e sought, and it was strengthened by papers and letters which the
rascal Nixon did not hesitate to take from your pocket. Yet a mistake
might have occasioned a fatal explosion; and my uncle therefore posted
to Edinburgh to follow out the clue he had obtained, and fished enough
of information from old Mr. Fairford to make him certain that you were
the person he sought. Meanwhile, and at the expense of some personal
and perhaps too bold exertion, I endeavoured, through your friend young
Fairford, to put you on your guard.'

'Without success,' said Darsie, blushing under his mask when he
recollected how he had mistaken his sister's meaning.

'I do not wonder that my warning was fruitless,' said she; 'the thing
was doomed to be. Besides, your escape would have been difficult. You
were dogged the whole time you were at the Shepherd's Bush and at Mount
Sharon, by a spy who scarcely ever left you.'

'The wretch, little Benjie!' exclaimed Darsie. 'I will wring the
monkey's neck round, the first time we meet.'

'It was he indeed who gave constant information of your motions to
Cristal Nixon,' said Lilias.

'And Cristal Nixon--I owe him, too, a day's work in harvest,' said
Darsie; 'for I am mistaken if he was not the person that struck me down
when I was made prisoner among the rioters.'

'Like enough; for he has a head and hand for any villany. My uncle was
very angry about it; for though the riot was made to have an opportunity
of carrying you off in the confusion, as well as to put the fishermen
at variance with the public law, it would have been his last thought to
have injured a hair of your head. But Nixon has insinuated himself into
all my uncle's secrets, and some of these are so dark and dangerous,
that though there are few things he would not dare, I doubt if he dare
quarrel with him. And yet I know that of Cristal would move my uncle to
pass his sword through his body.'

'What is it, for Heaven's sake?', said Darsie. 'I have a particular
desire for wishing to know.'

'The old, brutal desperado, whose face and mind are a libel upon human
nature, has had the insolence to speak to his master's niece as one whom
he was at liberty to admire; and when I turned on him with the anger and
contempt he merited, the wretch grumbled out something, as if he held
the destiny of our family in his hand.'

'I thank you, Lilias,' said Darsie, eagerly,--'I thank you with all my
heart for this communication. I have blamed myself