y; and I perceived that we had not
been seen. Presently I said:

"Who was that pale-looking fellow who wished to speak with you
yesterday, Mr. Rumbald, at the _Mitre?_"

He looked sharply at me for an instant.

"His name is Thompson," said he. "He is one of my malting-men."

Then I knew that he had lied. A man does not invent the name of Keeling,
but very easily the name of Thompson. So I saw that Rumbald had not yet
lost all discretion; and indeed, for all his talk, he had hardly spoken
a name that I could get hold of.

After a while I ventured on another sentence which suited my purpose,
and at the same time confirmed him in his own view.

"If by any chance His Majesty should not come to-day--will it be done,
do you think, to-morrow? Shall you wait till he does come?"

He shook his head and lied again very promptly.

"If it is not done to-day, it will never be done."

Looking back on the affair now, I truly do wonder at the adroitness with
which we both talked. There was scarcely a slip on either side, though
we were at cross-purposes if ever men were. But I suppose that in both
of us there was a very great tension of mind--as of men walking on the
edge of a precipice; and it was the knowledge of that which saved us
both. After dinner I said I would walk again out of doors; and he
thought it was mere affectation, since I must know by now that His
Majesty was not coming.

"Well," I said, "if by any mischance His Majesty doth not come to-day, I
will get back to town."

He looked at me; but he kept any kind of irony out of his face.

"You had best do that," he said.

* * * * *

Now it must have been forty miles from Newmarket to the Rye; and I had
calculated that His Majesty would not start till nine o'clock at the
earliest. He would have four horses and would change them at least three
times; but they would not be able to go out of a trot for most of the
way, so that I need not look for any news of him till three o'clock at
the earliest. From then till five o'clock would be the time. If he were
not come by five, or at the very latest half-past, I should know that my
design had miscarried.

It is very difficult for me to describe at all the state I was in--all
the more as I dared not shew it. It was not merely that my Sovereign was
at stake, but a great deal more than that. My religion too was in some
peril, for if, by any mischance things should not go as I expected; if,