them all, locked in, where they are," said Sir William
Parkyns--"they can do no harm there. Let us ourselves, like brave
and determined men, carry into execution at once the resolution we
have formed. Let us turn our horses' heads towards London; meet at
Turnham Green, as was proposed; and while people are seeking for us
here in vain, the usurper's life will be brought to an end, and his
unsteady government overthrown for ever. Everything in the country
will be in confusion; our friends will be rising in all
quarters;--the Duke of Berwick, I know, was at Calais yesterday;--the
army can land in two days; and the advantages of our situation will
all be secured by one prompt and decided blow. I say, leave them
where they are. Before they can make their escape, the whole thing
will be over, and we shall be safe."
"Nonsense, Sir William," cried Fenwick, "nonsense, I say. Here is
Plessis, has evidently played into their hands; the man we put to
guard the girl has been bribed off his post; the window itself is not
so high but that an active man might easily drop from it, if he could
see clearly where to light below; ere noon, to-morrow, the tidings of
our assemblies would reach Kensington. William of Orange would not
stir out, and the whole plan would be frustrated. We should be
hunted down through the country like wild beasts, and you would be
one of the first to repent the advice you have given."
"But my good friend, Fenwick," said Sir George Barkley, "all this is
very well. But still you do not say what is to be done. Every one
objects to the plan which is proposed by another, and yet no one
proposes anything that is not full of dangers."
"For my part," said Charnock, who had hitherto scarcely spoken at
all--"for my part, if you were to ask my opinion, I should say, Let
us walk in--we are here eleven or twelve in all; twelve, I think--and
just quietly make a circle round, and give them a pistol-shot or
two. If people WILL come prying into other persons' affairs, and
meddling with things they have no business to concern themselves
about, they must take the consequences."
"Not in cold blood! not in cold blood!" exclaimed Rookwood.
"And the women!" said Sir John Fenwick, "Remember the women!"
"I hope William of Orange won't have a woman with him to-morrow,"
said Charnock, coolly, "or if he has, that she'll not be upon my side
of the carriage; I would never let a woman stand in the way when a
great deed was to be done."
"Well, for my part," said