They
seemed to know all about it, for, without looking at the papers in
the pigeonholes, they pulled open the lower drawer, and took two
foreign-looking letters out from it. I will do them the justice to
say that they both looked sorry, as they opened them, and looked at
the writing.
"'It is too true,' Peters said. 'Here is enough to hang a dozen
men.'
"They tumbled all the other papers into a sack, that one of the
constables had brought with him. Then they searched all the other
furniture, but they evidently did not expect to find anything. Then
they went back into the hall.
"'Well, gentlemen,' Sir Marmaduke said, 'have you found anything of
a terrible kind?'
"'We have found, I regret to say,' John Cockshaw said, 'the letters
of which we were in search, in your private cabinet--letters that
prove, beyond all doubt, that you are concerned in a plot similar
to that discovered three years ago, to assassinate his majesty the
king.'
"Sir Marmaduke sprang to his feet.
"'You have found letters of that kind in my cabinet?' he said, in a
dazed sort of way.
"The magistrate bowed, but did not speak.
"'Then, sir,' Sir Marmaduke exclaimed, 'you have found letters that
I have never seen. You have found letters that must have been
placed there by some scoundrel, who plotted my ruin.
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