King was to go about the business of
procuring a ship without loss of time. Yet there was no need of
desperate haste, as was shown when presently orders came to
Brentford for the disposal of the prisoner. The King, who was at
Salisbury, desired that Sir Walter should be conveyed to his own
house in London. Stukeley reported this to him, proclaiming it a
sign of royal favour. Sir Walter was not deceived. He knew the
reason to be fear lest he should infect the Tower with the plague
by which he was reported stricken.
So the journey was resumed, and Sir Walter was brought to London,
and safely bestowed in his own house, but ever in the care of his
loving friend and kinsman. Manourie's part being fulfilled and
the aim accomplished, Sir Walter completed the promised payment
by bestowing upon him the second diamond--a form of eminently
portable currency with which the knight was well supplied. On the
morrow Manourie was gone, dismissed as a consequence of the part
he had played.
It was Stukeley who told Sir Walter this--a very well informed
and injured Stukeley, who asked to know what he had done to
forfeit the knight's confidence that behind his back Sir Walter
secretly concerted means of escape.
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