, and received her
acknowledgment in return; he had also gained such a power over her, that
she had agreed to conceal their attachment from her father; as Ramsay
wished first, he asserted, to be possessed of a certain property which
he daily expected would fall to him, and, until that, he did not think
that he had any right to aspire to the hand of Wilhelmina.

That Ramsay was most seriously in love there was no doubt; he would have
wedded Wilhelmina, even if she had not a sixpence; but at the same time,
he was too well aware of the advantages of wealth not to fully
appreciate it, and he felt the necessity and the justice to Wilhelmina,
that she should not be deprived, by his means, of those luxuries to
which she had been brought up. But here there was a difficulty, arising
from his espousing the very opposite cause to that espoused by Mynheer
Krause, for the difference of religion he very rightly considered as a
mere trifle compared with the difference in political feelings. He had
already weaned Wilhelmina from the political bias, imbibed from her
father and his connections, without acquainting her with his belonging
to the opposite party, for the present. It had been his intention as
soon as his services were required elsewhere, to have demanded
Wilhelmina's hand from her father, still leaving him in error as to his
politics; and by taking her with him, after the marriage, to the court
of St Germains, to have allowed Mynheer Krause to think what he pleased,
but not to enter into any explanation; but, as Ramsay truly observed,
Mynheer Krause had, by his not retaining the secrets confided to him,
rendered himself suspected, and once suspected with King William, his
disgrace, if not ruin, was sure to follow. This fact, so important to
Ramsay's plans, had been communicated in the extracts made by
Vanslyperken from the last despatches, and Ramsay had been calculating
the consequences when Mynheer Krause returned discomfited from the
presence of the king.

That Ramsay played a very diplomatic game in the conversation which we
have repeated is true; but still it was the best game for Krause as well
as for his own interests, as the events will show. We must, however,
remind the reader that Ramsay had no idea whatever of the double
treachery on the part of Vanslyperken, in copying all the letters sent
by and to him, as well as extracting from the government despatches.

"My dearest Edward, what has detained you so long from