Wade was gone with Monmouth, but he came upon Captain Slape, who had a company of scythes and musketeers incorporated in the Duke's own regiment, and to him Wilding gasped out the news and his request for a score of men with what breath was left him.
Time was lost--and never was time more precious--in convincing Slape that this was no old wife's tale.

At last, however, he won his way and twenty musketeers; but the quarter-past the hour had chimed ere they left the Castle.

He led them forth at a sharp run, with never a thought for the circumstance that they would need their breath anon, perhaps for fighting, and he bade the man who guided them take them by back streets that they might attract as little attention as possible.
Within a stone's-throw of the house he halted them, and sent one forward to reconnoitre, following himself with the others as quietly and noiselessly as possible.

Mr.Newlington's house was all alight, but from the absence of uproar--sounds there were in plenty from the main street, where a dense throng had collected to see His Majesty go in--Mr.Wilding inferred with supreme relief that they were still in time.

But the danger was not yet past.