But you desire to speak with me on a
matter of importance. Can I aid you? You may need money. Here is my
purse."
"I do not want it," replied the other, scornfully rejecting the offer.
"I have a proposal to make to you."
"I shall be glad to hear it," replied Leonard. "But first tell me how
you effected your escape after your arrest on that disastrous night
when, in self-defence, and unintentionally, I wounded your son, Lord
Argentine?"
"Would you had killed him!" cried the other, fiercely. "I have lost all
feelings of a father for him. He it was who contrived my arrest, and he
would have gladly seen me borne to the scaffold, certain it would have
freed him from me for ever. I was hurried away by the officers from the
scene of strife, and conveyed to the Tun at Cornhill, which you know has
been converted into a round-house, and where I was locked up for the
night. But while I was lying on the floor of my prison, driven well-nigh
frantic by what had occurred, there were two persons without labouring
to effect my deliverance--nor did they labour in vain. These were
Chowles and Judith, my foster-sister, and whom, you may remember, I
suspected--and most unfairly--of intending my betrayal. By means of a
heavy bribe, they prevailed on one of the officers to connive at my
escape. An iron bar was removed from the window of my prison, and I got
through the aperture.
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