’Desperate enough to take even young Alan?’

‘Fifty pounds in the right pocket in Portsmouth could put him on any ship of the line. ’

‘Preferably one going to foreign climes, the farther the better. And your friend can do this?’

‘Most assuredly, Sir Hugo. Why, I recall in my last parish there was a young widow with a son who was-" the vicar reddened at the memory that Sir Hugo thought touched a bit too close to home "-at any rate, the Fleet is full of young lads who are not exactly welcome at home.’

’Shameful," Sir Hugo said. "Well, please be so good as to have your nautical friend… Bevan, did you say?… attend me as soon as he can. And, just to clear this up as a legal matter, I wonder if I could prevail upon you to attest to what you witnessed this evening with my solicitor, Mister Pilchard? He is gathering statements in case we have to call the watch and have Alan imprisoned, should he prove to be intractable.’

’Mosht happy to oblige you, Shir Hugo," the vicar said, barely able to bring glass to lip any longer. "I shall not keep you longer, Shir Hugo. I believe we have all shuf… suffered enough tonight.’

’Indeed we have, sir." Sir Hugo nodded somberly.

Sir Hugo rose and bowed a courteous goodnight to the stumbling sermonizer as Morton held the door for him and took him in charge to the parlor, where Pilchard waited. Sir Hugo sat down and mused happily over his brandy. It seemed an age before the wizened solicitor stuck his head around the door, waving a sheet of vellum to dry the ink, much like a flag of surrender to his master's temper. ’Is that sQdden hedge-priest gone?’