ng set out for a small town or village called High Halstow, in
Kent, at an early hour in the day, I arrived there just before
nightfall, and remained in that place or in the neighbourhood for
several hours, indeed, till nearly or past midnight."
"Pray what was your business there?" demanded the King.
"I fear," replied Wilton, "I must trouble your majesty with some long
details to enable you to understand the object of my going."
"Go on," was William's laconic reply; and the young gentleman
proceeded to tell him, that having been employed in recovering Lady
Laura from those who had carried her off, he had learned in the
course of his inquiries in London that she was likely to be heard of
in that neighbourhood.
"I judged it likely to be so myself, sire," continued Wilton,
"because I believed her to have been carried off by some persons
belonging to a party of Jacobites who were known to be caballing
against the government, though to what extent was not then
ascertained."
"And what made you judge," demanded the King, "that she had been
carried off by these men?"
"Because, sire," replied Wilton, "the lady's father had been an
acquaintance of Sir John Fenwick, one of the most notorious of the
persons now implicated in the present foul plot against your
majesty's life and crown. With him the Duke of Gaveston, I found, had
quarrelled some time previously, and I suspected, though I had no
proof thereof, that this quarrel had been occasioned by the Duke
strongly differing from Sir John Fenwick in his political views, and
refusing to take any part in any designs against the government."
"I am glad to hear this of the Duke, sir," replied the King. "Then it
was out of revenge, you believe, they carried away the young lady?"
"Rather out of a desire to have a hold upon the Duke," replied
Wilton. "I found afterwards, your majesty, that their intention was
to send the young lady to France, and I judged throughout that their
design was to force the Duke into an intrigue which they found he
would not meddle with willingly."
William III., though he was himself of a very taciturn character, and
not fond of loquacity in others, was yet fond of full explanations,
always sitting in judgment, as it were, upon what was said to him,
and passing sentence in his own breast. He now made Wilton go over
again the particulars of Lady Laura's being taken away, though it was
evident that he had heard all the facts before, and obliged him to
enter into every minute detail which in