Page 35 - A Jacobite Exile

"He has got away, Charlie. Have you any idea who he was?"

"It was Nicholson, father. At least, I am almost certain that it was him. It
was too dark to see his face. I could see the outline of his head against the

window, and he had on a cap with a cock's feather which I had noticed the
man wore."

"But how came you here, Charlie?"

"I will tell you that afterwards, father. Don't ask me now."

For, at this moment, some of the others were coming up. Several of them

had torches, and, as they approached, Sir Marmaduke saw something lying
on the ground under the window. He picked it up.

"Here is the fellow's cap," he said. "You must have hit him a shrewd blow,
Charlie, for here is a clean cut through the cloth, and a patch of fresh blood

on the white lining. How did he get you down, lad?"

"He fell so suddenly, when I hit him, that I thought I had either killed or
stunned him; but of course I had not, for it was but a moment after, when I
was speaking to you, that I felt my ankles seized, and I went down with a

crash. I heard him make off through the bushes; but I was, for the moment,
almost dazed, and could do nothing to stop him."

"Was the window open when he came?"

"Yes, sir, two or three inches."

"Then it was evidently a planned thing.

"Well, gentlemen, we may as well go indoors. The fellow is well out of our

reach now, and we may be pretty sure he will never again show his face
here. Fortunately he heard nothing, for the serving men had but just left the

room, and we had not yet begun to talk."