"You may have received information which has no foundation in fact, my lord," was my reply. "Nevertheless I should like to ask two questions. First, what right have you to have me brought here a prisoner? and second (providing you can prove your right to arrest whom you please), what are the charges laid against me?" "Although you have asked your questions with but little respect for my position," he replied hotly, and I saw that his vanity was touched, "I may inform you that by the gracious commands of His Majesty, King George II., it is my duty not only to raise an army in Cornwall wherewith to fight any rebels who may take up arms on the side of the young Pretender, but also to arrest any who give evidence of plotting against the peace of the country, or who in any way favor the claims of the descendants of the Stuarts." "Admitting that you are commissioned to arrest traitors," I said, "I wish to know why I am included in such a category. This is the first time a Trevanion was ever degraded in such a way, and if I speak hotly, I think there is but little wonder." "I have treated you leniently, Roger Trevanion," he replied. "Remembering the house to which you belong, I ordered that your arrest should not be made public, and that every consideration should be shown you. Have not my commands been obeyed?" "As to that," I replied, "I have no complaints to offer. My grievance is that I have been brought here at all; for truly I know of nothing in the nature of treason that can be laid to my charge." In reply to this Sir John Grenville handed Hugh Boscawen papers which he had been scanning, and on which I gathered the charge against me had been written. "You shall yourself be the judge whether I, holding the commission I do, have not acted rightly in bringing you here; and I here repeat that nothing but respect for your name has kept me from making the matter public and treating you as others, acting as you have acted, have been treated all over the country. Indeed, I doubt whether I have done right in using the discretionary powers invested in me in such a way as to shield you from public calumny. If your conduct were bruited abroad, the brave fellows who have voluntarily armed themselves to fight for the King all up and down the country would without hesitation throw you into the deepest dungeon beneath Pendennis Castle, even if they did not at once kill you." This he said with, I thought, a sort of peacock pride, which made me, short of temper as I was, itch to make him swallow his words. "It ill becomes one possessing your powers to condemn a man unheard," I cried hotly. "What is written on that paper I know not; this I know, if there is anything alleged against my loyalty, I will proclaim the man who wrote it a liar." Hugh Boscawen seemed about to lose his temper, but he was restrained by Sir John Grenville, who seemed to regard me more favorably.