granting you a full and free
pardon for any offences that you may have committed against her
and the realm, and also settling upon you the estates to which you
are the rightful heir, in and about the barony of Kilkargan; being
influenced in so doing by the great services rendered by you, both
to Her Majesty's well-beloved and faithful minister and
counsellor, myself, and to her trusty general, the Earl of Galway.

"The queen is not very likely to ask the nature of the service.
Unless it be something that concerns herself, she asks but few
questions, and signs readily enough the documents laid before her.
If she asks what are the offences for which she grants her pardon,
I shall say, when but a boy you were maliciously sent abroad to
join the Irish Brigade by your uncle, who wished thus to rid
himself of you altogether, and who had foully wronged you by
withholding your name, from you and all others. I shall also add
that you have distinguished yourself much, and have gained the
friendship of her half brother, the Duke of Berwick; and you know
that the queen, in her heart of hearts, would rather that her
brother, whom you Jacobites call James the Third, should succeed
her than the Elector of Hanover, for whom she has no love."

"I thank you greatly, indeed, my lord. Never was a man so amply
rewarded for merely holding his tongue."

"It was not only that, sir. It was your conduct in general to me.
You might have left me tied up in that house, to be found in the
morning, and to be made the jest of the town; instead of which,
you yourself conducted and guarded me hither, and so contrived it
that no whisper spread abroad that I had been carried off between
Saint James's and my own house. You trusted to my honour, in not
causing a pursuit of you to be set on foot, and behaved in all
ways as a gallant young gentleman, and certainly gained my high
esteem, both for the daring and ingenuity with which you carried
out your plans for obtaining a passage to France, and for your
personal conduct towards myself.

"Where are you lodging?"

"At the Eagle, hard by the Abbey."

"Remain there, until you hear from me. Do not be impatient. I must
choose my time, when either the queen is in a good temper, or is
in such a hurry to get rid of me, in order to plot and gossip with
Mistress Harley, who is now her prime favourite, that she is ready
to sign any document I may lay before her."

Feeling that his cause was as good as won, Ger