"To be sure! To be sure! Those Delawares were always fond of him," replied the mercer. "He sailed with this very captain, you know; and it seems he has been under his orders once too often. I always said he would come to be hanged!"
While such charitable conversation was passing at Emberton, the magistrates were not inactive; warrants, horses, and constables were dispatched in all directions, and both Dr. Wilton and Mr. Egerton, well knowing the blame that would attach to themselves, returned to the mansion to investigate by what means the prisoner had escaped. The constables in whose charge the prisoner had been left, and the room which he had occupied, were first examined. The two men declared upon oath, that no one had been admitted to the accused but themselves, since he had been remanded; that they had both slept in the ante-room; that the door had been locked all night; that the window was far too high to afford the means of evasion; and that they had both seen and spoken to Captain Delaware as late as eleven the preceding night. The inferior constable at the same time handed the fugitive's letter to Dr. Wilton, who opened and read it, while Mr. Egerton made the first superficial examination of the room; and, as his fellow-magistrate was about to institute a more rigorous investigation, the clergyman exclaimed--
"Stay, stay, Mr. Egerton, this letter concerns us both, and in it William Delaware alludes, in some measure, to the method of his intended escape. See here! He says the officers are entirely guiltless of it, as it is by a passage they are not acquainted with."
"Then there must be some private entrance," said Mr. Egerton.
"I dare say there is," answered Dr. Wilton; "but this letter, in many points, throws some new light upon the subject. Read it! Read it! and, at all events, let us, as far as we can, do the poor boy justice. Read it, my dear sir!"
Mr. Egerton took it to the window, and read it attentively over. He then gave the letter back to Dr. Wilton, saying, "He makes out a good case against his accuser; but I am afraid, my dear doctor, that it will not screen himself. However, on every account--for charity's sake, and for the sake of mere justice--I will, of course, exert myself to the utmost--that is to say, quietly--quietly, you know, for the matter is nearly out of our hands--but I will exert myself to the utmost to discover every fact connected with the charge. In the mean time, we must do our duty, and endeavor to recover our prisoner: Let us examine the walls."
"First examine the floor," said Dr. Wilton. "Sliding panels have not been to be found since the epoch of Udolpho, but trap-doors are to be met with in all these old houses."
The hint was instantly complied with; and the trap-door was discovered at once, together with its communication with the park. Nothing farther, however, could be made of this fact. The way the fugitive had taken remained still undiscovered; and the only effect which their investigation produced upon the minds of the two magistrates was, that each perceived at once that the means which Captain Delaware had taken to make his escape, might very well have served another person for the purpose of placing the money in his chamber unseen; and thus his tale acquired a degree of probability which it had not before possessed.
When the examination was concluded, as far as it could be carried at the time, and every necessary measure for overtaking the fugitive had been put in train for execution, Mr. Egerton went back to Emberton to confer with the coroner, who was hourly expected to return to that little town, in order to see the prisoner dispatched to the county jail. Dr. Wilton, in the mean while, laying aside his magisterial capacity, proceeded, as a friend and a clergyman, to visit Sir Sidney Delaware and his daughter. He found them, as he had expected, depressed in the extreme, and saw that they were naturally in a high state of nervous anxiety in regard to Captain Delaware's safety. At first there was a degree of painful embarrassment in the whole deportment of Sir Sidney Delaware, which made him treat even Dr. Wilton with no small haughtiness and reserve. But the good clergyman came to console and to soothe; and he persevered with all those kindly and feeling attentions, which are sure ultimately to win their way to an amiable heart, however much the road thither may be obstructed by the pride of undeserved shame, or the reckless repulsiveness of bitter disappointment.
When he found Sir Sidney unwilling to listen, impatient of consolation, or heedless of conversation, he turned to Blanche, and won her into the innocent manœuvre of wiling her father from his bitterer thoughts. Gradually the feelings of the baronet relaxed; he was brought more and more to speak of his own sorrows, and of his son's unhappy fate; and though a tear or two forced themselves through his eyelids, his griefs and even his apprehensions--as a sometimes the case--were partly lost as they were poured forth into a friendly ear.