the private secretary of Sir Henry Fairfax?"

"I was," briefly replied Hildebrand.

"Know you this signet?"

"I do," again he sullenly answered.

"It was given into my keeping," said the stranger, "as a token whereby
Hildebrand Wentworth should, in the due exercise of his fealty and
trust, commit to my charge certain documents that shall immediately be
set forth. But first, and briefly, it may be needful to relate the
manner in which Sir Henry recovered after your departure. On the day
following the skirmish, wherein Sir Henry was supposed to be mortally
wounded, he gave unto you, as his most valued and bosom friend, those
solemn credentials, by which, as a dying man, he invested you with full
powers to proceed to England, as the sole guardian and protector of his
beloved wife and their infant offspring. The goods and effects of which
he died the possessor were vested in your name, I believe, in trust for
her benefit and the surviving children. I think I am right in this? In
case of her death, though, I believe the property became yours."

"It did."

"Such was the nature of the wound that his physicians believed a few
hours only could intervene before his dissolution. He urged your
immediate departure. Shortly afterwards the whole camp equipage,
together with the sick and wounded, fell into the hands of his enemies.
Driven off to a considerable distance up the Rhine at full speed, and
without any other comforts or necessaries than what his captors could
supply, his wounds bleeding afresh, and every limb racked with pain, to
the astonishment of all he speedily recovered; and from that time he has
remained a close prisoner in the fortress. Not receiving any tidings
from his native shores, he knows not his loss. Yesternight only I heard
of Lady Fairfax's most lamentable decease. In a cartel lately arrived
for negotiating an exchange of prisoners, Sir Henry sends by me,
secretly, as one of the envoys, a requisition for the papers I have
before mentioned. His name, by some mistake, perhaps, not being included
in the lists for exchange, has induced him so to act. The credentials,
which he will thus be enabled through me to present, will doubtless
accomplish his release, and restore him to his family and to his home.
They are papers of great moment, and will set forth claims which cannot
be overlooked; and I have most minute and special instructions to get
them laid before the council."

"Where are these precious docu