ye, when any event of importance takes place in
a great city. They were, perhaps, more apparent than usual on the
present occasion; for in the short distance he had to go he saw two
hawkers of halfpenny sheets bawling down unintelligible tidings to
maids in the areas, and two or three groups gathered together in the
sunshiny morning at the corners of the streets.
When he reached the Earl's house, he found him more excited than he
usually suffered himself to be, and holding up a letter, he
exclaimed,--
"Here's an account of this great event of the day, which of course
you heard as you came here. This is a proof how things are brought
about unexpectedly. Not a man in England, statesman or mechanic,
could have imagined, for the last six weeks, that this dark,
cold-blooded plotter, Sir John Fenwick, had failed to effect his
escape."
"And has he not?" exclaimed Wilton, eagerly. "Is he in England? Has
he been found?"
"He has not escaped," replied the Earl, dryly. "He is in England; and
he is at the present moment safe in Newgate. Some spies or other
officers of the Duke of Shrewsbury discovered him lingering about in
Kent and Sussex, and he has since been apprehended, in attempting to
escape into France."
"This is indeed great intelligence," replied Wilton. "I suppose there
is no chance whatever of his being acquitted."
"None," answered the Earl; "none whatever, if they manage the matter
rightly, though he is more subtle than all the rest of the men put
together. It seems likely that the whole business will fall upon me,
and I shall see him in a few days; for he already talks of giving
information against great persons, on condition that his life be
spared."
Wilton concealed any curiosity he might feel as well as he could, and
went on with the usual occupations of the day, not remarking as
anything particular, that the Earl wrote a long and seemingly tedious
letter, and gave it to one of the porters, with orders to send it off
by a special messenger.
On going out afterwards, he found that the tidings of Sir John
Fenwick's arrest had spread over the whole town; and the rumour,
agitation, and anxiety which had been caused by the plot, and had
since subsided, was, for the time, revived with more activity than
ever. As no one, however, was mentioned in any of the rumours but Sir
John Fenwick himself, Wilton did not think it worth while to make the
mind of the Duke anxious upon the subject till he could obtain
farther information; and he therefore refrained