'George, you are set, or you are not set. If you had been set the messengers would have been at your lodgings before I went thither; in fact, before you were out of bed. Therefore, either you have the whole night safe or, going home now, you go into a mousetrap, as the French say, and your papers are the cheese to lure you there. Now, they cannot know of my lady's invitations, and if they by any accident did know, a Minister would hardly take a man at a lady's house. That were an ill use for the hostess.' 'That's true,' said Mr. Kelly, after reflecting. 'Nicholas, I knew not that you had so much of the syllogism in your composition.' 'Another thing, and an odd thing enough,' added Wogan. 'Perhaps nothing is laid against _you_ at all. Did Scrope lay information when he found us at Brampton Bryan?' 'No!' cried Kelly. 'And at Avignon, when a proper spy would have stopped the Duke's gold, he was content with the sword in his own hand.' 'Precisely,' said Wogan; 'Scrope has blown the plot, that's business; but he deals with you himself, that's pleasure. He tried to meet you at Brampton Bryan--he did not have us laid by the heels. He nearly did for you at Avignon, while he let the Duke's business alone, quite content. Now you are alive and he wants a meeting, 'tis clear he did not inform on you, otherwise the messengers would have been with you when the soldiers began the camp in the morning. 'Faith, you may meet Mr. Scrope tonight in St. James's Park. He is a kind of gentleman, Mr. Scrope! But we must see her ladyship first; sure, nothing's safer.' 'Nicholas, thou reasonest well,' said the Parson. Mr. Wogan towed off his prize, and the pair moved out of the dark, musty cloister into the moonlight. CHAPTER XVI MR. WOGAN ACTS AS LIGHTNING-CONDUCTOR AT LADY OXFORD'S ROUT Mr. Wogan steered his captive through Petty France. It was about ten of the clock, a night of moonlight and young spring, a night for poets to praise and lovers to enjoy. Mr. Wogan was not, at the moment, a lover, and poetry was out of his mind. 'One trifle I forgot to mention,' he said. 'I saw Montague come out of your new lodgings this evening. He bade his chairmen go to Queen's Square.' 'Montague? How could he know where to look for me? What can he want with me?' 'I misdoubt he was not very well pleased with the ballad, and would have you explain it.' 'Montague,' sneered Mr. Kelly, with a touch of temper; 'I am grieved I missed him.' 'You need not grieve, for you will see him to-night. So there's balm for your grief, and another reason why you should sup with Lady Oxford.' The Parson stepped out more briskly after that, and Wogan could not refrain from remarking upon his new alacrity.