t sticks there, as well as if it had been drawn in the Middle
Temple."

"Ay, I know your skill. Still, there can be no harm in just asking
Magrath; though I think it must be law, after all! Run up and ask him,
Atwood, and bring me the answer in the drawing-room, where I see
Bluewater has gone with his convoy; and--harkee--tell the surgeons to
let us know the instant the patient says any thing about his temporal
affairs. The twenty thousand in the funds are his, to do what he pleases
with; let the land be tied up, as it may."

While this "aside," was going on in the hall, Bluewater and the rest of
the party had entered a small parlour, that was in constant use, still
conversing of the state of Sir Wycherly. As all of them, but the two
young men, were ignorant of the nature of the message to Sir Reginald
Wychecombe, and of the intelligence in connection with that gentleman,
which had just been received, Mrs. Dutton ventured to ask an
explanation, which was given by Wycherly, with a readiness that proved
_he_ felt no apprehensions on the subject.

"Sir Wycherly desired to see his distant relative, Sir Reginald," said
the lieutenant; "and the messenger who was sent to request his
attendance, fortunately learned from a post-boy, that the Hertfordshire
baronet, in common with many other gentlemen, is travelling in the west,
just at this moment; and that he slept last night, at a house only
twenty miles distant. The express reached him several hours since, and
an answer has been received, informing us that we may expect to see him,
in an hour or two."

Thus much was related by Wycherly; but, we may add that Sir Reginald
Wychecombe was a Catholic, as it was then usual to term the Romanists,
and in secret, a Jacobite; and, in common with many of that religious
persuasion, he was down in the west, to see if a rising could not be
organized in that part of the kingdom, as a diversion to any attempt to
repel the young Pretender in the north. As the utmost caution was used
by the conspirators, this fact was not even suspected by any who were
not in the secret of the whole proceeding. Understanding that his
relation was an inefficient old man, Sir Reginald, himself an active and
sagacious intriguer, had approached thus near to the old paternal
residence of his family, in order to ascertain if his own name and
descent might not aid him in obtaining levies among the ancient tenantry
of the estate. That day he had actually intended t