hath raised up these physicians to save me. I wish you to hear their
evidence. That is why I sent for you. Continue, my Lord."

My Lord looked a little displeased, pursing up his mouth, at the manner
in which the King told the tale; but he said nothing on that point.

"Grove and Pickering, then, it appears, were to shoot His Majesty; and
Wakeman to poison him--"

("They will take no risks you see, Mr. Mallock," put in the King.)

"Yes, my Lord," said Tonge. "They were to have screwed pistols, with
silver bullets, champed, that the wounds may not heal."

("Prudent! prudent!" cried the King.)

Then my Lord Danby lost his patience; and pushed the papers together
with a sweep of his arm.

"Sir," he said, "I think we may let these worthy gentlemen go for the
present, until the papers are examined."

"With all my heart," said the King. "But not Mr. Mallock. I wish to
speak privately with Mr. Mallock."

So the two were dismissed; but I noticed that the King did not give them
his hand to kiss. They appeared to me a pair of silly folks, rather than
wicked as others thought them afterwards, who themselves partly
believed, at any rate, the foolish tale that they told. Mr. Kirby was a
little man, as I have said, with a sparrow-like kind of air; and Doctor