"You are men of spirit, I can see," said Dundee ironically, "but ye are wise men also, and have reduced your risks. Would you do me the favor of showing the passes with which you provided yourselves before leaving England? Save yourselves the trouble of--argument. One of you has got his pass in his coat, and the other in his boot. I'm sure you would not wish to be stripped."
The shorter man colored with vexation and then paled, but the other only laughed like a boy caught in a trick, and said, "There are quick eyes, or, more likely, quick ears, in this army, my lord." Then, without more ado, they handed Lord Dundee the passes. "As I expected," said Dundee, "to the officers of King William's army, and to allow the bearers to go where they please, and signed by his Majesty's secretary of state." And Dundee looked at them with a mocking smile.
"Damn those passes!" said the spokesman with much geniality. "I always thought we should have destroyed them once we were safely through the other lines, but my friend declared they might help us afterwards in time of need."
"And now, gentlemen, they are going to hang you, for shooting is too honorable for spies and, worse than spies, assassins, for," concluded Dundee softly, "it was to shoot me you two loyal Cavaliers have come."
The shorter man was about to protest, in hope of saving his life, but his comrade waved him to be silent, and for the last time took up the talk.
"We are caught in a pretty coil, my lord. Circumstances are against us, and we have nothing to put on the other side, except our word of honor as gentlemen. Neither my comrade nor I are going to plead for our lives, though we don't fancy being hung. But perhaps of your courtesy, if we write our names, you will allow a letter to go to General MacKay, and that canting Puritan will be vastly amused when he learns that he had hired us to assassinate my Lord Dundee. He will be more apt to consider our execution an act of judgment for joining the Malignants. We got our passes by trickery from Lord Nottingham, and they have tricked us, and, by the gods! the whole affair is a fine jest, except the hanging. I would rather it had been shooting, but I grant that if MacKay had sent us on such an errand, both he and we deserve to be hung." And the Englishman shrugged his shoulders as one who had said his last word and accepted his fate.