An officer entered the room and handed a letter to Lord Dunseveric. It was a request, in civil language enough, that he would meet General Clavering in the public room of the inn at nine o’clock, and that Maurice would accompany his father.
General Clavering sat at the head of the table when Lord Dunseveric and Maurice entered. Three or four of the senior officers of the regular troops sat with him. Captain Twinely, in a suit of clothes he had borrowed from the master of the inn, and one of his men, stood near the fireplace. The room had been cleared of the drunken sleepers, but a good deal of the débris of their revel—empty bottles, broken glasses, and little pools of spilt wine—were still visible on the floor.
“I have to announce to you, Lord Dunseveric,” said the general, “that the prisoner who was confined in the inn cellar last night, Neal Ward, has escaped.”
Lord Dunseveric bowed, and smiled slightly. His eye lighted on Captain Twinely, and his smile broadened. The landlord’s suit fitted the captain extremely ill.
“Indeed,” he said, “Captain Twinely seems to be unfortunate with regard to this particular prisoner. This is, let me see, the third time that Neal Ward has—ah!—evaded his vigilance.”
“The sentry who guarded the door of the cellar,” said General Clavering, “was attacked, overpowered, bound, and gagged.”
“By the prisoner?”
“No, my lord, by some one who assisted the prisoner to escape, who, after dealing with the sentry as I have described, unlocked the door of the cellar with a key, the duplicate of that which Captain Twinely had in his pocket. This man and the prisoner subsequently stripped Captain Twinely of his uniform, and, as I learn from my sentries, Neal Ward passed through our lines in the disguise of a captain of yeomanry.”
“You surprise me,” said Lord Dunseveric, “a daring stratagem; a laughable scheme, too. I trust you took no cold, Captain. I confess that I should have liked to have seen you in your shirt tails this morning. You were, I presume,” he stirred a little heap of broken glass with his foot as he spoke, “vino gravatus when they relieved you of your tunic. But what has all this to do with me?”
“Merely this,” said General Clavering, “that your son is accused of having effected the prisoner’s escape.”