"What in the name of fortune can the fellow be about?" murmured the earl. "He is surely not going to fortify Hull against the king! Well, I suppose if he do it will be taken. That is one comfort. But, on my word, he seems to have made great progress in Hotham's good graces. I trust it is not at my expense. No, no! He is not one of that sort of men. Folly and vice enough, but not dishonour.
"I have no small mind to try my eloquence on Hotham too," continued the earl, after watching them for a moment longer; "I do not think he is so far committed with the parliament as to be beyond recal to a sense of duty. He used to be a vain as well as an ambitious man; and perhaps, if one could but hold out to his vanity and ambition the prospect of great honour and advancement, as the reward for taking the first step towards healing the breaches in his country's peace, by making submission to the king, he might be gained. It is worth the trial, and if it cost me my head it shall be made."
As he thus pondered, the governor and Captain Barecolt walked slowly on, followed by the three soldiers; and the sentinel before the door of the block-house recommenced his perambulations.
"Holloa, monsieur!" cried Lord Beverley from the window; and on the approach of the soldier he explained to him, in a mixed jargon of French and English, that he much wished to have an interview with the governor, adding that, if it were granted, he might communicate something to Sir John Hotham which he would find of great importance.
"Why, there he stands," cried the soldier, "talking with the other Frenchman," and he pointed with his hand to a spot which the earl could not see, but where the governor had again paused to listen to Captain Barecolt's plans and devices.
"Allez, allez! tell him," cried Lord Beverley; and the man immediately hastened to give the message.
In about three minutes he returned, saying, "He will send for you in an hour or two, monsieur; and in the mean time here comes your breakfast piping hot."
[CHAPTER XX.]
More than an hour went by without Lord Beverley hearing anything further from the governor; and he was sitting at the table, meditating over his scheme, when his ear caught the sound of voices without.
"Ah! here comes the messenger," he thought, "to summon me to Hotham's presence;" but the moment after he distinguished the tones of his worthy companion, Barecolt, who exclaimed, apparently addressing the sentinel, "But I must see the block-house, I tell you, sair; it be part of my dutee to see de block-house, and here be de wordy Capitaine Jenkin, one man of de big respectability, who tell you de same ting."