With this caution, the fellow disappeared; and after a few words, which the unfortunate family were too frightened to listen to, or scarcely to hear, I also went my way.

The information received from Dr Lee relative to the contemplated run near Hurst Castle proved strictly accurate.  The surprise of the smugglers was in consequence complete, and the goods, the value of which was considerable, were easily secured.  There occurred also several of the ordinary casualties that attend such encounters—­casualties which always excited in my mind a strong feeling of regret, that the revenue of the country could not be assured by other and less hazardous expedients.  No life was, however, lost, and we made no prisoners.  To my great surprise I caught, at the beginning of the affray, a glimpse of the bottle-green coat, drab knee-cords, with gaiter continuations, of the doctor.  They, however, very quickly vanished; and till about a week afterwards, I concluded that their owner had escaped in a whole skin.  I was mistaken.

I had passed the evening at the house whither my steps were directed when I escorted Mary Ransome home, and it was growing late, when the servant-maid announced that a young woman, seemingly in great trouble, after inquiring if Lieutenant Warneford was there, had requested to see him immediately, and was waiting below for that purpose.  It was, I found, Mary Ransome, in a state of great flurry and excitement.  She brought a hastily-scribbled note from Dr Lee, to the effect that Wyatt, from motives of suspicion, had insisted that both he and Ransome should be present at the attempt near Hurst Castle; that the doctor, in his hurry to get out of harm’s way, had attempted a leap which, owing to his haste, awkwardness, and the frosty atmosphere and ground, had resulted in a compound fracture of his right leg; that he had been borne off in a state of insensibility; on recovering from which he found himself in Wyatt’s power, who, by rifling his pockets, had found some memoranda that left no doubt of Lee’s treason towards the smuggling fraternity.  The bearer of the note would, he said, further explain, as he could not risk delaying sending it for another moment—­only he begged to say his life depended upon me.

‘Life!’ I exclaimed, addressing the pale, quaking girl; ’nonsense!  Such gentry as Wyatt are not certainly particular to a shade or two, but they rarely go that length.’

‘They will make away with father as well as Dr Lee,’ she shudderingly replied:  ‘I am sure of it.  Wyatt is mad with rage.’  She trembled so violently, as hardly to be able to stand, and I made her sit down.

‘You cannot mean that the scoundrel contemplates murder?’

’Yes—­yes! believe me, sir, he does.  You know the Fair Rosamond, now lying off Marchwood?’ she continued, growing every instant paler and paler.

‘The trader to St Michael’s for oranges and other fruits?’

’That is but a blind, sir.  She belongs to the same company as the boats you captured at Hurst Castle.  She will complete landing her cargo early to-morrow morning, and drop down the river with the ebb-tide just about dawn.’