Denounced: A Romance

by John Bloundelle-Burton

"You fool!" he cried, "do you not know me? I am Douglas Sholto," and as he said the words he felt the other's hold relax, felt him disengage himself and stagger back against the wall of the cathedral, where, the moon lighting up his pale, cadaverous face, he stood gasping and glaring at him.

"Douglas Sholto!" he muttered, whispering to himself, "Douglas Sholto here? So, you herd with thieves and robbers, do you? Where are they gone, those others? Where, where, I say?"

"To the gates, I imagine. Beyond them by now," for as he spoke the hour boomed forth from the clock in the tower above, and was repeated by all the other clocks in the city. "Your property, Lord Fordingbridge, is gone. I cannot say that I am sorry for it, though, had you not come when you did, I was about to follow the men who robbed you and have them stopped at the gate. Now, knowing whom they have despoiled, I can only say I rejoice that for once you have met with scoundrels as great as yourself."

Glowering, staring at him intently, the other leaned back against the cathedral, while from his eyes there shone a light which looked like the light of madness. Nay, in that moment Douglas decided in his own mind that he was mad. Still, so great a villain did he know Fordingbridge to be, that, gentle as he was to all others, he could feel no pity towards him. Instead, he said:

"So, my lord, not content with having nearly sacrificed our lives in England, you have tracked us all to this place, doubtless in furtherance of some scheme of your own, though what it is I cannot even guess. You can harm no one here. Your spite----"

"It is false," said Fordingbridge; "I have done no such thing. I am myself on the road to Paris"--he did not say that he was a fugitive from England--"and I have been robbed of all--jewels, money, bills."

"To Paris!" echoed Douglas. "I am afraid you will scarcely be welcome there. The base hint you gave about being a priest will surely lead you into trouble--for it is a lie, as my brother has discovered," and he saw the other start at his words. But he went on: "Moreover, there are many ardent adherents of the Stuart cause in Paris. How do you imagine they will receive the intelligence that you, a supposed adherent yourself, endeavoured to betray three others to their doom in London? Lord Fordingbridge, take my advice, do not go to Paris."

In truth, he had no intention of going to Paris, as has been already told. After much deliberation, when he stole away from his house at Kensington, and during the time occupied in escaping to France, he had been meditating much upon where he should live, where go to until the trouble he had brought upon himself by his own evil actions should have blown over. Money he did not want, having a large sum in France that had been invested by his father, as well as that which he could procure from his property in England, and so, at last, he decided that he would for some time at least take up his abode at Amiens. There he was comparatively near Paris if he wished at any time to visit the capital, and at the same time he was but a day's journey to the seaports of Calais and Boulogne, should he find it necessary at any time to quit France suddenly. Full of these ideas, and certain that it would not be long before he could either return to England or take up his position in Paris, he had come on to Amiens and was now staying at a larger inn than the Croix Blanche under the name of Mr. Chester--which had been his mother's.

He had come out that night, partly driven forth by the shouts and carousings that were going on in his own hostelry in the same manner that they were in all the others in the city, and which, with his brain in the state it had been for some time now, were maddening to him. And partly, also, he had been driven forth by discovering that a large group of English visitors had arrived during the afternoon, the very sight of whom was terrifying to him, since amongst them were one or two young men of fashion whom he had more than once met at King George's levees. Therefore, he had determined to wander about the city until it was time to go to bed, and then to return and keep his room until the English party had gone on to Paris the next morning and the hubbub of the fair was over. But near the cathedral he had been attacked and robbed of his money and trinkets--which, for precaution, as he imagined, he had kept on his person--and in endeavouring to follow the thieves he had stumbled on Douglas Sholto.

"No one would know that I was in Paris," he said, with a cunning leer in his eyes, as he answered the other's remark. "No one, no one."