ely, "that Your Majesty forgets
who it is who are implicated--that it is these good Jesuit Fathers, and
my own confessor, too"--(he bowed slightly to the fair man, who returned
it)--"and that if the matter be not probed to the bottom, the names of
all will suffer, in the long run."

"Brother, brother," said Charles, "I entreat you not to speak so
violently. We all know how good the Fathers are, and do not suspect any
one of them. It is to save their name--"

"And I tell you," burst in James again, "that mine is the only way to do
it! Do you think, Sir, that these folks who are behind it all will let
the matter rest? It will grow and grow, as Your Majesty said; and we
shall have half the kingdom involved."

Here was a very pretty dispute, with sense on both sides, and yet there
appeared to me that there was more on His Majesty's than on the other.
If even then Dr. Tonge had been sent for and soundly rated, and made to
produce his informant, and the matter sifted, I believe we should have
heard no more of it. But it was not ordained so. They all spoke a good
deal, appealing to the two priests--Mr. Bedingfeld and Mr. Young--and
they both gave their opinions.

Presently Charles was silent; letting his chair come forward again on to
its four legs, and putting his head in his hands over the table. I had
never seen him so perturbed before. Then I ventured on a question.

"Sir, may I ask who is Doctor Tonge's informant?"

His Majesty glanced up at me as if he saw me for the first time.

"Tell him, Chiffinch," he said.

"His name is Doctor Oates," said the page. "He was a Papist once, and is
turned informer, he says. He still feigns secretly to be friends with
one or two of the Jesuits, he says."

"But every word you hear here is _sub sigillo_, Mr. Mallock," added the
King.

I knew no such name; and said no more. I had never heard of the man.

"Have you anything to say, Mr. Mallock?" asked the King presently.

"I have some reports to hand in, Sir," I said, "but they do not bear
directly upon this matter."

The King lifted his heavy eyes and let them fall again. He appeared
weary and dispirited.

* * * * *

When we broke up at last, nothing was decided. On the one hand the
letters were not destroyed, and the Duke was still unforbidden to pursue
his researches; and, on the other there was no permission for a public
inquiry to be held. The counsels, in short, were divided; and that i