sly look, "he'll never catch them. Why, his horse is quite lame."
"The fact is," replied Wilton, "this man Arden did not choose to come
in here, as he well knew I should certainly send him to London in
custody, to answer for his bad conduct this night.--Sir, I beg to
inform you, that I am private secretary to the Earl of Byerdale; and
that this young lady, the daughter of the Duke of Gaveston, having
been carried off from the terrace near his house by agents, it is
supposed, of the late King James II., for the purpose of drawing over
her father to support that faction, the Duke, who is pleased to
repose some trust in me, authorized me, by this paper under his hand,
to search for and deliver the lady, while at the same time the Earl
of Byerdale intrusted me with this warrant for the purposes herein
mentioned, and put this man Arden, the Messenger, under my direction
and control. At the very first sight of danger the Messenger ran
away, and by so doing left me with every chance of my being murdered
by a gang of evil-disposed persons in this neighbourhood. On his
return with a large body of constables and some military to the house
of a person who is named Plessis, I understand, he refused to obey
the orders I gave him, and followed me hither, alleging that one of
two gentlemen who had come to my assistance, and to whom I owe my own
life and the liberation of this lady, was the well-known personage
called Sir George Barkley. Those gentlemen both departed, as soon as
they saw us in safety, and I am ready to swear that neither of them
was Sir George Barkley; the person this Messenger mistook for him
being a young gentleman of four or five and twenty years of age."
"Phoo!" cried the magistrate, with a long sort of whistling
sound--"Sir George Barkley is a man of fifty, with a great gash on
his cheek. I remember him very well, when--"
But then seeming to recollect himself, he paused abruptly, adding,
"But pray, who was this young gentleman who so came to your
assistance, sir?"
"I never saw him in my life before," replied Wilton, "and the name he
gave himself was Captain Churchill."
"To be sure, to be sure!" cried the clergyman; "a younger brother of
my Lord of Marlborough's."
"Some relation of the Marlborough family, I believe," replied Wilton,
dryly. "However, I do not know the Earl's brother myself, nor am I
aware whether there is any other Captain Churchill or not; but this
was a young gentleman, evidently under thirty, and consequently he
could not be