s himself."

"No, by Heaven," said the Duke, resuming his disordered walk through the
apartment--"Vengeance on these rats of the Privy Council,--come at it
as you will. But the King!--never--never. I have provoked him a hundred
times, where he has stirred me once. I have crossed his path in state
intrigue--rivalled him in love--had the advantage in both,--and, d--n
it, he has forgiven me! If treason would put me in his throne, I have no
apology for it--it were worse than bestial ingratitude."

"Nobly spoken, my lord," said Christian; "and consistent alike with
the obligations under which your Grace lies to Charles Stewart, and the
sense you have ever shown of them.--But it signifies not. If your
Grace patronise not our enterprise, there is Shaftesbury--there is
Monmouth----"

"Scoundrel!" exclaimed the Duke, even more vehemently agitated than
before, "think you that you shall carry on with others an enterprise
which I have refused?--No, by every heathen and every Christian
god!--Hark ye, Christian, I will arrest you on the spot--I will, by gods
and devils, and carry you to unravel your plot at Whitehall."

"Where the first words I speak," answered the imperturbable Christian,
"will be to inform the Privy Council in what place they may find certain
letters, wherewith your Grace has honoured your poor vassal, containing,
as I think, particulars which his Majesty will read with more surprise
than pleasure."

"'Sdeath, villain!" said the Duke, once more laying his hand on his
poniard-hilt, "thou hast me again at advantage. I know not why I forbear
to poniard you where you stand!"

"I might fall, my Lord Duke," said Christian, slightly colouring,
and putting his right hand into his bosom, "though not, I think,
unavenged--for I have not put my person into this peril altogether
without means of defence. I might fall, but, alas! your Grace's
correspondence is in hands, which, by that very act, would be rendered
sufficiently active in handing them to the King and the Privy Council.
What say you to the Moorish Princess, my Lord Duke? What if I have left
her executrix of my will, with certain instructions how to proceed if I
return not unharmed from York Place? Oh, my lord, though my head is
in the wolf's mouth, I was not goose enough to place it there without
settling how many carabines should be fired on the wolf, so soon as my
dying cackle was heard.--Pshaw, my Lord Duke! you deal with a man of
sense and courage, yet you