"No good news, sir," my patron answered. "And yet I can scarcely call it bad. In the country it will have a good effect."
"Bien! But what is it?"
"I have seen Ferguson, sir."
"Then you have seen a d----d scoundrel!" the King exclaimed, with an energy I had not expected from him; and, indeed, such outbreaks were rare with him. "He is arrested, then?"
"No, sir," the Duke answered. "I trust, however, that he will be before night."
"But if he be free, how came you in his company?" the King asked, somewhat sharply.
My lord hesitated, and seemed for a moment at a loss how to answer. Being behind him, I could not see his face, but I fancied that he grew red, and that the fourth person present, a stout, burly gentleman, marked with the small-pox, who had advanced and now stood near the King, was hard put to it not to smile. At last, "I received a letter, sir," my lord said, speaking stiffly and with constraint, "purporting to come from a third person----"
"Ah!" said the King, drawling the word, and nodding dry comprehension.
"On the faith of which, believing it to be from that other--if you understand, sir----"
"I understand perfectly," said the King, and coughed.