ed upon
your accusation. He will call me to prove that you and he were at
enmity together, and that therefore your charge is likely to be a
calumny. He will also call me to prove that it was both my opinion
and his, expressed to each other at the very time, that you carried
off his daughter for the purpose of forcing him into a plot against
the state, or at all events to prevent his revealing what he knew of
your proceedings, from the fear of some injury happening to his
child. I shall then have to prove that I found her absolutely in your
power: that you refused to give her up at my request; that you were
at that time in company with and acting in concert with various
persons, five or six of whom have since been executed; that from
amongst you a shot was fired at me, showing that the Duke's
apprehensions regarding his daughter were well founded; and I shall
also have to declare, that before the Duke could have any assurance
of his daughter's safety, the conspiracy was itself discovered, so
that he had no time or opportunity to reveal the plot, unless at a
period when his so doing might have endangered, perhaps, the life of
Lady Laura. All this, my good sir, I shall have to prove, if the
Duke's trial is forced on. To sum the matter up, it must be shown
upon that trial that you and the Duke were at bitter enmity, and that
therefore your charge is likely to be malicious; that you carried off
his daughter as a sort of hostage; and that he was under reasonable
apprehensions on her account, in case he should tell what he knew of
the conspiracy; that I found you associating intimately with all the
condemned traitors the very day before the arrest of some of them,
and that the Duke did not recover his daughter by my means, till the
plot itself was discovered. Now you will judge, Sir John, how this
may affect your own trial. I warn you of the matter, because I have a
promise, a positive promise, that I shall not be brought forward to
give evidence in this business without my own consent; but once
having proffered my testimony in favour of the Duke, I cannot refuse
it, should any link in the chain of evidence be wanting against you
which I can supply."
Sir John Fenwick had listened to every word that Wilton said in
bitter silence; and when he had done, he gnashed his teeth one
against the other, saying, with a look of hatred, "You should have
been a lawyer, young sir, you should have been a lawyer. You have
missed your vocation."
"Lawyers, Sir John Fenwick," repl