There was, however, another and more threatening possibility of encounter.  He remembered that Mr. Delaware, the master of his horse, had lately removed to that part of the house:  and the fear came upon him lest his blind son, who frequently turned night into day in his love for the organ, and was uncertain in his movements between chapel and chamber, the direct way being that just described, should by evil chance appear at the very moment of the king’s passing, and alarm him—­for through the gallery Dr. Bayly must lead his majesty to reach my lord Privy-seal’s chamber.  The marquis, therefore, although reluctant to introduce another even to the externals of the plot, felt that the assistance of a second confidant was more than desirable, and turning the matter over, could think of no one whom he could trust so well, and who at the same time would, if seen, be so little liable to the sort of suspicion he dreaded, as Dorothy.  He therefore sent for her, told her as much as he thought proper, gave her the key of his private passage to the gallery, leading across the top of the hall-door, the only direct communication from the southern side of the castle, and generally kept closed, and directed her to be in the gallery ten minutes before eleven, to lock the door at the top of the stair leading down into the hall, and take her stand in the window at the foot of the stair from the bell-tower, where the door was without a lock, and see that no one entered by order of the marquis for the king’s repose, enjoining upon her that, whatever she saw or heard from any other quarter, she must keep perfectly still, nor let any one discover that she was there.  With these instructions, his lordship, considerably relieved, dismissed her, and went to lie down upon his bed, and have a nap if he could.  He had already given the chaplain the key of his chamber, the door of which he always locked, that he might enter and wake him when the appointed hour was at hand.

As soon as he began to feel that eleven o’clock was drawing near, Dr. Bayly proceeded to reconnoitre.  The marquis’s plan, although he could think of none better, was not altogether satisfactory, and it was to his relief that he found nobody in the dining-room.  When he entered the drawing-room, however, there, to his equal annoyance, he saw in the light of one expiring candle the dim figure of a lady; he could not offer her the keys of the wine-cellar!  What was he to do?  What could she be there for?  He drew nearer, and, with a positive pang of relief, discovered that it was Dorothy.  A word was enough between them.  But the good doctor was just a little annoyed that a second should share in the secret of the great ones.

The next room was the antechamber to the marquis’s bedroom:  timorously on tiptoe he stepped through it, fearful of waking the two young gentlemen—­for Scudamore’s place had been easily supplied—­who waited upon his lordship.  Opening the inner door as softly as he could, he crept in, and found the marquis fast asleep.  So slowly, so gently did he wake him, that his lordship insisted he had not slept at all; but when he told him that the time was come—­