France -- History -- Louis XV, 1715-1774 -- Fiction; Jacobite Rebellion, 1745-1746 -- Fiction
"'Tis by betrayal alone that we can be injured," Bertie said,
thoughtfully. "None of our names are known, nor in the proscribed
list. Yet how can he do it? He it was who planned the attack upon the
Fubbs[2] to be made when the Elector crossed from Holland; he who
disseminated the tracts, nay, had them printed, counselling his taking
off. He was worse than any--no honest Jacobite ever stooped to
assassination!--and many of us know it."
"Be sure," she replied, "that what he could do would be done in
secret; Bert--Mr. Elphinston, who is that man who has passed the
arbour twice or more, and looks always so fixedly at you?"
"I know not," he replied, "yet he has been ever near Douglas and
me--he and another man--since we entered the gardens. Perhaps a
Government spy. Well, he can know nought of me."
The man she had mentioned was a tall, stoutly-built individual,
plainly enough clad in an old rusty black suit of broadcloth, patched
black stockings and thick-soled shoes with rusty iron buckles upon
them, and bore at his side a stout hanger. He might be a spy, it was
true, but he might also have been anything else, a low follower of the
worst creatures who infested the gardens, a gambling-hell tout, or a
bagnio pimp. Yet his glance from under his vizard was keen and
penetrating as it was fixed on them, but especially on Elphinston,
each time he passed the summer house wherein they sat.
But now their conversation, which to both seemed all too short and to
have left so much unsaid, was interrupted by the advent of Douglas
Sholto, who came swiftly down the shell-strewn path, and, seeing them
in the arbour, paused and entered at once.
"Kitty," he said, grasping her hand, "this is not the greeting I had
intended to give you, though it's good to look upon your bonnie face
again. But, Bertie, listen. We are watched, followed, perhaps known;
indeed, I am sure of it. One of those fellows who have kept near to
us, and whom we saw at Wandsworth as we set forth--I see the other
down the path--spoke but now to three soldiers of the Coldstreams.
Perhaps 'twas to identify us; you remember the First Battalion at
Culloden," he added grimly; "perhaps to call on them for help.
Bertie, we must be away at once."
"'Tis as I suspected," said Lady Fordingbridge, now pale as ashes and
trembling from head to foot. "My words have too soon come true. How,
how has he done it?"
"Farewell, Kate," said Bertie Elphinston, "we must, indeed, hasten if
this is true. Yet first let me take you to your father and friends.
Then," with a firm set look on his face, he said, "Douglas and I must
see our way through this, if 'tis as he suspects. Come, Kate."
"No, no," she said, imploringly. "Wait not to think of me. Begone
while there is yet time. Lose no moment. Farewell, farewell. We may
meet again yet."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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