THE BROWN MASK.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 14478, 19 September 1910, Page 5

THE BROWN MASK.

.— ——♦ • BY PERCY JAMES BREBNER, .-.v*. of "A Royal Ward." *'Vayenne." '•;■:'. ** Princess Maritza," etc., etc.

COPYRIGHT.

CHAPTER XX. SCARLET HANGINGS. n .nARA'S prison was an old house '" a ; street of Dorchester, .the ground floor "Jthich had been turned into temporary Jlrks for soldiers and militiamen, lue Kit passed to rooms on the upper floor P* fc a rou.dr, gaping crowd, and m ■■*Ai*itv shone through brutality foment. Something worse than death Ikht await so fair a traitor. X rooms to which she was taken were JJ lv furnished and rather dark, the winCTicking out. upon a blank wall, two Ls communicating, but, with only a sin--s!entrance from the passage without. Ihe '22 hopeful would have seen little pros!Tof escape, and the most spirited wonder fusion could bo successfully con- *| in such surroundings. Half a dozen Skn nad followed them up the stairs, 11 only Watson, whose stentorian voice cled'io fit him to command a troop of Sfians entered the room with them. "Sere are so many prisoners m DorJer that we have to make shift to find Sffir them." he said, as though to make for the accommodation. *sed, I might be much worse lodged, fSetf Si' looked round the rooms rfismav. but said nothing. •Si know what charge is brought _;.,«♦ me v ' asked Barbara. h that I have naught to do," Watson ,-svered "I'm a soldier, not a lawyer, Mim Mv orders are to keep you in safe ■Sodv until your presence is required ; Si told'to see that you have every; thin* in reason to make you comfortable. «ft would appear that I have tnends in not unlikely, madam ; as for this YJmnff person." he went on, looking at Harnett °" she will see to vour wants and may Sin and out. I suppose, therefore, that iotiing is known against her beyond the fact that she is found in your company. "Your temporary mistress is evidently a dangerous person,. Harriett," Barbara said irith a smile. "Had I not forced you to nuke this perilous journov with me, you would have been better off." This deliberate attempt to disassociate her from any treasonable attention rather startled Harriett Payne. "At least you shall find the comfort of having a maid with you, madam," she said quick!?- •,. ~, "If the voung person will come with me, I trill show her where certain things you may require can be found," said Watson. "There will be a sentry contantly in the s passage, madam, so if you hear footsteps in tie night you need not fear." '■■'. Barbara* made no answer to this indirect .warning that any thought of flight was ■ hopeless, and Harriett followed Watson out of the room. "If was well done," he whispered as they JvemV down the passage, leaving a sentry by the locked door. , "I was not looking for your praise." "It is given gratis," the man answered, • "and in the same spirit I'll give you a warning, don't attempt the impossible, whatever happens. A woman like her yon- : der might succeed in wheedling any man or woman."

; "I want neither your praise nor your warning," said Harriett* "And I'm not looking for another clout on the ear, mistress, such as you gave me at Witley, though, for that matter, I like a woman of spirit. If you're in want of a comforter later on, you may reckon on Sam Watson." • "And Sam Watson had best be careful, or he may find himself in hot water with iis master," Harriett answered with a toss skier head.

"For herself, Barbara Lanison had little ; (bought, but her fears for others troubled to. As a prisoner her power to help Gilbert Crosby was grievously lessened. Doubtless she herself was to be accused of -treason, and Judge Marriott might be afraid to say a word at her bidding, or perchance he would refuse if the power to make 'the sacrifice she intended were taken from Her. Death might be her punishment for treason, anr if so where was Judge Marriott's reward? There was another continrcy: he might be able to save her, and would certainly use his efforts to this end, instead of troubling about Crosby, no matter what pleading she might use. As a prisoner she was. indeed, of little use to Gilbert Crosby. She must see Judge Marriott and do her best, but her hope of success was small. Who had brought this dis- : aster upon her ? Surely her guardian, and Barbara's hands clenched in impotent rage to think that he had outwitted her. Yet he could not be alone in the matter, for it was not probable that he had openly accused her himself. Had Rosmore anything to do with it ? It was a new thought to Barbara. She knew her uncle for a villain, but about Lord Rosmore she was undecided. True, he had threatened her, but lie also loved her, she could not doubt that in his own fashion he did so, and would a man place the woman he loved in such jeopardy as that in which she was placed '! Barbara could not believe it possible; besides, how should Lord Rosmore know that she was on her way to Dorchester .' The coming of Harriett Payne to Aylingford had aroused Sir John's suspicions, but there was no circumstance which would lead Rosmoro to suppose that she intended journeying to the

Martin Fairley also troubled her. Had he made good his escape, or had he been retaken and confined somewhere else in the town ? She had asked the man Watson as the cavalcade had started again, and his gruff reply was that the fool would be left dead in the ditch by the roadside. She did not believe he was dead ; in fact, Martin puzzled her. He could not have had a hand in her betrayal, yet, at the very moment when courage was most needed, he had been a coward. Probably, he had saved himself, but he had deserted her. The one person upon whose fidelity she would have staked her honour had utterly forsaken her at a supreme moment. Full as her mind vas of Gilbert Crosby, the failure of this half-witted companion depressed her as, perhaps, nothing else could have done. _ Had he really deserted her ? The question came through the long, wakeful hours of the night. It came with the memory of that little cadence 61 notes, the same notes in which his fiddle laughed. He had sung them in a foolish fashion when the men surrounded the coach : had he meant to speak to her by them ? The thought brought hope and sleep, sleep giving strength, hope bringing new courage when the day came. t j To elp ilr - Crosby I must speak with Judge Marriott, who is in Dorchester/' she told Harriett Payne. "You must find him , tod ask him to come to me." 'Will lie come, madam V "I think so." "Alas, you have need of help yourself, Dow." ' ' "Perhaps not such need as may appear. ■Lo arrest me does not prove me guilty of 7 It is not only the guilty who are suffer-

, Out, upon you, girl, for whining so ****}y, said Barbara. " Courage lends help against every ill, even against death itself. *ou will find where Judge Marriott is «««ed, and tell him where I am." + , They may not let me have speech with wie judge." it v . ' You must contrive, use art, use— Ah, you re a oman, and need no lesson from Oe. . V-Harriett Payne went upon her mission, *»<» Barbara was impatient until her return. ""appointment was upon the girl's face ?n«i she came back. It had been easy to ™d out the judge's lodgings, but impossible *° get speech with him. He was too enwm to see anyone that day. . ■ * mUSt try again to-morrow," said the

'"■ said '.x nd tbe next da «* ,an<i the next," «~ , arbara - "Did anyone carry a mes- ... £a ge for you ?" Z'. I W ° t * ived so far, but whether it tame v. the judge's ears or not I cannot tell.

" I'll ask this man Watson to take a message," said Barbara.

" Not yet," said the girl. " That might be dangerous. Wait until I have entirely failed ;" and, to prove how dangerous it might be, she began to tell her mistress some of the gloomy forebodings which were whispered about the town."

Dorchester was in terror, and spoke its fears with bated breath. There were 300 prisoners awaiting judgment, and the dreaded Jeffreys was coming—the cruel, the brutal, the malignant judge, whose fame, like an evil angel, came before him, speaking of death. There was to be no pity, no mercy. If Alice Lisle, for no greater fault than compassion for two fugitives, was condemned with all the barbarity fchat the inhuman law could render possible ; if the appeal of clergy, of ladies of high degree, of counsellors at Whitehall, of Feversham himself, could only move the King to grant that she should *bo beheaded instead of burned alive, what hope for the prisoners in Dorchester, who would have no such powerful appeal made in their favour ? The Court was already prepared, its hangings being of scarlet. Judge Marriott, busily awaiting his learned brother, chuckled at the innovation. It was like Jeffreys original thing, a stroke of genius. Men quaked becai.ee of those scarlet hangings ; this was to be no ordinary assizes, but a marked occasion, which should put fear into the souls of all who should even think upon rebellion. Some man, in an awed undertone, spoke of it as a bloody assizes, and the name passed from lip to lip until it reached Judge Marriott's lodging. Ho chuckled still more, and said to thoeo about him that Jeffreys would act up to the name, here and wherever else in this cursed West Country there were prisoners to be punished.

Bloody assizes ! It was almost the first articulate sound that Lord Rosmoro heard as he galloped into the town, a troop of men about him, and those who watched him pass knew that the judge must be on his way from Winchester. Rosmore laughed, but his thoughts were complex, schemes ran riot in his brain. Immediately upon entering his lodging he sent for Watson and Savers, and was restless until they came. He looked quickly towards the door as it opened. "The lady is safe in Dorchester,'' said Watson. " And the fugitive V "We followed him to Witley. We should have run him to earth, only your orders were not to go beyond Witley." "This cursed fellow Crosby, what of him V '' He was with this fugitive." "And you let him go !" exclaimed Rosmore, stamping his foot passionately. " We obeyed orders, sir, and it is well wo did so. We, Savers and I, were in Witley when the coach arrived. 1 had speech with Mistress Payne." A grim smile overspread Savers's face as he remembered the box on the* ear his companion had received, but he saw that Lord Rosmore was in no mood to relish such a tale just now, and held his tongue. "I told her something of what was to happen, and the place," said Watson, " but had I not known at what hour the coach was to start, and when we might expect it at the spot chosen, we should have been outwitted. In the morning that fiddler from Aylingford caught the coach, and in some manner had got wind that a trap was set. He persuaded the lady to take a by-road. I waited, and then, marvelling at the delay, ordered the troop to ride forward to meet the coach. At the comer where this byway turns from the high road, we found a handkerchief lying on the Mistress Paynes handkerchief. Had it not been for such a signal we would have ridden past and might have failed to catch them." " Fairley ! Then you have him too ''.".■ "We had, sir, but he escaped." " Escaped !" "I have the two men who let him go under arrest." Watson answered. " One so badly hurt by the fall from his horse that it will be weeks before he can fling his leg across saddle again." ''You fools ! The girl has more sense in her finger than you can muster in the whole of your carcases. How did he get away"'" "By a trick," said Savers. "He was taken to the rear to keep him from his mistress, and, on pretence of losing his stirrups, got the men beside him to come close, when he spurred their horses, striking the men at the same time. He was round in a minute and galloping back upon the road. Half a dozen of us went in pursuit, when the shots fired after him failed to stop lum. We went the whole way back to Witley, and there, at the inn, found the horse lathered with foam. The animal had entered the yard riderless !" "What foois I have to serve me !" said Rosmore, laughing derisively. "If it wasn't for the woman, it would have been failure from beginning to end." The derision hurt Watson.

" Care must be taken even of the woman, my lord." " What do you mean ?" "There is generally a tender spot in a woman somewhere, and Mistress Lanison may chance to find it in Harriett Payne." "Mistress Payne is to be trusted, Watson. I'll see to that." " She would turn her wits against you, my lord, if she thought she were deceived. That's as sure as the coming of the Sabbath." " Do you suppose, Watson, I throw away the skin before I have used all the fruit '! Send the girl to me to-night." The men saluted and turned. " And, Watson, you might put a little misery into your face and commiserate with Mistress Lanison on her position. It might interest her to hear the story of Alice Lisle of Winchester. She is high-spirited, and I would have that spirit broken." " I will play Jeremiah, sir, like any Puritan." ' " And, Savers, keep your eyes open in Dorchester. Crosby and this fiddler are too cunning not to be dangerous. I warrant they aro not far away from Mistress Lanison". By heaven ! if you iet her slip through your fingers now, you shall suffer for it !" Bloody assizes ! Along West-street the name travelled to the Anchor Inn, that hostelry of mean .repute in Dorchester, and to a small upper .room there where three men sat. They leaned towards each other as they spoke. "I have failed to find out where they have taken her," said one. "It must have been dark when they entered Dorchester; I can find no one who remembers such a cavalcade in the streets. I. am at a loss how to discover her prison." "Think; Martin." " I have never been so barren of schemes as I am now. Have you no suggestion, Crosby '!" " I want to kill Rosmore." " And you, Mr. Fellowes V" " Here I may be of service. lam known as a sbldier and a King's man," lie answered. "My presence in Dorchester will not bo called in question, and I may learn what is the real plot en foot. Until we know it, we can hardly scheme to prevent it."

"An excellent plan," said Martin. "There is another scheme half-born within me. I will let it mature to-night. Courage, comrades. Three honest men are worth many scoundrels. Three lovers of one woman, for so we are in our different fashions."

"That is true," said Crosby. "Quite true," murmured Fellowes. "And we strive together," said Martin, letting his hand fall on the table. It was covered immediately by the other men's hands.

"Heart and soul for Mistress Lanison," said Fellowes.

"Heart and soul," eaid Crosby. " Three honest and true men," murmured Fairley, and tears were in his eyes. "A triple alliance."

(To be continued daily.)