you like to read them?"

Harry Esmond blushed, and held down his head; he HAD looked as the fact
was, and without thinking, at the paper before him; and though he had
seen it, could not understand a word of it, the letters being quite
clear enough, but quite without meaning. They burned the papers, beating
down the ashes in a brazier, so that scarce any traces of them remained.

Harry had been accustomed to see Father Holt in more dresses than one;
it not being safe, or worth the danger, for Popish ecclesiastics to wear
their proper dress; and he was, in consequence, in no wise astonished
that the priest should now appear before him in a riding-dress, with
large buff leather boots, and a feather to his hat, plain, but such as
gentlemen wore.

"You know the secret of the cupboard," said he, laughing, "and must be
prepared for other mysteries;" and he opened--but not a secret cupboard
this time--only a wardrobe, which he usually kept locked, and from which
he now took out two or three dresses and perruques of different colors,
and a couple of swords of a pretty make (Father Holt was an expert
practitioner with the small-sword, and every day, whilst he was at home,
he and his pupil practised this exercise, in which the lad became a very
great proficient), a military coat and cloak, and a farmer's smock,
and placed them in the large hole over the mantel-piece from which the
papers had been taken.

"If they miss the cupboard," he said, "they will not find these; if
they find them, they'll tell no tales, except that Father Holt wore more
suits of clothes than one. All Jesuits do. You know what deceivers we
are, Harry."

Harry was alarmed at the notion that his friend was about to leave him;
but "No," the priest said, "I may very likely come back with my lord
in a few days. We are to be tolerated; we are not to be persecuted. But
they may take a fancy to pay a visit at Castlewood ere our return; and,
as gentlemen of my cloth are suspected, they might choose to examine
my papers, which concern nobody--at least not them." And to this day,
whether the papers in cipher related to politics, or to the affairs of
that mysterious society whereof Father Holt was a member, his pupil,
Harry Esmond, remains in entire ignorance.

The rest of his goods, his small wardrobe, &c. Holt left untouched on
his shelves and in his cupboard, taking down--with a laugh, however--and
flinging into the brazier, where he only half burned them, some