“Well, your Majesty,” said Lane, shaking his head. “I see you're resolved. You shall not find me backward when the time comes, for all my doubts at this meeting. To your Majesty's happy success.” They all drank the toast; but I noticed that Mr. Lane looked melancholy, as though he foresaw something of what actually happened in that terrible June.
“Very good,” said the Duke, “I thank you, gentlemen. Now, Jermyn. We two shall have to be off to the Low Countries in another half hour. How about messengers to the West? You, Lane, are tied here to your regiment. Falk, how about you, Falk?”
“No, your Majesty,” said Falk. “There's danger in sending me. I'm suspected. I'm known to be in your interests.”
“You, then, Candlish,” said the Duke to the man with the eyebrows.
“Not me, Sire,” said Candlish. “I can't disguise myself. I'm stamped by nature for the paths of virtue.”
“It would be a good thing,” said Falk, “if we could get some Western carrier.”
“The Western carriers are all watched,” Lane replied. “They are followed, wherever they go, as on as they arrive at their inns here.”
“Haven't you found some more gipsies, Falk?” Candlish asked. “The last gipsy we had was very good.”
“He was caught by a press-gang,” said Falk, “Gipsies aren't to be trusted, though. They would sell us at once if they had the chance. Ramon was an exception.”
Mr. Jermyn had risen at the Duke's last speech as though to put on his coat, ready to leave the house.. The Duke was listening to the conversation, making 'idle sketches, as he listened, on the paper before him, I think I hardly realised, as I craned over the open space, that I had been listening to a conversation which would have condemned all present to death for treason. I repeated to myself, in a dazed sort of way, that the West was ready to rise. “King James is an usurper,” I said softly. “These men are going to rebel against him. There's going to be a civil war in England about it.” I had hardly repeated this to myself, when it came over me with a shock that I was in terrible personal danger. The men were just leaving the house. They would probably look up, on leaving, to see what sort of a night it was. They would see my wonderful bridge. It would be all over with me then. I was so I could hardly stand up. I took a few cautious steps towards the door, saying to myself that I would never again be disobedient if I might escape this once. I was at the door, just about to open it, when I heard a step upon the landing just outside, coming towards me. I gave up hope then; but I had just sense enough to step to my left, so that, when the door should open (if the stranger entered) it might, possibly, screen me from him. Then I heard the Duke's voice from down below calling to Mr. Jermyn.