of
any of the party. He seemed puzzled how to act.
"Come out here again," he said--"come out here, where we can speak
more at ease. They cannot get out of this room, if we keep the
door."
"Not without breaking their neck from the window," replied Rookwood.
"What is that small door there at the side?" said Sir George
Barkley. "Let some one see!"
"'Tis nothing but a cupboard," said Sir John Fenwick--"I examined it
the other night, for fear of eavesdroppers. There is no way out."
"I shall consider your proposal, sir," said Sir George Barkley,
turning to Wilton: "stay here quietly. We wish to offer no violence
to any man; we are very harmless people in our way."
A grim smile hung upon his thin lip as he spoke; and looking from
time to time behind him, as if he feared the use which Wilton might
make of the pistol in his hand, he left