descended into a cavity worked below, from which it could be drawn and
restored to its usual place from without; a broken pane being purposely
open to admit the hand which was to work upon the spring of the machine.

"When I am gone," Father Holt said, "you may push away the buffet, so
that no one may fancy that an exit has been made that way; lock the
door; place the key--where shall we put the key?--under 'Chrysostom' on
the book-shelf; and if any ask for it, say I keep it there, and told you
where to find it, if you had need to go to my room. The descent is easy
down the wall into the ditch; and so, once more farewell, until I see
thee again, my dear son." And with this the intrepid Father mounted
the buffet with great agility and briskness, stepped across the window,
lifting up the bars and framework again from the other side, and only
leaving room for Harry Esmond to stand on tiptoe and kiss his hand
before the casement closed, the bars fixing as firmly as ever,
seemingly, in the stone arch overhead. When Father Holt next arrived at
Castlewood, it was by the public gate on horseback; and he never so much
as alluded to the existence of the private issue to Harry, except when
he had need of a private messenger from within, for which end, no doubt,
he had instructed his young pupil in the means of quitting the Hall.

Esmond, young as he was, would have died sooner than betray his friend
and master, as Mr. Holt well knew; for he had tried the boy more than
once, putting temptations in his way, to see whether he would yield to
them and confess afterwards, or whether he would resist them, as he did
sometimes, or whether he would lie, which he never did. Holt instructing
the boy on this point, however, that if to keep silence is not to lie,
as it certainly is not, yet silence is, after all, equivalent to a
negation--and therefore a downright No, in the interest of justice
or your friend, and in reply to a question that may be prejudicial to