666

Blaise," says Mr. Holt, writing two lines on his tablebook, one for my lady, and one for you, Master Harry; you must go back to Castlewood, and deliver these," and behold me.'

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And he gave Harry the two papers. He read that to himself, which only said, ' Burn the papers in the cupboard, burn this. You know nothing about anything.' Harry read this, ran upstairs to his mistress's apartment, where her gentlewoman slept near to the door, made her bring a light and wake my lady, into whose hands he gave the paper. She was a wonderful object to look at in her night attire, nor had Harry ever seen the like.

As soon as she had the paper in her hand, Harry stepped back to the chaplain's room, opened the secret cupboard over the fireplace, burned all the papers in it, and, as he had seen the priest do before, took down oneof his reverence's manuscript sermons, and half burnt that in the brazier. By the time the papers were quite destroyed it was daylight. Harry ran back to his mistress again. Her gentlewoman ushered him again into her ladyship's chamber; she told him (from behind her nuptial curtains) to bid the coach be got ready, and that she would ride away anon.

But the mysteries of her ladyship's toilet were as awfully long on this day as on any other, and, long after the coach was ready, my lady was still attiring herself. And just as the viscountess stepped forth from her room, ready for departure, young Job Lockwood comes running up from the village with news that a lawyer, three officers, and twenty or four-and-twenty soldiers, were marching thence upon the house. Job had but two minutes the start of them, and, ere he had well told his story, the troop rode into our courtyard.

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CHAPTER VI

THE ISSUE OF THE PLOTS.-THE DEATH OF THOMAS, THIRD VISCOUNT OF CASTLEWOOD; AND THE IMPRISONMENT OF HIS VISCOUNTESS

Ar first my lady was for dying like Mary, Queen of Scots (to whom she fancied she bore a resemblance in beauty), and, stroking her scraggy neck, said, 'They will find Isabel of Castlewood is equal to her fate.' Her gentlewoman, Victoire, persuaded her that her prudent course was, as she could not fly, to receive the troops as though she suspected nothing, and that her chamber was the best place wherein to await them. So her black japan casket which Harry was to carry to the coach was taken back to her ladyship's chamber, whither the maid and mistress retired. Victoire came out presently, bidding the page to say her ladyship was ill, confined to her bed with the rheumatism.

By this time the soldiers had reached Castlewood. Harry Esmond saw them from the window of the tapestry parlour; a couple of sentinels were posted at the gatea half-dozen more walked towards the stable; and some others, preceded by their commander, and a man in black, a lawyer probably, were conducted by one of the servants to the stair leading up to the part of the house which my lord and lady inhabited.

So the captain, a handsome kind man, and the lawyer, came through the ante-room to the tapestry parlour, and where now was nobody but young Harry Esmond, the page. 'Tell your mistress, little man,' says the captain kindly, 'that we must speak to her.'

'My mistress is ill abed,' said the page.

'What complaint has she?' asked the captain. The boy said, 'the rheumatism!'

'Rheumatism! that's a sad complaint,' continues the good-natured captain; and the coach is in the yard to fetch the doctor, I suppose?

6

'I don't know,' says the boy.

And how long has her ladyship been ill ? '

I don't know,' says the boy.

"When did my lord go away?'

'Yesterday night."

With Mr. Holt.'

And which way did they travel?' asks the lawyer.
They travelled without me,' says the page.

'We must see Lady Castlewood.'

'I have orders that nobody goes in to her ladyship-she is sick,' says the page; but at this moment Victoire came out. Hush!' says she; and, as if not knowing that any one was near, What's this noise?' says she. 'Is this gentleman the doctor?'

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Stuff! we must see Lady Castlewood,' says the lawyer, pushing by.

The curtains of her ladyship's room were down, and the chamber dark, and she was in bed with a nightcap on her head, and propped up by her pillows, looking none the less ghastly because of the red which was still on her cheeks, and which she could not afford to forgo.

There is no use with this deception, madam,' Captain Westbury said (for so he was named). My duty is to arrest the person of Thomas, Viscount Castlewood, a nonjuring peer-of Robert Tusher, Vicar of Castlewood-and Henry Holt, known under various other names and designations, a Jesuit priest, who officiated as chaplain here in the late king's time, and is now at the head of the conspiracy which was about to break out in this country against the authority of their Majesties King William and Queen Mary—and my orders are to search the house for such papers or traces of the conspiracy as may be found here. Your ladyship will please to give me your keys, and it will be as well for yourself that you should help us, in every way, in our search.'

'You see, sir, that I have the rheumatism, and cannot move,' said the lady, looking uncommonly ghastly as she sat up in her bed, where however she had had her cheeks painted, and a new cap put on, so that she might at least look her best when the officers came.

I shall take leave to place a sentinel in the chamber, so that your ladyship, in case you should wish to rise, may have an arm to lean on,' Captain Westbury said. Your woman

will show me where I am to look ; and Madame Victoire, chattering in her half-French and half-English jargon, opened while the captain examined one drawer after another; but, as Harry Esmond thought, rather carelessly, with a smile on

his face, as if he was only conducting the examination for form's sake.

Before one of the cupboards Victoire flung herself down, stretching out her arms, and, with a piercing shriek, cried, 'Non, jamais, monsieur l'officier! Jamais! I will rather die than let you see this wardrobe.'

But Captain Westbury would open it, still with a smile on his face, which, when the box was opened, turned into a fair burst of laughter. It contained-not papers regarding the conspiracy-but my lady's wigs, washes, and rouge-pots, and Victoire said men were monsters, as the captain went on with his perquisition. He tapped the back to see whether or no it was hollow, and as he thrust his hands into the cupboard, my lady from her bed called out with a voice that did not sound like that of a very sick woman, 'Is it your commission to insult ladies as well as to arrest gentlemen, captain?'

These articles are only dangerous when worn by your ladyship,' the captain said with a low bow, and a mock grin of politeness. I have found nothing which concerns the Government as yet-only the weapons with which beauty is authorized to kill,' says he, pointing to a wig with his sword-tip. We must now proceed to search the rest of the

house.'

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6

You are not going to leave that wretch in the room with me,' cried my lady, pointing to the soldier.

What can I do, madam? Somebody you must have to smooth your pillow and bring your medicine-permit

me

Sir!' screamed out my lady

'Madam, if you are too ill to leave the bed,' the captain then said, rather sternly, 'I must have in four of my men to lift you off in the sheet: I must examine this bed, in a word; papers may be hidden in a bed as elsewhere; we know that very well and

Here it was her ladyship's turn to shriek, for the captain, with his fist shaking the pillows and bolsters, at last came to 'burn', as they say in the play of forfeits, and wrenching away one of the pillows, said, 'Look, did not I tell you so ? Here is a pillow stuffed with paper.'

'Some villain has betrayed us,' cried out my lady, sitting up in the bed, showing herself full dressed under her night-rail.

'And now your ladyship can move, I am sure; permit me to give you my hand to rise. You will have to travel for some distance, as far as Hexton Castle to-night. Will you have your coach? Your woman shall attend you if you like-and the japan-box?

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Sir! you don't strike a man when he is down,' said my lady, with some dignity: can you not spare a woman ? Your ladyship must please to rise and let me search the bed,' said the captain; there is no more time to lose in bandying talk.'

And, without more ado, the gaunt old woman got up. Harry Esmond recollected to the end of his life that figure, with the brocade dress and the white night-rail, and the gold-clocked red stockings, and white red-heeled shoes sitting up in the bed, and stepping down from it. The trunks were ready packed for departure in her ante-room, and the horses ready harnessed in the stable about all which the captain seemed to know, by information got from some quarter or other; and, whence, Esmond could make a pretty shrewd guess in after-times, when Dr. Tusher complained that King William's Government had basely treated him for services done in that cause.

And here he may relate, though he was then too young to know all that was happening, what the papers contained, of which Captain Westbury had made a seizure, and which papers had been transferred from the japan-box to the bed when the officers arrived.

There was a list of gentlemen of the county in Father Holt's handwriting-Mr. Freeman's (King James's) friends a similar paper being found among those of Sir John Fenwick and Mr. Coplestone, who suffered death for this conspiracy.

There was a patent conferring the title of Marquis of Esmond on my Lord Castlewood, and the heirs male of his body; his appointment as lord lieutenant of the county, and major-general.1

1 To have this rank of marquis restored in the family had always been my lady viscountess's ambition; and her old maiden aunt, Barbara Topham, the goldsmith's daughter, dying about this time, and leaving all her property to Lady Castlewood, I have heard that her ladyship sent almost the whole of the money to King James, a proceeding which so irritated my Lord Castlewood that he actually went to the parish church, and was only appeased by the marquis's