“Where shall I send to you, sir, if I have any news that it is urgent you should know of?”

“Send to Mr. Jervoise, Banks.  If I am not there, he will know where I am to be found.”

“I will send Will Ticehurst, Master Charles.  He is a stout lad, and a shrewd one, and I know there is nothing that he would not do for you.  But you had best stop no longer.  Should they find out that I am not in the house, they will guess that I have come to warn you, and may send out a party to search.”

Charlie at once mounted, and rode back to Mr. Jervoise’s.

“I expected you back,” that gentleman said, as he entered.  “Bad news travels apace, and, an hour since, a man brought in the news that Sir Marmaduke had been seen riding, evidently a prisoner, surrounded by soldiers, on the road towards Lancaster.  So that villain we chased last night must have learnt something.  I suppose they will be here tomorrow, but I do not see what serious charge they can have against us.  We have neither collected arms, nor taken any steps towards a rising.  We have talked over what we might do, if there were a landing made from France, but, as there may be no landing, that is a very vague charge.”

“Unfortunately, that is not the charge against my father.  It is a much more serious business.”

And Charlie repeated the substance of what Banks had told him, interrupted occasionally by indignant ejaculations from Mr. Jervoise.

“It is an infamous plot,” he said, when the lad had concluded his story.  “Infamous!  There was never a word said of such a scheme, and no one who knows your father would believe it for an instant.”

“Yes, sir, but the judges, who do not know him, may believe it.  No doubt those who put those papers there, will bring forward evidence to back it up.”

“I am afraid that will be the case.  It is serious for us all,” Mr. Jervoise said thoughtfully.  “That man will be prepared to swear that he heard the plot discussed by us all.  They seized your father, today, as being the principal and most important of those concerned in it, but we may all find ourselves in the same case tomorrow.  I must think it over.

“It is well that your man warned you.  You had best not stay here tonight, for the house may be surrounded at daybreak.  Harry shall go over, with you, to one of my tenants, and you can both sleep there.  It will not be necessary for you to leave for another two or three hours.  You had better go to him now; supper will be served in half an hour.  I will talk with you again, afterwards.”

Harry was waiting outside the door, having also heard the news of Sir Marmaduke’s arrest.

“It is villainous!” he exclaimed, when he heard the whole story.  “No doubt you are right, and that John Dormay is at the bottom of it all.  The villain ought to be slain.”

“He deserves it, Harry; and, if I thought it would do good, I would gladly fight him, but I fear that it would do harm.  Such a scoundrel must needs be a coward, and he might call for aid, and I might be dragged off to Lancaster.  Moreover, he is Ciceley’s father, and my cousin Celia’s husband, and, were I to kill him, it would separate me altogether from them.  However, I shall in all things be guided by your father.  He will know what best ought to be done.