AT THE DEANERY OF WESTMINSTER
Wogan finished the work of adorning his person, and stepped into the
street. The night was serene, with a full moon, the air still, the
pavements were clean as the deck of his ketch. He thought that he
would walk from his rooms to the Dean's by way of St. James's Park,
and consequently he passed through Ryder St. and in front of Mr.
Kelly's new lodgings. Just as he came to Mr. Kelly's lodgings, the
door opened. A gentleman came forth; the moonlight was full on his
face. Mr. Wogan muffled his face in his cloak, and stepped stealthily
back.
The gentleman was Colonel Montague. He bade the chairmen carry him to
Queen's Square; Mr. Wogan heard the word of command with an
inexpressible confusion of dismay. He had hardened his heart to
encounter the enemy whose life, in a youthful indiscretion, he had
saved at the risk of his own, but what was the Colonel doing in
Kelly's lodgings?
By this time the warrior and his chair had turned the corner, and Mr.
Wogan abandoned himself to meditation. Up and down Ryder Street he
paced, puzzling over the Colonel's visit to Kelly, whom, at all
events, he could not have found at home. Was he Was he carrying a
cartel to his predecessor in Lady Oxford's heart? In that case it was
all the more necessary to meet him and play the part of Dr. Franklin's
kite, which had not at that time been flown, but is now making talk
enough for the learned. On this point Mr. Wogan's mind was constant.
Should he question Mrs. Kilburne, he asked himself? Mr. Wogan crossed
the road. But the Colonel was little likely to have told her a word of
his business. Mr. Wogan stopped.
There was another point: for whatever reason the Colonel had called at
George's lodgings, George must be told of the visit. Here was
something which pressed, without question. Mr. Wogan marched towards
the Dean's house in Westminster, where the Bishop of Rochester lay. He
knew the road very well, being himself an old Westminster boy. It was
but seven years since he had run away to join his brother Charles and
raise the North for King James. He could not tell, at this moment,
whether he had deserted his studies for King James's sake, or to
escape his dull task of writing out my Lord Clarendon's weary history
in a fair hand.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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