But, what a' God's name--"

"Oh! man!" I cried, "you are surely slow-witted to-day. They will do all
this--" (I leaned forward as I spoke for further emphasis)--"_in order
that I may hand it on to His Majesty_; but they will give me no real
secret till the climax is come, and their designs perfected. And then
they will give me a false one altogether. They think that they will make
me a tool to further their true plans by betraying false ones. We may
know this for certain then--that whatever they tell me, knowing that I
will tell you, is not what they intend, but something else altogether.
And it will not be hard to know the truth, if we are certified of what
is false."

* * * * *

There was complete silence in the room when I had finished, except for
the wash of the tide outside the windows. The man's mouth was open, and
his eyes set in thought. Then sense came back to his face; and he smiled
suddenly and widely.

"God!" he said, and slapped me suddenly on the thigh. "Good God! you
have hit it, I believe."

CHAPTER VII

From now onwards there began for me such a series of complications that
I all but despair of making clear even the course that they ran. My
diaries are filled with notes and initials and dates which I dared not
at the time set down more explicitly; and my memory is often confused
between them. For, indeed, my work in France was but child's play to
this, neither was there any danger in France such as was here.

For consider what, not a double part merely, but a triple, I had to
play. The gentlemen, who were beginning at this time to conspire in real
earnest against the King and the Constitution, some of whom afterwards,
such as my Lord Russell, suffered death for it, and others of whom like
my Lord Howard of Escrick escaped by turning King's evidence--although
their guilt was very various--these gentlemen, through my Lord Essex,
had got at me, as they thought, to betray not truth but falsehood to His
Majesty, and told me matters, under promise of secrecy, which they
intended me to tell to the King and his advisers. To them, therefore, I
had to feign feigning: I had to feign, that is, that I was feigning to
keep their confidence, but that in reality that I was betraying it;
while to Mr. Chiffinch I had to disclose these precious secrets not as
true but as false, and conjecture with him what was the truth. (My
evidence, later, was never called upon, nor did my