'"Ph[oe]be was right," she answered in a low, scared tone. "Two of the sheriff's officers have come, and we are all put under arrest for having aided and abetted the Duke of Monmouth, they said, They spoke very roughly to Mrs. Fortescue. She scarcely knows what to fear. Perhaps——" But here Bessie broke off with a nervous start; for as we reached the foot of the stairs the door of the north parlour opened, and Mrs. Fortescue beckoned us in. I thought, as I crept in behind Bessie, of that fatal day when Pauline had told us of the mysterious, ill-favoured stranger closeted with her mother in this very room. There were two strange men there this morning—one decidedly ill-favoured, and both highly unprepossessing.
'One of the two was in the dress of a sheriff's officer; the other a spare, mean-looking little man, in a suit of rusty black. This man did not even rise from his seat as we entered. His companion had the grace to make a sort of swaggering bow before he asked Bessie, the tallest and eldest-looking amongst us, "whether she would be pleased to tell him her name." Poor Bessie! "Elizabeth Davenant" was spoken in such very low, tremulous tones that she was obliged to repeat it; whereupon he smiled complacently, murmuring, "Ay, even so," while the man in black noted it down on his tablets. This proceeding struck me with much awe; but think, what was my horror when I heard the next question: "And which is the Countess of Desmond?" Most unwillingly I was pushed forward by Mary Seymour, and immediately my name was inscribed upon the tablets, the sheriff's officer remarking meanwhile, "Sooth to say, she is a mighty little lady." How well I remember the pang of mortification which these words gave me even then, when I was absolutely quaking with fright. He turned next to Eleanor Page, and then to Henrietta, and so on, till all our names had been noted down by the little man with the tablets.
'"And these are all of the pupils, madam?" demanded the sheriff's man (Master Noakes his companion called him) of Mrs. Fortescue.
'"These are all," she repeated mechanically.
'"Very good, very good," Master Noakes proceeded, as with his back against the wall, and his arms folded, he surveyed us all critically. "And now, ladies, mayhap you'll be good enough to answer a few questions that I'm going to put to you; and look you, I must have the truth, and nothing more or less. You won't find it easy to hoodwink me, I warrant."
'These insolent words, and the threatening manner in which they were spoken, made some of us grow white with terror, while others reddened with indignation. I saw Henrietta's hand clench involuntarily, and she bit her lip till it bled.
'"Now, Mrs. Elizabeth Davenant," Master Noakes continued, "you can't deny that you and all your schoolmates here presented a silk banner to that notorious rebel and traitor the late Duke of Monmouth, when he proclaimed himself king here on the twentieth of June last."
'"I have no wish to deny it, sir," replied Bessie, plucking up her courage a little in her anger and offended pride. "It was I myself who gave the banner into the Duke's hand."
'"But on behalf of you all? These ladies were all with you?"
'"Yes, all; that is, except Mistress Sidney."