320 A JACOBITE EXILE

of strangers, and he a major in the Swedish service, and
that I should never have heard a word about it! Well,
young sir,” and he held out his hand to Harry, “I can
promise you my aid and protection to the utmost in what-
ever matter you may be concerned. I seem to remember
the name of your companion too.”

“His father, Sir Marmaduke, was a neighbour of ours.
‘There has always been great friendship between the two
families.”

“Of course, | remember him now. He was some fifteen
or twenty years older than your father. I remember that
I went over with your father and grandfather and dined at
his place. He is still alive and well, I hope?”

“He is both, sir,” Charlie said; “but, like Major Jer-
volse, an exile.”

“You amaze me, but I will not ask you to tell me more
now. I have to be at St. James’s at twelve. Let me see,
this evening I shall be engaged. Come to-morrow morn-
ing at half-past eight, and I shall then be able to give you
an hour, or may be two if necessary, and will then hear
the whole story fully.”

The young men on presenting themselves the next morn-
ing at the hour named were at once ushered in.

“Now, let us lose no time,” the duke said, after shaking
hands heartily. ‘‘ Which of you will tell the story?”

“Carstairs will do so, my lord,” Harry replied. “The
mischief was hatched in his house, and my father and six
other gentlemen were the victims of the treachery of a
kinsman of his.”

Charlie told the story of the events that had brought
about the ruin of his father and friends.

“It is monstrous!” the duke exclaimed indignantly,
when he had brought this part of his story to a conclusion.
“That my old friend Mat Jervoise should be concerned in
a plot for assassination, is, I would pledge my life, untrue;