'"Courage, sweetheart," she whispered. "Indeed you have no need for all this fear. He cannot do anything so very terrible to you. If he does say a few rough words, they will very soon be over. Surely you are brave enough to bear that. Think what much worse things some people have suffered, and how bravely too!" Her voice was so steady and cheerful, and she looked down into my face with such a bright reassuring smile, that I felt for a moment a little bit relieved. What I should have done without her during those wretched moments of waiting, I cannot say. I thought afterwards that I should almost have died with terror then, if it had not been for the sense of comfort that it gave me to feel her hand clasping mine, and her arm round my waist.
'Fond as I was of Bessie, I had never had the same feeling of confidence and protection when I was with her that Henrietta's presence had begun to give me.
'Poor Bessie! I had scarcely looked at her since we left the prison, so much had my fears absorbed me. I was not, like Henrietta, strong and brave and unselfish enough to think of other people in the midst of our anxiety; and we had been waiting some time in that crowded ante-room, before I bethought myself of looking to see how she was faring. Then, greatly to my astonishment, I saw that she was speaking to some one among the throng of prisoners awaiting their trial, and at the next glance I recognised her acquaintance as no other than our good old vicar, Dr. Power. His face, as he turned to greet us, looked sadly changed,—no longer ruddy, and beaming with mirth and good-humour, but mournful and haggard, and full ten years older than when we had seen him last.
'"Poor children! poor children!" he muttered. "It grieves me to the soul to see you here. A babe like thee, too. Shame, shame on them!" he went on, looking compassionately at my tearful, frightened face. "But take courage, little maid. It can be but a matter of a few thousand pounds or so, to set you free again."
'"Ay, for her—for both of them," murmured Bessie. "But, oh! Dr. Power, tell me the truth," and she spoke in a hurried, terrified whisper, grasping his gown in her earnestness. "I cannot pay a fine, you know—I have only my uncle; and he is gone, no one knows whither. What will they do to me? You will tell me the truth, won't you? What will they—what can they do?" she repeated piteously, looking up at him with an imploring, eager, almost wild, expression in her blue eyes. There was not much encouragement to be gathered from his countenance.
'"Alack! alack! alack!" he said, looking intensely distressed. "My poor child, what can I tell you? Faith, I know no more than yourself. Would to God I had never had a hand in bringing all this sorrow upon you. And now I am powerless, quite powerless, to help you out of it. It breaks my heart!" He sighed heavily, and stood for some moments with his eyes fixed upon the ground. Then, turning to Bessie suddenly again: "Child," said he, "I fear I can do nought to help you. Nay, mayhap it may rather harm you to be seen conversing with me now. So fare ye well. The only piece of counsel that I can give you, is to plead for yourself."
'"Plead with him?" quoth the jailer under whose charge we were. "By your leave, sir, that's no wise counsel of yours. Far better tell her to hold her peace. What!"—here he sank his voice to a significant whisper, and raised his eyebrows expressively—"you don't know my Lord Chief-Justice better than that!"
'"Nay, surely even he, ruffian as he is, can scarce refuse to hear——" Dr. Power did not finish his sentence, but laid his hand affectionately on Bessie's head. She was looking then as she had looked on that fatal day when the banner was presented to Monmouth, only more beautiful. It struck me even at that moment, and I understood what Dr. Power meant. Fear and excitement had heightened the colour in her cheek, instead of taking it away, and added a feverish brightness to her eyes. I have never in my life seen any one so lovely as Bessie looked just then. Nevertheless the jailer only smiled a rather compassionate but yet more contemptuous smile, and shrugged his shoulders. He evidently had a very low opinion of Dr. Power's judgment in this matter.
'This unexpected meeting had made me in some degree forget my qualms; but that space of relief was only too soon over: and, oh! how my heart sank again when the moment came at last, and we were told to follow the jailer into court. All the former dread swept over me now stronger than ever. Dr. Power's farewell, "God be with you, my children, and preserve you. I doubt we shall never meet again!" hardly reached my ears. I certainly did not take in its meaning at the time; though afterwards the words came back to me with a pang, for the foreboding was a true one. I never saw him again.
'I clung to Henrietta's waist, and trembled so violently, that I believe she must have half carried me into the court. When I try to recall what was going on around us, everything seems in a mist until the moment when I found myself standing at the bar between Bessie and Henrietta. If you have set your hearts upon a vivid description of a court of justice, and a minute history of all the proceedings that took place there that morning, I am afraid you will be disappointed, because I have only an extremely vague impression of the whole scene. There was an immense room, an immense crowd of people; but the whole crowd—sheriff, mayor, lawyers, witnesses, and spectators—all looked like one hazy vision. Only one out of those rows and rows of faces did I see distinctly apart from the rest; and that was a face not soon forgotten by those who had once seen it. No; it only required a glance at those keen, fierce, deep-set eyes and scowling brows, and that savage, repulsive mouth, to enable one to recognise the Lord Chief-Justice. I recollect the rough, heavy tones with which he bawled out a command to "speak louder" when my name was asked, and I stammered out a timid, tremulous reply. His voice alone half-frightened me out of my wits; and, oh! the oath which he used, and the epithets which he bestowed on me and my father! (when at length, with a desperate effort, I did manage to pronounce my name audibly). I would not shock your ears by repeating them. The next thing I remember is, that some papers were read, which of course must have been the evidence taken down by the notary upon the day of our arrest; and then a string of rapid questions were put to us that were answered for the most part by Henrietta and Bessie—the same questions chiefly that had been asked us before by Master Noakes. Then some witnesses were called up and examined—some of Madame St. Aubert's servants, and two men who seemed to have been friends of Colonel Dare's. Of what they all said, I have not the least recollection. I only remember the blustering insolent way in which the Lord Chief-Justice from time to time interrupted them—sometimes bursting in with a furious oath, sometimes with a volley of abuse, sometimes with a horrible jest. I believe our examination lasted a very little while in reality—much less time than we had stayed waiting in the ante-room; but to me it seemed hours.