mination of an affair,
which certainly, in some hands, might have ended in evil instead of
good.

CHAPTER XXXV.
Wilton Brown, on quitting the King, did not find Lord Sherbrooke
where he expected; but little doubting that he should have to
encounter a full torrent of wrath from the Earl of Byerdale, on
account of his having concealed the fact of the Duke of Berwick's
visit to England, he set spurs to his horse to meet the storm at
once, and proceeded as rapidly as possible to the Earl's office at
Whitehall. His expectations were destined to be disappointed,
however. Lord Byerdale was all smiles, although as yet he knew
nothing more than the simple fact that Captain Churchill had
acknowledged his presence at a scene in which he had certainly played
no part. His whole wrath seemed to turn upon Arden, the Messenger,
against whom he vowed and afterwards executed, signal vengeance,
prosecuting him for various acts of neglect in points of duty, and
for some small peculations which the man had committed, till he
reduced him to beggary and a miserable death.
He received Wilton, however, without a word of censure; listened to
all that passed between him and the King, appeared delighted with the
result; and although, to tell the truth, Wilton had no excuse to
offer for not having communicated the facts to him before, which he
had abstained from doing simply from utter want of confidence in the
Earl, yet his lordship found an excuse himself, saying,--
"I'm sure, Wilton, I am more obliged to you even than the King must
be, for not implicating me in your secret at all. I should not have
known how to have acted in the least. It would have placed me in the
most embarrassing situation that it is possible to conceive, and by
taking the responsibility on yourself you have spared me, and, as you
see, done your self no harm."
Wilton was puzzled; and though he certainly was not a suspicious man,
he could not help doubting the perfect sincerity of the noble lord.
All his civility, all his kindness, which was so unlike his character
in general, but made his secretary doubt the more, and the more
firmly resolve to watch his conduct accurately.
A few days after the events which we have just related, the Duke of
Gaveston and Lady Laura left Beaufort House for the Earl's seat in
Hampshire, which Lord Aylesbury had pointed out as the best suited to
the occasion. It was painful for Wilton to part from Laura; but yet
he could not divest his mind of the idea that Lord Byerdale d