And though he answered with gravity, “Not unless you do it again, my dear,” the sting of remembrance did not cease to rankle.
Walterson was traced to Leith—and thence to Holland. There the trail was lost, and it is believed that he did not live to return to England. Whether he did return or not—and Bow Street, and Mr. Bishop in particular, kept watch for him long—he never re-entered Henrietta’s life. As the memory of the French Revolution faded from men’s minds, the struggle for reform fell into more reputable and less violent hands. Silly and turbulent men of the type of him who had turned the girl’s young head no longer counted; or, rising to the top at moments of public excitement, vanished as quickly, and no man knew whither.
Giles and Lunt were not taken on that Sunday night. They escaped, it was supposed, to Scotland, by way of Patterdale and the Moors. Less fortunate, however, than Walterson, they returned to London and fell in again with Thistlewood. They yielded to the fascination of that remarkable and unhappy man, took part in his schemes, and were taken with him in the loft over the stable in Cato Street, when the attempt to murder the cabinet at Lord Harrowby’s house in Grosvenor Square miscarried. He and they got a fair trial, but little pity. And it is not to be supposed that upon the scaffold in the Old Bailey, they thought much of the lonely house in the hollow at Troutbeck, or of the helpless woman whom they had terrorised. To their credit, be it said, they died more worthily than they had lived; and with them came to a close the movement which sought to reach reform by the road of violence, and to that end held no instruments too cheap or vile.
Tyson came out of the adventure a wiser and perhaps a better man. For on his return from the north he found it hard to free himself from the charge of complicity in the acts of those who had used his house; nor did he succeed until he had lain some weeks in Appleby gaol. He would fain have avenged himself on Bess, but for reasons to be stated, he could not enjoy this satisfaction. And his neighbours sent him to Coventry. Had he been a strong man he might have defied them and public opinion. But he was only a braggart, and that which must have embittered many, tamed him. He turned to his wife for comfort, sought his home more than before, and gradually settled down into a tolerable citizen and a high Tory.
Bess saved herself by her own wit and courage. The Monday’s light saw her dragged to Kendal prison, where they were not so gentle with her as they had been with Henrietta. Her story went with her, and, “They say you stole a child,” the little girl murmured, standing at her knee and staring at her, “and ’ll be hanged at the March fair.”
“Not I,” said Bess. “It’s almost a pity, too, ain’t it? There’d be a fine crowd to see!”
The child’s eyes sparkled.
“Yes,” she said. “There’d be a crowd, too.”
But Bess played a fine stroke. She sent for her rival on the Friday, and Henrietta, twenty-four hours betrothed, and very far from unhappy, took that road once more, and went to her.
“I saved you,” said Bess, with coolness. “Yes, I did. Don’t deny it! Now do you save me.”