"Of my side, quotha. Why, man, do you think me one to take sides? O,
lord Sir, sides are for the quality. Dick Querto is of his own side, no
other. Now, see here, Captain le Gallais, mayhap you know one Pierre
Benoist that was then in limbo?"

"Aye, do I, and what of him?"

"Why, marry this; that he is at large, and hath a lure for your young
Charlie there that will bring him from his perch on the rock yonder, and
mew the tercel in London town. What think ye the Parliament will deem a
meet reward for the men who bring them such a prize as that?"

Le Gallais was aghast. He was asked to consent to a plot to kidnap the
king, and convey him into the hands of those who had taken his father's
anointed head from his shoulders. A plot to be carried out in Jersey,
and by the aid of Jerseymen! Alain was not a blind royalist, as we have
seen, but he had not learned, either from Prynne or from Lempriere,
either that Jersey could exist without a King of England or that
treachery was a necessary part of the work of liberty. At the same time
the ruffian before him must not be prematurely alarmed. So he played his
part as best he might.

"I must think of it," he said, "the enterprise is bold. Tell me no more
of your projects," he added, with a sudden shame, as the swashbuckler
was about to enter into details. "I cannot now take part in your work,
for reasons."

"All the better," said the bravo, "but see that you betray me not. The
fewer of us the larger the share; but you were best not betray me."