arious feelings of respect, French,
English, and Jacobite, Plessis took a candle and lighted the Duke
down stairs, while Wilton followed, accompanied by Laura and Captain
Byerly. The outer door was then opened, and the whole party issued
forth into the field which surrounded the house, finding themselves
suddenly in the utter darkness of a moonless, starless, somewhat
foggy night.
From the little stone esplanade, which we have mentioned, lay a
winding road up to the gate in the walls, and along that Wilton and
his companion turned their steps, keeping silence as they went, with
the listening ear bent eagerly to catch a sound. It was not, indeed,
a sense of general apprehension only which made Wilton listen so
attentively, for, in truth, he had fancied at the very moment when
they were issuing forth from the house, that he had heard a low
murmur as if of people talking at some distance.
The same sound had met the ears of the Duke of Berwick, and had
produced the same effect; but nothing farther was heard till they
reached the gate, and Wilton's hand was stretched out to open it;
when suddenly a loud "Who goes there?" was pronounced on the opposite
side of the gate, and half-a-dozen men, who had been lying in the
inside of the wall, surrounded the party on all sides.
Several persons now spoke at once. "Who goes there?" cried one voice
again; but at the same time another exclaimed, "Call up the
Messenger, call up the Messenger from the other gate."
These last words gave Wilton some satisfaction, though they were by
no means pleasant to the ears of the Duke of Berwick.
The former, however, replied to the challenge, "A friend!" and
instantly added, "God save King William!"
"God save King William!" cried one of the voices: "you cry that on
compulsion, I've a notion. Pray, who are you that cry `God save King
William'?"
"My name, sir, is Wilton Brown," replied the young gentleman,
"private secretary to the Earl of Byerdale. Where is the Messenger
who came down with me? Be so good as to call him up immediately."
"Oh! you are the young gentleman who came down with the Messenger,
are you?" said one of the others: "he was in a great taking lest you
should be murdered."
"It was not his fault," replied Brown, somewhat bitterly, "that I was
not murdered; and if it had not been for Captain Churchill and this
other gentleman, who came to my assistance at the risk of their
lives, I certainly should have been assassinated by the troop of
Jacobites and smugglers amon