France -- History -- Louis XV, 1715-1774 -- Fiction; Jacobite Rebellion, 1745-1746 -- Fiction
As for Archibald Sholto, he, too, did that which he had said would be
best. He made his way from Kensington to Chelsea and so to Wandsworth,
only to find when he had arrived there that his brother and friend had
long since--for it was by then nine o'clock--departed for Vauxhall.
Therefore he said a few words to the landlady--herself an adherent of
the Stuarts, as she, whose father had fallen at Sherriffmuir, was
certain to be--telling her that it was doubtful if they would ever
return to their lodgings, but that, if they did, she must manage to
send them off at once. He told her, too, the address of the Minories
where he could be communicated with, under cover to McGlowrie, and,
since he it was who had sent them as lodgers to her house, he gave her
some money on their account. Then he left her and, thorough and
indomitable in all he did, made his way to the Spring Gardens.
"If they are there," he thought, as he waited outside the inn in
Wandsworth--an old one, known then, as now, as the Spread Eagle, while
the horse was being put into the shafts of the hackney coach he had
hired, "I may see them in time to warn them. Dressed as the
executioner, the woman said of Bertie and Douglas, without any
disguise, though in a garb that will be supposed to be one in that
place; there should be no difficulty in finding them if they are still
there. Thank God, they were not caught in their lodgings."
He did not know, nor could the landlady have told him--not knowing
herself--of how they had been watched and followed from the village to
Vauxhall; so he passed his time on the lonely drive through the
Battersea marshes in meditating how this last act of treachery of Lord
Fordingbridge was to be repaid. For that it should be so repaid, and
with interest, Archibald Sholto had already determined. "Though not
for his baseness to me so much," he muttered, "as to those whom I
love. For since to me, a priest, there can be no home, no wife, no
children, I have centred all my heart upon those three--my brother,
our friend Bertie, and poor, bonnie Kate. And those it is against whom
he has struck. May God forget me if I strike not equally, ay! and with
more certainty than he has done, when my hour comes."
A good friend was Archibald Sholto, Jesuit though he was, but a
terrible foe. As you shall see.
On his way to the garden he passed half a dozen young men of fashion
who, from their talk and actions, he knew to be about to assist at a
duel, and, forgetting that he was in secular garb, he could not
forbear from addressing them in his priestly character and begging
them to desist from the sin they contemplated. But they bade him pass
on and not interfere in what concerned him not, while one, striking at
the horse with his clouded cane, caused the animal to dash off upon
the uneven road or track. These, doubtless, were the men for whom the
boatmen who ferried Bertie and Douglas across later on were waiting.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account