es before him. His was an interesting face, with large,
melancholy, and almost fanatical eyes, and a poet's mouth and forehead;
but it was probably exactly his imaginative faculties that enabled him to
picture public affairs from the points of view of the very various
persons concerned in them; and thereby to cope with the complications
arising out of these conflicting interests.

He stroked his pointed beard once or twice, and then struck a hand-bell
at his side; and a servant entered.

"If Mr. Lackington is below," he said, "show him here immediately," and
the servant went out.

Lackington, sometime servant to Sir Nicholas Maxwell, had entered Sir
Francis' service instead, at the same time that he had exchanged the
Catholic for the Protestant religion; and he was now one of his most
trusted agents. But he had been in so many matters connected with
recusancy, that a large number of the papists in London were beginning to
know him by sight; and the affairs were becoming more and more scarce in
which he could be employed among Catholics with any hope of success. It
was his custom to call morning by morning at Sir Francis' office and
receive his instructions; and just now he had returned from business in
the country. Presently he entered, closing the door behind him, and bowed
profoundly to his master.

"I have a matter on hand, Lackington," said Sir Francis, without looking
at him, and without any salutation beyond a glance and a nod as he
entered,--"a matter which I have not leisure to look into, as it is not,
I think, anything more than mere religion; but which might, I think,
repay you for your trouble, if you can manage it in any way. But it is a
troublesome business. These are the facts.

"No. 3 Newman's Court, in the City, has been a suspected house for some
while. I have had it watched, and there is no doubt that the papists use
it. I thought at first that the Scots were mixed up with it; but that is
not so. Yesterday, a boy of twelve years old, left the house in the
afternoon, and was followed to a number of houses, of which I will give
you the list presently; and was finally arrested in Paul's Churchyard and
brought here. I frightened him with talk of the rack; and I think I have
the truth out of him now; I have tested him in the usual ways--and all
that I can find is that the house is used for mass now and then; and that
he was going to the papists' houses yesterday to bid them come for next
Sunday morning