at the torture the man was in.

"Well, sir; you may go," said the page. "And I would recommend you and
your brother to lie very private to-night. There must be no more
evasion."

* * * * *

When he was gone, Mr. Chiffinch turned to me.

"Well?" he said. "What do you think?"

"Oh! I think he speaks the truth, in the main," I said wearily. "Shall I
be needed any more; or when may I leave town?"

"You must wait, Mr. Mallock, until we have laid hands on them."

* * * * *

It was not until the middle of July that I was able to leave. On the
eighteenth of June a proclamation was issued, with the names of some of
the conspirators; and numerous arrests were made. One matter pleased me
a little, and that was that Keeling had been man enough after all, to
warn some of the humbler folk, who had been led into the affair, of what
he had done; and the most of these got clean away. Then Sheppard came
forward and betrayed three or four who had met in his house, as I had
seen for myself: and West added many details. A second proclamation
containing the names, and offering rewards for the arrest of Monmouth,
my Lord Grey, Sir Thomas Armstrong and the Reverend Robert Ferguson, was
made after my Lord Russell's arrest; but all four of them escaped. My
Lords Howard and Essex were taken on the tenth of July; and two days
later Walcot, Hone and Rouse were convicted.

As soon as my Lord Russell's trial was begun, and the certainty that he
would be convicted was made plain by my Lord Howard turning King's
evidence, I left London with my man James. And before we were at Dover
the news came to us that my Lord Essex, in despair, had cut his throat
in the Tower. As for myself, I was glad enough to leave; for I was both
sick and weary of intrigue. It would be of a very different sort in
France; and of a kind that a gentleman may undertake without misgivings:
so, though I was loth to leave the land where Dolly was, the balance
altogether left me refreshed rather than saddened.

* * * * *

It was a clear day as the packet put out from Dover; and, as I stood on
deck, watching the cliffs recede as we went, there came on me again that
same mood that had fallen on me as I went up the river so long ago from
Wapping. Once more it appeared to me as if I were in somewhat of a
dream. Those men I had left behind, awaiting trial and death; Mr.
Chiffinch; the